APRIL 5

These two deliveries arrived on the same day. The wine turned up anonymously and the weights were brought by David Jarvis, our super-patient trainer, borrowed from his gym for us to use until it re-opens. Is this picture trying to tell us something? Captions, please!

We’ve never used weights but have a stringy, super-fit friend of over 80 who boasts about his capacity to lift unimaginable loads. Not only that, but the lucky bugger has now come safely though Covid-19 without even having to go to hospital. I find myself irrationally envious of friends who have had it mildly and are now free to lead a normal life – not that there is much of a normal life out there to lead. Irrational because, if that’s what I really want, why have I locked myself away up here, sanitising every carrot and leaving delivery boxes outside for days until they’re bug-free?

Our first Face -Time fitness session using the weights is nerve-wracking, me worrying about my dodgy back and “The Writer” making nervous jokes about how, as a boy, he and his friends had all bought Charles Atlas chest expanders in order to turn themselves from 7-stone weaklings into men who would not tolerate having sand kicked in their faces . And, just think, I hadn’t even realised sand had been a major problem in the land-locked city of his youth.

I had imagined ourselves, dressed fetchingly in animal skins, grunting and staggering as we flourished massive barbells over our heads, aided only by the support offered by our tightly-fastened gym belts.

The reality turned out to be somewhat different. No animal was even approached, let alone harmed, in preparation for the session and there was not a grunt or a stagger in any direction during it. As instructed by the lovely David, we sat, gingerly, on our dining- room chairs holding the lightest of the weights in our hands and curling them ever so gently upwards, as far as our shoulders. A few repeats – and that was it!

Fine by us. And , amazingly, the exercises seem to have built up enough strength for us to open the wine.

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Much consternation in London about the closing of some parks and the policing of others. Apparently, too many people are ignoring the social-distancing rules and the Secretary of State for Health and Social care has threatened complete closure of all parks if we don’t behave. What a disaster that would be for so many Londoners marooned in high-rise blocks with children. The parks are a precious resource to so many city dwellers at all times. We so hope it doesn’t happen.