The London Underground

Yesterday was the first year anniversary of Gavin’s mother’s death, although today is the anniversary of us actually being told of her passing. She died on the evening of the 21st but the hospital did not bother to tell us until the next day. They also conveniently lost the results of her Covid test so we never got an official test result although she was in ICU and if she had not signed a DNR would have been placed on a ventilator- the reason for her death was recorded as pneumonia. The doctor treating her and others in the care home had tested positive for Covid. But that was a year ago, she never got to have the funeral that she has spent years planning and we never got to go to her funeral. Here we are a year later and we still cannot see where she is buried as we cannot travel to South Africa. It is an under statement to say that the inability to travel at the moment is proving very frustrating for us. We also need to check on our home in Switzerland, we had left food in the freezer and in the fridge (not perishables) and we have not been able to go there since last summer. Hopefully we can get there later this summer if the Swiss lift the 10 day quarantine restrictions on British visitors. It will also be great if UK travellers who are fully vaccinated with both doses do not have to quarantine when returning home from an amber country, which the government are considering.


Today I had to go to London to have attend the annual court lunch with Gavin of the livery company where he is a court member. It is the first time everyone could meet in over a year, and the lunch was at their beautiful medieval building in London which is about to close for a two year renovation. The company at our table of six were all so interesting, particularly one man who I have got to know over the years who served over four decades in the House of Commons - he is such an erudite and entertaining speaker.


For some time I have been nervous about going in to London and using public transport, but as you can see from these photos the underground during the day is not at all busy and with less people than I would encounter in the supermarket! This is a very old underground line, it was originally built in 1863 but of course has been renovated since then.


Tonight I have our last camera group meeting, usually we bring snacks and bubbly and have an end of year celebration - not quite the same on zoom and a bit of a flat ending to the season.