Getting on, unbelievably, for nearly two and half
years after Cherry's death, it still comes as quite a shock when one comes
across friends and acquaintances who hadn't heard this news. This morning I had an
e-mail from some friends in Hainan, China enquiring how 'Sherry' and I were
doing. Their first names are Jianwei and Ramses ( Jianwei's husband rejoices in
this name as an apparently improbable combination of Swedish and Egyptian). We
first met them years ago in conferences in Vietnam, Singapore and during our
stay in Hainan. A delightful couple, who invited us to their apartment in
Haikou. She has what she called 'hot foot syndrome' - as I may - and
recommended various impenetrable herbal recommendations for it, I remember. They
replied: ' Ramses and
I were shocked at the terrible news of Cherry. We read a couple of times
your message to realise that it did happen and our wonderful lady Cherry is no
longer with us, in this world. When writing this I still can't believe or do
not want to believe it.' I still don't either.
I'm now into the
fourth week of lockdown from the virus and being one of the vulnerable ones
have been very strict about it. Everything that comes in from home delivery
goes into a 3 day modified 'spray and delay' quarantine and I keep my distance
from callers and deliverers and Maisie in the big house. Basically I haven't
left the fortunately large grounds of Ocean View, because every time I venture
outside the gate a sweaty young cyclist, spraying droplets, sweeps round the corner and I have to scuttle
back inside ! Equally aged friends in
more restricted grounds do go out for little walks but say avoiding others
means constantly zig-zagging from one side of the road to another
I'm
now in a fairly regular routine and have plotted a detailed route round the
grounds, weaving between the big oak, chestnut and plane trees in the grounds
which gets me quite a long way to my 10,000 daily steps and a view of the sea,
which looks different each day. Yesterday, it was rough cold and grey, but
there were Harlequin Ducks and Common Mergansers to be seen out there. I have
sent away for a nice pair of binoculars to see them better.
The day before was
much milder, sunny and warm with a definite feeling of Spring about the place
when everything looks much more hopeful. Since then grey skies and rain have
reappeared, dominating the week.
One
encounter with the local wildlife wasn't so welcome however. I'm fairly used to
the sound of squirrels running about on my roof but in recent days it suddenly
got much louder sounding as though there was only the ceiling between them and
me. So, I went out to take a look; the
problem was obvious and so was the culprit - caught in flagrante delicte
(bang-to-rights). Maisie in the big house wasn't sure whether her
handyman and the local pest control person were still working but they were,
and it wasn't long, to my surprise, before the culprit was apprehended. It's
amazing how much damage they can do, pulling off the coving for 12 feet and
starting to attack the tiles. Apart from the noise the worry is that they will
chew the various leads up there, start a fire and so forth - at a time when I
definitely do not want other people in the house ! The damage still has to be fully
repaired, but at least the holes are blocked up and the ring-leader gone. Such
are the dramas of lockdown life in Newport. But I suspect that this is just the
first round in a long war. Reinforcements have arrived, and I am pretty sure
have found another way in now that the main access point has been blocked off
by 'Arnie' and his mate. I've inspected the whole of the house with my
binoculars from all angles and found another gaping hole that wasn't there two
days earlier. Clearly this is a second front in a war of attrition.
I
don't find that time hangs heavily on my hands as I have a book to write and at the moment enough material with me to
keep me going. I'm also doing some remote on-line teaching with students who
are also in lockdown but a bit freer than me to move around for the time being.
This involves grappling with an entirely different kind of technology which is
not, sadly, my strong point, but I'm getting there.
The
population of Rhode Island is just over one million (half as much again as
Wiltshire) and our casualty rate is still quite low but rising fast. There are
daily briefings from the Governor at 1300 each day and she sounds a lot more
sensible than what's coming from the White House. I am beginning to understand
what really makes the US tick, I think, and hadn't quite realised the extent to
which the individual States do their own thing. But, as far as I am concerned, so far
so good, as I hope it is for all of you.
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