Home care tasks

I woke up at five and couldn't remember putting out the food waste bin with the other bin and re-cycling sack yesterday evening. I got up, and found that I had remembered correctly, then completed the job, went back to bed. The street was drying, but it was only when I went out later that I realised how heavily it had rained in the night, as there were still pools of water due to blocked drains along the roads. I went back to slept again, but dozed through 'Thought for the Day', after recognizing the voice of Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, before my attention faded away. He's usually incisive and worth hearing. Not his fault that my sleep was interrupted, and I went to bed late! 

I made breakfast for Clare then myself, remembered something I needed to check for editing Sway before getting around to saying Morning Prayer. It was good that Fr Dyfrig was able to cover my duty at Saint Catherine's this morning. There were a few recent photos to transfer from camera to web for editing before retrieving a prescription for Clare from the surgery and getting it made up. Her throat is very sore, and she's been given an antibiotic. Kath told her later that when she last had covid with a terrible sore throat, her GP didn't prescribe anything for her. I guess because Clare is that twenty five years older than Kath it's presumed her immune system won't be as strong, so antibiotics are prescribed to reduce the risk of viral inflammation leading to an infection.

While I was out, her Abba souvenir birthday tee-shirt arrived through the post. I knew because I had both a text message and an email from the Amazon delivery service used by Abba Voyage merchandising. The package was small enough to slip through the letter box, which is just as well as I had to leave Clare to open the door for the delivery while I was out retrieving her medication. I've booked a 'flu jab with the Pharmacy for a week Friday, hoping that I won't be infected by then if I get infected.

On my way back I collected this week's veggie bag from Chapter, and then made a lentil and veggie dish for lunch which was bland and soft enough for her to consume with a horridly sore throat. Afterwards, I fell asleep for an hour in the chair, yet again. Then out again to do the week's Co-op grocery shopping, using the largest of by three backpacks, now that the broken shopping trolley has gone to re-cycling. It was quite heavy on the return trip, good exercise for the legs. When I got home, I realised that I'd forgotten to call in the Post Office and acquaint myself with the procedure of banking cheques there, as I've resisted doing it before. I had to make another trip there to do what I intended.

The closure of bank branches plus the demise of cheques has made life more difficult for many people who rely on those services. My experience of a futile visit to town yesterday to bank a cheque pushes me reluctantly into this. I'd like to shift my expenses account from HSBC to a building society, but fear the chaos of transferring direct debits and credits that's supposed to happen automatically if you switch. I think I know how many of each I have, but one can never be sure with an account you've had for forty years that you've covered them all.

I cooked carrot and fennel soup for supper, hopefully bland enough for Clare to swallow without too much pain. Then I relaxed in front of the telly with 'The Repair Shop' and then the first episode of a new Scottish crimmie on ITV called 'Payback', all about an accountant who gets murdered after his work involves him with an organised crime gang's money laundering, all of which his wife and family know nothing until the police investigation starts. A promising start. Then early to bed.