January 14 VACCINATION DAY!!!!!!

This afternoon we went to Lord’s Cricket Ground, not to see a match but to be vaccinated against Covid-19. A phone call from our GP surgery yesterday evening at 5pm allocated us appointments at 2:35pm and 2:40 pm today. After a small celebration dance around the kitchen together, the first thing “The Writer” did was to consult the weather forecast. It predicted heavy rain all day and ,as usual, he trawled through every App on every device ,hoping for one that might suggest, if not sunshine, at least dryness. But it was not to be. Rain all day. There followed an agonised discussion as to whether we could face walking the two and a half miles each way to Lord’s in the rain or should we take our biggest risk since March and go by taxi. We debate this all evening and most of this morning, in the end agreeing to walk to Marylebone High St. – about half way – and see how wet it is. In the event, it’s not too bad and we make it on foot to St. John’s Wood, home to Lord’s, in good time. Since we have appointments, we assume that we will saunter into the building and get jabbed straight away.

The first thing alerting us that this might not be the case, is a cluster of umbrellas in the distance.

As we draw nearer, we see the queue snaking round the building with no end in sight. We tell one of the stewards we have an appointment. He apologises with charm and tells us to join the queue.

We take up our positions, watching the very elderly being helped on their sticks to The terrace of The Lord’s Tavern, where there are some seats for those who can barely stand. The stewards are polite and helpful and it’s sad to hear one young woman complain to her friend “Can you believe it, I’ve just been abused!”

After about 20 minutes, we are ushered up the steps into The Thomas Lord Suite which advertises itself as “The ideal venue for weddings, Barmitzvah’s, Christmas parties, cabaret and dinner dances”.

Judging from the way we all look as we trudge up the steps, the dress code on the invitation for this event must have been ‘Vaccine Grunge’

Inside the crowded room- the closest we have been to any other human being since March –“The Writer” muses in on the likelihood of our catching the virus in the vaccination queue- an irony he would appreciate in fiction but which we agree we could do without in fact. We are asked to sanitise our hands then give our names to staff at a long table, who find it hard to hear either of us, as we are wearing face masks and visors, the visors misted with condensation from the rain and the masks sodden. Our names are written on a slip of paper. which we take with us as we join a line of five chairs to see the doctor. When I get to the front, Dr.Abt. asks three questions: (There may have been a couple more that I was too excited to remember)

Do you have any illness at present?

Have you had a vaccine in the past seven days?

Are you on blood thinners?

I tell him about my severe allergy to oysters, which he ignores as soon as he has ascertained I haven’t been prescribed an epipen.

And then it’s done! I am the proud possessor of a muscle full of Pfizer Biontech and a card telling me the batch number and the date on which I had it. The section for the date of the second dose is blank.

“The Writer” is next in the queue and we then sit for a while to make sure we have no allergic reaction.

Outside in the drizzle, we do a little dance of glee, indulge in a brief hug and then, to fortify ourselves for the walk back, sit on the window sill of The Danubius Hotel and drink tea from the thermos I have carried in the rucksack on my back .

The walk home is wet and windy but we are euphoric. Three more weeks of hiding from the world till the vaccine takes effect then we are free – To do what, I’m not sure, since the world will still be locked down, but we are too thrilled to care.