Disruptions and mishaps haven’t dampened Melvyn’s spirits, who is delighted with the increasing signs of spring.

Hello, it’s Melvyn here.

Got a bit of a thing going on at hospital. I should have actually had an operation on Sunday, about my kidneys. I’ve got kidney stones, so – on the Thursday I had to have a COVID test, to see if I’ve got COVID. I don’t actually have a mobile phone, so anyway, I had the test. They said they would send me a text. I said I haven’t got a mobile phone. He said, we’ll phone you, we’ll get the hospital to phone you. Right, so, OK. So, didn’t phone me, so I automatically though well, I’ll go into the hospital. I had to be at the hospital at 12.30 in Canterbury. So, got in there about twenty past twelve, twenty five past twelve. Pressed the buzzer, nurse come out. She said ‘Hello Mr Brooks’, she said, ‘Have you had your COVID test?’ I said ‘yes, I had it Thursday’. She said ‘oh, we haven’t got any record of it. But what we’re going to do, we’re going to send you into another ward’ – they call it a red ward – ‘with patients that have got COVID in’. I said ‘no you’re not’, I said, ‘it’s not my fault that I had the COVID test’, I said, ‘you should have notified me’. ‘Well, we can do a COVID test now, and then you can go home and then we’ll give you a ring on Monday or Tuesday’.

That’s what I’ve done, I haven’t had a phone call or anything, so. I shall have to have another COVID test now. And then they’ll have to make me another appointment. So I’ll have to wait probably another month, or another couple of weeks or so, before I have the operation. It’s been a right fiasco. But I’m not going to complain too much because they’ve done a fantastic job haven’t they, these people. Just a little bit of confusion won’t help, but I’m not going to moan. But I just thought I’d tell DEEP. Because that’s what happens, so. Here’s the saga going on again.

I haven’t caught Mr Ratatouille, I know he is still about but I haven’t caught him. Haven’t caught any more mice either. So I’m feeding my birds with wild bird seed and with some other stuff I got. Some mealies. Mealy worms. So, there you go. The birds are singing, in the mornings, early mornings now, which is beautiful. All the flowers: daffodils, crocuses, bluebells. My stellata’s coming out, oh it’s absolutely fabulous – I just only hope that it doesn’t rain because every time that’s out in bloom, it either normally rains or something like that, or blows very hard, and knocks all the blossom off. It’s an absolutely fabulous picture. So. Yeah, me garden’s coming to life.

My son and daughter – [recording cuts off]