Finished last tub of sweets !!

Beach Creative Blog
Our Stories- Together In Isolation
Sylvia McKean  My April Blog Update

When I realised that we would soon have to isolate and protect ourselves from Coronavirus and because of our underlying health conditions, we decided on Friday March 13th – our 55th wedding anniversary to have a meal at the Bell in Minster (Thanet) one of our favourite eating places – an old beamed building with a large inglenook fireplace.  En route to The Bell we did a little extra food shopping at Marks & Spencer’s and treated ourselves to a tub of chocolate sweets – a bit like Christmas.

Diary note March 26th – finished last of our tub of sweets!”

 After our meal we did a little walk across to St Mary’s church, described as one of the largest and

 finest churches in Kent, – had a brief look inside the church; I bought a couple of birthday cards from their  homemade craft sale table. We paused outside the west door with the sun warming our backs and looked again at the huge oak door – it must have been a craftsman’s pride and joy; we noticed the stonemason’s marks on a lower stone door jamb; the mixed building materials of stone, knapped and plain flints, small terra cotta bricks and halfway up beside the door a medieval tile stood out – the same pattern as those on the porch floor.  This quick visual summary suggesting that this part of the church had been re-built at some time from pre-existing materials. The Normans began construction of the Nave in 1250AD although the site of worship goes back to 670AD. We had previously explored the church’s interior when I noticed several 18th century memorials to Belsey family members. As the crow flies Minster is not too distant from Herne (approx. 8 miles) where Belsey’s also lived in the 18th century, so these families were probably linked to each other. Also of interest I noticed a bench opposite the church dedicated to members of the Waltho family from Minster – an uncommon surname; Thomas James Waltho is remembered on Herne’s WW1 Memorial - I’ve researched his interesting story and found he married into a Herne family.  There could be a connection?  More subjects for further research.  I was pleased that our last planned trip out before isolation ended on a historical note.

Much of the first days of isolation was about getting food supplies delivered which I found was quite stressful - out of my comfort zone. Eventually thanks to Duncan my son, who has been a lifeline helping to organise these things we are now getting deliveries of milk, groceries, fruit & vegetables mostly from different suppliers and I have learned a new phrase ‘delivery slot’.  Apparently these are quite rare and I am learning to list what I might need three weeks ahead of when I need it.

Not being able to just ‘pop to the shop’ is very frustrating.

I knew the week ahead might be difficult as we both had medical appointments that we needed to keep.

The week did not start well;

Sunday March 15th we discovered our drains were seriously blocked (I won’t go into details) and we had to call out emergency professionals – after a couple of hours – and trying to keep a social distance, the problem was solved – or partly as further drain work is needed!  I recorded in my diary; “Sunday dinner was bit late today!”

The medical appointments were kept; my infusion treatment on Monday did not go too well as unusually my blood pressure shot up so the whole thing took nearly four hours longer than normal. Because of Coronavirus, Jim was not allowed in the hospital and spent a fortune on car parking as his new disabled blue badge had not arrived.  My diary comment for this day;   “Left home at 8.30 am arrived home 5.00 pm. What a day!!  The weather was sunny and warm - not that I saw much of it!”
Later on in the week we did treat ourselves to a calming walk along the beach which was deserted – although March, it was really like a summer’s day.   I actually managed the walk without bringing home a collection of pebbles and shells as I was worried about picking up germs.

This week ended on Saturday with Jim having his cataract op at Estuary View, after hand sanitising and temperature taking I was allowed to go in with him.  Waiting time and the procedure took several hours - I was able to do quite a lot of knitting.  I am pleased to report that the cataract op has been successful.  All future such ops have been put on hold because of the current situation, so his other eye will have to wait!

   On this day I noted in my diary;
“On the Thanet way en route to Estuary View I noticed a large amount of traffic travelling towards the coast – later turned out to be of concern as crowds of visitors had gathered on the beach at Whitstable, going against Government directive to avoid crowds – it made the national news”.
To conclude on the medical front – for our other appointments consultants and their team members
have made telephone consultations with us – their advice, concern and interest has been excellent 
taking into account all the extra pressures they must have at this time.

My daughter-in-law put this picture taken by my youngest son, on her facebook page; I’d love to share it and her comment;
 “We have a mountain to climb but together we will make it.”
I know I’m not alone in missing seeing my grandchildren.  And finally with children in mind;
Friday March 20th Government announced that’s schools would close – the beginning of another chapter…

        Sylvia McKean April 13th 2020