One week

Today will be one week since I left the house - and what a long, weird week it's been.

Boris Johnson has this morning tested positive for Coronavirus, yesterday it was Prince Charles.

There's a cynical part of me that wonders if these announcements are part of a public relations plan to engender support in a 'we're all in it together' scenario. Surely if the Prime Minister and the Prince of Wales could acquire it, suffer mild symptoms like gentlemen, and recover then it would make the rest of us feel less scared of the virus and less likely to panic buy (too late) or act as an unruly mob going on the rampage and rioting. But that's the cynic in me and thankfully that side rarely rears its head these days.

In these, what is referred to increasingly in the media as unprecedented times, folks are up to all manner of things to get them by. Social media, much derided by many people, has come into its own this week. It is not only a tool to share news and keep in touch with others during the period of lock down, but it's helping pass the time in more creative ways than I've seen before.

For example, I'm in a Facebook group called Club Solo which is essentially a virtual nightclub where people share music, post live streams of themselves DJing, make up stories of what's going on in the club and generally invent the funniest nightclub that ever didn't exist.

A friend shared an Instagram post from a local food company who are selling boxes of butter, eggs, rice, cheese and so on as a way to get by and I'm just waiting on the delivery now.

Last time I spoke to my brother he was doing baby yoga with his wife and four year old. And so on.

People are using the time as an opportunity, where they can, which I suppose is all you can do other than loaf around all day.

Mother's Day

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK, it's a beautiful Spring day and everything feels calm as it often does at this time of year. Obviously this year is different than before. Chris has elected to not see his mum today which I think is the right thing to do. Traditionally one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants, this year they all lie empty. It's all very sad.

I was chatting with Alison earlier about the things that have changed so quickly and the markers in everyday life that have had to happen differently: kids not celebrating the end of their school career, birthdays, weddings, funerals, all sorts of things.

We're planning on getting married in July, we have the reservation with the register office and we'd started planning a party. I'm not sure how this is going to affect it but thankfully our only financial outlay to date is a forty quid deposit and the way we're doing it means that it's very flexible and we can scale up or down quickly and even postpone relatively easily if needs be. Not so for those poor couples who have spent thousands of pounds and months, sometimes years, planning and ordering and buying. Still, the most important thing is obviously their health.


Chris began coughing last night, over and over again. He said that his chest hurt when he coughed too. Even something as innocuous as that scared the life out of me. There were no other symptoms though and after getting him to sit upright and covering himself in vapour rub it eventually improved. This morning it's there a bit but not like yesterday. In fact I have a bit of a cough too which is no doubt the same thing and to know what it feels like is a comfort. I feel like I'm overreacting with every little thing, and I'm not an overly dramatic person, but it's scary reading the headlines and seeing the news then wondering if it could be us next, trying to get seen at a hospital. We're both pretty healthy as it stands so if or when it does happen I think we'll be okay. I hope so anyway. In the meantime, all we can do is stay at home.

Chris's cat friends have come back to see him. They're definitely too well looked after to be stray and I'm 90% sure they have a home somewhere. I suggested to him the other day that we foster a dog for a few months from the dog's home but he doesn't seem interested.

We, just this minute, cancelled our Lake District trip next weekend. Sarah and Steve are struggling with childcare as Steve's folks are quarantining themselves, Chris and I had decided we shouldn't do it anyway and Kaz & Paul are in agreement. It's such a shame because it was the start of the celebrations for Kaz's 50th birthday but needs must and all that. Must let Dom know we won't be needing the house now.