We took Madeline into town on Monday afternoon. She went into her first music shop, I showed her the maps in WH Smiths and her Granny's book but she slept through it all.We tried to get some lateral flow tests in town as they have run out on the government website but they also had in the two places we tried. An annoying woman, not wearing a mask got into the lift with us  in John Lewis even though she was going up and we went down. I'll come along for the ride she said.  It didn't go down well. Heard that John's lad James and Rick's lad Nick have both got covid. Went for a ride on Tuesday with Kelvin, Andy and Stuart. Had a couple of pints in The Black Horse. When I got back found out the washing machine had packed in and a new one ordered. Popped into town early on Wednesday to try to get some lateral flow tests but couldn't. Heard Saturday's 150th anniversary game againt Luton is off because of covid. Went to The Reading Twilight Trail in the evening. It was pretty good.It was inThe Forbury Gardens and abbey ruins. Managed to get 2 packs of LFTs at the test centre in the town hall on the way back. Amy cooked a great rice noodle stir fry. Lynda C emailed to see if we still wanted to go ahead wirh Monday's drinks because of covid. Said I'd rather not. A record number of cases was reported today. It turns out Nick Kay doesn't have covid but James Clift wife does. Madeline in a new green outfit on Thursday morning playing computer games with her dad.

On Monday morning we took Madeline for a walk round Prospect Park whilst James and Amy went for a run. It was Amy's first since January 29th. Had a haircut on Tuesday all masked up. It was all too much for Madeline.Found out that Ralph has covid. He's not sure where from. Probably last Friday, he was out and about a bit, went on abys and to the surgery. On Wednesday we heard that Amy's folks and her sister are no longer coming over for Christmas. The rules around covid have made it too difficult to just come for week. They will need to do PCR tests at both ends both ways and isolate until -ve. That will also be costly. PCR tests at Boots are £80 each. That's probably the cheapest. We all went for a walk in the afternoon  James had Madeline in a sling thing. Boris made an announcement that masks need to be worn in more circumstances, people should work from home if they can and covid passes will be required for some venues. This is because of the omicron variant. Went to The Greyfriar with K, A and P in the evening but ended up in Brewdog so maybe had a pint too many. Had a band practice on Thursday, really good again. Went to The Greyfriar again in the evening for first Thursday drinks. On Friday we drove over to Tom and Sally's in two cars. We stayed at an Air B n B about 10 mins walk away.  Had a Kelly family gathering there on the Saturday.Andy's girlfriend Emily took the photo. We hadn't met her before except on zoom. J, A and M had already left. Got back about 3pm on Sunday. Boris made another announcement in the the evening that all adults will be offered a booster before the end of the year 3 months after their last jab.

The snow was still there on Monday morning. Heard from James they are planning to come down tomorrow.