A much-loved grandmother who stirred the nation - again | Rick Jackson

We always try to watch the Queen’s speech on Christmas Day but generally miss it and end up watching a review of it on the news.

This time it was different.

Twenty-four million of us watched her, listening to her stoic, comforting words about us as a nation and individuals.

Like speaking to a much-loved grandmother, we know she has been there before in the hardest of times and used her resolve and inner strength to get through it.

She talked about her address to the nation in 1940 during the Second World War with her sister Princess Margaret.

We remember the stories of the Blitz and how families were separated by the mass evacuations from our major cities.

For me, she endorsed us, this current generation, when she said: ‘Those that come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.’

She added: ‘The pride in who we are is not part of our past. It defines our present and our future.’

I thought ‘yes, we can do this’ and that this generation does have the self-discipline and social spirit that many thought only belonged to our grandparents and great grandparents.

Yes, we see on social media and in the news stories of people flouting current government regulations, but these are the few, not the many.

We must remember we are far better connected these days and it’s far too easy to read online negative comments from cowardly keyboard worriers.

I remember hearing stories from now-gone relatives of how, during the war’s blackouts, some would not obey the rules, they kept lights on, used torches or even threw parties. There were just as many ‘Blitz-idiots’ as there are ‘Covidiots’ today.

Let’s not be too hard on ourselves.

I’m seeing plenty of community spirit in my neck of the woods and her majesty just re-enforced my feeling of how as a nation we can still pull together at a time of crisis.

Hair today… and still hair tomorrow – just let it grow

Two weeks into lockdown and it seems some men can’t cope any more. Not with being housebound or bored, but with their barnets.

David Beckham and Robbie Williams started it, now friends of mine are doing it too. It’s turning into a worrying trend. Men have started to shave their hair!

Come on lads, we are only a fortnight in, surely you can cope without a haircut a little longer? It’ll soon be like 1979 again with skinheads wearing Doc Martens and Harrington jackets.

But I’m letting everything grow and I mean everything! However, my wife Sarah said if I do, she’ll join me in also letting everything grow.

On second thoughts maybe it’s time to rethink this and hunt out the clippers.​​​​​​​

Exhaust the kids until the sun slips over the yardarm

The dog has never had so much exercise and neither have my kids. We try to keep to a timetable at home so Freddie knows how his day is mapped, like at school.

We have learning time, garden playtime, arts and crafts and then, after lunch, the ‘daily run’. We count our lucky stars for Stanley Park and Stokes Bay. They certainly have energy to burn as they don’t stop running during this time.

We’ve collected pebbles from the beach, decorated them and written the names of their friends on them so they can find them when it’s time for a daily run. The kids then come back exhausted so they have ‘tablet time’. Thanks to this, we are coping until it’s gin o’clock.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​