feature

feature

Who would have thought that when we finished the last issue of the magazine that the words ‘Social-distancing’ and

‘Lockdown’ would become a major part of our everyday diction?

In fact, there’s a whole new vocabulary in use – especially on social media – to describe the collective experience we are all going through. Some descriptions are quite apt for the situation. For example, Coronacoaster: a way to describe the fact that Lockdown hasn’t been easy for any of us. Coronadose: An overdose of doom and gloom from consuming the constant barrage of news reports. But in typical British ‘pick-yourself-up, brush-yourself-down-andget-on-with-it’ style we tend to make fun of a bad situation. A sense of humour about life’s challenges is a great distraction in these troubled times and again social media comes to the rescue with a plethora of jokes and quips to cheer your day, many of which we can relate to. One such quip described the sensibility of a section of the population quite succinctly. When the sun comes out, people still flock to the coast in their thousands – “The spread of the Corona virus is based on two factors. 1 How dense the population is. 2 How dense the population is.” And so apt – a light-hearted explanation of how the virus spreads quite rapidly... “Have you ever come into contact with glitter... like hugged or shaken hands with someone who was wearing or using it? ... And how for the next two weeks it hangs around forever and ends up on surfaces you can’t recall touching, and places you can’t imagine it ever getting, and seems to still be there even after showering and washing? Think of COVID-19 as glitter!” Joking apart though, how fortunate we are that we now live in a communications era where Skype, Zoom and What’s app have also become everyday terms and essential aids to many whose families are having to isolate apart, or are living in various parts of the country and unable to meet. On the plus side, has anyone noticed how people are talking more and greeting strangers they meet? It’s like a ‘communal camaraderie’ a sort of ... ‘Well, we are all in this together!’ attitude. The virus has also taught us how little we actually need to survive, a lesson in less consumerism, in recycling and make do. And it has also reminded us of what is really important in life, in fact – life itself

Long may these lessons stay with us when the virus has gone! There has been greater recognition of how critically important the

‘essential workers’ are now, because our health, safety, and survival depend on them. ‘Heroes’ – a term regularly used to describe these essential workers – is very appropriate, because they perform work that can bring harm upon themselves and potentially their families.

Let us hope that hero worshipping and recognition continues too, when this is all over. We asked residents if they would like to tell us how isolation has affected them, the following pages contain stories we have received and offer an interesting view.

Cautionary Tales From The Lockdown

The Cabbage

At the start of the lockdown we were faced with the challenge of organising supplies of fresh produce as were so many of us in isolation. We are longstanding customers of a doorstep milk delivery service, which offers a surprisingly wide range of goods, but we had to turn to a local farm shop for our fruit and vegetables.

The only item they could not supply was broccoli, which they said was being offered by their wholesaler at ridiculously high prices, could we accept a cabbage instead? No problem Liz thought, it will make a change from our usual fare.

What we received was a cabbage nearly as large as a football and weighing considerably more! Undaunted, Liz set about cutting and shredding the ‘beast’ which was extremely hard work and of course, being almost solid, its bulk increased the more she chopped. Eventually we finished up filling a fair amount of our freezer’s capacity with shredded cabbage, and that was despite having cabbage with nearly every evening meal for a week.

For want of a tin of paint

My days in lockdown have been similarly enlivened by a question, ‘Where has all the paint gone?

With the weather slowly improving I decided that the time had come to

re-decorate my office. Over recent years it has suffered from re-routing of pipes and removal of now redundant telephone cabling in addition to acquiring a rather tired look.

The only materials I needed to order were replacement carpet tiles, emulsion paint for the walls and a tube of Polyfilla; the paint for the ceiling and woodwork was available from my stock.

The Polyfilla was duly ordered from the on-line company that sells everything and after much searching on the internet I found that the carpet tiles and paint could be ordered from a national DIY retailer (hereinafter referred to as ‘HB’ so as to retain their anonymity).

I should point out that in my research I discovered that for some reason much of the paint listed on various web-sites was not actually available to order. With hindsight, I realise that half of those on lockdown are almost certainly being instructed by their spouses to ‘get on with the decorating’. Even the paint manufacturers were quoting up to three weeks’ delivery.

I was quoted a definite delivery date for the tiles which arrived two days late and given the demands on all the companies in the supply chain I was very satisfied. Despite emailing HB I could get no response to my enquiry regarding delivery of the paint.

One day I found myself on ‘Trustpilot’ and having scrolled through numerous postings I realised that the retailer appeared to be having major issues with delivery but was (eventually) replying to customers’ complaints only through that channel.

I immediately posted a message asking for an update on the delivery of my paint and was most surprised to receive a reply the following morning apologising for the delay and assuring me that I would have my purchase delivered on the 22nd May. I excitedly passed this information onto Liz whilst praising HB for at least trying to keep their customers informed.

I decided to post a further review giving five stars for effort but it was only after I had pressed the ‘Post Review’ button that I once again scrolled down the recent posts.

There were nine posts saying that they had an email quoting 22nd May for delivery of their paint!

I can think of two possibilities; either HB are being a little devious or, Saturday 23rd May will see an army of happy customers up their ladders at the crack of dawn painting merrily away.

Of course, if you have yet to order your paint you

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may wish to inform your spouse that there is a national shortage of that material and you know it’s true because you read it on the internet. David Sansom and Liz Chapman

Happenings during my Coronavirus lockdown

1 Female wasps emerge from hibernation. There are hundreds of them all over the house and the pest control man has to be summoned! 2 The kitchen sink totally blocks and a new system is fitted. 3 The phone system is misbehaving 4 No plants are delivered for my pots and garden.

