Tag: covid-19

Global Cases 1,929,225
Global Deaths 119,758
UK Cases 88,621
UK New Deaths 717 Total Deaths 11,329

It’s the first day of the new routine. Didn’t quite manage to get showered and dressed before 9, but it’s 8.58 and I’m writing this so that’s something! Ok, I didn’t wake up until 8 and “looked at my phone” until 8.30 until M woke up. My turn to make the coffee this morning so I’m drinking it in bed with my lap-top. My phone is on silent!

Yesterday, we got up so late that by the time I had done a bit of writing – essentially this blog and the second draft of my homework for Friday, it was time for our bike ride. We did the 8 mile one but it was tough because it was really windy!

Watched a bit of the Great British Menu, cooked Crab and Chilli Pasta for dinner then we watched Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) from Saturday and the first episode of the new season of Killing Eve.

A strange thing happened when we watched BGT. M says he doesn’t like it because it’s rubbish TV (which of course it is) but I like it because it always makes us smile. Ok, it is set-up to do that and probably totally contrived and manipulative – I’m not stupid! But, I like it! It’s feel-good TV. Who cares if it’s fake or whatever?

As soon as it started I felt very emotional. Just watching the opening credits I felt tearful. Watching groups of dancers and singers on their way to their auditions, arm in arm, happy and smiling. It just made me feel really sad. Obviously, it was all filmed before the lockdown. The first act was a girls school gospel choir. As soon as they starting singing I felt myself welling up. When I heard M sniffling beside me I turned to him and we both cried for a little bit.

I’ve been trying to understand what was going on and I think it could have been a number of things. A simple emotional reaction to their singing? (It felt like more than that) Sorrowful joy, seeing all their happy shining faces pre-coronavirus, not knowing what was to come? Grief (I hope that’s not too strong a word), for what we have lost (hopefully not forever)? I honestly don’t really know, but it was a strange, and very honest, moment between us.

France have announced that they will be extending their lockdown until the 11th of May, but, interestingly, have started to outline their exit strategy for after that. They will open schools and some businesses but not bars, restaurants and cinemas, essentially not anywhere where people can’t maintain safe distances from each other. It will involve continued isolation for vulnerable people.

The UK have said we are unlikely to be ending our own lockdown any time soon.

I also read an article in The Guardian about some scenarios that an NHS IT modelling company have been asked to run for the government. One of the scenarios they were asked to run was a targeted herd immunity strategy. This involved protecting high risk individuals and allowing the virus to run its course in the rest of the population until herd immunity (60% infection) is achieved. Clearly this has been leaked, but it was submitted to them on the 23rd of March, after the 14th of March when the government denied that they were pursuing a herd immunity strategy. What it that tells me, is that it’s still not off the table, but they are balancing this approach with the capacity of the NHS.

There is a lot of talk now about what I was saying the other day about the underreporting of deaths due to the exclusion of figures from care homes and the community. The ONS have released some figures today which suggest actual Covid deaths are much higher than those reported by the government.

Right! It’s almost 10am and today I’m going to do some work on Key Ways Consulting between now and 12.

 

 

Global Cases 1,862,584
Global Deaths 114,982
UK Cases 84,279
UK New Deaths 737 Total Deaths 10,612

The beady-eyed amongst you, and anyone who reads this every day (AS IF!), will notice that I’ve missed a day and jumped from Saturday to Monday. Don’t worry, it was deliberate. As I’ve said before, I’ve been writing this retrospectively, talking on Monday about what happened on Sunday and so on, and it’s beginning to irritate me. So, as we enter our second month of isolation at the tail-end of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, it seems like as good a time as any to start writing in real time.

I don’t really know why I started doing it that way. I think it was my mild OCD kicking in. At the beginning, everything was happening so quickly that I wanted it to be an accurate record of developments as and when they happened, and a record of what the impact of it all on the day to day lives of an ordinary middle aged couple would be. I planned to take notes  on everything that happened on one day, and then write about it, at my leisure, the day after.

