I’m hoping that my lovely niece doesn’t read the blog and if some of her friends and family are reading then please keep shtum! Also a big Happy Birthday to my dear friend Joy who is celebrating a big birthday tomorrow – in lockdown, of course. Mine was in lockdown and son’s 40th in lockdown. Plenty of reasons to have a party when circumstances allow. In the meantime we raise a glass to one and all and celebrate health and home and happiness. Never to be taken for granted again.

My thanks, in particular, to the cheerful care workers at Mum’s home who just got a well deserved pay rise. At the end (why not during?) we need to reassess our values. Hospital and care home staff – whether they be cleaners or cooks or medics- should be paid more and their work valued for what it is – essential to the running of a civilised society. When I was a child my father used to expound the view that dustmen and those who did the dirtiest and least desirable jobs in society should be paid more than others who never get their hands soiled. He was and he is correct and it’s time for us to put our money and taxes where our mouths are.

And don’t even get me started on the subject of plastic, global warming and the exploitation of the developing world and of animals!!!!