Month: June 2020

The New Way of Life

I’m fed up trying to think about interesting things to write about life in the Time of Covid now. Let’s face it. Now that the initial drama is over and things are beginning to ease there’s not much to say.

I’m sure you’re as fed up reading about what I did and didn’t do, what I baked, what we had for dinner and what we watched on TV, as I am writing about it. To be honest, I have other writing projects, and other things in general that I’d like to focus on now.  I’m doing a Business Planning session with a client on Saturday, I have my biography to finish, my novel to edit, people I want to invite round to our garden or visit in theirs, bike rides to go on etc. etc!

So, from today, I’m going to take the government’s lead and only post on an ad hoc basis if there is anything interesting to report. Just assume that unless I say so, there is nothing new to tell you.

The purpose of this blog was to record, for posterity and our grandchildren, what happened and what life was like for us all in the Time of Covid. (I love saying in the Time of Covid – it reminds me of the book Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. If you haven’t read it – do so!

So, if you are one of my grandchildren reading this 20 years later, I wonder what life is like for you now?

Was the Time of Covid just something that people talk about that you can’t even imagine, let alone remember. Like our parents used to talk about “The War”. During the war we didn’t have this, we didn’t have that, we couldn’t do this, we couldn’t do that, we had ration books and powdered eggs but everyone came together and we were all happy despite it all.

Or has the time of Covid left a mark on your lives and you don’t know what life was like before it? Do you wonder what it was like when people kissed and hugged each other when they met, do you wonder what it was like when you could browse around the shops, travel on buses, trains and planes without wearing a mask? Do you wonder what it was like when you weren’t served from behind a perspex screen? Do you wonder what it was like when people didn’t carry hand sanitiser round with them all the time? Do you wonder what it was like when people crowded into bars and clubs and went to concerts and sporting events with thousands of other people, all getting hot and sweaty and really close to each other without any fear or concern?

The way we live our lives now has been marked by significant things that have happened in the past. The fear of terrorism has gradually changed a lot of how we live our lives, without us thinking it is strange or unusual. Concrete barriers at the entrances to roads and bridges to prevent vehicle attacks, metal detectors and bag checks to get into buildings and events, and rigorous rules and procedures about what you can take onto a plane in case you are carrying a liquid bomb disguised as a bottle of mouthwash or a shoe bomb hidden in the sole of your fancy trainers. You’ll never know what it was  like when you could wander about freely wherever you wanted and take anything you wanted into a sporting event or a concert, or onto a plane. But, that has become the norm for us. We don’t even think about it any more. We just know that we can’t take any toiletries in our hand luggage when we travel, we know that we will have to take our shoes and belts off to get through security, we know that we will have our bags searched when we go to a concert, the football or the rugby. We know we have to allow extra time for security checks. That’s just how life is now.

Will the things that we all find so strange and restrictive now, in the Time of Covid,  be just how life is for you? Something that you just accept as normal?

Or is it even worse for you now than we can imagine? Wil the mark of the global economic depression that followed the pandemic have changed the course of your life in some way? Has global warming changed the way you live in way that makes The Time of Covid look like a little blip? Have new and even more deadly viruses ravaged the planet?

I hope not. I hope life has gone “back to normal” for you. I hope that my first scenario is your truth 20 years from now. That the Time of Covid is just something that older people talk about, that happened in the past, that you can’t even imagine and wish that they’d stop talking about.

The News

This is the last time I am going to report the news – again, unless there is something really important to say.

Today, the main story is that the Covid antibody tests might not be reliable.

Several police have been injured trying to control illegal street parties in London.

Royal Mail is cutting 2000 jobs and Swiss Port who supply regional airports with support services are cutting 50% of their workforce. Quantas, the main Australian airline, is cutting 6,000 jobs.

Local councils all over the country are about to go bust due to a combination of lack of income and additional costs associated with the pandemic.

New York has imposed a 14 day quarantine for people coming into the state from other states in the USA. Failure to comply will result in sever fines and people are being asked to self-police it by reporting people they know who have come in from other places and are not isolating.

The Numbers

154 new deaths. Total 43,08.

New cases 652 – lowest for a while. Getting closer to the 500 mark that will give us the confidence to relax a little.

