LONDON, U.K. -- Everybody鈥檚 still talking about the Queen and her address to the nation last night. OK, maybe that鈥檚 a wild exaggeration, but a lot of people are. How great she looked. How caring she sounded. More grandmother, than grand monarch. The green dress was perfect. I wonder if she was tempted to wear grey, or something a little more sombre.

Green, I鈥檓 happy to pass along, is considered soothing and youthful. Green has healing power, and is 鈥渦nderstood to be the most restful and relaxing colour for the human eye to view,鈥 according to one website I consulted. I assume she knew that. The Queen would.

Your majesty, how do you manage to look ageless? Don鈥檛 you have aches and pains, a little arthritis in those royal joints? Swollen ankles maybe? My mother died at the about the same age the Queen is now. She鈥檇 undergone two hip operations by then and was very tired at the end. She just wanted to sleep.

I only mention that because I used to compare my mother to the Queen. My mother wore glasses that looked like the Queen鈥檚, her hair was cut the same as the Queen鈥檚. Was she copying her style? Quite likely. As our white Anglo-Saxon family grew up, the Queen鈥檚 family grew up. That much we had in common.

We never missed a Christmas broadcast. We sang God Save the Queen at school, at almost every public event, from village council meetings to hockey games. At least that鈥檚 the way I remember it.

The Queen was a constant. She stood for service and allegiance. It鈥檚 interesting to be a visitor in her country now and witness the second Elizabethan age coming to a close. Her address to the nation last night was indeed soothing, and very likely the last of its kind.

This morning, the British headlines were all about her 鈥渞ousing message鈥 meant to 鈥渓ift the nation鈥檚 spirits.鈥 She invoked memories of the blitz, of , and of the days ahead, when family and friends will meet again, don鈥檛 know where, don鈥檛 know when. Am I wrong to suggest she was being spiritual there, knowing how many friends and family members are going to be taken by this terrible plague.

Her own prime minister is now in hospital with persistent COVID-19 symptoms, which was much discussed over breakfast.

He: 鈥淏oris Johnson going to the hospital is a big wake-up call for the British.鈥

She: 鈥淚t sounds serious. I wonder how long they鈥檒l keep him there?鈥

We are toasting homemade sesame seed bagels and Irish soda bread. There鈥檚 a lot of great baking going on under lockdown

She: 鈥淗ow much do you think they鈥檒l tell us about his condition?鈥

He: 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure you can keep something like that a secret. The tabloids will be all over it.鈥

Indeed, the Daily Mail ran a huge, all-caps headline on its front page this morning: 鈥淏ORIS ON OXYGEN.鈥 The Sun went with: 鈥淰IRAL CRISIS.鈥

So there we are on this Monday, Day 14 under lockdown, with awful predictions of what suffering lies ahead. Too many health-care workers getting sick. Not enough testing being done. A prime minister who might die. And as for me, I called somebody in the park an idiot.

Sometimes one鈥檚 mouth gets carried away by one鈥檚 obsession.

鈥淚 am not an idiot,鈥 came the response.

She was walking her dogs without keeping them on a lead. In our neighborhood, that continues to rank as a shameful unwillingness to share in the sacrifice of lockdown.

I didn鈥檛 think she could hear me. She could. It wasn鈥檛 the way I wanted this week to start -- an argument in an otherwise peaceful park at 7 o鈥檆lock in the morning. The dogs of course could care less. It鈥檚 the humans who are suffering.

So, a reckoning, at the end of this fourteenth day. We all need to hang in there and remember what the Queen said:

鈥淲e should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure better days will return.鈥

#COVIDIOT