Early in 2020 there were rumours and talk of a new virus in China. Initially politicians and others assumed that we would not be affected. It is even said that a politician sent some of our protective clothing (PPE) to China because it was assumed we would not need it and they had a problem. There was precedent because earlier China had had SARS and mers, viruses which had not reached the UK. However, when the first cases were reported in England (skiers who had been in northern Italy), notice started being taken. Individuals were isolated, and some sort of test and trace system was set up. Parts of northern Italy were isolated in an attempt to contain the virus in a particular part of that country. I was extremely cynical about this, thinking it was quite ridiculous to try and bring in such a system in a country like Italy. In China they had closed all their areas and cities but they were very different culture. By early March more information was emerging which started creating panic. There were rumours of a possible lockdown. Panic buying started. We also heard about the speed at which people were getting seriously ill and even dying. Hence my panicky note written in the middle of the night (20/21 March) to my executors (but never sent). If suddenly I got ill, I knew that there would be little time for me to do necessary preparations. Hence this note which would be ready for me to send off within minutes before I became so seriously ill.
The UK Government responds …
16 March: PM says “now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact and travel”
By 18 March, some form of lockdown seemed inevitable.
I had an appointment at St Thomas’s Hospital and I also went to Clapham for essential shopping…
I went into Sainsbury’s in Wandsworth Road on the way home. Empty shelves. The locusts had been. Extraordinary. I managed to get the things I had gone in for which were yoghurt, cheese and a nice soup. I was offered milk by a kind assistant which I declined. One is now only allowed two cartons.
She said that London was now on lockdown. Only supermarkets and chemists were going to be able to open. When I got home, I checked and this turned out not to be true. However, by today this may change. Schools are to close from Friday except for children of key workers and that includes delivery drivers, and also vulnerable children (undefined). There is real concern about the thousands of children dependent on school meals.
The supermarkets are all taking steps to keep things going. Sainsburys effort for older people however is to allow them a quiet less crowded time in the first hour of opening, every day. As the Clapham High St Sainsburys opens at 7, I decided I did not fancy setting the alarm for 5.30 in order to walk up there to have a quiet shop! One can see their logic – throwing all younger people out for an hour during the day could provoke riots as they stockpile, or attacking or bribing older people. But as a gesture, well…. I asked an assistant whether there were any people in at 7 but she only started at 8 when the ravening hordes were at the doors ready to stampede in so I didn’t get an answer.
There are however lots of positive things coming out of this within the community. On the website, Nextdoor, the offers of help are endless. This is partly because people are now working at home and have said they are available to help in all sorts of ways. Two days ago, a young woman neighbour gave me a leaflet offering help with her name and phone number on. She is covering the whole of Lyham Road, leafleting every house. Others are covering the parts of south London and presumably elsewhere in London. So, on one side of my home I have three young women who have offered help and on the other side I have four young men who are now all working at home and have also offered help. And phone calls and emails from others also.
Today I go out for my last excursion to Clapham high Street. I have a GP appointment (not amazingly cancelled), will go to the library, health food shop, the chemist, and Sainsburys and the bookshop. And perhaps, if they are still open, have one last delicious cup of coffee at my very good coffee shop. I will maybe sit outside rather than inside for safety.
Yes, after all, tomorrow is another day
19 March: PM says the UK can “turn tide of coronavirus” in 12 weeks
Having read a few more of the instructions, I am back with Dragon. One positive thing from the covid19 virus is that I am at last making an effort to learn a bit more about how to use it efficiently. So back to Clapham, Wednesday, 18 March.
Walk up to the high Street where the library is quiet as always, but where they are waiting for a phone call to tell them that they are going to have to shut. I get out three thinnish books because I don’t want to weigh myself down with them before I collect the other things to get.
Onto my GP surgery. An eerie experience – the waiting room almost empty, the reception desk now has wire grille in front of it. They can see me but I can’t really see them. I’m told that there are no more GP appointments only telephone contact. I say that my appointment has never been cancelled and they check with my very nice GP who says I can come through. I like him very much and I think he likes me so I feel very honoured. Later I realise I have not even brought up various of the issues that I went to see him about. I hand him a copy of my advance directive (living will). They should have a copy on my file but I wanted to make sure there really is one on file. I took one yesterday to St Thomas’s Hospital and forgot to give it to them because I was so overtaken by the strangeness of everything. He looks very tired but says they are coping. With the number of cases in London rising hugely every day the next few weeks are going to be key. He asks me please to isolate. Luckily my lungs are in a stable state at the moment. It is confirmed that I would have difficulty even getting a blood test if I wanted to know whether I should take antibiotics or steroids. So I just have to remain reasonably well and if I do feel that I need medication trust my own judgement. I’m not so much worried about the virus as simply my lungs getting any infection at all.
It is the long-term nature of all this which is really concerning people – months of lockdown, or as the medical experts have said today, perhaps to the end of the year with periods when it will be adjusted to see what the effects are.
I am impressed with what this government is trying to do to alleviate the damage, things such as assuring students that they will be able to continue with their education in spite of no exams. They are also behaving in a very un-Conservative way by not only trying to help businesses but also talking about finding ways of compensating workers who have no rights to pay if they don’t turn up for work. But the anxiety is huge.
As I left Clapham yesterday coming home in a taxi, I looked around and almost wanted to stop to take photographs because I think in six months’ time the high Street and all that area around there will look quite different as many, many, many businesses will fold. The high Street was looking somewhat sad even before this because like many high streets, shops have been shutting and not being replaced by others. Of course, many of the shops in the high Street like Clapham are providing unhealthy cheap food. But I fear that the ones that will be surviving are all those large enterprises (such as all the large chains of fast food). It will not be the innovative ethnic different shops. It will not be the coffee shops which have opened in last few years with excellent coffee and which are largely owned by individuals or small groups.