But, as time drags on it’s beginning to feel like wading through treacle. The daily announcements of numbers of dead and diseased are made. The same questions are asked and the same speculative non-answers are given. We do less and less everyday as we sleep-walk through the limbo of waiting. There is nothing of real interest anymore to note down one day and write up the next. Nothing except waking, waiting, reading, waiting, thinking, waiting, watching, waiting, talking, listening, waiting, sleeping, waiting eating, waiting, drinking waiting, waiting, waiting. The reality is, that all we are really doing is waiting.

It is slowly beginning to sink that we might be waiting for much longer that most people. We could be waiting for a very long time, months maybe even years.

This thing isn’t going to go away overnight. At the end of the 12 weeks that M has been advised to shield himself for, we aren’t just going to walk out of our front door and pick up where we left off. We won’t be able to travel, go to pubs, restaurants, the cinema or the theatre, or resume our face-to-face business activities and spend time with family and friends, until we know it is safe for him to do so. Otherwise, what would have been the point of doing what we are doing now?

I made the mistake of reading an article last night, about the Spanish Flu in 1918. Mainly to see how long it lasted and how it ended. Admittedly, there were multiple factors at play that do not apply now, not least of which was the fact that much of the world was in the end stages of a devastating world war! Science was not as well developed and most people were not as  “healthy” to start with, as they are today. Nevertheless, I was appalled to read that the virus took two years to run its course, in three waves with a second wave was more deadly than the first. By the time it was over, estimates suggest that it killed between 50 and 100 million people.

It’s highly unlikely that this virus will be anything like that, so much is different and so much has been learned since then. However, there are war and famine ravaged places in the world, where experts are afraid about what might happen should the virus take hold there.

The most likely exit scenario for M and I is, that when they develop a reliable antibody test, we may be able to interact with people who have proven immunity, in our home or possibly even in theirs.

The only way we will be able to properly break our own isolation, is when an effective vaccine is available and M can have access to it. That may not be until the Autumn this year at the earliest.

We are pretty good on our own. We’re pretty good at waiting. We don’t really get bored or fed-up. We enjoy each others company. We can always find things to do. But, I am aware that we are being very unproductive as we wait. Let’s be honest, we are being quite lazy and self-indulgent.

We’ve decided this morning, that this month we are going to try and be better at waiting, to find a way to be more productive. We both agree that we need to be more disciplined and structured in terms of how we spend our time. I have a couple of writing projects on the go that I could easily finish if I just put my mind to it. M thinks we should spend more time on the business, developing our off-the-shelf workshops, writing articles for the news/blog and exploring what we can do virtually.

So, from tomorrow, my new routine should look something like this:

Spend a day a week focussing on one of the following:

• Wait for Me – the second edit of my first novel
• Rachel’s Story – the biography project
• Keyways Consulting – (our business) workshops and news/blog articles
• General Writing – short story competitions, Writers Group homework and critiques, my blog etc.
• Ad Hoc activities such as Accounts and Admin etc.

My new daily schedule should look something like this:

• Up, showered and dressed by 9!
• Write this blog between 9 and 10 while M does his workout.
•  WORK between 10 and 12
•  Lunch 12 till 1
• WORK between 1 and 4
• Bike Ride or Walk 4 till 5
• Cool-down, rehydrate and watch the news between 5 and 6
• Cook between 6 and 7
• Eat between 7 and 8
• TV
• Bed

I’m not going to be ridiculously rigid about it, but it should mean that I get a good amount of work done in two chunks before and after lunch each day.

On Saturdays we are going to do some cleaning and jobs around the house and garden, rewarding ourselves with a “lazy” day on Sundays.

 

 

Global Cases 1,794,641
Global Deaths 109,920
UK Cases 78,991
UK New Deaths 917 Total Deaths 9,875

So I’m writing this on Easter Sunday. To try and make feel like a different day from all the rest I’m going to have a day off! I’m not doing any writing other than this. I’m not going on a bike ride and I’m not doing any cleaning. I’m going to read in the garden and cook us a nice Easter Sunday lunch, minus the pudding or any chocolate (we’re still trying to be good).

