A Tier 4 Coronavirus Regulation Christmas

 

Saoirse in her Christmas jumper

Christmas in lockdown, or Tier 4 as it’s called, wasn’t too bad.

We should have been in Soham – Sam and Lucy’s first Christmas in their new house – and we were a little disappointed to miss out. My sister was expecting to have Alex up for five days or so, but he was also caught up in the late lockdown, so we said she would be our bubble and she could come round for Christmas dinner.

Plenty of people are breaking or seriously bending the Tier 4 rules and you can hardly blame them. There’s no proper strategy from the Government, they just react late to every new development and the rules have changed so much, it’s hard to know what you can and can’t do. Some people don’t even know which area they’re in!

In the morning, we set up a Zoom online meeting for Sam and also for Max and Inna to join us [you can see it here: https://youtu.be/Occ97KGJHBA]. It actually worked pretty well and it was good for Sam to be able to have a chat with Max and to see baby Alice, who had slept through most of the night. Arthur was keen to show off some of his presents. He’d got some toy soldiers and had set them up in a defensive line across the kitchen door. Lucy and Sam could step over them, but they took a few casualties when Saoirse needed to get by.

I think Christmas was a little overwhelming for her. She hid her face and burst into tears when we started the video link, but soon settled down. She had a pair of swimming goggles on her head (and over her eyes) for much of the time.

Max and Inna seem to be managing well. Alice had been sleeping very little during the night and has been either feeding or crying. She was awake and happy enough to be jigged in Max’s arms while we were all talking. It’s a shame that we’re not able to see and hold her.

First taste of Christmas pudding. It
seem to be going down well.

They are getting some support from Marina, Inna’s mum, who has formed a child support bubble with them and had been bringing food, shopping and helping with the dog. Ollie stayed with her while Inna was in hospital and now considers Wigston his second home. Max says he gets so excited when he sees Marina that he does backward somersaults.

Later in the day, we linked up with Tom on Zoom [link: https://youtu.be/pFfCGraF3w8]. He was in Ambato and we were able to see Julia and Aureliano open presents we’d got for them. Quacker had a book and Julia a loom, which seemed to offer no instant pleasure, just frustration, as it needed to be assembled and would require some supervision.

She cheered herself up by scooting very fast around the deserted hospital corridors. Lucy and Florencia were in the house, so we didn’t see them. I did get a look at Pink and Hatchi, however.

There was no white Christmas, but it did freeze overnight and there was a bitter north wind when I took Holly for her walk. I bumped into Thornton Holmes in the park, who was walking his two spaniels. They were very pleased to see us (well pleased to see Holly, and then me when they realised I had a biscuit in my pocket). He’d been told off by a couple with two pugs because his dogs were “not under control” and he was a bit grumpy about it. “They’re just being friendly,” he insisted. I didn’t need to be convinced; I have considerable experience of owning “friendly” dogs!

There were other dogs in the park, and I was mobbed by a terrier and a small lurcher. Margaret has been walking Holly most days and is ingratiating herself with the local dogs by feeding them biscuits. They saw Holly and thought “treats!” but hadn’t accounted for mean Eric being in charge today.

We also bumped into Pauline and Chris at the traffic lights. They had probably walked Jasper around Toneham. He was very excited to see Holly and she to see him. Like us, they’d been talking to children and grandchildren via video links and were set to have a WhatsApp meeting with Rebecca in California that evening.

It has been a strange day, not like any previous Christmas, but then 2020 has been a year like no other.

Christmas is cancelled!

What a shower we have running this country. I can forgive stupid statements such as “it will all be over by Christmas” as they were made back in spring and there was little information to go on.

However, this past week, the government has threatened to take legal action against councils for closing schools early and, at Prime Minster’s Questions on Wednesday, Bojo the Clown lambasted the opposition for “wanting to cancel Christmas”.

Guess what? Everyone else could see what was coming, except those in charge.

Now, Kent, London, big chunks of the home counties (and Peterborough) have been placed into a new, stricter Tier 4, while the rest of the country have had new restrictions applied over Christmas. Instead of a five-day holiday from lock-downs, we have one day to see family (Christmas Day).

