Feest Isolation Days –10 June
Heading out into Bristol on my bicycle really has done what I had hoped. I feel liberated! I was out for an hour on Monday before the weather went all cold rainy and cloudy again. The city is beginning to tentatively step out again…but social distancing still seemed the norm. I saw a little girl in her unmistakable green and white checked uniform on her way back from school, as excited and interested in telling her Mother all about her day just as she no doubt would have in “normal” times.
I’m a very careful cyclist and notice that a lot more drivers are very careful as well. There are clearly more drivers who are cycling these days. There is always the outlier who’s an idiot driving too fast and over the speed, but they are in the minority. Drivers waited (sometimes very patiently) when they waved me ahead of them before they made a turn. I waved a thank you when cars were being kind and not bearing down behind me, and moved over to let them pass me when I could. Clearly something has changed. Perhaps the lockdown has truly got people slowed down in terms of the rest of their lives. We aren’t all racing to whatever it is that we do and it really does show.
There were two ice cream vans on the Downs and people social distancing as they queued for their cold comfort. People also talk to each other in ways that I don’t normally associate with this city. I talk to people all the time, but so often when I’ve been out, from a social distanced two metres, people have initiated a moment. The sun does of course help, too.
One of the most uplifting sights I witnessed of the many I saw on the Downs, was a remote control model car whizzing around the brown grass at some speed. I watched as it turned and manoeuvred backed up and then raced forward. Eventually, when I saw the person who was controlling it, my day was made by the breadth of his smile. The man was probably in his fifties, and in a wheelchair. The sort that people sit in and control, much like the car model he whizzed around. He was lost in the joy of his moment with his model and the delight on his face was like a little boy who had never done this sort of thing before. Wonderful!
I realised it is those chance encounters, those moments that you treasure as you go about your day that I have missed so much. Seeing other people is a delight. We hope that this continues apace.
The news from the lab in Oxford where the vaccine trial is underway is good. Astra Zeneca have already begun production of several million doses of the jab. If the trials go as well as is hoped, the vaccine will be ready by September. Let’s hope so.
Thanks to all those people who are involved in the trial and to the scientists and the lab folks who have pulled out all the stops to get this vaccine into production in record time. A game changer as they say and one that we will all welcome. In the meantime, the rain stopped, Tuesday was warm again, I was back on my bike and travelling among my fellow city dwellers – nice!. There was lots of uphill – Bristol is a very hilly city and we live at the top of Clifton, it’s always uphill coming back. Fancy a socially distanced ride? Let me know!
Shh! Don’t tell the editor……!
With love
Kathy x