Shopping in Kingston

Last night I enjoyed my camera club Christmas dinner, but as the dinner was ending I received a shocking WhatsApp from a friend, to tell me that the son of another friend of ours had suddenly died. It is always shocking when someone young dies and I cannot think of a worse tragedy to happen to a family, especially at this time of year.

This morning Tommy waited in an online queue to book his Covid booster and finally got through and managed to book it for Friday. Luke and Meriel got back very late last night from Mauritius and they too waited in an online queue this morning to book their boosters - as there is nothing available in London they are coming home tonight and both are getting it locally here tomorrow. The Covid cases are reaching very high levels in the UK, so many people I know have Covid at the moment, although they are not very ill with it, it is like a bad cold. While there is little science available on Omicron it has been found to be spreading at a staggering rate although to date very few people are in hospital with it - although of course this could all change. 

Gavin went to collect a box of lateral flow tests from the pharmacy after we ordered them on the NHS website, only to be told they have no stock and haven't had stock all week and don't know when they will have stock! 

Today I went to Kingston-on-Thames with Tommy to get some more formal clothes for him that he needs. It was very challenging as due to his power lifting and gym training his body is not a normal shape and nothing fits easily - he eventually had to get bigger sizes in trousers so they fit his thighs but have the waist band taken in by a tailor, and the same for a suit jacket. It took hours as we had trouble finding stores that had anything close to fitting him, and then due to lack of staff there was one (excellent) salesman serving about 5 customers at the same time, so while he pinned Tommy's jacket he would then run out and pin someone else and then back to us. He agreed that many men work out today and getting clothes to fit them is a problem as most suit makers don't consider this. I am not used to shopping in actual stores and found the whole process quite tiring! It wasn't that busy so that was a good thing.

This is a photo of the Christmas decorations in the Bentall Centre.