Luckily my wife’s pretty sensible to and she, you know, between us, we just sat down and looked on our laptops and looked up NHS, basically Google, I’ve got Covid, what do I do sort of thing. And the instructions were relatively straightforward. We did find it was much easier to speak on the phone. There were a number of competing potentially contradictory bits of messaging on the NHS apps and different sites and as if it still wasn’t quite clear what you should do in any circumstance even 18 months on or whatever it is. So, we did find that getting on the phone was, was the best thing to do. Some, somehow it’s the ability to ask questions, I think that helps because you know, you can refine things more precisely towards your own condition, rather than, you know, at the generic level of what do you do with person Covid? Well what do you do with person Covid whose got these three symptoms and had them for such and such days, number of days. Has been double vaccinated and lives near a PCR centre, gets you a much more direct sort of result than just looking at something which is addressed at the sort of social society level. We found the phone just much, much easier. Very straightforward.

It was sort of standard tale of isolation I think for about ten days pretty, in bed or you know, not venturing much further than the kettle or the television. And we were pretty ropey for about ten days after that as well and that pretty much takes us to about ten days ago, I think at which point, since when blissfully felt pretty buoyant, healthy and recovered and were grateful, really as we are for the vaccines.

We were just as grumpy as each other, that’s okay [laughs]. I mean, we are pretty good at taking turns at everything, so you just, we, we take turns of, providing we’re both home. One of us cooks one day, the other the next, just always. So, everything, we’re already, we’re totally used to sharing everything 50% anyway. So, we just carried on doing that, ‘cos we were both sick, you know. Neither of us had any great appetite, so it’s not as if it was a huge demand or share for the washer upper.

When the NHS made available free lateral flow tests, we just went to our local chemist who gave them out. We picked up a, you know, batch of them and we thought they may well come in useful or again, if we were going to go and see friends or family who were particularly vulnerable we’d want to make sure that we’d test ourselves before we went.

And, of course, then I felt terrible on the day of getting tested positive the following Friday. Of course, I was backtracking those people who I’d seen within the last two weeks. I thought, I could’ve got it wrong about contracting or getting infected at the football. It could’ve been days before that. So then, of course, I was in a rather tired state just trying to contact those people who I’d had close contact with in the previous two weeks. And hoping to goodness that I hadn’t infected any and luckily, I hadn’t, surprisingly.

So, we then…my wife just did a PCR test, ‘cos she plays Mah-jong with a group of much older ladies and it’s part of the pact that they have that have respect for each other. They all do a lateral flow test before all meeting up on whatever day of the week, Friday or a Monday. And so I thought this was exactly seven days after I’d gone to the football match and started to feel really ill that I thought I’d join in and do the lateral flow test as well. My wife’s was negative and mine was immediately positive. And I mean when I say immediately, I if it was ten seconds it wouldn't surprise me if you know, the drop going in. So, we, at that point just spoke to the NHS and they said, can you get to a PCR testing centre this morning which we did and we both tested positive.

On the Saturday morning it reminded me of the feeling I had when I was, I’d got chickenpox in my 40, in my 40s. And it was that slightly strange, what, what have I done, you know, something doesn't feel right. Excessive fatigue where the only option really was to curl up in a ball, in bed that sort of almost the same thing you get when you get extreme dehydration as well, that sort of thing. So, it just, I just thought I’d been unlucky and you know, yeah. I didn't think of Covid at all. It’s only that nothing improved.

We, like many set up a family Zoom quiz once a month. And with anywhere, it was anywhere between say 12 and 25 participants. And we’ve kept those up and I think although it’s, it’s unsaid, I still feel like I’m the younger generation where we are my generation and the generation below me, we’re all keeping it up for the benefit of the oldies to be absolutely honest. You know, we could face the, us youngsters in our 50s we’ve been happily Facetime with each other whenever we like. We don’t need to have anything organised. But it’s to give the older generation in our family a sense of involvement and being able to see everybody on the screen and see that everybody’s okay, ‘cos that’s what they really care about most. And we’ve also what I often do, in fact yesterday so it’s probably, it’s another four weeks. We had a Zoom quiz yesterday from one of the cousins, was 60th birthday we had a sort of an online cocktail party as well. We all made the same cocktail to celebrate with him in Australia. But I think after those occasions my aunt feels a bit flat, you know, ‘cos she’s locked, locked down and can’t see her kids. Can’t see her nephews and nieces or whatever. So, you know, I sent her some online articles about stuff we’d ended up discussing on the call. Just so there’s something else to keep engaged and socialised and I know I will get a really nice email back. She’d have read the articles, thought them interesting or even if she didn’t, she’ll pretend that she did. You know, it keeps her involved and it gives her yeah, that continued engagement with not just ‘cos it’s family, but with the outside world.

We were at a wedding about six weeks ago, got talking to, I’d not met before and it was a man about my age and his son who was 18. And we only worked out part way through the wedding, talking to someone else, his wife wasn’t there because his wife had died of Covid. And it’s almost when you make it, when you meet those. And so, it’s not just people you know well have been effected, it’s almost quite, I don’t know what the right word is, upsetting, disturbing, it has an impact when it’s, I suppose it’s people you think, well, there but for the grace of God go I, you know. It’s that element. People are totally, innocent you know, probably done, probably been washing their hands and doing whatever, they, it reminds you of the indiscriminate nature of it and that’s the thing that’s a little bit unsettling.

I think one of the issues was credible sources at the time that weren’t either over exaggerating and I think that’s just a, a slight problem with British society at the moment. It’s the lack of credible authority. Where do you go to find viable untainted view on any subject, frankly? You know, you gotta, I think you've just sort of look to those sources that you've found in the past that sort of ex post facto you could rely on. And you know, which is why you might trust the Financial Times and broaden your trust the Daily Express or whatever your political views. But you, you, I think we’re all becoming much more conscious of the role we play individually in constructing the truth that we think applies to different scenarios and I don’t and I think pandemics would be included in, in that. You know, there’re people, I have a younger, say younger relative in his 30s who says he’s not an anti-vaxxer, but he’s just read so much that it’s more likely to do him harm to have a vaccine than not, you know. But that’s his version of the truth from what he and his presumably his cohort and his immediate group of friends honestly believe. I mean, why would he believe anything otherwise? It’s just his sphere of influence happens to be different from mine. And, you know, I’m slightly more convinced of my thinking than I am of his. But I think it does go partly to that problem of where is the reliable touchstone? Who, who do you, who do you trust, you know?