Back to my visit along the Clapham high Street. The health food shop has somebody at the door only letting through one or two people at a time, as was the pharmacy. This is to prevent close contact between people in the shop. Soon an order will come for all shops, apart from pharmacies and supermarkets, to close. The health food shop is not sure whether they would be able to be classified as a pharmacy. It is owned and run by a charming Sikh two generation family. They, like other small shops, are saying that we can still contact them and they will find a way to get their products to us. None of these small businesses have an online presence or at least not one that would help them run the business. The vegetable stand at the Brixton farmers market said that they were going to try and set up an online capacity because they service many farmers markets in London and the south-east and of course the vegetables and fruit and herbs keep on growing. But this is a huge step for them. How are they actually going to manage to get their fresh produce to people? Some, but not all, have been giving me business cards presumably in the hope that I will contact them.
On to have a (possibly) delicious coffee and then to the bookshop to pick up a book I had ordered. A friend has written it and she had her book launch this week but of course it had to be cancelled. So I felt I must buy the book and what’s more I must read it and send her my reactions. All these enterprises think that they will be closed down by the weekend.
Sainsbury was another weird experience. Staff frantically trying to get goods onto the shelves. I see the supermarkets are recruiting because they haven’t got enough people to fill the shelves. Every day they get supplies and every day locusts or vultures come and remove them. This would at least give jobs to some of the unemployed people from the restaurants and cafes. I noticed that some of the packs of goods that are on a trolley and not yet on the shop shelves have been opened by people who have grabbed some of the contents! I took photos of the fruit and vegetable stands completely empty – now I exaggerate, I did find some rather tatty looking apples which I didn’t buy and two plastic containers of very healthy blueberries and pomegranate seeds. I managed to get more cheese (this is my stockpiling). My other stockpiling admission is coffee beans. I finally found some in another different coffee shop. I now have two unopened packs – surely enough for a few weeks? After all I only manage to drink one coffee a day.
So there were a few tatty looking apples left ...
A complaint from someone who got up early to do the oldie shopping in the first half hour of the day at the supermarket was that really all he could find was fruit and veg. And he was furious because young people pushed in during that time as well. I’m making a list of things which in the weeks to come I will need and I will be choosing a day when I set the alarm at dawn to walk up to the high Street to stock up. Luckily the Londis just down the road, run again by a Sikh family, has fresh fruit and vegetables and I bought two delicious looking oranges there. I think they are doing a roaring trade for which I am very pleased.
Rumours about London transport cutting down or cutting back have firmed up now into what seems likely to have i.e. some underground stations will be closed, night underground services will be stopped, some bus buses will run least frequently – presumably if they get a lot of staff going down or having to isolate, they will not be able to run all the services they want to. But there will still be buses running at night so that workers can get to work. By the way, the Londis down the road had no newspapers this morning – why? Because the newspaper distributor did not have a driver.
The NHS is sending out pleas to recently retired doctors and nurses please to volunteer to come back. So this is London and the rest of the country on the edge of what looked like a very nasty few weeks. I will do my best to keep healthy, which reminds me I should now stop and do some exercises, instead of thinking that I would really like to do another sudoku or at least try to do another one in one of the difficult jigsaw sudoku’s to which I am completely addicted. The table in the front is littered with half or quarter done sudokus.
And I must think about what I’m going to do with the vegetables and fruit that were delivered today. My organic box firm could not give me my usual selection which varies from week to week. I have to settle for a small, medium or large box. So I have more carrots and more cauliflower but also surprisingly delicious little tomatoes and a most delicious looking pineapple.
Panicky email to Executors – never sent, but ready to go when needed!
I’m writing this in the middle of the night of Friday/Saturday (20/21 March) because I woke up, and am a bit sweaty. This is what the virus does to you. I do from time to time sweat, and also, I have a nasty hacking cough naturally. But I suddenly wondered ‘is this it’?
So, I went down and found a bag into which things could be put and started putting larger amounts of medication than the small amount in my Emergency Hospital box, and thinking about what else I should do. This will just go into Drafts and I will go back to bed soon and sleep. But if I do start feeling lousy, which could happen quickly, then I can resurrect this.
I know I have taken risks, but thought (as had Margie independently) that this might not be a bad way to go. You have to think of the alternatives. With my lungs, there could be years ahead of declining health, oxygen and a not very pleasant way of living. And, as my advance Directive I hope makes clear, I do not look forward to suffering at the end of life. So when I heard there was a shortage of ventilators, I thought ‘damn it, it is not going to be quite like I would like it’.
Without finishing my new lpoas, and redoing my will, which was next on the list, there are a few financial things I would like if possible. I would like money, say £500 to go to 3 people … I am fairly sure are not in my will. Not quite sure how you manage this but …
These last two are in my bank transfer recipients list.
I’m now starting to feel I could go back to bed and sleep so am stopping this now, and carefully putting no recipients in it so it can’t be accidentally sent.
What a world. Thought I was calmer and settling down to months of this and this shows I have still to work harder at it. Always knew I needed meditation, but resisted it.
23 March: PM announces the first lockdown in the UK,
ordering people to “stay at home” from 26 March
I realise that I get anxious now if I don’t hear from people who I normally hear from, and even anxious about people I don’t normally keep in very close touch with. So I decided to make the effort and sit and record a bit more and hopefully develop my relationship with my dragon. I got a message from it telling me that it now had enough to absorb in my writings and do something with them. But at this stage the system disappeared so I have no idea whether it has managed to absorb my words phrases and sentences and as a result cope better with my idiosyncrasies.