Soon it will be too late to bother! 5 I have no access to my Bank account – so cannot pay bills etc. Trying to rectify this is still keeping me busy ! 6 The cleaners (sensibly) are not working and the house is a mess. 7 At least the gardener comes as usual and the garden looks fine! Ann Dekkers

Life in lockdown

Like most people the wrong side of 70, I imagine, the prospect of lockdown did not initially give me any particular worries: no children to home school or keep entertained, no need to attempt working at home, and trips out for socialising purposes were few and far between anyway. All I would miss would be visits to my Home Library service clients and seeing my family. As a 95 year old friend put it: “Just more of the same but with no visitors”!

I thought I was quite well-prepared, having stocked up with library books and identified where food supplies could be obtained in the event that online deliveries became problematic (which they were already beginning to be). What I was not expecting, however, was the arrival on the doormat of a letter telling me I was classed as “extremely vulnerable” and advising me not to go out at all for at least 12 weeks. Not so much lockdown as solitary confinement!

So, how to keep busy? Not really a problem as I leave a trail behind me of jobs put off and projects unfinished, so now was the time to get going on catching up.

First task: clear out and tidy up the garage, a job which had been waiting to be done since November, when the cavity wall insulation installer asked for the wall adjoining the house to be cleared for him, resulting in a huge pile of assorted garden furniture, tools, cardboard boxes (and junk) heaped against the opposite wall. Heaving boxes about and throwing things out was very therapeutic, and in the process turned up a number of items not seen in a long while.

One find was a bag of seed and cutting compost, bought 10 years before and never used, now with a nice hole in the bottom and leaking. I was on the brink of emptying it into the garden when I also found a packet of tomato seeds, free with a bottle of ketchup 5 or 6 years ago, and stowed with the intention of one day using them. With sudden enthusiasm I planted 4 seeds into individual plug cells (left from a delivery of primrose plugs earlier in the year), improvised a propagator with an egg box and a plastic bag, and put them on a sunny windowsill. Two grew and two didn’t – 50% success rate, not bad for my first ever attempt, and using seeds 4 years past their expiry date!

While I was on a roll, I also tried planting 2 runner bean seeds, harvested from my own crop in 2016 and similarly forgotten. These went into small pots, with the propagator this time made up of a large saucer and an old shower cap. Result – nothing at all. I think this was more due to my lack of horticultural skill in harvesting the beans than my Heath Robinson propagator; still it was fun to try.

Next was the Spring cleaning. I plunged into it with enthusiasm and over the next few days managed three rooms plus cleaning all the windows before running out of steam.

At this point it seemed a good idea to make a “To do” list, and I was shocked to find it filled a whole page of my note pad. At the time of writing I have crossed just three things off the list of more than a dozen, but my excuse has to be that getting shopping began to dominate everything else. Online delivery slots became scarce to non-existent, with no guarantee of when the next one would come available, and such deliveries as came had items unexpectedly missing and some highly creative substitutions. What on earth would I have done without Bury Lane – all thanks to them for starting up their superb delivery service.

I also decided that I could probably risk a walk a few times a week. Living on the edge of the village, I could get to the footpath leading to Fowlmere, which would hopefully not be too well-trodden by anyone else. This proved to be the case, provided I timed it carefully: some times in the day are more popular than others. On one somewhat hair-raising outing I narrowly missed being run over by first a jogger, then

a cyclist. On most days, however, pacing steadily along making it tolerable for us. My latest crisis, cat food with just the glorious sound of bird song for company (why on earth is there a shortage of cat food?), was has been sheer delight and a welcome break. A few weeks into the lockdown my family introduced me to Zoom, and we have enjoyed a couple of group video chats via this method. I was also coerced into getting “WhatsApp”, which has brought frequent treats by way of enchanting photos and videos of 6resolved by Frog End helpfully starting up a delivery service; the wonderful MCCR volunteers are now collecting and delivering prescriptions and helping out with shopping where needed; even the Vet has started up a no-contact collection system for pet medication and prescription foods. Not to mention the many exercises for strength and balance the grandchildren, showing me what they have been offers of help from my kind neighbours. Physios say these simple exercises can doing. Truly, there have been some compensations in I have trouble believing that throughout the country help improve co-ordination and balance. all this. we are “all in this together”, but in this community, Get on your feet and try them daily –

It looks now as if this house arrest will be continuing at least, the crisis has brought out the very best in or at least twice a week! well beyond the twelve weeks originally suggested, but everyone. I have been overwhelmed by all the efforts going into Christine Orchard • MAKE SURE THE CHAIR YOU USE IS STURDY • WEAR SUPPORTIVE SHOES • IF YOU EXPERIENCE CHEST PAIN, DIZZINESS OR SEVERE SHORTNESS OF BREATH, STOP AND CALL YOUR GP OR CALL 111 • A SLIGHT SORENESS THE DAY AFTER IS QUITE NORMAL

