Feest Isolation Days – 28 April
Boris our PM is back at work, and one of the first things he did yesterday was speak to the country from outside of Number Ten. He was clear that lockdown rules are not changing yet. When the country is ready to move into the next phase of dealing with the virus, the rules will be guided by the science. This has been a constant statement that all of the government ministers have made repeatedly. People are beginning to get a bit fidgety, and the PM delivered his message in typical upbeat calm them down, Boris fashion. Not bad for a man who was fighting for his life just a few weeks ago. As the coronavirus has necessitated all of us revisioning our lives, I suspect he has had to do that as well.
When our Waitrose delivery arrived last week, the key worker dropped off a Waitrose magazine along with all the shopping bags that I finally got round to reading yesterday. We left it sit on the floor in the hall so that any virus that might have got onto its surface would be long gone by the time I picked it up. Flipping through the pages it was clear that this April edition went to press before there was a sniff of the virus, and way before we were in lockdown. Reading the articles dragged me back to a pre-virus time which I don’t often think about. (Staying present and all that!) Page after glossy page was free of the terms “coronavirus”, or “lockdown”, or “social distancing”. It was like looking at an artefact from a different era. Indeed it did come from a different era, one that ended only a few weeks ago. I didn’t feel the loss so heavily as I probably would have earlier in this lockdown, we clearly are getting used to our new status quo. The magazine’s luxurious pages gave a stark reminder in glorious colour of how the world has changed. There were all sorts of ideas for Easter with pictures of families gathering together to celebrate. Prettily decorated tables laden with food were shared by children and grandchildren sitting together with parents and grandparents. Delight spread across the faces of the different generations as they came together to enjoy the recipes we had been encouraged to make to do just that. Gone. Poof. No longer relevant to the way we now live our lives. The adverts for travel and the big splash to join the National Trust as the season is just about to open were salutary. There will be no travel, no visiting magnificent gardens owned by the National Trust, or anyone else for that matter, for quite some time.
Life in lockdown will change. But who knows how or when? We have to get through this phase first and then perhaps there might be some changes to how we can move around. Businesses are already beginning to think about how they might operate in a Social Distancing world. Restaurants will need to have enough space so patrons can distance. Our favourite restaurant in Bristol, Pasta Loco hasn’t a hope. The tables are squished together as it is and that is part of the charm. The place is so small with social distancing they might have room for about four tables.
How will hairdressers return to work, or massage therapists, or physiotherapists. All these are hands on jobs and the one thing we aren’t able to do is touch.
We had friends from the States who were meant to be having the week with us here. Another part of our old life. Poof. Gone. “Perhaps we’ll see you on your way to New Zealand in December” they suggested. Will that be possible? Will air travel resume by then? Will our lives be back to “normal” by then? I wish I could think that was going to be the case, but I’m not holding my breath.
Instead, I’ll keep breathing and watch the little plant babies in our garden as they grow and I’ll continue to write to you all and hope that, like me, you are finding a way to live this new life that we didn’t ask for. Let’s all look forward to that time when we can see each other again. And hug!
For all of us, some days are no doubt easier than others, but we all must do our best. There is little else we can do in lockdown.
And to cheer you up. We took a while to see this, best read out loud!
With love
Kathy x