 

 

 

 

The New Way of Life

100 days in self-isolation. Well, it’s not really isolation now. Slowly but surely, we are creeping out and about again.

Today was a big day in many ways. The good weather has returned, the government has announced the easing of the majority of major lockdown measures and we ventured into the city!

In the morning, we drove into Birmingham as M had made an appointment at the Apple shop to get his watch repaired. Our plan was to stay outdoors as much as possible and avoid indoor shopping centres and enclosed spaces. We were armed with a selection of masks and hand sanitisers.

We parked in a car park that we knew was fairly open and airy and walked down the outdoor ramp rather than going through the shops. It was quite busy. Lot’s of people about, even though only a few shops were actually open. Mask wearing outside was about 50%. As ever with this whole thing, some people observing social distancing and some completely oblivious.

The queue to get into Apple was well-organised. Multiple staff and security outside handing out masks to people who didn’t have them, taking temperatures and enforcing social distancing. We waited outside for about 15 minutes, before joining another queue inside. The building was the old Waterstones shop. A huge, open, high ceilinged, air-conditioned space. My only concern was the couple behind us who were closer than I would have preferred and were wearing their masks down so that their noses were exposed. The woman had a horrible cough. One of the assistants asked them to put their masks on properly.

Eventually, we were shown to our own table, manned by a masked and gloved technical assistant. After he had diagnosed the problem and arranged to have the watch sent off for repair or replacement we were directed out the back entrance via taped black arrows on the floor. All very strange. I wonder how long we’ll all have to carry on like this for.

During the interaction, we found out that Apple had closed at the start of the pandemic, before they were forced to by the government, and had paid the full salaries of all their staff ever since, without help from the furlough scheme. They had also provided free mental health support for all their employees during the lockdown.

As there was nowhere to go and we had nothing else to do, we headed straight home after the appointment.

By now it was scorching! It felt like the hottest day of the year so far and this is just the start of a hot spell that is predicted to last until Friday. We’re going to try and take the bikes over to Rutland Water on Thursday.

We took a picnic and out beach chairs down to the Village Green and met up with a friend for a few hours. We’d planned to leave at 6 as he wanted to watch the football, but I actually had to come home early as I was too hot. We sat at the edge of the green, under one of only a few shady spots. But it got smaller and smaller as the sun moved around and we were forced to retreat again and again. Eventually, I gave up the fight and retreated all the way home to the cool of the kitchen and a few cold glasses of sparkling water from the fridge.

I’d defrosted some leftover curry in the morning for dinner. We watched  a sweet little Irish movie called Dating Amber, before having a relatively early night.

The News

Lockdown is lifting but scientific experts are warning us to prepare for a second wave.

So from the 4th of July:

• 2 metres is down to 1 metre
• Pubs and restaurants can re-open
• Holiday accommodation can re-open
• Two households can meet outside or inside and can stay over.
• People from different households can meet outdoors in groups of up to 6
• Hairdressers, libraries and churches can open

There is a lot more detail about what can open and what cannot, but it all comes with lots of social distancing and safety requirements and will all be stopped at a moments notice of infections are seen to rise.

In the meantime, infection rates are surging all over the USA. The world believes the virus in out of control over there, along with places like Brazil and India.

Go Outdoors has gone bust, with retailers quarterly rents due tomorrow!

The daily Downing Street press conference on coronavirus has been stopped.
From now on briefings will be on an “ad hoc” basis.

I’m not sure how I’ll find out about numbers of new cases now.

I think I might start doing this blog on an ad hoc basis too now.

The Numbers

280 new deaths, taking the total to 42,927.

921 new cases.

 

 

 

The New Way of Life

The weather is better. I’m not sure I can say the same for my mood. Things between M and I are still a bit frosty. I’m feeling generally a bit fed up with it all.

It’s a confusing and frustrating period for us at the moment. Lockdown is easing. People are getting on with their lives, albeit in a very different way to their pre-Covid lives. I’d still like to see lower daily numbers of infections before we make any significant changes.

Even some family members are saying they think we should just let it run its course now. They think it’s ok for low risk people to get back to normal. When we say that’s too risky for us, it feels as if they are saying, that’s a choice that we have made.  The trouble is, if transmission levels and viral load is high in the community M is still at risk and  we can’t get on with our lives, but, “herd immunity” could enable the virus to run its course quicker and we could get back to some semblance of normality too. Arghhhh!