6

exercises for strength and balance 1

Heel Raises 3 2 4

Toe Raises

Simple strength and balance exercises twice a week are proven to keep you stronger for longer so you can keep independent and enjoying the great things in life, whether it’s playing with grandchildren, shopping, socialising with friends or gardening. During these strange times it is important to keep moving and try to do something • MAKE SURE THE CHAIR YOU USE IS STURDY active every day. These six exercises can • WEAR SUPPORTIVE SHOES • IF YOU EXPERIENCE CHEST PAIN, DIZZINESS OR SEVERE help keep you stay stronger for longer so SHORTNESS OF BREATH, STOP AND CALL YOUR GP OR CALL 111 • A SLIGHT SORENESS THE DAY AFTER IS QUITE NORMAL you can keep doing the things you enjoy. 1 2 These exercises can be done in the comfort of your own home and are proven to halt and reverse the decline in muscle, bone and balance, keeping us more youthful as we move into older age and vitally reducing Heel Raises the chance of serious falls.Stand tall, holding the back of a sturdy kitchen-type chair or kitchen sink, then lift your heels off the floor, taking your weight onto your big toes. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times. 66 www.melbourncambridge.co.uk 3 Sit to Stand Sit tall near the front of a

5chair with your feet slightly back. Lean forwards slightly and stand up (with hands on the chair if needed). Step back until your legs touch the chair then slowly lower yourself back into the chair. Repeat 10 times. Toe Raises Stand tall holding the same support, then raise your toes – taking your weight on your heels. Don’t stick your bottom out. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times.

6exercises for strength and balance 4 Physios say these simple exercises can Heel-Toe Stand

help improve co-ordination and balance. Get on your feet and try them daily – 6 Stand tall, with one hand on your support. Put one foot directly in front of the other to make a or at least twice a week! straight line. Look ahead, take your hand off the support and balance for 10 seconds. Take the front foot back to hip width apart. Then place the other foot in front and balance for 10 seconds. • MAKE SURE THE CHAIR YOU USE IS STURDY • WEAR SUPPORTIVE SHOES • IF YOU EXPERIENCE CHEST PAIN, DIZZINESS OR SEVERE SHORTNESS OF BREATH, STOP AND CALL YOUR GP OR CALL 111 • A SLIGHT SORENESS THE DAY AFTER IS QUITE NORMAL 1 Heel-Toe Walking 5 One-Leg Stand Stand tall, with one hand on a Stand close to your support and

Heel Raises Stand tall, holding the back of a sturdy kitchen-type chair or kitchen sink, then lift your heels off the floor, taking your weight onto your big toes. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times. support like a kitchen cabinet. Look ahead and walk 10 steps forwards, placing one foot directly in front of the other so that the feet form a straight line. Aim for a steady walking action. Take the feet back to hip width apart, turn around and repeat the steps in the other direction. hold it with one hand. Balance on one leg, keeping the support knee soft and your posture upright. Hold the position for 10 seconds. Repeat on the other leg. KEEP THESE EXERCISES SOMEWHERE HANDY LIKE ON THE FRONT OF THE FRIDGE

3Sit to Stand Sit tall near the front of a chair with your feet slightly back. Lean forwards slightly and stand up (with hands on the chair if needed). Step back until your legs touch the chair then slowly lower yourself back into the chair. Repeat 10 times. 2 Toe Raises Stand tall holding the same support, then raise your toes – taking your weight on your heels. Don’t stick your bottom out. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times.

Stand tall, holding the back of a sturdy kitchen-type chair or kitchen sink, then lift your heels off the floor, taking your weight onto your big toes. Hold for three seconds, then lower with 6 exercises for strength and balance control. Repeat 10 times. 4 1 Physios say these simple exercises can help improve co-ordination and balance. Get on your feet and try them daily –or at least twice a week! Heel-Toe Stand Stand tall, with one hand on your support. Put one foot directly in front of the other to make a straight line. Look ahead, take your hand off the support and balance for 10 seconds. Take the front foot back to hip width apart. Then place the other foot in front and balance for 10 seconds. 5 6 Heel-Toe Walking One-Leg Stand Stand tall, with one hand on a Stand close to your support and support like a kitchen cabinet. hold it with one hand. Balance on Look ahead and walk 10 steps one leg, keeping the support knee forwards, placing one foot soft and your posture upright. directly in front of the other so Hold the position for 10 seconds. that the feet form a straight line. Repeat on the other leg. Aim for a steady walking action. Take the feet back to hip width KEEP THESE EXERCISES apart, turn around and repeat SOMEWHERE HANDY LIKE ON the steps in the other direction. THE FRONT OF THE FRIDGE

Stand tall holding the same support, then raise your toes – taking your weight on your heels. Don’t stick your bottom out. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times.

Stand tall, with one hand on a support like a kitchen cabinet. Look ahead and walk 10 steps forwards, placing one foot directly in front of the other so that the feet form a straight line. Aim for a steady walking action. Take the feet back to hip width • MAKE SURE THE CHAIR YOU USE IS STURDY apart, turn around and repeat • WEAR SUPPORTIVE SHOES the steps in the other direction. • IF YOU EXPERIENCE CHEST PAIN, DIZZINESS OR SEVERE SHORTNESS OF BREATH, STOP AND CALL YOUR GP OR CALL 111 • A SLIGHT SORENESS THE DAY AFTER IS QUITE NORMAL Heel Raises Stand tall, holding the back of a sturdy kitchen-type chair or kitchen sink, then lift your heels off the floor, taking your weight onto your big toes. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times. Sit to Stand Sit tall near the front of a chair with your feet slightly back. Lean forwards slightly and stand up (with hands on the chair if needed). Step back until your legs touch the chair then slowly lower yourself back into the chair. Repeat 10 times. 2 Toe Raises Stand tall holding the same support, then raise your toes – taking your weight on your heels. Don’t stick your bottom out. Hold for three seconds, then lower with control. Repeat 10 times. Heel-Toe Stand Stand tall, with one hand on your support. Put one foot directly in front of the other to make a straight line. Look ahead, take your hand off the support and balance for 10 seconds. Take the front foot back to hip width apart. Then place the other foot in front and balance for 10 seconds. Heel-Toe Walking Stand tall, with one hand on a support like a kitchen cabinet. Look ahead and walk 10 steps

6forwards, placing one foot directly in front of the other so that the feet form a straight line. Aim for a steady walking action. Take the feet back to hip width apart, turn around and repeat the steps in the other direction.

