I really didn’t seriously think I was going to get COVID anytime soon. Most of the people around me weren’t getting it, and it felt a bit distant. Then the youngest came up with a positive test last week. She went off to hide in her room, and we started being super careful about masking and such.

And then on Saturday I began to feel a bit unwell. Not terribly unwell, but a bit. I took a test. The result was negative. I went about my business, while masking everywhere I went.  That night I woke up coughing and took another test. Weird ambivalent result. Took two more over the next hour — clearly negative.

The next morning I had errands to run so I took another RAT. Negative.  The weird test result bothered me, though, so even though I’d had three negative test results in a row, off I went to get a PCR test. I then went home to self-quarantine until I got the results. Got the results on Monday — positive. I think technically the 7am Saturday test was positive, looking back at the photo (luckily I was isolating and masking),  so I’m just trying to work out when I’ll get out of quarantine – seven days from Saturday or Sunday. The main issue is voting. Need to get out and vote and play my part in kicking the current government to the curb.

PS: On day four of my COVID, so far the symptoms have been fairly mild. Fingers crossed that holds up, and that Marianne doesn’t get it too.

In October 2018 we went looking for a new cat. Sophie found the slightly wild and temperamental Gigi somewhere south of the river, and I think mostly thought she was pretty, and said she should come home with us.

Jessica, who is phobic about animals, said she was up for it. Sophie’s birthday was approaching, and her present to Sophie was to agree to us having a cat. I was, to be honest, pretty neutral. I’d last had a cat more than a decade earlier and didn’t feel like I needed to repeat the experience. But Gigi was renamed Gwen (actually something longer, but I’ll just mistype it), and joined the family.

It’s been a very mixed experience. Gwen was a bit wild, but settled into a fairly sweet but temperamental cat who mostly wanted to be left alone, which didn’t really suit Sophie, who wanted a cuddly best pal, or Jessica, whose resolve failed utterly and to do this day just wishes she’d leave. It’s not been easy but she’s cute. Marianne, who had no interest in cats, has become Gwen’s bestie, which is kind of funny.

This photo shows her not long after her arrival, just curious.

Today is an odd day. I was due to be in the office but am working from home. We have Jon-Paul coming to repair the hallway floor, the first of many, many repairs and upgrades to the house, which has fallen into sufficient disrepair that one tradesperson asked if it was a rental (rude!). Hopefully, that will go well. I did get a walk in, but everything else feels stalled. Other than that, things are just ambiently stressful, though it’s a lovely day.