So, at the moment no significant change for us. Yes, we can see people outside and have people in our garden, but we’re not going to be going into pubs, shops or restaurants any time soon, unless its absolutely necessary. Saying that, were going into the city tomorrow to get M’s Apple watch fixed, I really want to get my hair cut fairly soon (hairdressers are opening from the 4th of July) and I have a hospital appointment towards the end of July.

I’m tired too. My sleep patterns are all over the place again. Partly, due to our “disagreement”, partly due to the fact I’ve had a really bad tension headache for a couple of days and partly ’cause I’ve been playing The Last of Us II a bit too much – maybe they are all related? Ha Ha!

I’m feeling guilty that we’re not doing more again too. Apart from a little bit of writing, housework, exercise, shopping and cooking I’m not really doing much.

In short, I’m just generally not in a great place at the moment.

I worked on my biography project for a bit, and cooked a chilli. I also, took one of the Bajan Rum cakes over to my daughter. I haven’t been on  walk or a bike ride for a couple of days. Just haven’t felt like it but also feel guilty that I haven’t. Eek! Need to pull myself together.

Flights are resuming to Barbados in July on a weekly basis at first; British Airways from Gatwick and Virgin from Heathrow. But, no change on the 14 day quarantine rule in Barbados yet.

The News

Cinemas, pubs and restaurants are set to reopen from 4th July. Cinemas! Really?

Infections are surging in Florida.

New outbreaks in Germany taking their R back up to near 3! Several outbreaks in meat processing plants in several countries. Apparently the conditions are ripe for virus transmission. In Germany, workers are refusing to self-isolate and this is having to be enforced!

Shielding is set to end from the 1st of August. We will see.

The Numbers

15 new deaths. Total 42,647.

958 new cases.

Low, but reflective of post-weekend numbers throughout.

The New Way of Life

I’m a bit cross with M today. Well, not a bit, very actually.

After almost 100 days of shielding and sacrifices, all for his protection, his rugby mate rang up and invited himself round for a coffee this morning, as he was playing golf in the area. Without hesitation and with no discussion with me, M said yes!

Oh, ok! So no-one has been in our garden or house for months. No family. No friends. Not even the window cleaner! Now, at the drop of a hat, because of some misplaced male macho nonsense that makes him unable to say the word no, or admit that he is shielding, someone who we don’t know anything about in terms of whether they have been “following the rules” is coming round for coffee. He’s a nice guy, but the casual way he invited himself round, suggests to me that we’re not the first people he has visited during lockdown. Just saying.

I am livid!

To add insult to injury, because I wasn’t expecting anyone, the house wasn’t very clean and tidy. I had to get up and spend a couple of hours cleaning while M sat in bed watching TV, saying he didn’t know why I was doing it because it didn’t need doing, and he didn’t know why I was cross. Apparently, he hasn’t done anything wrong.

I kept out of the way when his friend was here. He came into the house to use the bathroom.

I’ve been fuming all day.

I’m so upset I can’t write about anything else today.

The News

There was a dreadful  terrorist stabbing incident in Reading on Saturday night. Three people have been killed and 11 injured (3 seriously) when a Libyan man ran around attacking people who were drinking and socialising in a park.

The Numbers

As usual the Sunday numbers are low.

43 new deaths. Total 42,632.

New Cases 1,121

The New Way of Life

The weather is picking up slightly now and the forecast is good for next week. M had a long virtual coaching session in the morning so I did a bit of baking. I’ve always wanted to have a go at making a Bajan Rum cake so I bought the ingredients in the last online shop and made them today. Yesterday, I cooked the fruit (prunes, raisins, currants and cherries) in a bottle of port. It was supposed to have mixed peel in it too but I couldn’t get that. It could either be steeped in the port for weeks or simmered for 20 minutes. I opted for the simmering. To impatient to steep for weeks. After simmering I steeped for 24 hours then blitzed with the best part of a bottle of dark rum!

The quantities in the recipe were enough to make two large cakes and I still have enough fruit left for at least two more! I’ve stuck it in a couple of Kilner jars. Then it was a matter of mixing flour with spices and baking powder, whisking eggs with vanilla and almond essence, creaming butter and sugar an mixing it all together with some treacle to darken the mixture.