Yesterday the grim numbers of dead continued to rise. By the end of today, we will probably go over 10,000. I remember being so shocked a couple of weeks ago when Italy hit this figure. And now, here we are too …

I’m getting the distinct feeling that we are not being told the whole truth. They have started qualifying the daily announcement of the dead by saying that they are the figures for in-hospital deaths. We know that many people are dying at home and in care homes that are not being counted in the figures. I know personally of several people who have been persuaded by paramedics to stay at home or have been discharged early, when they have been desperately ill. Apparently, their oxygen saturation levels haven’t been low enough. And yet, we know that once people’s oxygen saturations  start to fall, it’s a sure sign that they are in the grip of the severe phase of the illness and can deteriorate and die alarmingly quickly. I read about the 19 healthcare workers who have died so far (I say so far because it is a tragic inevitably that they are only the first). At least three of them died at home.

In case we, or anyone we know get sick, and on the advice of a trusted medical friend, I have ordered a pulse oximeter on Amazon.

So, what did we do yesterday? Basically, we frittered away the morning and went on a bike ride in the afternoon. We did the 8 mile circuit and I felt it!

I follow Bon Appetite on social media. They posted an article on frothy coffee that looked divine so I decided to have a go. I put 1 tablespoon of good quality instant coffee, 1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of hot water in my milk frother then poured it over cold milk and ice. Oh my god! Dirty, dirty dessert in a glass!

I made a chilli for dinner and we watched some more Messiah – we’re really getting in to that now!

 

 

Global Cases 1,710,817
Global Deaths 103,513
UK Cases 73,758
UK New Deaths 980 Total Deaths 8,958

It’s Good Friday. How ironic. It is far, far away from good for anyone, let alone the grieving families of the 8,958 people who have died of Covid-19 in the last few weeks.

I’ve added the Total Deaths to my daily statistics. New deaths tells us where we are in the wave of the outbreak, but total deaths gives us a sense of the absolutely mind-boggling impact this thing is having on the country.

But, we soldier on in our little isolation bubble. Eating, sleeping, cycling, reading and watching TV. So weirdly detached from what is going on in our hospitals and in other peoples homes. We hear the occasional story and see the occasional ambulance but mostly it’s as if we are watching a drama unfold that we are not really part of. It’s so hard to explain.

Another glorious day weather wise. Spent the morning writing my homework for the next writers group meeting next Friday. The brief this month is that the story must start with the line; Rachel’s first trip to England didn’t go as planned.

Another 6 mile bike ride. We’re going to step it up to 8 miles tomorrow. I’m using the Bikemap App to record our rides. Rather insultingly it automatically labelled the route we did today as a “Restful Route”. The cheek of it!

On our “restful” ride today, I stopped to take a photo of a gravestone we pass every day. It sits on the grass verge at the side of the road and just contains the words:

JJ June 13, 1895

It seems so unusual and intriguing, that I decided to do a bit of Google research! Well, who’d have thought it? It turns out it’s number 7 in Birmingham Ghost Hunters Top Ten most haunted locations in Birmingham. 

The story goes that Jack Johnson (JJ), the owner of Fulford Hall, was beheaded by the branch of a tree, on that very spot, when he stood up in the saddle of his horse to get a better aim at a couple of poachers he was chasing. It is said that on the 13th of June every year strange things happen near the gravestone, usually involving unexplained car accidents and strange noises and bumps in the night.

We’re going to have our Writers Group meeting next Friday using  the House Party app, so we had a trial run today at 4pm to sort out the technicalities and enjoy a virtual glass or two of wine together. A delicious chilled bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc slipped down far too easily and by 6pm it was gone! Oops!

I was just about able to throw together a Vietnamese Turkey and Noodle Salad before collapsing on the sofa to watch an episode of Messiah and the recent Terminator movie – Dark Fate.

 

Global Cases 1,614,858
Global Deaths 96,791
UK Cases 65,077
UK Deaths 881

Another lovely, sunny day. Feeling more energetic today. Quick post today as I want to get back out into the sunshine!

The government reviewed lockdown today and it’s no surprise that it is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Wuhan, the city in China where it all started, is open for business again!

Lots of fake news and conspiracy theories circulating:

• Boris isn’t really ill
• Government are covering up real figures to make it look as if their strategy is working
• The Chinese created the virus in a humungous bio-terror attack

Blah, blah, blah.

