One crisis after another, but we do have edible celeriac!

At least we have celeriac!

Lockdown 2.0 is in its second week, the Prime Minister of this rotten government is having to self-isolate, his chief advisor and his press secretary have been fired, there is still no post-Brexit deal with the EU but, on the bright side, I have grown a very good celeriac.

Covid-19 continues to dominate the news and we’ve now passed the milestone of 50,000 deaths due to the pandemic. That’s the highest in Europe. Boris Johnson is in self-isolation having had a meeting in Downing Street with a Conservative MP who later tested positive. He was told via his NHS app on his phone, which tracks who you have been in close contact with and notifies you to isolate if any of your contacts tests positive for Covid. Max has to do the same when someone at the AA meeting he chairs tested positive. The good news on Covid is that there are two vaccines which have shown to be very effective in testing. We’re now waiting for them to be approved and for a vaccination programme to be rolled out. It will be given to health workers and care home residents first, then to different tiers (oldest first). They may run out before they get to the 60-70 group because they only have limited supplies of the first vaccine.

Meanwhile, we are wondering whether we’ll be able to see anyone at Christmas. Lockdown should end on December 2, but the numbers are still showing 30,000 new cases a day and a death rate of 400.

There’s been a huge bust-up in the Prime Minister’s advisory team resulting in the firing of Dominic Cummings, his chief advisor; and Lee Cain, his head of communications. Both are prominent Brexiteers and played leading roles in the dishonest, dirty Vote Leave campaign. I’m glad to see them go, but I won’t be happy until the whole, useless government is voted out.

Negotiations to try to secure a trade deal with the EU continue, with a deadline looming this week. No deal will be disastrous for the UK economy. I guess we’ll see who is bluffing by the end of the week.

So, the good news is that I have grown a very tasty, fairly large celeriac at the allotment. I grew about 20 plants from seed and bought a dozen more as seedlings from the garden centre. Both seem to have thrived. Margaret baked the first one whole in the oven and we sliced it into four and ate it like a jacked potato (skin and all). It was quite tasty and I used the left-overs up in a fry-up for dinner last night. With our low-carb diet looking long-term, I’ll grow more next year – perhaps two packets, so I can share with Sam.

Tom is back in Ecuador. I ran him to Heathrow last Tuesday and he was able to attend his citizenship ceremony (left). We were in the middle of this process last year, so it was good to see it concluded. He’ll now be able to get an Ecuadorean passport and will have the right to live and work in the country.

I’m seeing Max for a walk later this week. He says that Inna had her latest pre-natal appointment and was told the baby (Ling) is in position, bigger than expected for her age and could come any time. Due date was early December, so we’re not far away.