They are best left for a couple of days before eating so, after they were cold, I wrapped them in clingfilm. I’m going to give one to my daughter.

After that, I took my library books back. We had a call on social media to take them back in time for libraries to open soon. I’ve had them since the beginning of March.

We had a quick and dirty dinner of pie chips and beans, so that we were ready for the family quiz. A couple of teams dropped out but we had a good time. It ended with a tie breaker between us and my son and his partner in Sweden. They eventually won! The funniest question was a unanimous choice. My daughter and M’s granddaughter (who lives in Greece) had the Politics category. They asked how long Hugh Grant had been Prime Minster for?

The News

The 2 metre rule is to be reviewed next week, almost certainly for business reasons  and not scientific ones – if it ever was scientific of course. Its about pubs and schools etc., not being able to function if they have to observe the 2 metre social distance.

Spain are going to allow tourists from the UK without quarantine. Crazy fools! I really hope they don’t live to regret this. Again, based on economic desperation rather than science , but at the same time, understandable.

Florida is being battered by the virus. They had 4000 new cases today, the largest daily number anywhere in the world. Their population is about 20 million. Just under the third of our population. They opened bars and restaurants last week but have had to close them all again. Oops!

The Numbers

128 deaths. Total 42,589.

New cases 1,295.

The New Way of Life

It’s getting really tiresome now. Every day we wake up and have to remind each other what day it is. We don’t seem to be able to summon up the motivation to do all the jobs around the house that we have talked about. It’s as if we’re in strange sort of limbo waiting for something to change, or something to happen.

I don’t think the weather is helping. It’s still wet and dull and today it was really windy. It made the bike ride really hard work.

But, nothing dramatic is going to happen. We could be waiting like this for many months more.

I worked on my biography in the mornng. Three or four more chapters and the first draft should be done.

Had a late lunch and then went on our bike ride.

I think I’ve mentioned my, age inappropriate, PlayStation guilty pleasure before. In 2013 I completed the best game I have ever played called “The Last of Us”. Today, seven years later, my pre-ordered copy of “The Last of Us II” arrived. I wasn’t expecting it. It was due in May but delayed because of the pandemic.

When I came down for lunch, an Amazon package had arrived. Inside was a really old karaoke game for the Wii. I was totally confused. Was it a mistake? Was it a scam? Had my account been hacked? Was it for someone else? What was going on?

I picked up my phone and was about to check my Amazon Account, when I heard M sniggering. He got me! Got me good! He took my real game out of the cupboard where he had hidden it and handed it to me. Poor thing. He knows he’s lost me to the PlayStation for a while now. I need to try and limit the time I spend on it. It can be a very unhealthy obsession.

M was cooking so I had a couple of hours to load it up and try it out while he made dinner.

At least it solves my problem of running out of things I want to watch on TV. I’m sure he’ll be able to find a few shoot’em ups that he can watch while I am otherwise engaged.

The News

Today the government announced that we have moved down to the next Covid alert level.

We were at 4 and we are now at 3.

This coincided with the WHO stating that the world is entering a new and dangerous phase of the pandemic. They feel that easing lockdown and entering the Track and Trace phase could lead to a dangerous and uncontrollable second wave. We will see.

A new £1 billion fund has been announced to help disadvantaged children to “catch-up” with their education.

The Numbers

173 new deaths bringing the total to 42,461.

1,346 new cases.

The New Way of Life

I’m tempted to start winding this Self Isolation journal down now, alongside the easing of lockdown. We’re waiting for the daily infection rates to drop below 500 before we make any significant changes to our lives. Perhaps I’ll stop writing every day at that point, and just write when I have something interesting or important to say. I’d love to end this with us getting on the plane to Barbados!

Lockdown life is so dull, especially when the weather is bad. It’s more and more difficult to find something to write about. I’m hating my hair. It’s so thick and long that I can’t seem to get it to look nice whatever I do!

Today, We have done very little again. The weather is dreadful again. I didn’t go out for a bike ride for the second day in a row.