Physios say these simple exercises can help improve co-ordination and balance. Get on your feet and try them daily –or at least twice a week! One-Leg Stand Stand close to your support and hold it with one hand. Balance on one leg, keeping the support knee soft and your posture upright. Hold the position for 10 seconds. Repeat on the other leg. KEEP THESE EXERCISES SOMEWHERE HANDY LIKE ON THE FRONT OF THE FRIDGE

• MAKE SURE THE CHAIR YOU USE IS STURDY • WEAR SUPPORTIVE SHOES • IF YOU EXPERIENCE CHEST PAIN, DIZZINESS OR SEVERE SHORTNESS OF BREATH, STOP AND CALL YOUR GP OR CALL 111 • A SLIGHT SORENESS THE DAY AFTER IS QUITE NORMAL 1 3 Sit to Stand Sit tall near the front of a chair with your feet slightly back. Lean forwards slightly and stand up (with hands on the chair if needed). Step back until your legs touch the chair then slowly lower yourself back into the chair. Repeat 10 times.

2

6exercises for strength and balance 4 Physios say these simple exercises can Heel-Toe Stand help improve co-ordination and balance. Get on your feet and try them daily –Stand tall, with one hand on your support. Put one foot directly in front of the other to make a or at least twice a week! straight line. Look ahead, take your hand off the support and balance for 10 seconds. Take the front foot back to hip width apart. Then place the other foot in front and balance for 10 seconds. 5 6

Lock down with a seven year old

I must admit that at 74 I did not expect that my day would be filled with entertaining a seven year old. During term time the morning was spent on home schooling. Luckily this is shared between three of us, but I drew the short straw and was doing English grammar – not my strong point! I don’t really know what a pronoun is! However, the school has provided us with a lot of digital support and we have been progressing steadily up “study ladder“ (and improving my grammatical abilities). I have also had fun with history and geography, my foreign travels providing material for both.

During the Easter holidays we have found other activities: e.g. potato men and pasta pictures and Lego is very popular. A friend has horses nearby so the afternoon is a trip to see them with a carrot and a bit of riding. We are very grateful for the good weather (I dread to think what it would have been like if the last few weeks had been wet and cold). We have also been keeping an eye on the development of the tadpoles (not yet sure if they are newt or frog) in the local nature reserve.

We also had fun making a video, at the time of the empty supermarket shelves, based on the “bare necessities” song from the Jungle Book movie.

I have done some training sessions on Zoom and Jitsu through the U3A but have not set up my own session yet.

It is a busy time on the allotment, especially with the dry weather. However, because it has been so warm, crops are germinating early and so far it is looking like a good year.

Evening are spent on local history research for the Meldreth local history website.

The days are so full I’m not really sure if I want to return to “normal” life! Bruce Huett

A quiet day in the midst of Covid 19

Part way through the Covid pandemic I was furloughed and felt really fortunate to be paid 80% of my salary. I resolved that I would keep to normal routines, getting up as usual and “working” albeit a different kind of work during my working hours. I also would try and keep my fitness routine going although by necessity it has changed a bit!

I walk or cycle round the village and surrounding areas and when I pass a street where I know someone lives I pray for that particular family. I read my weekly news sheet from church more and it helps me to be more focussed on my local prayers. Generally though the first thing I pray for is this world in the midst of the pandemic. It’s all too easy to feel overwhelmed by it all and not to know how we should pray and then I remember the words of a wise friend who counselled me to “pray as you can, not as you can’t.” We will all pray in different ways at different times and there is no right or wrong way to pray as God loves us all and takes us just as we are.

Early on in my furlough I had the opportunity to sign up for a quiet day – you might think who needs quiet in the midst of this – but sign up I did. We focussed on the reading from Mark 4:35-41 – where we hear of Jesus calming a storm. We were led on a reflection on the reading and had a guided meditation at the end of which we were encouraged to either go for a walk as part of our daily exercise, or in our gardens or for those who were restricted to the house there were web links of gardens to go to. This walk was to be a sensory walk which perhaps sounds daft but next time you are in your garden get a leaf and hold it up to the light – you will see it in a new perspective. Try drawing sounds you hear for another challenge.

When we next met up we heard some music with slides and were encouraged to create a place of calm in our own homes. At the end of this we had our lunch break and an hour to engage in creative activities – some drew, some painted, some made a labyrinth and I even made a papier mache bowl of which I am inordinately proud of. I was pretty sceptical when I saw the list of activities but found making the bowl and the labyrinth immensely relaxing.

Our last session after lunch was to help us find a peace within us in that place of calm in our own homes. Throughout the day there was the opportunity for people to speak privately with someone if they felt the need.

