Back to normal?

Last week was apparently the best yet regarding the hospitalisation of patients with Covid-19.

I mean the lowest regarding the numbers of infections needing to be treated as in-patients. So it must be said that our medical people seem to be finally well on top of the disease.

So what’s preventing the final opening up of the island? Are the authorities being over cautious? Should we just fling everywhere open and get back instantly to the way we were before the pandemic? Personally speaking I am rather glad Mr Fearne and staff are hedging their bets. Far better to delay a little longer than to unwittingly plunge the country into yet another spike of the Indian Delta, Brazilian or Papua New Guinean… whatever version of Covid – long and short. A gradual reopening seems to be the way to go, even if the younger elements in our society are agitating for an ejja ha morru complete reopening. I would gently remind them that, contrary to what they may think, no they are not immune from Covid.

Enough of that; my temporary absence from home as a guest of those magnificent men and women of Mater Dei was not enough to register on my neighbour George’s awareness scale. As soon as I arrived home from hospital I once more ventured up onto my roof for an evening’s glass of Guinness. And there, waiting for me, was dear old George. I have frequently documented in this column my neighbour’s paranoia regarding the Covid pandemic, well it seems that the recent big drop in positive cases here in Malta hasn’t impressed him much.

When I asked him, whether in view of this, he would be leaving the sanitary confines of his home at last, he gave me a withering glare and replied: “Not a chance, it is still here with us, just waiting for us to drop our guard, at which time it will strike with its third wave… just you wait and see.” He added that he was far from happy that Chris, his wife, had insisted that their two kids should return to school and that she needed to leave home to shop for food. So, in order to counter this “reckless behaviour” he was still insisting that upon returning home, everyone in his household should shower, then dress in a complete change of clothes after being outside in the big bad Covid-ridden world.

While we chatted, I noticed something about George that, at first, had me puzzled. I have previously mentioned the guy’s spectacular combover that rises off his pate in a stiff breeze like a bonfire flame. Well he’s recently adopted a new hairstyle. I don’t know how he managed to retrain it, but latterly the combover has relocated from going from one side to the other… to going from back to front… giving George a sort of false fringe… rather like the one sported by Nick Lyndhurst (Rodney from the sitcom Only Fools and Horses). I refrained from commenting on it, which I felt displayed admirable discretion on my part. But I have to say that if the previous combover looked weird, this new one looks positively bizarre. He’s also using a new kind of adhesive to keep it in place. There was a fair old breeze ruffling the roots up there on the roof, but George’s barnet never moved… not once. How does he do that? I really must ask him.