Artist in Hexham

I was at home this morning. Between us, Mum and I finalised the birthday invitations. Now I have to start to send them out.

After lunch I was due to meet Julie for a cuppa in Hexham. One of my last jobs was to print off the document that proves she has had two Covid jabs. I opened the email and clicked the attachment. It's a pdf and only about 350kb large. It said it would take 15 minutes to download.

I was in disbelief so I retried. It tried to download and eventually gave up. What on earth is going on?

In the meantime I went to pick up my purse as my very last action before leaving home. Time was now a bit short. No purse. No purse anywhere. I phoned the pub we had been to on Saturday. No purse. 

I emptied my back pack and my camera bag (twice). I phoned the Co-op in Allendale, because people give lost property in there. Just as I was explaining, I spotted it on the floor under the camera bag. I swear it was not there 5 minutes before!

Then there was a traffic holdup on the way to Hexham. I was lucky to find a parking space in the middle of town.

I was even luckier to spy this young man who was painting a scene from Beaumont Street. There was no time to do more than ask permission and take one shot. No time to get behind him and line up the shot with the scene and his painting.

Julie and I put the world to rights. We did not know about the falling numbers of infections then, otherwise we would have been puzzling over a solution like the experts.

I was very upset to see the dreadful treatment of frail, elderly and vulnerable patients in and A & E, uncovered by Channel Four. Shocking is a mild description. Does nobody know that confusion in the elderly is due to an underlying organic cause. One man was locked in a room without food or water for 11 hours. No wonder he tried to attack the guard. Where were the medical staff while this went on I wonder?

I was glad of some uplifting Olympic stories at the end of the day.