Life in south London
Not much to report because of not being out much. Londis, the shop down the road, is still fairly well-stocked. At first the problem was supplies were coming and going so fast that they were almost not having time to put them on the shelves before they were whipped away. Yesterday when I went to get my Guardian newspaper an assistant told me that the problem now was that some supplies were drying up. But since the shop was taken over by the original man’s nephews, they have a very nice supply of basic fruit and veg and still have it. The previous day there were no newspapers. I was told this was because there were no delivery drivers. But Josef didn’t get a newspaper elsewhere either. However, I got my weekly Guardian which I want mainly for the week’s television programmes.
We have wonderful sunshine today so inside is quite warm and I’ve had to strip my sweater off. Outside, the wind is bitter. I made myself go out yesterday into the garden the first time for months to do a little work in the one raised bed. I dug up lots of potatoes – they come up every year, self seeded. Only one of a decent size but lots of little babies ready to sprout. So I now have to add them to the fruit and veg I have in the kitchen which I really must get on and go do something with. I got my Riverford delivery of veg and fruit on Friday and I have kale and spinach in the garden sprouting because it’s not getting picked. So soups and baked vegetables call. I planted rather late seeds of broad beans, spring onions and rocket. I must go out into the biting wind today and put in leek seeds, Russian kale, and spinach. I really did feel better for the physical activity because I am not doing exercises as I should be.
I am amazed at various things that are going on
But so many unintended consequences – huge concern before this about community life being weakened because people unable to buy their own places are renting. Renters in this country in the private sector have traditionally not been long term tenants, so they naturally have less concern for some aspects of community life – e.g. rubbish and littering. Here am I benefitting from 7 young people renting on either side of me, and now working from home and, what’s more, offering and providing real help. How can we keep this amazing community feeling going when all this is over?
26 March: Lockdown measures legally come into force
Email to friends and family – and sent with an attachment
Once again, a lazy round robin to keep in touch, convey that I am still here, and coping a little better perhaps than earlier. I haven’t been out [with one exception] for what seems like months, but checking in my diary, it is apparently only 3 weeks. The exception was a visit to St Thomas Hospital for my eye injection. All outpatient clinics are closed and staff redeployed, but avoiding sight loss is luckily regarded as essential, and I have another date in my diary [in fact the only date], which is for another visit/outing/view of the outside world in 5 weeks’ time for my next injection. More in the NHS in the attachment.
I really couldn’t be in a better situation for a lock down – garden front and back, and allotments beyond that. And neighbours now having to work at home, young people I will only have caught a passing glimpse of as they leave for their work and social life. As the vulnerable oldie with nine young people in three surrounding houses, all offering help, I am in a privileged position. And now the sun shines.
All of this is I think leading slowly to my increasing ability to spend a few more productive hours in each day instead of sitting and lying around lethargically. Much needed exercise is now up to around 10 minutes a day, and books are being read a little. This doesn’t sound much, but dishes are being washed daily, my weekly delivery of veg and fruit, and other food being prepared and eaten, and some TV news [although still never a politician] being watched. The World Service and Radio 3 and 4 are as always life savers. And [spurred on by a neighbour offering to help – whilst carefully social isolating] a little progress with the raised veggie beds. Luckily, I find I can only manage one glass of wine an evening which is good.
So a strange feeling of normality exists, as I accept that there are going to be many more months of this kind of life, and I manage to distance a little from the terrible effects on individuals, families, communities, on the economy of the world, and real concerns about the long term inevitable continuing erosion of human rights.
And I do hope you too are ok.
Xxxxm
16 April: Lockdown extended for ‘at least’ three weeks.
Government sets out five tests that must be met before restrictions are eased
This wasn’t meant to go on and on, but somehow lethargy set in, the result being both an inability to finish off the attachment, or send the whole thing off as it was. After all the reason for a lazy round robin was simply to convey that I was alive, and write a little about Covid19 life in London. So I have decided, BIG decision in these days when any decision seems nebulous, that today I will look at the attachment, and only tidy it up, not be tempted to add all the thoughts about things e.g. the different definitions of Lockdown in different countries, the effect of strict lock downs in less developed countries e.g. South Africa, where people are now starving because their informal economy businesses, which used to bring some food in most days, have been stopped. And more and more …
Once again, I hope you are as alright as possible in this weird world. It would be good to hear from you if we have not been in regular contact.
xxm
The attachment:
So many experiences, thoughts, and wonderful examples of humour. How to highlight them?
THE HUNT FOR ESSENTIALS: This will no doubt provide a rich source of research material for many years. Wonderment at what others apparently regard as essential. But then also admission of my own previously hidden MUST HAVE needs.
Others:
Toilet Rolls: What on earth do people do with toilet paper apart from the uses I put it to? How can the cry still be occurring after all these weeks ‘does anyone know anywhere that has toilet paper?’. Are people stock piling in order to profiteer from it, as they are from the shortage of hand sanitizer? The latter is more understandable to me. But toilet paper would seem to be a subject ripe for PhD study.
Flour: as people have started home baking.
and now I hear in South Africa – Bleach. I’ve banned its use here because of the effect on the environment, but maybe in SA it is the cheapest thing to make people feel safer.
Mine:
So I decided that having laughed and wondered at what others ‘essentials’ were I should think hard about myself. What are my secret stockpiling requests? What do I anxiously ask friends and neighbours to buy please if they ever spot any? What are my secret MUST HAVEs?
Fruit and Veg: Luckily I get my weekly Riverford box, so only have to request searches for a few extras which I can then stockpile. Onions, garlic, ginger, lemons have featured.