Easter weekend approaching with fantastic weather forecast prompting lots of pleas for people to #stayathome.

Picked up our outstanding prescriptions and had a trip out to collect an order from the butchers. Painted my toenails and put some makeup and jewellery on for the occasion! Ordered by phone and picked up in the afternoon when the shop was closed to walk-in customers. M came for the drive but stayed in the car. They are all exhausted – rushed of their feet with reduced staffing and increased demand!

Lovely Facetime with daughter and granddaughter.

Cherry tree in the front garden is in blossom.

Finished reading Breathless by Dean Koontz. Started the Handmaids Tale by Margaret  Attwood. I have read it before, a long time ago, but one of the kids bought it and The Testaments for me for Christmas, so I thought I’d read it again before starting the new book.

Cleaned the kitchen area today again. It’s an open plan kitchen, diner and sitting area with a TV. A big space where we spend the majority of our time.

6 mile bike ride – felt pretty easy so we’ll increase distance again soon.

M is really well at the moment. Coughing less and breathing better. He’s the best he’s been in 2 years, probably because he doesn’t have an infection at the moment and he’s getting lots of exercise. Fingers crossed he stays that way!

Another blue-light ambulance passed the house today. It was still parked on Main Street when we went our for our bike ride later. A friend knows the woman who was taken ill. Kind of a weird story. Apparently, she has all the symptoms of Covid-19 but the ambulance staff did a test and said she hasn’t got the virus – just another type of viral pneumonia so they didn’t take her to hospital. Really? All sounds a bit odd to me. I didn’t think there was a test that paramedics could do in an ambulance? Maybe the rumours of a cover-up conspiracy are true but I honestly can’t imagine hospital and paramedic staff going along with it! Probably just a misunderstanding.

Boris is out of ITU. On the road to recovery.

Clapped for the Key Workers and Carers at 8pm again.

After dinner, we watched Angel has Fallen – a classic “shoot ’em up” movie in my least favourite genre. My sister jokingly told me I should be a “good wife” and watch it with M. I did and it was exactly as I feared. Miniscule plot, minimal dialogue, nauseatingly cheesy characters, a ton of gratuitous violence and a death toll to match.

 

 

 

Global Cases 1,529,401
Global Deaths 89,416
UK Cases 60,733
UK Deaths 938

Highest number of deaths so far have occurred over the last 24 hours and we are not at the peak yet. I read an article in The Guardian which was based on an analysis by The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle. They predict that:

• the UK will become the country worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, accounting for more than 40% of total deaths across the continent
• 66,000 UK deaths from Covid-19 by August, with a peak of nearly 3,000 a day, based on a steep climb in daily deaths early in the outbreak
• discussions over “herd immunity” led to a delay in the UK introducing physical distancing measures
• we won’t reach our peak until the middle of next week between the 17th and 19th or April

Back in our isolation bubble, it was a beautiful day yesterday. Warm, bright and sunny. so much so, that we got the cushions for the garden furniture out and spent some of the afternoon reading outside with a long, cold rum and coke.

Both of my knees are complaining about the cycling now so we went for a long walk instead. While we were out, we checked up on the saplings that M planted on the Village Green the day before we went into isolation. All except two were doing really well, despite them being pretty much neglected since this all started. I’m worried that they will need watering with all this fine weather but there is no simple way to do this in lockdown. I even wondered if we could wheel a couple of full watering cans down from our house in a wheelbarrow, but is that a valid reason to leave our house?

On our walk, we passed a row of houses down at the edge of the village. A police car and ambulance were parked outside one of the houses. A man was sitting on his front step with his head in his hands, as a police man had a “chat” to him whilst leaning against his police car 2 metres away. No idea what it was all about, but my nosey, Covid-fuelled writers imagination went in to overdrive for a long while after!

I put my jeans on today and they were alarmingly tight. I’ve really got to try and eat less and be more active, or none of my clothes will fit me by the time this is all over.

