The Virus Has Struck -London Lockdown - Day 73

After three months in lockdown at James’ apartment, we have now moved to Maddie’s and Kevan’s apartment in Hanwell. We are being terribly spoilt with James still doing all our grocery shopping, with Kevan and Maddie insisting on purchasing Hello Fresh for our main meal each day. 

Our daily walk now is to Maddie’s house - a forty minute walk (4700 steps!) - where we have been painting the new nursery, the hallway and the front reception room - at the moment! 

Freshly painted rosette ceiling medallion centre piece. 

Having not done a full days work in ten years, so a bit knackered at the end of the day. Nevertheless, quite rewarding when reflecting on the progress being made each day. 

Charging up ready for more painting. 

We have been living in an environment where we hear of the COVID-19 happing all around us, but to our surprise, we had been living in the midst of an early Covider - James!

The UK newspapers reported on the first infected UK resident on 31st January. The date for the virus appearing in the UK is now being seriously revised. It is thought  that the virus  was present well before this date. The snippet in the Guardian this week read:

 “ Andrew Soppitt, a retired hospital consultant from West Sussex, is convinced he became infected with coronavirus on a skiing trip to Austria in late January. The ski resorts he visited, St Anton and Bad Hofgastein, were the suspected locus of many subsequent infections. “I was really ill. I felt like death. I just couldn’t get out of bed. I could barely get up the stairs.”

For many weeks now James has been wondering if he had had the virus when reflecting on his illness back in January. He got himself tested last Thursday and the results came back positive. He had the antibodies of COVID-19 racing around his system! 

James’ Covid-19 test results.

On 20th January he, and a few mates, flew out to Austria for a ski trip, which was cut short for him because on the third day he didn’t feel well, so much so that he organised for an early return to London. Over the next few days his condition deteriorated to such an extent that he had to phone for an ambulance. They did testing for heart condition and a number of other test but wanted to take him to hospital there and then. They suspected he perhaps had pneumonia.   

The antibodies  man - barbecuing for all.

James assured them that he would  see his GP the next  day for further tests.  A throw away comment by the ambo doctor suggested that James may have had “that Chinese infection that was being reported.” This was in the 24th January. 

To continue the oddities of London’s development, this video of explains a little of how not all plans come to fruition. 

London’s Unfinished Motorways.