Yoghurt, Butter, and Cheese: I now have an excellent collection of cheese [probably too much, because although it is hard cheese, even hard cheese dries out] in the fridge, with the most prized being delicious UK and Irish specialities. I would find becoming a vegan VERY hard. Oh, and eggs, which from time to time disappear from the shops, and therefore have to be anxiously requested even when I have enough for perhaps the next week.
Bread: Anxious requests for really good brown organic or small bakery, what I call real bread, rather than the huge sliced loaves which are apparently readily available [but not in France at times]. Delicious treats with that bread and gorgeous gooey cheese.
Coffee beans: Definitely a potential stock piling item, as they can be elusive.
Panty liners: I now have some months’ supplies.
oh, and Marmite, right at the beginning …
and Apple Juice not from concentrate. I used to stock up with these at the Brixton farmers market where I could choose from a range of single apple varieties – Coxes, russet, etc depending on how sweet or sour I fancied them.
The storming of supermarkets seems to have been replaced by much more British type queues, self-isolating at 2m distances. Shops only allow a limited number of people in at one time.
Freda in France described the ‘dancing’ of fellow shoppers in the supermarket who almost pirouetted out of sight any time she appeared in an aisle. We had a laugh about which were the empty shelves in France – every culture has its own needs.
However, toilet rolls seem to be a universal Western need and source of anxiety. As a friend from South Africa said, ‘what about newspaper?’ as an alternative, but of course many people now don’t have this handy. Another friend suggested ‘leaves’ as in parts of Asia. But in cities many people don’t have access to decent sized leaves!
THE ARCHERS [and Brexit]
This is now proudly introduced as ‘Covid free Ambridge’. And it does appear rather ridiculously ‘something from the past’. They were faced with a very real problem because they record 6 or 8 weeks ahead. So they can’t really deal with any fast moving issue. Rumour has it that it will move into a Covid world in May. But how to bridge the yawning gap? It will require a great deal of technical wizardry. I await of course with great interest.
The understandable absence of Covid from Ambridge does not explain for me the apparent absence of Brexit from Ambridge. Perhaps I missed the odd mention. But there we had an issue of huge significance to farming which the BBC shied away from – in the interests of balance???
They could and should have had frequent conversations about the various controversial aspects of Brexit for farmers of different sizes and types and been able to ignore the fast moving aspects of it …
THE NEW VOCABULARY
We all talk knowledgably now about ‘social distancing’ [2 ms], ‘vulnerable people isolating’ [for 12 weeks!!!!!!!!, or even possibly until the end of the year], ‘lockdown’. And now, at last, discussion of possible ‘exit strategies’. And, of course, ‘furloughing’, something which means some lucky employees can stay at home, whilst being paid at least 80% of their salary. PPE trips off our tongues – Personal Protective Equipment – because of the terrible shortage for frontline staff of such basics as gowns, masks, gloves etc.
A brand new one for me is SHIELDING. This is apparently the less threatening word to replace ISOLATING. So what I am supposed to be doing is Shielding myself. Must remember, when I violate Government guidelines, or is it instructions?
Obviously quite a lot of people had different views on social distancing, what it meant, and whether it applied to them. Brockwell Park was closed on a Sunday because the day before people were picnicking, playing games, and crowding onto the paths. Clapham Common, which can’t be closed, has police out. A neighbour resting on a bench after walking and running up there, was told politely by a police officer to move on. Now the benches can’t be sat on, being covered by tape. No way I could think of going for a walk there, as I couldn’t manage both ways with no rest.
My isolation [no, remember the new word Shielding] is not quite what the word suggests. Living where I do with seven young neighbours working at home or unemployed, and allotmenters walking past, life can be quite social, obviously from a distance. And my kind neighbours offer any help I need with shopping or anything at all. One has helped in my garden [social distancing as we do], which has got me out doing a little. It has also resulted in swopping of valuable goods – lending a tool to a neighbour resulted in me being given a delicious homemade ice-cream, meringue and berry creation. In return for a carrot, which I had a slight oversupply of, I was given some celery. I have offered the odd banana when I get them in my veg box. And I have been able to supply some kale to kale lovers. And another new kind friend has unexpectedly dropped off delicious [still warm from the oven] baked and other home cooked delicacies
And I have had people INSIDE my house, much to some friends’ concern and even anger. Florence comes once a week to clean, and three times a friend has come for coffee. The procedure I have worked out [which of course can’t be 100% secure] is that I unlock and let them in so they don’t touch anything, they wash their hands, I wash my hands, we keep away from each other, and when they leave the last thing they do is wash their hands, I let them out, and wash my hands, and try desperately [and unsuccessfully] not to touch my face.
Lock down is a subject ripe for research:
And, and…
THE NHS
I am being amazingly well looked after, and every Thursday at 8pm we go out and clap them – not as romantic as the Italian playing of music, or clattering pans, but a gesture.
GP practices have become, I hear, forbidding places. One does not arrive, one phones before, and waits at a locked door to be let in if considered to be needing a personal consultation. I have an ear infection which I would normally have gone to my GP about but which I am hoping will just sort itself out.
So while I am being very well looked after, I am appalled at the shortage of tests either to see if people have the virus, or whether they have antibodies showing they have had the virus, and should hopefully be free to go back to work. And the other shortage of PPE, for staff in care homes, caring for people in their homes, and hospitals – even basic things like masks, and gowns. Germany was well stocked up [not cut like our NHS and public services have been] and was able to test extensively before tests became in short supply, hence their far better control of the situation. And the Sunday Times has revealed that we sent a consignment to China in the earlier stages of their crisis, because it must have been thought we would not need it here.