M went out for a short bike ride later (very naughtily having a second sneaky excercise session in the same day). While he was out, I sat outside and read my book in the sunshine. My peace was shattered by the sound of angry male voices coming from the street. I wandered out to find M’s abandoned bike in the middle of our parking area as he stomped back from the front of the house huffing and puffing with rage.

It turned out he was one of men who had been shouting! After he had calmed down, he explained that a car had forced its way past him on the village’s main street where the road is narrowed by parked cars. He had banged on the window of the car in his annoyance and then the car had done a u-turn and followed him all the way home trying to intimidate him. He had jumped off his bike and gone back for socially distanced “altercation” which involved a lot of shouting and arm-waving, but always from a distance of 2 metres away!

I’m sure the little drama was the highlight of many people’s locked-down day!

Social Distancing Dilemmas

I spoke to my sister, my daughter and my mum today. A lot of our conversations were about what is, and what is not, ok to do under the social distancing rules. It feels as if  logic and common-sense have been displaced by a fear of social judging and shaming.

My niece lives in Harrogate, a 15 minute drive away from my sister’s (her mother’s) house in the rural Yorkshire Dales. She is in lockdown with her boyfriend, who was visiting her from London when everyone was advised to #stayathome. The are stuck in a small flat with no garden or balcony that they can use. When they go out for their permitted daily exercise, they have no choice but to walk around the streets of Harrogate, or the Valley Gardens, along with everyone else in a similar predicament. So, they asked my sister if they could drive over to her house and take a couple of bikes from the garage, obviously without going into the house or having any contact with anyone.

At first, my sister couldn’t see why not. No-one was going be infected or put at risk. But, then again, was it really a necessary journey? If they had bikes, they could exercise further away from home and ease the congestion on the streets and parks of Harrogate. It would also be good for their own mental and physical health. The logic and principle seemed sound enough but, in the end, the fear of what my sister’s neighbours would think convinced them all not to do it.

My nephew has been coordinating his daily walk with that of his friend, who lives nearby. They walk the same route at the same time each day, always staying 2 metres apart but enjoying the chance for a face-to-face catch-up. He is finding lockdown particularly lonely because, unlike his sister, he is separated from his girlfriend. Is he wrong to “meet” with his friend for their daily walk? Logic says he’s not doing anything wrong. If he “bumped” (not literally) into his friend by pure coincidence they would probably have an impromptu socially distanced conversation anyway, so why is it wrong if it is planned? But, they have been chastised by a local woman, who challenged them about who they were and whether they were from the same household.

Similarly, my 83 year old mum, who is in lockdown in a tiny apartment in Harrogate with my dad who has dementia, goes out for walk in the Valley Gardens every morning between 6 and 7. My niece (the same one as above) has suggested that she could go for a walk in Valley Gardens at the same time as her Granny, and that they could have a socially distanced face-to-face conversation. Again, they are worried about whether this could be seen as “breaking the rules”.

Also, my mum would love to go out for a second walk later in the day, just to get a break from my dad. Logic says that two short walks in one day by one person would equate to one long one by someone else, but she is afraid to do so in case she gets into trouble. As no-one is about when she goes for her early walk, I asked her how anyone would know that it was her second walk of the day, and she said that she is fearful she would be seen on the CCTV footage from their building security system!

My daughter has a step-daughter who is splitting her time between her parents, as is permitted under the social distancing rules. As she is moving between two households, logic would suggest that these households are essentially mixing through her. The two women wondered if it would be ok for her mum and baby (half) brother to come in to my daughter’s house when she is dropped off. Logic says it makes no difference to their risk of transmitting infection but fear of being judged and shamed by the neighbours has prevented them from doing this.

On a more sombre note, late last night, we started to see some posts on social media that suggested that M’s cousin in New York might have passed away due to Covid-19. Last night we were confused and thought it must be a mistake, but sadly, this was confirmed for us this morning. We last spoke to her in January when we were in Barbados and she and M had a long phone conversation. He had recently obtained his Bajan citizenship and she wanted to pick his brains because she was considering doing the same. Shocking and very, very sad.

News

The PM’s condition is improving.

