Famine follows feast - In the name of Thiago - Day 92

It was inevitable really I suppose. While yesterday, I felt really positive and like getting on with stuff, including a bumper edition blog if you’ve not already read it, today was quite the opposite.

It was pretty much a day resigned entirely to doing fuck all, which is fairly disappointing. But the difference this time. is that I’m not going to beat myself up about it. At least I’m following government advice!

I wrote this first part of the blog at around 3pm but I’ve managed a walk with Elisa since then. Nothing all that exciting but a stretch of the legs. I thought a lot about what she thinks about. She’s incredibly smart but I’m fairly sure she doesn’t let on the half of it.

Whenever I try to find out how she’s doing these days I normally get short shrift. I don’t want to push her though, it must be hard. The death of her brother and then this pesky virus bringing an early end to her primary schooldays. I sense that she’s remarkably resilient and that if anything she’s trying to protect Angelica and I. What a trooper.

The other thing with Elisa these days is that she refuses to be in photos. So every picture you’ll see in today’s blog and in most of them going forward I guess, will not include her. Please rest assured she was with me on this afternoon stroll!

We walked up to Butt’s Hill, which is a little spot right next to our old house and still not far from where we live now.   

Elisa led the way as she sees it very much as her patch and took pride in showing off the little hidden places that she knows. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to enjoy times like this with her as she heads into adolescence so I just enjoyed it. She found a den, which naturally she wouldn’t be pictured in but insisted I sit in for a bit.

Then after a bit more of a wander we sat at the brow of the hill and looked down towards Elisa’s old school, because let’s face it she won’t be going back there now. Elisa won’t be going to the secondary school you can make out in the picture below although a lot of children from her year are.

Having given me a few moments of her time and even briefly having spoken about her feelings about leaving school unexpectedly, Elisa then decided that she needed to cash in something of a quid pro quo and so foolishly I let her film me rolling down the hill. I quickly aborted this preposterous charade as soon as I could - much to her obvious disappointment - and spent the following half hour trying to regain some semblance of composure.

Well that’s it, nothing of any great note today, just an average Sunday spent trying to enjoy at least some of this glorious spring weather. I hope that many of you have been able to do likewise responsibly.

Of course this virus is inhibiting our capability to spend our leisure pound, but fear not I can help you with that! I am still pushing towards my £10,000 target raising money for the Royal Stoke and Birmingham Children’s Hospitals. I’m 59% of the way so there’s still plenty to go. Help if you can!