This has resulted in the growth of cottage industries making the basics – a technology teacher, who realised they had skills and started making visors, a call on Nextdoor in Lambeth for sheets and pillowcases for people to make into gowns, and braid to make head bands. Exact instructions were given as to how to make things. The pillowcases are for staff to put their used clothing in. As with all appeals more sheets and pillowcases have been offered than can be used.
THE GROWTH OF HOME INDUSTRIES AND OFFERS OF HELP
I hear of different areas which have got organised apparently remarkably efficiently to for e.g. get food to people in need. In Lambeth, a joint Council and NGO, ‘Incredible edible Lambeth’ initiative has volunteers working in the recreation centre, packing [excellent quality] veg and fruit into bags [whilst social distancing], which are then distributed by other volunteers on their bikes. And other food is being cooked and distributed. Food banks have got heavily used, but as far as I know they only give out tinned and packaged stuff not fresh fruit and veg.
Lots more of these, but I must end this
Response from a friend to my email and the attachment
‘Enjoyed reading your news. I realise communicating with friends that I am not as good at writing my news as others. I’m a woman of few words it seems.
I like your writing style. It is very informative and interesting to read and has a lot of content. I shall try to do better than my usual few lines
I like the part about what you have been hoarding or panic buying.
I have gone through phases. I bought coconut oil, olive oil and there is a shortage of chick peas which are my staple food… this continues to be the case. I didn’t realise how much I depend on chickpeas… and other beans in cans… these and kale.
Suddenly everyone wants to buy the chickpeas and the beans…
I bought lots of flour for my Mum and Dad who can’t live without bread and my Dad likes tins of Mackerel and tomato puree and a special loaf made without yeast and seeds. This at one point had disappeared from the shelves hence why I bought flour – and rice – just in case there is a food shortage!… (I know!)
Tomato puree has been another item that has been low on the shelves.
I also bought quite a few large pots of peanut butter, flax seeds and teff flour… and some sugar – not that I every really buy sugar but looking at the preppers – they recommend keeping sugar as it never goes off and is a vital source of energy in the event of a food shortage… (I know!)
When there was the possibility of them not selling fresh fruit and veg I bought about 4 cabbages and 4 celery and lots of onions… lots of chillies, garlic, lemons and limes to fight Covid19!
I was wearing a self made mask out of a handkerchief and 2 rubber bands but last time I went to the supermarket I didn’t wear it and it felt really liberating.
One day I parked my car quite far to avoid touching the pay and display machine… and then forgot – After queuing for about 30 minutes on the street to get in to the supermarket, I filled up a trolley for us in a slight panic buying mode and then realised I had to then somehow carry the shopping to the car – wearing the mask that I couldn’t breathe in – I pushed the trolley which as all super market trolleys refused to go in one straight line but in circles… all the way out of the supermarket carpark – down the road to the car and then back again – slightly hyper ventilating and then back again… wiping everything furiously with dettol wipes and changing plastic gloves several times… I became quite a bit more OCD than usual – I have calmed down now – This could have something to do with the fact I have stopped watching anything really to do with COVID 19 and am acting more normally!
Aside from all of this supermarket shopping and sanitising – I continue to try to grow veg – albeit very slowly… The kale has been repotted a few times and I am waiting for some more compost to be delivered.
I have also been trying to do some music – which has been many years in the making and I finally have some time to apply myself to it…It is good.
I find that I am very much nocturnal when it comes to being creative – so I am trying to do more in the daylight hours.
I have been doing quite a lot of walking in the countryside and enjoying the bird song.
It was prayer time and fasting over the Orthodox Fasika (Easter period) which is a week after the Gregorian calendar. This was good. Although we couldn’t congregate, there were a lot of different services carried out online – even from Addis Ababa from the main church there – It was very beautiful to see – So I became quite insular during this time and slowed things down to focus and pray – It was a good exercise and a good time to reflect.
Aside from seeing everybody – I am quite enjoying the fact that nature is taking over where human beings have left the space for them to come out. The skies are clearer – roads less busy and birds singing a lot louder than usual.
I saw a video of all the animals around the world coming out and taking over the places where human beings usually frequent. It is good to see them all out and about. I don’t miss the hustle and bustle of normal life.
I would like to do some painting – watch this space… let’s see if I get inspired.
A hedge sparrow sang at me this afternoon. It looked me in the eyes – sat on the fence and sang his song 3 times – it was beautiful – I wondered if it was because he heard me trying to sing in the night and was showing me how to do it.. It was very impressive
I look forward to your next update Margery
Lots of love xx’
30 April: PM says “we are past the peak” of the pandemic
10 May: PM announces a conditional plan for lifting lockdown,
and says that people who cannot work from home should return to the workplace but avoid public transport
Email attachment to friends and family:
WALKS AND ARCHITECTURE
I have always been interested in architecture, so I am exploring the neighbourhood, and each day plan a different route, to make the walks more interesting. Side streets that I have never been down get explored, looking at people’s gardens, at building works, at differences in architecture as I stroll slowly. Some days I decide I must walk up the hill, and try and walk a little faster so as to get really breathless as one is supposed to.
I have explored two different housing estates, one huge across Brixton Hill [Roupell Park], and Clapham Park the redevelopment of which I was following for a while, and then lost interest. It was one of the 7 recipients of what sounded like huge amounts of government money years ago because they were so awful, but had residents wanting to do something about it. Questionnaires and discussion groups with residents were followed by the setting up of shops where one could get training and job advice, and other requests [I passed some of these shops over the years and did not see much activity – and they no longer exist]. Drug dealers were to be moved out, and as far as I know they were.