The Chancellor has announced a £750 million bail-out package for charities, who are struggling with lack of funding.  So many of what we regard to be essential services are actually delivered by charities, including hospices and respite care and air ambulances!

Global Cases 1,446,992
Global Deaths 83,090
UK Cases 55,242
UK Deaths 786

Weirdly, yesterday’s post isn’t showing up on my blog.  It’s in my list of posts on my admin site but not on the website itself.

Oh well, maybe it will show up soon. Our internet is weird at the moment. Also, apparently some social media sites are blocking “misinformation” posts about the Big C. If only, my little journal was so important and widely read that it has been censored. Ha! Ha! Let’s see what happens today!

I’m feeling a bit lethargic today. I write these posts retrospectively, writing today about what happened yesterday. I’m finding it increasingly hard to recall what happened the day before. The days seem so long and yet pass by so quickly at the same time. Maybe its time for a change of tack.

So what do I remember about yesterday? Slept in late, rapidly becoming our new normal. Had a very long (over an hour) Facetime with our son in Sweden. Did some work on the biography I am writing, as I had a meeting with my client/subject/fellow writer in the afternoon (a virtual meeting of course!). Had my meeting at 3pm. Went for our bike ride after that but had to cut it short as M had a flat tyre.

When we got back the window cleaners were in our back garden. Really? Is this an essential service? I was surprised to put it mildly. I was more disturbed though, by the fact that they had violated our outdoor safe space. Like our house, no-one has been in out back garden except us since the 16th of March. I was aware that I was behaving like an irrational crazy woman when I wiped down everything they might have touched with disinfect. Or was I?

It was lovely day again. It really feels like spring is here in earnest now. This time last year we were about to head off to Harris for our St Kilda adventure.

PM is still in ITU. Numbers still rising. People still dying.

When we went up to bed and I went to close the bedroom blinds, there was an ambulance in the street with its engine running. No-one was in the cab so I presumed they were working on someone in the back. Suddenly, a young man jumped out and ran down the ramp into the underground car park for the apartments opposite our house. He drove out in his car a minute or two later. He parked up in front of the ambulance then went back inside it again. A moment later he emerged again, jumped in his car and sped off. The ambulance stayed there with its engine running for ages after that. We could hear the engine running long after we turned of our lights. I got up and looked out again a bit later and it was sitting with all its lights off, interior and exterior, but with the engine still running and no-one in the cab.

I went of to sleep with the awful feeling that someone might be fighting for their life in the back of that ambulance. Maybe they had even lost the fight. Maybe their partner had raced off to the hospital to meet them there, only for them never to arrive. Who were they? Did they live behind one of the sets of windows we can see from our house? There are several apartments where there has been no sign of life for weeks, curtains and blinds closed, no-one sticking their heads out for the Thursday night clap. It’s mostly a young transient population who live in them and have never really got to know any of them. Are there other people who we don’t know about, struggling behind these windows, battling on their own with this horrible virus?

 

 

Global Cases 1,356,380
Global Deaths 75,762
UK Cases 51,608
UK Deaths 439

So, we’re into week 4 now.

We really seem to have slowed down. We only complete one or two significant tasks a day. It’s as if we’ve gone into partial hibernation. We talk about things we could and should do but we just never seem to get around to them. The days drift away and into each other. Even though there is a terrifying global catastrophe occurring in the world outside our isolation bubble, we are both more relaxed than we have ever been. I’m a bit worried about how we will cope when this is all over and we have to start being productive again!

Typical day for M:

• wake up late
• coffee in bed watching the news
• phone or Facetime friends and family
• mid-morning exercise session
• lunch
• watch some TV after lunch
• phone or Facetime friends and family
• bike ride
• watch daily news briefing
• dinner
• TV
• bed

Typical day for me:

• wake up late
• coffee in bed watching the news
• phone or Facetime friends and family
• reading and writing
• lunch
• watch some TV after lunch
• phone or Facetime friends and family
• bike ride
• watch daily news briefing
• dinner
• TV
• bed

There’s not much point in repeating day after day what I’ve done (or haven’t done) so, from now on, I’ll only report things that are out of the ordinary to spare you the sad monotony of what our lives have become.

