Feest Isolation Days – 13 April 2020
Easter Monday! It’s freezing! After the splendid weather and the outdoor life, it feels even colder than I suspect it is as the wind howls around and shakes the petals from the less sturdy tulips. Nevertheless, it’s a good day. Prime Minister Boris is out of hospital and recovering at Chequers with his fiancée. His message on Easter makes me think he really has found a place in his heart for the NHS. I suspect his experience will have changed him. These tough personal plights can alter how people see the world. He said at one point it was “touch and go” whether or not he would pull through. He couldn’t praise the NHS staff enough and read a long list of names of those who cared for him. The two nurses he especially thanked, who were at his bedside for forty-eight hours, were both immigrants.
It would seem that we’re going to be in lockdown for a lot longer yet. According to Sir Jeremy Farrar, the Director of the Wellcome Trust, the vaccine that will help everyone is coming, but it will be a long time before it’s available for the billions of people all over the planet who will need it. Scientists are working hard to produce this vaccine and may have one ready by September. While that sounds encouraging, and of course it is, new labs will then need to be developed to produce the inoculations. Manufacturing can’t stop on the vaccines that are currently being made, if it did, and people stopped getting immunised, then there would be a new epidemic to deal with of mumps, measles etc. Entire new factories will have to be set up worldwide in order to churn out the vaccine that we’ll all need in order to become social again. Remember all that anti vaxer talk not all that long ago? Gone quiet hasn’t it?
A programme on Radio Four reminded us why the farmers can’t get rid of all their milk. With all those Costa’s and every other coffee shop in the country closed, the need for Café au Lait has evaporated. People are making their beverage of choice at home and they don’t tend to drink lattes! Alcohol too is no longer consumed in pubs and restaurants which explains the huge call on Supermarkets and off licences to provide us all with our preferred tipple. It takes awhile for the supply chain to switch allegiances.
We have been playing the “what will you do first when lockdown is over” game with friends. Interesting to hear the responses! What will you do first? I will head to a lovely walk in the country with a picnic and walk and walk and walk and breathe deeply. When I’m finished with my walk I will find an outdoor pool and swim. I might get rid of my exercise bike then as well. I’m getting sick of it already and we have only been here for thirty days.
In case you’re getting fed up of being inside and your thoughts are turning to how you could morally justify sunbathing in the park, you might like to read the Guardian article Anthony posted in the comments section. I’ve copied the link below and urge you to have a read. It’s one of the finest articles I’ve read explaining our moral duty to comply.
If you haven’t watched it, the Boris video is also worth a peek.
More chocolate anyone?
With love
Kathy x