COVID AND COLOURS

I think I’ll say it like this: I had a positive test result this morning.

Yes, expected. I’ve been coughing a lot, and yesterday I felt a bit worse. The double line appeared within moments of the flow doing its lateral thing this morning.

And so here we are: isolating together for the Queen’s jubilee weekend. How sweet. We’re watching Trooping of the Colour.

Now that it’s here, I don’t really want to say ‘I have covid’. I don’t even feel like saying I’m ‘suffering’ from it. In fact I don’t feel like texting anyone at all to broadcast the news. Obviously I did the thing of logging the code and making sure the NHS app sends out a ping. What’s more I haven’t really seen anyone apart from Sammy since Saturday.

“How excited are you about the jubilee?” someone on the TV just asked.

“Ooh, on a scale of one to ten… very excited!” came the response, summing up the mood of about half the nation, if with a comical mismatch of units.

At least I hope it’s about half the nation! Judging from social media, it might not be. I’ve seen anarchy-in-the-UK flags, Sex Pistols memes, and shared videos of people like Stacey Solomon, very thoughtfully ‘not getting it’.

My view is that this weekend, that is disrespectful. But of course, the very fact that I think that this particular family should be respected, is exactly the point they’re making. Anyway, if you don’t mind I’d rather argue about that some other time.

My pal Sarah says covid affects our emotions. Now that I think about it, I did do a little grumpy washing up last night - splashing soapy water around stubborn baked-bean pans, the tiles, and the draining board. I couldn’t explain why. I was just annoyed. I guess I can chalk that up to this horrible little virus now. Though we are of course, still responsible for our actions.

They’re interviewing RAF veterans on the Mall now. Sometime soon there’s an 82-gun salute and a fly past, when no doubt red, white and blue smoke will stream through the bright blue sky above the full green trees and union flags.

“Nobody does this like our country,” I said just now, proudly. I descended into a coughing fit. Sammy agreed.