I can’t remember if I mentioned that I am in a small local writers group. We meet every month or so and always prepare a piece of homework, which is a short story or flash fiction based on a randomly selected brief. Today, I critiqued my fellow writers short stories from our last meeting. We read them aloud on the night, but also critique them more formally using a structured format, on a one-to-one basis after the meeting. It allows us to be a little bit more honest, and offer some genuine constructive criticism that will help us all to improve out writing skills. At the meetings, which are very sociable, we tend to be very supportive and encouraging of each other, as well as enjoying reading each others work and our different interpretations of the brief.

The daily government news briefings are becoming very uninformative and uninteresting. I might stop watching them. They are sounding a bit too much like propaganda now, for my liking. Telling us what a marvellous job they are doing, telling us what the latest statistics are and speculating about what they might, or might not. mean. Taking lots of pre-planned questions, that they never really answer, from chosen journalists who all ask the same thing.

Had a doorstep 2m apart chat to a friend as he passed by on his walk.

Spoke to my sister, my daughter and my mum. No one had very much to say to each other anymore as nobody is doing anything.

Watched some MasterChef, Great British Menu and the War of the Worlds. We watched TV in separate room for a while this evening. M watched a “shoot ’em up” downstairs (which I hate), while I watched Contagion upstairs (which is the type of thing that he hates). Interesting film. Very similar scenario to what we are experiencing now; a respiratory virus that originates in China when a bat virus jumps to a pig and then to a human. However, it is a very overdramatised version of the current pandemic. Case fatality rates are 25%! Lock down and social distancing doesn’t seem to kick in until there are much higher numbers of cases worldwide. Civil unrest is a big problem with looting and rioting. It all ends when they develop and vaccine and people can only come our of isolation when they have been vaccinated and have to wear a wristband to prove it.

I wonder how we are going to get out of all of this? There is talk of an antibody test being developed and then people who have had it and are immune can be identified, and allowed to carry on with their lives. It’s a problematic solution for many reasons. Morally, it might appear that people who have not been social distancing and have caught the infection are being rewarded, and people who have followed all the rules and avoided infection are being punished. People might deliberately try and catch the disease so that they can resume their lives. People like M, and others who don’t seem to be able to catch it will be unfairly penalised. People who are immune could potentially profit at the expense of those who are not.

Anyway, The Scottish Chief Medical Officer eventually resigned.

The big news of the day is that our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had been moved into Intensive Care. I found this news very shocking. I actually felt a shiver pass through my body. Even M reacted, and he normally plays down these type of dramatic Breaking News announcements.  It prompted a flurry of messages between friends and family. I think it was a kind of “this shit gets real” moment for everyone. We see the numbers every day, and read and see stories on TV, about people who have died, but we are all still so detached from it all. To have prominent figure like this (who we all feel that we know a little bit, and all have an opinion of, one way another) become so seriously ill, it really makes the whole thing suddenly seem very real indeed!

If the worst happens to poor Boris, it will send shock waves throughout the country.

I sincerely hope it doesn’t.

 

 

Global Cases 1,284,665
Global Deaths 70,320
UK Cases 47,806
UK Deaths 621

The Worldometers site have added a Tests per Million Population column to their spreadsheet which makes interesting reading, in the countries who are currently reporting the highest numbers:

Italy – 11,436

Germany – 10,962

Spain – 7,593

USA – 5,355

France  – 3,436

UK – 2,880

Iran – 2,214

It wil be interesting when this is all over to look at what the impact of the different strategies has been and hopefully learn some lessons for the future, in case this ever happens again:

To herd. or not to herd? To lockdown, or not to lockdown? To test, or not to test?

It is odd how quickly we all seem to have adapted to this new way of life. Death rates of 600 and 700 a day, falling from our tongues without an appropriate emotional reaction to the horror of it all.

At the end of our first three weeks, it seems like a good moment to reflect on what is good and not so good about being in isolation.

