The weekend showed up what has become of Britain. Despite all the warnings and advice, open spaces, beaches and parks were crowded with people showing not the slightest hint of social distancing. Traffic jams on roads into Brecon, Snowdonia and seaside towns like Porthcawl. Will the Government act and place enforceable restrictions on movement? We’ll see.

We spent the morning emptying out and deep cleaning our summerhouse - there’s more than a good chance it’s going to have a lot of use - and giving some fresh air and “brush down” of the various bits of garden furniture tucked away in boxes and sheds. The garden, we think, is going to provide a link to sanity during the next three months.

The afternoon? Reap the benefits. The sun was out. None too warm, but it is so much better having blue sky overhead and fresh air for the lungs (got to look after those!).

The evening spent in a typical way. Food and TV. The first day of many to come.

It feels like spring today. No wind, totally cloudless sky and the temperature by midday around 16ºC (61ºF). Another opportunity to do some of those outdoor jobs you somehow never get around to. Today was tidying up our shed and raking the large gravel area.

We heard Chris is to totally close his restaurant today - they’d tried providing home deliveries (which had gone well) but as his partner’s wife is pregnant and Beth has asthma, they wisely thought, “Too much of a risk”.

All this sunshine, sitting outside, feeling warm and relaxed, I thought, “Well, if I can’t go to the Caribbean, it might as well come to me.” Peaking too early??? Air quality is interesting. It is definitely different. I can smell coffee being made indoors maybe 15ft away in the garden. And it’s so much quieter, if only those damn birds would calm down.

The Lockdown has created another difficult detail. Supermarket Home Delivery Services are swamped. Most of their websites crashed not long after the PM’s broadcast Monday night. It’s not stock levels that are the problem; it’s finding a delivery slot. One reporter in London said the earliest he could find was JULY. All of the local to us stores have no slots available in the coming 4 weeks.

We did a little “thinking ahead” late last week and set up amendable small orders over the next 3 weeks to reserve some slots (I’d noticed they were getting rare when I placed an order with Tesco). The most exciting thing we’re anticipating is not a couple of weeks in Scandinavia (we would have been in Hamburg today) but the arrival tomorrow of that Tesco van with some fresh foods on board. A new reality.

We’re not sure if it will last, but at least for the moment, we’re quite enjoying the time at home in the sunshine.

We’ve been tracking our exercise walks for the last 7 days with GPS. Today we decided to add them up and keep a record. We’ve nearly walked to Barry Town Centre and back so far!

Something new today. A vehicle announcing (I presume) the restrictions on movement travelled past at least twice. I’ve no knowledge of what was actually said as the announcement is being made bi-lingually. It was out of hearing range when the English version was played, on both occasions.

Now, I’m a keen supporter of the use of Welsh in all aspects of everyday life. Language is the bedrock of culture, our culture and traditions are ancient and well worth preserving. However, there are times, and this is one, where political correctness is anything but correct. In this part of Wales, the proportion of the population who speak Welsh is relatively small. Everyone speaks English (except, maybe, a very few recent immigrants, but they don’t speak Welsh, either).

When will the “officials” who run local councils wake up to what’s important - this is just another example of the brainless bureaucracy we have to put up with.

Apart from that, on this day in history, not a lot else happened. Go for a walk, have some food, read a bit, sit in the garden, watch TV. Not complaining. It’s really not that bad.

Sunday 5 April - Day 14 - 24.306 miles, 38.89km

London’s at it again. A little bit of sunshine and the parks fill up. Lots of arrogant millennials decided it would be OK from them to have picnics with friends. The Government’s response: If this carries on we’ll have to ban leaving home for exercise.

When will they get it? It’s not all about them.

Personally, I’d introduce wartime style conscription and draft them into the NHS as porters for a few days. Maybe they’d see reality and understand how their selfish actions insult doctors and nurses.

Goodness. My soapbox is getting quite an airing these days.

As for ourselves, we fitted in another exercise walk (whilst we can!!!). I found a navigation app that shows footpaths/rights of way as well as roads. We had no idea how many of these criss-crossed the parks, woods, fields and side streets near us. It felt quite adventurous exploring new ways to go from A to A (A to B not allowed). At least, around here, the few people encountered are committed to the 2 metre rule and also exchange friendly greetings as you pass. Not a picnicker in sight.

The weather is getting warmer, but today there was a stiff breeze, so it didn’t feel that warm if the sun disappeared behind a passing cloud. There’s also a bit of overnight rain in the forecast - I’m hoping it’ll clear through as there’s a bit of gardening as part of tomorrow’s exciting agenda.

We’re still happy enough and getting on with it. Has anyone else noticed, however, even with 200+ TV channels, there’s nothing much worth watching!

Wednesday 8 April - Day 17 - 33.634 miles, 53.81km

Out for our walk this morning, there seemed far fewer people and vehicles about. Maybe the PM’s situation has finally knocked sense into the thicker skulls: everyone must take instructions seriously.

We’re also a little concerned the exercise police might come knocking. It was so quiet and peaceful, we were just strolling with little intent and thereby exceeded “the exercise limit” by 11 minutes AND we’d taken a few minutes resting on a bench enjoying the view across one of the small lakes in Cosmeston Country Park.

When we returned there was a message from Leger Holidays, our go-to coach tour company. Margaret phoned them back and had the best possible experience. 

We were booked to go to Austria with them early this July but, logically, they’re cancelling that. What they’d done was to identify those travelling on each of their tours, sorted out a schedule for next year, offered a transfer of the booking to an identical tour with no fees and at the same price, and with no requirement to pay for the trip (other than the deposit already paid) until their usual number of days before departure. All offered, no need to request or demand. Now that’s customer service! We’re going now at the end of August 2021.

I spent an hour or so in the afternoon painting some of the garden ornaments which had become tatty and dirty over the winter. Staying indoors meant no shopping, so they had to be painted with whatever suitable leftovers were in the shed. A cream coloured elephant isn’t that unusual, is it?

Late afternoon the sun came back out and it’s quite a bit warmer than last week. With the Easter Weekend just ahead, let’s hope people behave. It’s a bit of a vain hope: London police had to break up a cricket game today!

Maybe it’s a good idea to let them do what they want to do and clean up the gene pool.

I knew that exercise wasn’t good for you. We’ve just been conning ourselves.

Margaret has had a weakness in one of her knees for a while and it’s decided that enough’s enough. She’s hobbling around in a fair amount of pain. We’ll be sitting out our exercise time for a few days until it clears up. Still, the sun’s out and the garden’s starting to look a little more like springtime.

Did you read about the cloth-heads in Manchester? The police had to break up 660 parties over the weekend!  What the hell are they thinking? And what can a civilised society do about it? Become a bit less civilised, maybe.

Third “Applaud the NHS” today. Looked like a 100% turnout in our small close. As each week goes by they’re deserving it more and more.

With the sunshine and the garden looking more springlike it’s really not that bad. The only thing darkening the horizon is the problem of booking home delivery shopping. We’re “in business” to cover the next 2 weeks but I suspect lockdown’s going quite a ways past that.