Ambitious plans included rerouting the south Circular which broke up the estate [not done as far as I know], bringing a bus service in [done], and setting up a child care centre. This I discovered exists in a very good looking building [now closed, hopefully because of Covid only]. The plan was to have mixed use, partly to pay for the scheme, pulling down several of the white towers which looked good, but which dripped condensation on inhabitants. Polly Toynbee went and lived in one as part of her research for her followup book on Low Pay. A Housing Association had to be found to take over. This happened only in 2005
I hadn’t walked into the estate for years. I had a revelation – VERY good looking blocks of flats in green surrounds. Luckily a resident came by and could fill me in on what is going on. The one block which is obviously inhabited is probably rented. The empty block next to it should have had people coming in as the lockdown stopped that, and he thinks is shared ownership. But prices for outright purchase are high. This area is expensive, and studios he thinks go at £500,000.
Clapham Park Estate
I’m breaking off to go onto the internet to try and find out more. This is what these walks do – not only some physical exercise, but also questions to be answered. I discover a mid terraced 5 bedroom flat for sale for over £1million. No wonder there are many empty. And there are masses more of the Estate to be redeveloped. I hope it happens, but so much depends on the economy. But more than 50% of properties are to be ‘affordable’. I wonder how many original inhabitants are still there, perhaps rehoused as promised into a nicer flat?
Then the Roupell Housing Estate across Brixton Hill, and the Roupell family. They bought and developed the land near Waterloo Station in 1820? It is now a conservation area and is where Josef and Michael live. But they also acquired a lot of land up Brixton Hill which now houses the huge Estate. From the internet I learn that their money came from lead smelting and scrap metal. So perhaps not at all connected with slavery? [Which is how I now know so much of Britain’s wealth and stately homes have come]. One son was notorious, forging his father’s will, spending copiously, became the local Liberal MP, but later was gaoled.
FOOD PARCELS
What a story. It is wonderful to know there are so many lifelines around for people, apart from only foodbanks. But bureaucracy! And are the really needy being reached by these systems?
I am now the third recipient I know of, to get a large weekly box of unwanted food. I inflicted this on myself, which is not so with some of the others.
It started because although I have been more than adequately looked after by neighbours and friends, who have shopped for me, and I get a weekly Riverford food and veg box I decided that the time had come to become independent, and order other food online. My preferred supplier would be Sainsburys simply because I know them, and there is only a £40 min for getting deliveries. They like all the others have got deluged with people wanting online deliveries, so are limiting them to vulnerable people, and existing customers.
So I registered on the Government site as vulnerable and ticked that I would need help with getting food. After a silence of some days, and Sainsburys still denying they knew of me, I got a call from a very nice woman in Lambeth offering help. I know of the excellent feeding scheme being supported by Lambeth where volunteers pack bags of veg and fruit and groceries, and others deliver on motorised bikes. An amazing effort to get healthy food to people, supplementing food banks which I think only have tinned and dried food.
I assured her I didn’t need one, but wanted to find out whether I was really registered so that I could order from Sainsburys. She gave me the Lambeth Covid help line number – another very helpful woman offering assistance of every kind, but not sure about my registration and Sainsburys. Again I had to assure her I was ok, apart from Sainsburys. Then my phone went and a very helpful man said he understood I would like someone to do my shopping for me. I think he came from a Sports centre whose employees had offered to volunteer. Oh dear! I sounded as grateful as I could and once again explained my need was simply for independence, and for Sainsburys to respond. Another call to Sainsburys and I learned they had administrative problems with registering and had got up to 2 weeks behind. So I settled down to wait.
Then a few days later a LARGE box of food [including two toilet rolls!!] was left outside my door, my week’s supply. I was horrified. There was little of it I would normally eat, and the only fresh food was some carrots, potatoes, apples and oranges, and a large white sliced loaf of bread. The info with it told me it came from the government.
Luckily Florence, who has lost work and money through Covid was here, and she took almost all. The rest was taken by an unemployed neighbour. So in the end it went to people who need it. And when the second one arrived today I did not turn it down, because once again I will distribute it to where it is really needed, possibly even leaving any spare outside the gate for a passerby if I don’t find homes for it, or asking someone to leave things at a foodbank.
The Council are doing this for the government, whilst also supporting the healthy food boxes being packed and delivered from the Brixton Recreation centre. And are the really needy being reached by all this? I know how I got on the list, but do others? And maybe some are even too proud?
LOOSENING THE LOCKDOWN
With all the new Covid words now tripping off our lips [PPE, social distancing, lockdown etc, and shielding, not isolating] I haven’t heard of a new pithy word about this now really difficult part of the process – how to open up again, without provoking a ‘second spike’ [another Covid phrase]. Already people are taking it into their own hands to relax, sitting in the sun in groups [not 2m apart] , going out in their cars – the roads are noticeably busy, and now not necessarily moving well out of my way on a narrow pavement as they did even a week ago. Im not the only one who has had enough. I am not the only person who does not know of anyone who has died, or few if any who have been seriously ill. 700 deaths a day seems unreal. ‘none of us have got ill so why should we go on limiting our activities’ seems a reasonable response. But those countries that have started limited loosening up have almost immediately had ‘a spike’. Our government delayed the lockdown, not only through incompetence, but also because of a fear of people not conforming after a while. They were at least right about this. How to get frightened parents and children back to schools where teachers must now manage to keep them safely apart? How to get people to go back to work when the brave ones prepared to go on public transport will crowd each other out? And businesses, and cafes etc providing social distancing whilst remaining economically viable??? All this VERY difficult, and in the hands of people who are in their jobs because their main criterion was that they supported Brexit; and who are not prepared to work collaboratively with people not in their small circle……..???? What is sure is we are in for a long long long……..who knows what?