The not so good things about it are:

• not being able to see or have cuddles with the grandchildren
• feeling a bit detached from what is going on in the world outside
• eating and drinking more than is good for us
• trying to find a safe and easy way of getting our shopping done
• a growing anxiety about when and how this is all going to end

Some positive things about it are:

• enjoying each others company and supporting each other through this
• getting out for a bike ride every day
• experimenting in the kitchen
• talking to friends and family more than we usually do
• catching up with people we haven’t spoken to for a while
• seeing young families going out for walks together

I’m sure there are more but these are the first few that spring to mind.

So, today I spent the morning working on the second draft of my NYC Short Story. I’m feeling much happier with it now.

I cooked us both a substantial Sunday Lunch of Roast Beef, Yorkshire Puddings, and Gravy, with Roast Potatoes, Maple Roast Parsnips, Ratatouille and Broccoli, followed by Maple and Walnut Pudding with Homemade Vanilla Custard. I’m really enjoying taking the time to be creative in the kitchen, but we are both gaining a bit of weight, in spite of our daily bike rides. I don’t think were alone there, but we must cycle further and eat and drink less in Week 4!

After lunch, I headed back into the office to do a final edit and polish on my story with a bit of help from my friend the proof-reader. I submitted it at about 7pm, several hours before the deadline. The results will be announced in May – fingers crossed!

I had a day off from cycling today. Call it a rest day, before we tackle the longer distance tomorrow.

There is talk of outdoor exercise being stopped because of lots of people who are breaking the social distancing rules. I really hope that doesn’t happen. It would be much, much harder to get through the next 9 weeks if we couldn’t get our for our little bike rides!

In the evening, we watched a distinctly average movie called Crossing the Line and the next episode of Race Around the World.

The big news of the day is that the Scottish Chief Medical Officer has been caught and shamed big time for flouting her own Stay at Home guidance, by spending weekends at her holiday home in the countryside. For me, it’s as much about flaunting the fact that she has a second home, when there are millions of people cooped up in tiny flats without gardens or balconies, as it is about spreading the virus.

Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital. Although they are playing it down, I don’t think that sounds very good. He’s been ill for 10 days.  Generally, they are not admitting people unless they are critically ill. Hopefully, they are just being extra cautious because of his position, but then that raises questions about elitism and inequities of access to care. I’m not a fan of Boris or his politics, but I certainly wouldn’t wish him any harm. I genuinely hope he’s ok.

Finally, the Queen addressed the nation tonight. We didn’t watch it ourselves, but it was apparently all very patriotic and rousing with echoes of We’ll Meet Again from the Second World War. I’m sure she means well, but I doubt that the covidiots who are putting the rest of us at risk by ignoring social distancing rules, will be persuaded to change their behaviour by a 93 year old, millionaire who lives in a castle. Apologies for the cynical irreverence but that’s just my personal opinion.

 

 

 

Global Cases 1,213,194
Global Deaths 65,600
UK Cases 41,903
UK Deaths 708

Another short one today. I’ve got my head down editing and polishing my story for the NYC Midnight Competition.

I’ve finished the first draft and sent it to a few friends for their initial thoughts. I’m not entirely happy with the ending.

Death rates keep rising. It’s almost incomprehensible to read these numbers and fully understand what they mean. A five year old boy has died now.

Keir Starmer has been elected as the new leader of the Labour Party. Not terribly important in the great scheme of things.

The weather forecast for the weekend in very good prompting lots of please from the government and on social media for people to stay indoors.

4000 inmates are going to be released early from prison because of the virus. Prisons are massive hotbeds for infection as well as struggling with staff shortages due to the sickness.

I rang a few folks. We went on a bike ride. I watched a bit of MasterChef.

We had Pizzas for tea to try and make it feel like a Saturday. We watched a slightly odd movie called The Killing of the Sacred Deer – not sure I would recommend it.

Home haircuts are becoming a thing. People are posting pictures of their efforts. Our daughter-in-law has pretty much shaved the heads of our son and grandson with the clippers. The wee one is a bit shy about his but they both look great! It could be the new badge of honour for surviving lockdown!

I keep my hair fairly short. It’s beginning to feel a bit thick and shaggy already. God knows what it will be like in another 10 weeks. I normally have it cut about every 6 weeks. By the time this is over it will be 16 weeks since my last cut!

Anyway, back to my story!