To go or not to go

It’s raining once more. Once more I’m questioning what to do about the food shop.

 

Yesterday we had a phone call from my stepbrother & his wife. Although it was a pleasure to hear from them both, the same couldn’t be said for their news. Over Christmas/New Year they had both gone down with Coronavirus.

 

I was surprised because they had both put themselves in self-isolation months before they were legally obliged to last March. They scrupulously wipe anything that comes into the house with sanitiser. They had ventured out a bit more in the summer but even when I’d last seen my stepbrother in the late summer/autumn, he insisted on wiping down my phone when I handed it over so he could see some photos I’d taken.

 

Despite all their precautions they’d gone down with Covid-19. Fortunately neither of them went down too seriously. Neither needed hospital treatment. She now feels she's on top of it with no adverse side effects. He still feels he’s lacking some stamina, but that may be more related to having had a stroke a few years ago. Hopefully they’ve both avoided long Covid.

 

It does make me wonder again about going shopping. Do we really both have to go into the shop? If only one of us goes in that surely halves the risk. To some extent I am reassured to hear that our usual supermarket, Morrisons, is beefing up its security arrangements e.g. refusing to allow people into the store without properly worn face masks unless the customer can prove a medical reason why they should not. We’ve left it a bit late this week to order on-line, but is that the future? Or is Click & Collect the answer?

 

I confess I feel particularly vulnerable with having cancer. I also feel I need to keep well when I have to get to Christie’s & for that matter there’s a suggestion of possible further radiotherapy to reduce the size of Lump. On the other side I have to confess I’m more concerned about the cancer, a reality, than Covid, a possibility. One thing I am glad about is that we've decided against an overnight stay in Manchester even if it does mean a very early morning for us that day.