1 June: Phased re-opening of schools in England
15 June: Non-essential shops reopen in England
Now that the lockdown is easing, chaos seems to reign. I asked somebody the other day whether they knew what they could now do or not do, and the answer was no which was exactly the same way I was feeling. Up until now older person and also somebody vulnerable because of my lungs, I presumably have not been supposed to leave the house at all and isolate not seeing any people.
I did this for two weeks and then started taking walks around the neighbourhood, I varied these by exploring side roads and so made them more interesting. But then I also started walking down to friends houses nearby and having coffee there, and they have come to mine also. We have a procedure of them not touching doors washing your hands when they come in, me washing my hands, me making the coffee, with us sitting 2 m apart. Then when they leave they wash their hands and don’t touch anything else I, I open the doors for them, and then I wash my hands. This contact with other people has been very severely criticised by some friends who see this as antisocial as well as presumably dangerous for me. I have also had Florence coming in to clean for me once a week instead of once every two weeks. She walks to me, we social distance, and I know that she has a very solitary life. She is also very keen on cleaning. She also needs the money because she has lost jobs through the Covid and cannot support her family in Sierra Leone at the moment.
I have found the whole thing really difficult in spite of taking these steps to maintain my sanity. At times it seems the never-ending nature of it which is so awful, at other times the inefficient way in which the whole thing has been run in this country. I don’t go out a lot anyway but find the lack of any possibility of going out and enjoying the things I do normally enjoy out in the world, plus the fact that everyone I know has been affected in some way although I personally do not know anyone who has died. At times the whole thing just seems incredibly restricting for what purpose? So I can understand why people have broken the rules, have met not social distancing and therefore presumably increased the possibility of the disease spreading. We have the highest number of cases and deaths in Europe only out done by Sweden whose per capita rate of infection and death is higher. They have hardly had a lockdown. So this probably seems to be a mistake?
My big wish a few weeks ago was to be getting on the bus going down to the South bank sitting watching the crowds and having a coffee. this becomes a dream even more unlikely because Southbank is all shut the Festival Hall isn’t even opening till next year sometime so the life that is being down there is not there at the moment.
Since breaking my wrist two weeks ago this dream has faded as I cope with inability to do things, and increasing dependence, and aching pain which is gradually diminished. A young neighbour, furloughed and desperate for human contact has lent me their microwave and also cooked quite a lot of rather nice food. He and other neighbours (the young men next door) and washed up for me when Florence is not been in. (I am recording this using Dragon and at times it comes up with very interesting things, the sentence came out that the young men washed me, now it is coming out that the government washed me. I’m now been asked to say that again. It should have read the young men washed up for me). And obviously have to learn a lot about editing. I don’t even go out for walks and don’t even go out for walks now. Covid made simple tasks a little more difficult, everything had to be thought about and now to go out entails putting on a mask, a cap Against the glare, and a bag round my back, in in it some gloves in case I touch anything, hand sanitiser, a debit or credit card, my phone, and in my good hand a stick.
Masked selfie with a broken wrist
If I have to go to hospital for my eye injections or to the fractures clinic, at first I was nervous even to get in a taxi or a minicab, friend Chris took me and waited and fetched me. Now I go in with the minicab and wear gloves and masks and ask the driver to put on a mask if he isn’t doing so, and luckily then Chris comes and picks me up when I phone her. I used to just be able to get on a bus. how simple life was then.
The wonderful thing about Covid is being that I am surrounded by young people who are working from home, or furloughed. People I would normally hardly have seen as they would be going out in the morning and back in the evening. They have been a great source of support for me. As the only permanent resident and the oldie, I have been well looked after.
23 June: PM says UK’s “national hibernation” coming to an end by announcing the relaxing of restrictions and 2m social distancing rule
29 June: Matt Hancock announces that the UK’s first local lockdown would be applied in Leicester and parts of Leicestershire
4 July: UK’s first local lockdown comes into force in Leicester and parts of Leicestershire. More restrictions are eased in England, including reopening of pubs, restaurants, hairdressers.
18 July: Local authorities in England gain additional powers to enforce social distancing
3 August: Eat Out to Help Out scheme, offering a 50% discount on meals up to £10 per person, begins in the UK
14 August: Lockdown restrictions eased further, including reopening indoor theatres, bowling alleys and soft play
14 September: ‘Rule of six’ – indoor and outdoor social gatherings above six banned in England
22 September: PM announces new restrictions in England, including a return to working from home and 10pm curfew for hospitality sector
30 September: PM says UK at a “critical moment” in the crisis and would “not hesitate” to impose further restrictions if needed
14 October: A new three-tier system of Covid-19 restrictions starts in England
On a grey drizzly Covid day, dictated on Dragon
The bus comes to a halt just before the Elephant. Our driver gets out to investigate what the hold up is. Ahead they are trying to extricate a delivery motorcycle which has got jammed between a bus and a car. I get out deciding it might be quicker to walk the rest of the way to The Elephant. They have got the bike clear. Someone is leaning over it with his head on his wrecked bike. I ask ‘are you all right? No answer. The bus driver comes over to ask whether she should get an ambulance, ‘yes’ I say. I walk on in this grey drizzly day and think poor sucker, probably trying to make a living in these hard times, possibly illegal immigrant. And now there he is, possibly injured, the bike whoever it belonged to unusable, his career/ job/ attempt to earn a living finished. No wonder his head was down on the bike.
