The sun broke through the cloud and shone brightly for a while a few times today, but for the rest of the time it just rained. It was never dry enough to be worth dressing up to walk in the garden. I spent several working on my novel in the morning and after lunch with exercise breaks in between sessions. Checking for inconsistencies in the narrative is a lengthy process. I'd hoped to make progress towards the ending, but reviewing a middle section for a fragment of detail, got stuck there with corrections and re-phrasing. It reminds me there's such a lot to do, but it's fun, learning how fascinatingly complex it is, inventing a life story for a fictional character.
It's All Souls Day, time to remember family members on the other side, especially Pauline, Ivor and Lindsay, all of whom died between March and September this year, and none of them with covid-19 in this most deadly year for the over seventies. The government announced new lock-down plans for the next month in English regions today, in response to rising infection rates. If only they'd acted on advice given by epidemiologists earlier, in the way the regions did. Once more too late.
The Celtic nations acted independently on expert advice earlier with new restrictions. Today our First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the Welsh Assembly Government's plan to get us through to Christmas without another time in lock-down, though there is an element of lock-out which will annoy residents of borderlands, with an active prohibition of people travelling into Wales without good reason, just for leisure or recreation. I expect London tabloids, and maybe even BBC News presenters will get belligerent about this.
A week in quarantine already, and as it happens a week entirely indoors. No dwelling in the past, no regrets about the present, no false hopes for the future was how Terry Waite described his strategy for living in the moment and staying sane during his four years as a hostage, I think. It works for me too. How did he reach that conclusion? Did someone tell him that as he entered on his mediating Middle Eastern mission - just in case the worst happened, I wonder?
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