The day left me feeling more peaceful, aware of resources within me and from other places that would help me to find space to find that calm in the midst of the storm. Although we were all in the midst of Covid 19, we all came on the day at very different places in our lives, and despite being on the computer we were able to share with one another when we wanted to and hopefully we were all a bit more richer for it.

If you would like to know more contact details are: underthethinkingtree@gmail.com who ran the quiet day for Ely Diocese but would also be willing to run it for others. Patricia Smith

The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations is over fifty years old now, but despite the recent incredible changes to our lives, there are plenty of good vibrations going on around us.

For starters, a greater concern for each other has crept into our lives. Phone conversations end with, “keep safe,” families make meals for neighbours who can’t, and children send jokey emails to lonely grandparents.

Goodwill is echoed across the country. Before closing their stores, TKMaxx and Homesense donated their foodstuffs to food banks. Lidl took a double page advert to thank their staff for working so tirelessly. And hotels owned by Manchester United players and Chelsea FC have been made freely available to NHS staff.

On a smaller scale too. A convenience store makes up free food parcels for health workers. An artist shares a YouTube art project for children stuck at home. Friends in Newport, Shropshire tell me their residential home enjoys sing-alongs through the windows with a music group playing outside. A friend in Sheffield says their church has leafletted the neighbourhood offering to do shopping, collect prescriptions and telephone lonely people, while home-workers are donating saved commuter funds to the local food bank. A chum in Ledbury reports a voluntary shopping service for older people unwilling to venture out, while food shops and cafes do home deliveries for housebound people.

This service of course is repeated across the country, and Melbourn residents have received a note listing local businesses willing to deliver groceries or hot food to your door. Meanwhile, walking around the village you can see signs of help and goodwill – bird boxes available to passers-by with a request to donate to an NHS charity, rainbows and teddy bears in windows to make us smile, and friends stopping at a distance to share details of local footpaths.

On a practical level, the valuable Melbourn Mobile Warden Scheme covering Melbourn, Meldreth and Shepreth continues to operate an amended service to support housebound people on its books. And now there’s an additional Melbourn Hub/Melbourn Parish Council initiative called Melbourn Coronavirus Community Response (MCCR). MWWS head warden Jeannie Seers told me that if anyone living alone finds themselves without a family member or neighbour able to assist with an essential errand, then the MCCR may be able to help. She explains, “MCCR has a manned helpline, 01763 263303 option 1. This matches local volunteers with those who find themselves in isolation, without the support of family or other resource, and who need temporary help with essential shopping or prescriptions.” Indeed, Jeannie adds, clients might simply like someone to phone them for a chat, so no-one should be reluctant to call and explore the possibilities.

Good vibrations all around, then, and with luck when all this is over we’ll continue to feel the benefit. Maureen Moody May 2020 Keep Smiling Through

What would we do without our families and friends? We laugh with them, share our hopes and concerns with them, and they help us to put everything into perspective. But as the weeks go by without face to face contact the days become blurred and life begins to feel a bit lonely. So here are some ideas on how to avoid getting depressed and some ways of keeping our spirits up.

Firstly, let’s not dwell on unhelpful news reports. The press loves bad news, and some newspapers continue to be irresponsible in spreading doom and gloom. There are lots of negative, sensational items on social media too. The BBC is aware of this, and an article on the BBC website says, “Limit the amount of time you spend reading or watching things which aren’t making you feel better. There is a lot of misinformation swirling around.” They recommend staying informed by sticking to trusted sources of information. But before it all gets too much, let’s put the newspaper aside, switch off the news and concentrate on something more cheerful.

And this brings me to the next piece of advice. We may not be able to meet our friends and family, but we can phone them and have a chat and a laugh. Looking for the funny and ridiculous in any situation and the sound of a friendly voice always lifts the spirits. We don’t have to wait for people to ring first, either. Many will be working from home, with school children and students at home too. Get them to put the speaker phone on so they can all hear you. Use Skype or Facetime, or download Zoom or Jitsi so you can all have a group chat. Ask them to tell you the latest funny stories and then pass these on to the next person you talk to. And here’s a novel thought – we hardly ever write a letter these days – how about writing to all our friends and asking them to write back?

Similarly, we will all have resources at home that can make us smile and provide a bit of escapism. How about comedy programmes on TV and radio, especially on channels you don’t usually use, or those

favourite DVDs of old films or TV series that you haven’t watched for ages? Try the iPlayer or BBC Sounds for a big choice of TV and radio programmes. We could look along our bookshelves for books that we never got round to reading or others that would be good to read again. Have we got jigsaw puzzles gathering dust somewhere? Have we tried the puzzles in our magazines and newspapers? What about games of patience with cards or on the computer? And finally, what about all those jobs we’ve been meaning to do but keep forgetting – shredding old paperwork, tidying the airing cupboard, sorting out the sock drawer – boring jobs maybe, but once done we’ll feel quite pleased with ourselves.

We are all living through unusual times at the moment, but there are ways of relieving stress, lifting loneliness and finding something to smile about. Give them a try, and remember – you’re not alone. Maureen Moody, April 2020

A Writers’ Circle Exercise

For over forty years writers have gathered at Royston Town Hall once a month to indulge their love of story writing. We now meet online using Zoom, and it’s just as much fun. One evening a couple of years ago we were given the first line and last line of a story and were asked to write our story around them.

