14th April

We are very nearly halfway through the month - rumours are circulating that the lockdown will continue till Mid May so possibly another month like this.  Today John succumbed to adopting the Lockdown Haircut and got out his clippers and shaved his head - not as tight as he might have liked as I stopped him short of looking like a conscript but short enough and neat and tidy and actually I think I prefer him with his hair like that rather than the 'sweep' his barber insisted on giving him to hide his 'tonsure'.

The enforced house arrest means we are tackling jobs which otherwise we stick to the bottom of the ironing pile (so to speak), so today I was on the tracking for the sliding patio doors and John was on window cleaning.

Although I give the tracks a bit of a hoover and wipe now and again there are grooves which I tend to ignore because I can't get my little fingers in there but today John furnished me with a brush and pokey stick and I managed to hoick out a vast array of deceased creatures, mainly woodlice and those big stinky millipedes but others which were too far gone to identify.  It became quite a satisfying exercise although I wasn't going to admit that to John otherwise I will have to be doing it much more regularly.

A reward for a job well done was a cuppa and the two remaining banana cupcakes.  It was almost too hot to sit in the conservatory today and I planned to do a bit of gardening and then have a nice hot shower.  We have a wall that is covered by a variegated ivy from a cutting I got from Sheila and Klaus (who hopefully moved to their new home today).  The ivy is absolutely covered in blackfly this year - such a shame as all the lush new growth is jiggered and it has attracted ants and flies so I am going to give it a haircut similar to that which John did this morning.  It was hot and dirty work and I only managed half of it.

The nice hot shower did not materialise - we have a problem with our solar system.  Interestingly yesterday the impeller pump was making a strange noise - normally it switches on when the temperature differential between the panels and the tank is met, runs for about 10 seconds and then switches off but on that occasion it switched on ran for a second stopped ran for a second and then stopped again.  Poor John jumped into the shower tonight expecting loads of hot water and got lukewarm instead - this is a bugger as it is unlikely that we can get anyone to have a look at it so John is going to investigate tomorrow.

Tea this evening was one of my favourites, brie and bacon salad which made up for the lack of a hot shower.  Mum has a problem with her internet and it has left her with no TV - I feel desperately sorry for her but it transpires it is her service provider - we are going to look to see if we can switch her back to CYTA when the lockdown lifts.

Ration book ...
Strong alcohol was in short supply during the war and gangs made illegal hooch using pure alcohol, industrial alcohol or methylated spirits mixed with flavours such as juniper and almond essences to make them palatable.  This stuff could prove lethal and many victims were soldiers.  The commanders of American camps in Britain issued their men with a free bottle of whisky or gin when they went on leave just to keep them off the hooch.