And so the balmy sunny weather continues with meals in the garden, finishing paint jobs and two long phone conversations with friends and planning a Zoom meeting with Greg Atkins.  Watched two hours of Messiah on Netflix with Elizabeth.  Recommend it highly on this second viewing.  Explores the emergence from Syria of a mysterious Jesus like figure. Very sharp and gripping and the most plausible Jesus ever to hit the screen.

For Bruton Art Society interviewed Thea Dupays for a profile .  Along-standing member and a destinguished artist , she has had a very varied and interesting life starting off with five years in Northern Nigeria before independence. Of course I cannot photograph her and await receiving a pack of photos of her pictures by post.

A  beautiful day spent painting and decorating. Nothing significant.

Sit, run and workout after staying up too late watching rubbish.  Must not do that again.  A really beautiful sunny day and our garden at it best so we both just got stuck into our books.  Determined to finish Dominian which continues to enlighten , surprise and inform with his clever ply of showing unusual connections across time and historical events and players.  The cardinal who interrogated Luther was also against slavery and that the first real abolitionists were a couple of Quaker hunchbacks. Rubbish tv.

It appears the shortage of PPE is partly the result of a stiff-necked Brexit policy not to take part in an EU mass order of equipment.  Instead they claim the EU used out of date emails to tell the government about it.  If this is true the govenrment is responsible for many covid deaths.

After a morning start completing work painting doors and windowsills I settled down to binge-watch the rest of DEVS which is Deus in disguise. It really is remarkable in the way it integrates real philosophical/ moral and yes religious issues and our fears about where Google, Microsoft and Amazon may be taking us into a highly charged thriller with some of the most convincing dialogue I have heard for some time and excellent acting.  Kept me going until 6.30 pm before Elizabeth and I, taking advantage of the perfect sunny weather, set off for a walk on the edges of the Stourhead Estate.  Enjoy the pix.

Our Spring Garden

Stared early with sitting, a run and a workout.  Clear sunny day with biting cold wind. Also our 52nd WEDDING ANNIVERSARY. Both spent much of the day reading.  Still on Dominian  which continues to amaze as he retells church history.  I need to read Spinoza.
Spent much of the day preparing and painting back and front door and windowsills.  First occasion I have done this for many months.

Panorama TV showed Richard’s Warwick Hospital and how they are dealing with Covid-19.  He was not on.

Saw a sad thriller with Elizabeth about a teenage murderer after a fine dinner, but was enthralled on the I player 9on my own of course!) with DEVS, an 8 session drama exploring in very dramatic thriller form Quantum mechanics, cause and effect and free will.  Behind it is writer director Alex Garland whose sci fi AI film Ex Machina is also a must.

Back to a beautiful , clear, sunny day.  Deaths now total 15,464 in hospitals and around 4,000 in care homes .  Only England? Not sure.  Curve appears to be flattening.  9 am Andrew Marr.  Best politics and news of the week.  Report in the Sunday Times that 38 days from Jan 1 of wasted time, failure of Boris to attend COBRA meetings and failure to stockpile and order PPE fast enough.  Gove cam on later and did an impressive job repudiating claims and saying they had been on the ball and doing everything possible.

Prof. Sarah Gilbert of Oxford came on to say they were close to testing a vaccine which she thought could be strong and long lasting and ready to roll out from possibly Sept if the trials go well.  The most optimistic thing I have heard. She needs volunteers to test it.

Interviewed David Attenborough who has completed a film A Life On Our Planet. At 93 his last throw and he was adamant our last chance if we are not to be overtaken by global warming, the melting of the polar ice, breaking out of methane and the end of us. He emphasissed that the virus could not be seperated from the other catastrophes humanity is imposing on the planet.  It will be out on NETFLIX very soon.

Spent much of the day on DIY painting.

Another cold, damp day.  The Government admitts there is a real shortage of gown for PPE, Un says there is currently no anti-body test and no certainty that those who are infected will be immune to re-infection either immediately or after a year or so. This all makes planning for the future and the re-opening of the economy very uncertain.

At last got through to Barbara on Whatsapp for 45mins.  From her Kalk Bay home in Cape Town she has stunning views and is cared for by her daughter who lives near by and seems well.  She knows lifr in the African townships is appalling.

Then had a long conversation with old political friend Nick Harvey who I photographed and supported in North Devon.  Discussed my idea for a Pandemic and Climate Emergency Service.  (see paper under Politics)

Started the day with an early run in what seemed good weather getting home at 8 am.  Almost immediately it clouded over and the heavens opened for the first time in many weeks so we had got our garden shed cleared just in time.  The temperature dropped and Elizabeth returned from shopping very cold.
Had an unsuccessful time trying to get through to Barbara Strauss in SA on Skype, but neither of us could make it work.  Spoke to local friends and the daughters -as we do almost daily.  Started work touching up the paint in the kitchen and around the house.

TV enjoyed the Master Cheff final. Addicted to it, but only the real competitons, the amateurs and the professionals – not the xxx celebs. Year on year it continues to fascinate.  Watched the final hour of Wolf Hall when  Anne Boleyn is framed and ends on the scaffold.

The day Dominic Raab, speaking for the Government, announced another three weeks of lock-down  as the numbers dying appears to be nearing its peak, except for deaths in care homes and in the Intensive Care Units.

GP nephew Richard returned my call.  He has just been drafted into a local Midlands ICU and has had just two days dealing with Covid-19 patients.  He says they have more doctors than patients at the moment and are preparing for a wave to hit them.

On the news it had just been confirmed that twice as many men than women are dying, 50% put on ventilators die, and many more black and “ethnic minority” members are dying than whites, and that age – and the number of “underlying conditions” one has also increases risk.  Why the figures are as they are is as yet not known.  Richard said that if the symptoms appear you call 111.  They asses on the phone if you need an ambulance to take you to hospital.  This is based on the severity of your reported symptoms.

The hospitals so far are not overwhelmed and if symptoms spread to the lungs with incapacity to breath, they give oxygen for as long as is needed.  The fight for breath can be tough and very unpleasant.  If one continues to deteriorate they put you under anaesthetic, tube down the throat and onto a ventilator where you are continuously monitored.  You are unconscious, have no pain and live or die.  If you live you are taken off and sent home where you will take weeks or months to recover from a very weak state.  He thinks since we are both unusually fit for our age, the chances of us having to get to the ventilator stage are low.  So there we are.

It also seems to me that sooner or later, possibly not for weeks, months or even years, we will nearly all get it, though how seriously is anyone’s guess.  It could have very mild symptoms.
Richard is extremely straightforward and confident and it was really good to speak to him.  He thinks both he and Sophie have had it in a mild form.

Received a thoughtful and knowledgeable email from a friend about my paper on Special Divine Action (ie miracles) and my paper Is Wright Wrong by the theologian and former bishop of Durham N.T. Wright, who accepts SDA.  I also received on line and replied to a paper by a Dr Gocke entitled The Many Problems of Special Divine Action – which he thinks he can explain away. He certainly does not answer my problems. I will place the correspondence under Religion.  Will he reply to me?  I doubt it.

After watching Wolf Hall with Elizabeth tried UTUBE and there was NT Wright at Yale.  Encouraging to see that while I think he is very wrong, I do not misunderstand him.

Spent the afternoon clearing the garden shed of intrusive creepers and other rubbish.  Satisfying.  Our daily routine is to watch Channel 4 News with John Snow and Cathy Newman.  It comes on at 7 pm.  At 8 we went to our front door and clapped loudly in support of the NHS. Most but not all our neighbours did the same.  Now the 3rd time.