We slept in and pottered about the house all day. M did a bit of cleaning. I did a bit of writing, cross-stitch and watched some TV. I even had a doze on the sofa in the afternoon. M went for a bike ride in the rain. I couldn’t face it to be honest. Partly because of the rain and partly because I’m tired and a tiny bit hungover after yesterday. An alcohol free day today should get me back on track for tomorrow.

Talking to different people, is revealing a split in society between people who are still taking care, socially distancing and following government guidelines, and people who are doing whatever they want, as if it is all over. This split is apparent even within our own family.

It’s not all over though. You just have to look at the number of new cases which are still running at over 1000 per day. Back in March, when we went into isolation, there were only 1,500 or so active cases in total.

The News

Vera Lynne has died aged 103.

The Government has abandoned their plans to use their own Contact Tracing App, that they piloted in the Isle of White, in yet another U-turn. They are going to use the Google Apple App that other countries have gone for instead. I suppose its good that they are prepared to be flexible if it is in the best interests of everyone. The government App works well on Android phones and provides accurate estimates of distance, but it doesn’t work on Apple phones as their systems are not compatible. The Google Apple App is not as good at estimating distance as the government App. They say that they are going to share their own distance algorithm with Apple to enable them to improve the accuracy of their App. I seem to recall Dominic Cummings sister owns the company that was developing the government App.

The Oxford vaccine is being manufactured by Astra Zeneca, and stockpiled in advance of it being approved. The government has announced that it will prioritise high risk individuals and healthcare workers as soon as it becomes available. This would be a godsend for us. It would be the only thing that would allow to us to get our lives properly back to normal.

The Bank of England is going to pump £100 billion into the UK economy to help fight the anticipated depression due to the virus.

500 doctors have died from Covid-19 in Russia! This terrible death toll is believed to be related to a lack of PPE.

Peru is the latest country to be badly hit by the virus.

The German outbreak has centred around an abattoir and thousands of people are back in quarantine. I wonder if we will see any increase in cases as a result of people crowding onto the beaches in the good weather a few weeks ago, and all the recent BLM related demonstrations.

The Numbers

135 new deaths. Total 42,288.

1,218 new cases.

 

 

The New Way of Life.

We had an unusual day today! I had to set the alarm for 7.30 as I was hosting a local business network meeting on Zoom at 09.00. We are still sleeping in so late these days, it has become our new normal.

The meeting finished at 10.00 and I did a little bit of writing until my Ocado grocery delivery arrived at 11.00.

After I had put it all away, I had a long shower and tried to something with my horribly overgrown hair, before a virtual Song Contest with a friend in the afternoon.

Every Wednesday, one of our friends, A, a single man who has been furloughed and in lockdown on his own, has a Song Contest, with another couple, S&S. S&S are in Brussels visiting their family this week so we said we would do it with him instead. We were pre-warned that it was a prolonged business and so decided to start at 2pm rather than sitting up until 2am, as they usually do. I think we also flirted with the idea of doing it in the garden, but the weather put paid to that. We have had dramatic thunderstorms in the afternoon for several days in a row now.

The Song Content consists of each player, preselecting 29 songs from a list of criteria such as: makes you happy, makes you sad, has a number in the title, has a name in the title, from the year of your birth, makes you want to dance etc. etc. Then we play them all and each player gives the others a score for each song: 1 if you love it, 1/2 if you like it and 0 if your hate it.

29 songs, at an average of 3 minutes per song, for 3 people takes about 4.5 hours to get through. When you add in chats, loo breaks and topping up drinks and snacks etc. its a very long game! We started at 2 and finished at 8.30pm! I drank the best part of 2 bottles of wine over the 6.5 hours and fell into bed not long after 9pm!

So, I’m actually writing this blog on Thursday!

The News

The premier league football started up again today with no spectators. After a minutes silence for the victims of Covid-19, and the whistle was blown, the players all “took the knee” in a gesture of support for #blacklivesmatter.

China and India have been “clashing” on the border – something to do with sovereignty. Reports suggest that about 20 soldiers have died!

The Numbers

184 new deaths taking the total to 42,153.

1,115 new cases.

Germany seems to be experiencing the start of a second wave!

2 days ago they had 338 new cases and yesterday they had 1,797! The isolated outbreak has been in Berlin and affected over 300 households who live in close proximity to each other.