The first line had to be; In fairness, nobody had told him not to do it.

And we had to make the last line; Somehow he knew it wasn’t over yet. This was my story;

Dinosaur

In fairness, nobody had told him not to do it. He just had this thing about dinosaurs. Lots of people do of course, but Fabian had lived in Kensington as a child and his most treasured memories involved being pushed, and then walking, around the lofty halls of the Natural History Museum, those unimaginably large skeletal creatures rearing above him. Fabian had been not in the least intimidated. Awed certainly, but for this solemn-faced child the great bones and soaring outlines of prehistory represented safety and escape.

Home, the austere, high-ceilinged apartment rented by his American father and French mother in Queen’s Gate Gardens, was a place of chill encounters between parents who had little in common except an unwanted child. Words were few; embraces unknown. Even Inge, the Swiss au pair was cowed into silence here. Only when they emerged into leafy, affluent Kensington did she relax. On warm sunny days they would visit the Round Pond or the Serpentine, or perhaps gaze at the river, but Inge’s natural reticence prevented her initiating conversation or encouraging contact with other children. On wet or cold days, and there seemed to be plenty of these, they would enter the Natural History Museum’s vast spaces – a world apart and a chance to gaze and imagine. Inge would exchange shy words with a junior curator, and Fabian would wander. The time came to start Prep School, and after the fear and misunderstandings of a lonely first term, Fabian blossomed into a bright enquiring child, loving books and soaking up information like a sponge. Towards the end of his time there, he would walk home alone – it was only a couple of streets away – and inevitably the Museum drew him up those wide steps and through the arches like a siren call.

It was on one such day that he found himself following the German tour – the guide’s voice an echo of Inge’s soft accents. The guide had been handling some of the exhibits, and as the crowd moved on, the long leather coat of the last person in the party brushed the display and a large fossilised dinosaur tooth fell to the floor. Fabian gazed, entranced. His hand reached out to stroke the curved surface, and as he watched, his fingers curled around the rough, brown object and lifted it carefully and quietly into his school bag. Unnoticed, Fabian walked home. No, nobody had told him not to do it, but he knew of course that it had been wrong.

The dinosaur tooth became his personal mascot and he carried it with him whenever he could. What he never did, however, was to show it to anyone. At 11 years old, the boy became a boarder at Avondale, a public school in Dorset, and, immersing himself in school life, he joined both the archaeology club and the palaeontology society, with field trips the highlight of every term. It was on these that he learned the respect accorded to those professionals who made famous discoveries. Fabian had found his calling. It was wholly fitting and a natural progression, he decided, that he should join the ranks of the international palaeontology fraternity and make his name.

It was on the third year field trip to Chalcombe that it happened. The boys were digging and scraping in a disused quarry when it started to rain. The ground was slippery and Fabian misjudged his step and slipped down a scree slope to the quarry floor, straight into a mud-filled depression. As he stood up and wiped the dirt from his trousers he realised the faithful dinosaur tooth had slipped from his pocket. He fell to his knees and desperately scrabbled in the mud. Seconds later, as, heart hammering, he retrieved the object and examined it, his house master reached his side. “OK old

chap?” he enquired, and then. “I say, what have you got there? Ye gods, let me have a look. Look boys, Munro has made an extraordinary find!” The boys crowded round, exclaiming and whooping, thumping Fabian on the back. “Lucky devil!” “Good old Munro!”

From then on it was out of his hands – literally. A visit to the fossil centre, a phone call to the headmaster, an article in the local paper. Back at school Fabian was entered for the Young Palaeontologist of the year award – hours working on a project book followed by meetings, interviews, and then the finals at the Natural History Museum. Back in those familiar echoing spaces, he felt secure and at home. He watched as the judges reached his exhibit and the senior curator lifted the dinosaur tooth up to his magnifying glass. A frown creased his forehead, he murmured to a fellow judge, glanced over at Fabian thoughtfully and bent again to the fossil.

It was then that Fabian recognised Inge’s old flame – the junior curator, now in a senior position. His heart sank – somehow he knew it wasn’t over yet. Maureen Moody www.roystonwriters.org Evacuation in WWII

My sister, a pupil at Parliament Hill High-school for girls and I were evacuated in 1940. We assembled at Kings Cross station which was very busy and a target for bombing day and night. We were then sorted into groups and very quickly loaded into the waiting train with very old carriages, many parents having little chance to say goodbye. The seats were filled with horse hair or harsh fibres of some sort and were prickly to us boys in short trousers. Soon we were off. We all had sandwiches and drinks which we scoffed quickly, then of course, first one then another wanted the toilets! The trouble was, the carriages had no corridors! Fortunately, we were often shunted into sidings to let urgent traffic through. At a little station doors opened and a voice shouted, ‘Boys to the left, girls to the right’ and we got off accompanied by harassed teachers who may well have wanted to go. Then we had a green light – the driver tooted the whistle, and we were hustled into the train whilst teachers looked for stragglers. When we eventually stopped it was dark. I was in Wales a village called Maesycwmr. ‘All out!’, was the cry and we were then taken to the school hall and fed with thick sandwiches of corned beef – delicious, since we had had nothing since the morning! Once fed, the local house holders came to take a child, my sister had a note that said we were not to be separated, but in the end we were, although·next door to each other. My sister with a Mr and Mrs Gibson me with the Doctor and Mrs. Thomas. Ray Pritchard That sounds very presumptuous as I was just five when the war started, but I clearly remember the dismay and panic at the outbreak of WWII. Before the war, my life was blissful I guess, adoring parents, an extensive supportive family of aunts, uncles and cousins, not to mention grandparents. Holidays in Cornwall in our Ford car and trips to the country in the sidecar with Mummy on my father’s much loved motorbike. Summer days watching my mother play tennis and in winter well wrapped up as Daddy played football. We had a nice house with a big garden, an electric washing machine and a daily cleaner called Mrs. Funnell. Life was good.

