We had to move for water today, so chose to cruise to Nantwich as it’s closer than Calveley services. Plus we can have our daily exercise walking to the supermarket. Whilst filling up with water and disposing of our rubbish, Barry found a bag of clothes marked ‘too good to throw away please take if you want’. Inside were two quite decent winter coats and a woollen jacket. One coat fits Kim perfectly the other me. And in our colours too. Goodness, the amazing Universe is really being kind to us. Thank you to whoever shared their unwanted treasures with us.

Barry and I walked into Nantwich this afternoon, and were extremely relieved that there weren’t that many more people or cars around. He even took a gorgeous photo without a car on the road on one the quaintest roads …

Further Clarification From CRT

I really feel for many people at the moment. The English government guidance is complex and confounding. Canal and River Trust are clearly doing their best to follow directions but it’s obvious they’re puzzled too. It now seems we can’t use locks at all, reading today’s CRT update email, and need to stay away from Welsh canals until their government loosen the lockdown.

Good on you Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿!

So we can stay where we are until 6th June it seems.

The latest government guidance on access to green spaces, which includes the use of the towpath and water sports, is incredible- unbelievable. We have more deaths than anywhere else, apart from USA, still declaring hundreds of new cases each day (those we know about there’s quite clearly hundreds more unknown as they can’t access testing), and yet … https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-guidance-on-access-to-green-spaces

On a separate note, one thing I will say thank you to the government (or the Civil Servants probably?) for, is that I’ve found out today I’m eligible for a grant through the ‘Self Employed Income Support Scheme’. I have never in my life before claimed anything from the government, but this time we need the money as my work has slowed down considerably. So thank you very much 😉

Contact Tracing App and COVID-19 Testing

The latest Guardian article on the COVID-19 tracing App, suggests the UK government may well be taking a U-turn to use the Apple and Google model rather than their own App, which has privacy concerns amongst other things. The contract tracing sounds logical, except – IT RELIES ON PEOPLE BEING ABLE TO GET A TEST IF THEY HAVE SYMPTOMS! There it fails miserably then, in my personal experience 🙁

In another article today, you won’t be surprised to learn that the world’s press is rather critical of our current PM, and the lack of adequate testing:

“The Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant also challenged the UK performance: “According to many, testing, testing, testing is the motto. That has hardly happened in the UK for weeks, losing sight of the spread of the virus. This gap shows that the British were insufficiently prepared for the pandemic, despite the presence of expertise in this area. The country has been catching up in recent weeks. Much of the harm has already been done.”“

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/12/uk-takes-a-pasting-from-worlds-press-over-coronavirus

Thankfully Barry and I have reported no symptoms again to the Symptom Study team 🙂