Easter Monday

After breakfast we all went on a compulsory family walk. We went down the road from our house into the private woods and walked towards Ashtead which is a village a few miles away but not that far via the woods. I was delighted to find a bluebell woods on the way - when we walked this route a week ago there were no bluebells in sight, and so I was surprised to find them. The smell was absolutely beautiful. Did you know that the native bluebells have a scent whereas the invasive Spanish bluebells we also get in the UK have no scent at all. Did you also know that half the world's bluebells are found in the UK?  It was a good walk of about 9km which we all enjoyed.

When we got home I started making a late lunch. I had ordered some lamb shanks from Cook (who supply the most delicious range of home made frozen meals) and we had those for lunch with some mashed potato and lots of vegetables. Everyone declared the lamb a success! 

I watched the daily Coronovirus briefing as today marks 3 weeks since we have been in lockdown measures. Of course no changes and there will be no lifting of the lockdown just yet. I found that today the probing questions of the journalists were not answered satisfactorily, I suppose the government just want people to focus on staying at home and not to get distracted by any possible exit strategy details. I did enjoy the interview with Dr Chris Smith the virologist from Cambridge University who answered the thorny question about face masks - he explained why the surgical masks or cloth masks are a waste of time and even more of a risk. He also answered a question about the unexplained link between the BCG vaccine for Tuberculosis (which all South Africans get as children, me and my family have all had that vaccine) and Covid-19. Johns Hopkins found an unproven link where those innoculated with the BCG vaccine have a much lower risk to the Coronavirus, as much as  sixfold, and scientists don't know why that is as it doesn't make any sense at all, for one thing the BCG is a vaccine against a bacterial infection and Covid-19 is a viral infection.

And so with 717 further deaths today (probably inaccurate as reporting figures over the weekend is often underrated) and a total of 11,329 total deaths we enter our fourth week of lockdown. At the start of this journey the government said they hoped the deaths would not exceed 20,000 but this coming week we will probably see some horrific increases as we reach the peak.

And no haircuts yet....the boys are a bit nervous to let Tommy lose with a pair of scissors and shears...