For us, in Tier 4, Christmas is cancelled. We are not allowed to travel into a lower tier area, which means we can’t go to Sam’s for Christmas Day (Soham is in Tier 2) and we can’t go to Max’s to see baby Alice – not even through the window (Syston is in Tier 3).

It’s quite depressing. I’m sure the measures are required, but the government is always behind the game. They are a complete shower!

Margaret said last night (the restrictions were announced just after 4pm yesterday) that this would be the first Christmas in over 40 years that we have spent on our own. I’m not even sure that’s true. I can’t remember a Christmas all alone – it always seemed that before we had children of our own, we spent the holiday at my dad’s and visited Margaret’s parents and my aunts.

Anyway, there is nothing we can do. We should be grateful, at least, that we’re healthy, warm and safe and have no money worries. Peterborough does have a high rate of Covid-19 infection, although Thorney has very little. We can’t go to Whittlesey (four miles south), Crowland (five miles north) or Thorney Toll (five miles east).

These certainly are strange times. The one bit of good news is that vaccinations are being rolled out slowly. The over-80s are the first group to get them and several people we know have been vaccinated – Bert and Irene (both in their 90s – went to Peterborough City Hospital to have theirs. They need a second jab in the new year to be fully covered. We hope new vaccines will get approval soon and we will all be offered one in the coming year.

Welcome grandchild No 6

I was woken up in the early hours by Margaret, who has been monitoring her WhatsApp messages all night waiting for news …

Max and Inna’s baby was born at 3.50am. We don’t know any more than that at this stage. No weight and I’m not absolutely sure of the name, although I’m running with Anya.

She has been keeping everyone waiting for just over a week and Inna had to go into hospital to try to kick-start labour on Monday (it’s Wednesday today). It’s been quite a marathon!

So, Anya becomes my sixth grandchild and Max and Inna’s first child. I’ve had one grandchild every year since 2015. Funnily enough, I’ve become more and more anxious about each one. Julia, Arthur and Aureliano presented no particular worries to me (although plenty for their parents, I'm sure).

With Saoirse there was a concern that there was some kind of foetal abnormality on a scan and they wanted to do some more tests. Sam and Lucy said no and, of course, Saoirse is absolutely fine. Florencia caused some concern with early contractions after a bumpy trip to Santo Domingo and with later scans, too. Lucy had to get a second opinion and (of course) we had the added problem of a flight from Quito to Mexico City and then a long plane journey to London. We upgraded Lucy to first class so she had a bed and, again, Florencia was fine. I was so worried that she'd arrive at 35,000ft over the north Atlantic.

Max and Inna were worried that Anya, who had been a real wriggler, had stopped moving. I think this caused also some concern for us with one or more of ours and might be that the baby is just settling down for the “big push” as it were. Anya seemed very happy where she was and in no hurry to make her entrance; the hospital was able to monitor her heartbeat but said they’d induce contractions if there was nothing by Monday, so that’s what happened.

We had some concern when there was meconium in the “waters” but she’s been checked and there’s no sign of her having ingested any into her lungs, so we can relax a little. Max is heading home for some sleep and Inna and Anya will be transferred to a smaller post-natal centre in Melton Mowbray.

I don’t know when we will be able to see or hold Anya. Leicester is in the strictest Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions and Peterborough may move from Tier 2 to 3 tomorrow. Apart from all the hazards of birth, there’s still Covid to consider. Infection rates are high (20,000 new cases and 500 deaths per day) so we have to be careful. Oddly, some people still don’t believe Covid exists. They say it’s just a regular cold, but a bit worse, and that the government is in the hands of evil scientists trying to control us. I suppose Brexit should have made it clear that there are a lot of gullible people out there but, honestly, the crass stupidity of some folk doesn’t bear thinking about.

Footnote: So I'd almost written all my Christmas cards telling friends and family about Anya, when we got a WhatsApp message from Max to say they had decided to call the baby Alice Marina (Marina after Inna's mum). Alice is a very nice name and it's good to have Marina continuing into another generation.