The New Way of Life

Another busy day! Worked on my biography project for most of the day. Really making good progress now with the first draft. I think I only have a handful of chapters left to write.

I stopped for lunch and a break about 2.30 pm and then went out for my bike ride. It’s a humid day, overcast but warm.

M seems to be relaxing a bit! There is a fresh fish van that visits the village every Tuesday. Every Tuesday, without fail, we pass it on our bike ride and promise ourselves that we’ll remember to get some fish the following week. Today, it was there on our way home, but I needed to have shower before I could go out, so he went instead! On the way back he went into the chemist to pick up his prescription. Well! He must be feeling that things are getting safer out there. It’s the first time he’s gone into anywhere at all since the 15th of March!

He has also made an appointment in Birmingham city centre for us to take his Apple watch in to be repaired next week! Our local Apple shop was fully booked for months and he’s desperate to get it fixed so that he can monitor how his athletic prowess is coming along. So we’ll be driving into the city and going to the Apple shop in the centre of town! Wow! What an adventure!

Talking of adventures, Europe opened its borders today and our friends, whose daughter and granddaughter lives there, went to visit them on the Eurostar! They took the train to London, then the Eurostar to Brussels, where their son-in-law picked them up. They are staying in a hotel and just messaged us to say that, after a lovely day with their family, they are sitting on the hotel terrace enjoying a bottle of wine. I can’t imagine what it must feel like. They must feel as though they are in a dream.

The News

As said, Europe has opened its borders today but, apart from Belgium, most countries are excluding people from the UK, citing our poor control of the virus.

In New Zealand, only a few days after they declared themselves Covid free, two British women have introduced the virus into the country again. They travelled on a flight via Doha and Brisbane and were half way a two week quarantine, when they were allowed to leave early to visit a dying relative. They drove 400 miles across New Zealand in a car with another family member before testing positive. Now everyone they came into contact with on their journey will have to be contacted and asked, along with anyone they have been in contact with, to self-isolate for 14 days.

I do hope that this does not force other countries (yes, I do mean Barbados!) to restrict visitors from the UK!

The government has done another U-turn on providing child meal vouchers for families in need through the school holidays, after an appeal by Marcus Rashford, a young England footballer who experienced poverty and hardship as a child. Many families are in terrible financial difficulties at the moment. Many children who normally get free school meals and have been attending school through lockdown as “vulnerable” children, were going to miss out on this during the school holidays and the government, until today, were refusing to introduce the scheme over the summer.

This is a situation that is only going to get worse. We haven’t seen the half of it yet! It is estimated that 600,000 people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, and that by the summer 3 million will be unemployed.

An old medicine, Dexamethazone, has been shown to be effective in reducing mortality from Covid-19. It is widely available as a generic across the world and is cheap to manufacture. It could be a significant development!

Indian hospitals are currently being overwhelmed by people with the virus

The Numbers

233 new deaths taking the total to 41,969.

1279 new cases.

It’s a very slow process.

The New Way of Life

Feeling tired today and achy for some reason. Can’t imagine why, I’ve hardly done anything over the weekend.

Busy day. Started out by clearing my emails and finishing my weekend blog posts. Took a silly amount of time to create a mailing list from scratch for a local business network as the document I was sent was a “screenshot”! Sorted out an invoice for a public sector client. Had a Zoo and then had a long conversation with my sister about the big family quiz on Saturday. I updated my shopping order for Wednesday then went for a bike ride.

M has had 5,000 views of his video on Facebook. I think he thinks he’s going to be the next internet celebrity!

The News

Shops have reopened today. Queues outside shops like Primark and Sports Direct since 4.30 am. Some crowds ignoring social distancing to get bargains. I don’t know anyone who has gone shopping and we certainly won’t be for a while at least. M needs his Apple Watch repairing so I may take that in for him when things settle down.

It is now permitted to go to a church for private prayer.

A US fighter plane on a training mission has crashed into the North Sea.

Barbados has eased their quarantine rules a teeny weeny bit for people coming into the country from other low-risk countries (not us then!). Actually, it seems to be other Caribbean  countries and the change is that some people, who meet certain criteria, will be allowed to self-isolate at home.

The Numbers

Numbers are always low on a Monday after the weekend.

38 deaths taking the total to 41,736.

1,056 new cases.