COLUMNIST SANDRA CHAPMAN: ‘The Queen suprised us all by declaring Camilla would be known as Queen Consort when Prince Charles becomes king’

I suppose this is wishful thinking on my part because new things have a habit of bringing their own problems until we get to the acceptance stage followed by the good riddance stage when we realise they’ve gone.

Now all that can take time, and as we are not a society which likes upheaval for long we could take a while to settle down.

I’m only settling down after months of unwellness myself and am I raring to go?

Not really.

The weather is putting me off going far and one of my ageing cats is beginning to indicate she has had enough of this world.

So I can’t leave her and though I promised that I would get stuck into the spring cleaning this year I have not the will to start that either thinking the time-change period might be more suitable.

Putting off doing things `til another time is my mantra, so I suspect that is what this slow-to-go Covid has taken from me, a willingness to get up, out and do useful things.

My reactions are slow – comes from not mixing much for nearly two years I suppose.

So when I saw a mouse scuttle across my utility room one day this week I stood still like a zombie when I know that in a similar episode in the past I’d have taken a dive at the wee brat managing to get it outside.

Not this time, and frankly I don’t know where it went so it may be summing up that since I didn’t do much to get rid of it it can stay for a while `til the cold weather passes.

However, it may have to reckon with my other cat which sleeps in that room and who won’t tolerate intruders.

The cheerful news which started this week was just how happy the Queen looked on her milestone anniversary at the weekend.

It’s an occasion which gives the population something special to look forward to in June so we can start praying for decent weather from anytime now.

She surprised us all by declaring that Camilla would be known as Queen Consort when Prince Charles becomes King.

That is bound to make a lot of Royal fans very happy indeed but I’ve been reading about the Koh-i-Noor crown which Camilla will be entitled to wear and if I was Camilla I wouldn’t be a happy Royal at all wearing something with such an unhappy history attached.

It’s main diamond – the Koh-i-Noor - is of Indian origin, weighs 105-carat and was first set in a tiara worn by Queen Victoria.

Long before it came into the British Royal family it was fought over by a number of countries including Afghanistan and even today the latter is one of the countries which would like it returned.

How the British managed to purloin it goes back to colonial times when Britain ruled India.

One newspaper described the diamond as ‘more a hand grenade than a jewel’.

You can be sure Camilla will be reading up on this much treasured relic which she will carry on her head when her husband is crowned King. For now the Koh-i-Noor is British owned.

Is it likely Putin would ever lay claim to it?

While the country looks forward to the June celebration we are trying to get our heads around the financial upheaval which faces most of us (I’m excluding the billionaires} now that the world’s central banks are raising interest rates.

In particular we fear the rise in energy bills and higher National Insurance bills.

I no longer look at the price of fuel before I stop to fill up.

What’s the point in shopping around? Prices everywhere are depressing with no improvement in sight.

Will this nightmare of rising prices slow down and will Westminster politicians stop fighting amongst themselves and start running the country? Stormont? I give up.