Then came the war and everything changed. Daddy, although he was too old to be called up, was very patriotic and volunteered much to my mother’s annoyance. He joined the 17th/21st Lancers and drove tanks through North Africa, the Kasserine Pass, Tunis and up through Italy via Monte Cassino to Austria – he was away for six years. In his place I got a baby brother with big floppy golden curls (I had straight brown hair) and big blue eyes. Poor old Ian didn’t see his father until he was six!

At the beginning, we didn’t have a shelter of our own but shared an Anderson with Mr. & Mrs. Morley next door. Mr. Morley cut a hole in the fence and when the horrid siren went we would troop through the fence and join them and John and Kathleen in the shelter. Later on in the war we had a Morrison shelter in our front room and we slept in there. Last words at night were always ‘where is the whistle?’ The whistle was important as if the house came down on top of us we could alert the rescue services that we were alive!

The Anderson shelter was half submerged into the ground and after the war many people kept them as storage places for garden tools etc. The Morrison was a huge steel table with mesh sides, very ugly and lots of sharp angles to catch your knees on.

John Morley was the same age as me, and another little boy John Fox lived further up the lane. The two boys used to play games which mostly consisted of me being tied to a drainpipe whilst they fought to rescue me. I spent many hours tied up like Lilian Gish on the railway line waiting to be released and if it wasn’t that I had to be a fielder at cricket. I was well acquainted with the rules of cricket.

Grandad Angus worked on The Times newspaper and with a son and daughter (Aunty Joan had joined the ATS) in the armed forces he followed the news very seriously. All the Angus girls were called

Margaret. Margaret Joan, Margaret Mavis and so on, so we were all called by our second names which has caused confusion all through my life. They lived in Carshalton quite close to St Helier Hospital, which was just as well because I spent huge amount of time there during the war years. I was perfectly healthy until the war started and then I had Pneumonia, Pleurisy, Pleural pneumonia, mastoid in both ears, glandular fever, mumps but worst of all endless nosebleeds which necessitated being ambulanced to hospital each time. I had the last nosebleed when I was about 20 and have never had one since – touch wood! To my mother’s deep chagrin, I also caught Impetigo and was painted with purple gentian – a great badge of shame as it was considered a ‘dirty disease’. St Helier was a big, modern, gleaming white building which was a terrific landmark for the Luftwaffe, so it had to be camouflaged and was every conceivable shade of dirty brown – most forbidding.

My mother was very close to her eldest sister Dorothy (Dolly), who lived in Banstead with her four sons and Uncle Joe who was a policeman. Frank was the eldest – he enlisted as a sailor when he was only 17 to everyone’s dismay, then there was Robin, then David, who was exactly one year older than me to the day. After a gap of six years Peter was born at the same time as Ian.

We often used to walk up to Banstead and spend time with them, and on two occasions at least when our house was bombed we went and lived with them for a while. They lived near Uncle Mac of Children’s Hour fame and we used to play with his children. Sometimes we took the 163 bus to Banstead. The road was so narrow and heavily lined with trees that as you approached the village on the upstairs deck (which naturally I insisted on) the branches of the trees whipped against the side of the bus, and it went under a very low footbridge which was exciting as it always looked as if we were going to hit the bridge. Having arrived at Auntie Dolly’s we would go out for a walk which took us over that footbridge, and David and I would stand on the bridge and wait for a bus to go under and then we would try and spit on the top of the bus!

In a similar vein, Mummy and Auntie Dolly would walk along Banstead High Street (in those days it was a small village) pushing Ian and Peter in their prams and proudly watching as David and I raced ahead. Sweet little things, they thought, until a neighbour told them we used to race to see who could be the first to spit on the pillar box! David was always leading me astray and seemed to have a great fascination for spitting.

From high on the hill of Banstead at the edge of Epsom Downs we had a clear view over London and would stand on the roof of the chicken hut to watch the dogfights over the city. My maternal grandmother had a business in London and Auntie Dolly would often go up to town to help her, and Mummy would stay and look after the Banstead household. My schooling was erratic to say the least; I went from Primary School on Epsom Road to a little Dame School in Banstead and then to a really tiny school outside Tiverton with about 15 pupils. With all the moving around and spells in hospital I don’t know how I ever passed my 11 plus.

We were in Banstead on August Bank Holiday Monday 1944 when a doodlebug hit the village close by the church. We had been for a big family picnic at The Hundred Beeches the day before and on the Monday morning Mummy left me asleep in the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden. Grandma Daisy refused to sleep underground and slept on the sofa in the sitting room. She was also still asleep; Uncle Joe was at the Police Station and the others were at breakfast. My brother Ian heard the doodlebug and although he was only three he knew when the engine cut out it would fall and he yelled out a warning. They all got under the table whilst the house came down around them.

I was trapped on my own underground in that flipping shelter for hours before they could get me dug out – of course, I was hysterical when I emerged and the first thing I saw was my beloved Grandma Daisy sitting on an upturned pail with huge shards of glass sticking out of her chest and face where the window had exploded onto the sofa. Covered in blood it was a horrific sight I can see even now.

My mother collected us together, Grandma was taken off to hospital with Auntie Dolly and the rest of us were herded to a hastily set up British Restaurant. I remember the High Street being covered in bones thrown up from the cemetery. David and Robin were trying to run around to see who could find the best bones whilst my poor mother was dealing with two screaming 3 year olds and a traumatised me. Uncle Joe found us in the queue and having reassured himself that everyone was alive he had to get back to duty.

Grandma’s husband, Uncle Tom, (third husband, she was a very charismatic woman and her husbands kept on dying on her but she did not remain single for long) came from Devon where his brother still farmed near Tiverton. Rather than be evacuated to some unknown place, my mother with four children (Robin elected to stay with his father) set off for Tiverton, where we received such a warm welcome and it was as if there was no war on at all. Lots of fresh

eggs and milk and butter, orchards crammed with fruit – within a few days David and I were really sick. The doctor was called and having found out we were from ‘London’ and had never been let loose in the country he solemnly told my mother we were suffering from Orcharditis.

Funny how some memories remain. I remember Uncle Tom’s brother took us for a walk by a lake which was full of beautiful waterlilies. I was entranced and wanted to take some home to Mummy to put in a vase. Uncle used his walking stick to fish them to the edge and pick some out for me and I was horrified at their thick slimy tubular stems. But I gamely gathered them up and took them home.

How could something so lovely on the surface have such ugly underpinnings? I have another vivid memory of an Angus cousin from Stirling calling in on us on leave and he looked so wonderful in his kilt. I was always dressed in tartan and had to wear a Tam O’Shanter (knitted beret with a bobble).

Eventually the house in Banstead was made habitable and the following Spring, 1945, we went back, David and Peter to Banstead and we went back to our house and were able to visit our Angus grandparents again. The end of the war was close and my mother optimistically thought Daddy would be home soon after. She made the mistake of telling Ian his daddy was coming home soon with the result that every day for months he would ask if this was the day – it drove her mad.

I don’t know where the bunting came from, but bunting there was. Tables were erected in the middle of the road (there were hardly any cars around anyway as petrol was impossible to get hold of) and all the women pooled whatever treasures they had in their store cupboard. Little did anyone realise that rationing would go on for several years after the war. For us children it was wonderful to see the grownups letting their hair down. My mother had a lovely voice both singing and speaking (she auditioned for The Speaking Clock at one time) and our piano was dragged out into the front garden and of course everyone knew all the words to all the songs. We did the Hokey Kokey and we Conga’d up and down the Lane and in and out of all the houses. We had a wireless out of someone’s window and we all listened to Churchill with many tears. Mummy even danced with Mr. Doubtfire, our local ARP Warden, who had been stalking her all through the war years to her disgust.

The following year my father came home with a kitbag of souvenirs, often things pressed on to him by grateful villagers as they were liberated. I have a small silver box with a crest and a coronet on it which someone gave him, and for many years I wore a silver ring given to him by an Italian soldier. He never, ever spoke about the war to us but just before he died, when in the Falklands war the Belgrano was torpedoed, he broke down and sobbed his heart out. And then we learned that the troop ship he had travelled in to North Africa had been torpedoed with huge loss of life and the news brought it all back to him.

I remember so much about the war years, my mother in tears when Daddy sent a crate of oranges from North Africa and the box arrived full of stones – someone had stolen the oranges (my brother had never seen one!). The blackout curtains which my mother took down in the afternoon and started embroidering huge colourful chrysanthemums all over them, then they would go up again with a threaded needle still in place for the next session. After the war those curtains were made into cushion covers and seemed to hang around for years on garden furniture. The excitement when a letter came from Daddy and the tears when there was a long gap. Spending all day in the school shelter waiting for the All Clear and seeing people sleeping in the underground stations. We were visiting Grandma Daisy during the Blitz and had a terrible journey home and I remember standing with Mummy in horror as we watched London burning. Great excitement when a barrage balloon came down in Grandma’s back garden and all the rear windows were blocked by the grey fabric! The distinctive sound of Spitfires, so often heard again in the skies above us here in Melbourn.

I don’t remember missing sweets – we ate Ovaltine tablets and of course rationing was my mother’s problem – not mine. I got into trouble when I had a new dress (precious coupons) and was trying to help in the kitchen. I cracked an egg and the blessed thing not only went on the floor but it went via the front of my new dress so I was never allowed near food after that. My Grammar school in Wimbledon did not teach cooking so I got married barely knowing how to boil an egg. I remember being strafed when shopping with Mummy and Ian on Grand Parade in Raynes Park, and we flew into Dorcas the Drapers – the bullet marks were visible on the pavement for years. I don’t remember anyone being hit though I do remember the terror.

And here I am 75 years later locked up in my home hiding from another danger even more frightening than Hitler. Once again the whole world wrapped up in a conflict with a terrible, senseless loss of life. Funny old world. Mavis Howard.

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Editorial Ann Dekkers 261144 Editorial, production, Peter Simmonett 220363 design and layout Advertising Vernon Gamon 221965 Parish Profi le Mavis Howard 260686 Proof reading Ann Dekkers 261144 Christine Orchard 221033 Jane Stevens Village Diary Christine Orchard 221033 Printers Langham Press 01223 870266

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