Under Blackfriars Bridge are coming ethereal slightly gloomy sounds, very appropriate for this gloomy day. Because I have plenty of time I stop and look. So for the first time I meet up close a contra bassoon. A very strange looking instrument to which various leads have been attached so that the man playing is creating additional noises by pressing things with his feet. Suspicious as always that these so-called buskers are not actually doing anything but simply turning on electronics, I investigate more and talk to him. His story is that he was an artist and then one day he met a contra bassoon and fell in love with it. This changed his life. He now performs sometimes with orchestras but also just on his own at events around the country. He thought quite correctly that Blackfriars Bridge was a very suitable place all him to practice his echoey sounds.
Tate Modern turns out also to be slightly eerie. You enter at only one level, down at zero level, and you decide what queue you are joining. All along are helpful staff there watching you, guiding you presumably. I decide to go to see the Andy Warhol exhibition. There is particular route you follow through it. The first room has a notice saying only nine people allowed at a time so presumably the staff outside are checking. Everyone is very conscientiously social distancing and it’s actually quite a pleasant experience. I go up to the members room for coffee and a snack and there are a few people there. Outside I’m admiring the lovely avenues of birch trees and decide to try and take a photograph of them with the misty gloomy bridge in the background. A young man is standing there having a cigarette. He agrees it is a dreary sight. And he tells me that he is on the staff but that over 300 people have been made redundant. They are all people working in the shops and cafes [which presumably are the places supposed to make money]. This has created a lot of unhappiness amongst the staff. Everywhere staff numbers are being cut but it is very depressing to hear that it’s even in such a well funded place as the Tate.
On to walk towards Guys Hospital past depressing sights of the riverside cafes nearly empty. I walk through Borough Market wondering where it is. There are echoing halls with not a stall in sight. It is Tuesday and the market is presumably closed – not even the usual vegetable and fruit sellers.
At Guys Hilary my wonderful entrepreneurial nurse tells me about the period when she was seconded for four months to a Covid ward. She said it was very hard work,’ young people’s work’ not something that she found easy to do and would not want to have to do again. When she wandered into the ward she wondered if it was a maternity ward. ‘They all lay there with very large stomachs.’ This is what we hear – it’s the overweight obese people with diabetes who are so at risk.
I caught a taxi home because it was rush hour and I wasn’t sure whether even the buses might be a bit full. I had decided that I would not get on a bus that was full and the numbers on the buses are supposed to be limited by the driver to 16 with nobody standing. But apparently some drivers are letting more people on.
I come home depressed. I’m sure that if the sun had been shining I would have felt differently. But on a grey day I just found all the signs of businesses and people trying to survive very depressing. London, for better or worse, is about people. This is why some people hate it. But with the Festival Hall entirely closed, as are all theatres, there is little to draw people to London. My taxi driver told me he had run into Soho one day [one of the increasing number of cyclists and runners in London] and it was wonderful because there was no traffic at all and no people. Yes this is wonderful just for a one-off experience but not when you think of the long-term consequences. I realise that I am being entirely contradictory in saying that I am longing to go to Venice because it’s going to be so quiet and lovely. But I don’t want to see London like this.
And today London moved into phase 2 [a system which our incompetent government finally set up] which means I should not have anyone in my house. But I’m having Florence to come and clean, and later in the week, Caroline to come and help me with computer work. They are both being encouraged to go to work, and my house happens to be their workplace, so I should not have them here but they should be working. So if each of them is happy to come I will have them here.
A friend tells me that they had organised for a group of them to meet tonight in one person’s home. They have decided to go ahead and do this but are have changed the venue. The first person’s home they were going to has ‘nosy neighbours’ so they don’t feel they can go there but this hasn’t stopped the meeting in another person’s home where they feel they won’t be noticed.
We all are having problems. The reality of Covid still seems unreal as most of us don’t know people who have got really ill from even if we do know the odd person who has had it. And almost certainly in the next few days [when Boris finds time to get his head away from his Brexit problems] we will have a nationwide lockdown for a few weeks. We are having really interesting confrontations between Labour Mayors in the North of England who are refusing to move their areas into phase 3 unless they get more money. And Keir Starmer (turned by Dragon into tears start), the head of the Labour Party and others are now calling for a lockdown. Some experts are saying it’s too late -already the numbers are too great. In theory one could use those few weeks to get our track and trace testing system operating better. But nobody has much faith in it – it’s a complete shambles. And meanwhile, apparently thousands are getting ill and some are dying. This is a common pattern across Europe and of course the States, but this doesn’t make one feel any better about our shambolic government. Boris wanted to be Prime Minister for his whole life and he’s got it but he is lazy, gets bored and he’s probably not well – he really doesn’t look well and he’s coping now with the situation with two crises coming together one that they caused i.e. Brexit, and the other of course which they have had wished upon them and which they have handled extremely badly. Whatever they do is too late, and badly thought through.
Out in London again. This time it is not as grey. I’m out to a real live concert, the Wigmore Hall is having a few concerts with a limited audience. We sit well spaced out. Every second row is empty. One or two of us sit at either ends of the other row. The original quartet couldn’t come because of travel restrictions. We have a violinist and pianist. It almost doesn’t matter to me what they are or what they play because it is real life. A Beethoven violin followed by a Cesar Franck violin Sonata . They are very good, my morale is lifted. I go for a very nice Italian late lunch nearby. I walk down towards Marble Arch with the idea of getting a bus back. I walk through the large Marks and Spencer onto Oxford Street. The shop is nearly deserted as is Oxford Street – very weird. There are no 137 buses. I can’t believe this because I had a very good run up. I end up taking three buses for short runs and walking between Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge. Finally I give up and hail a taxi. He says he can’t try and go over Chelsea Bridge because of the traffic and we do a circuitous route back home which of course is also rather expensive. But a lovely day and morale raised by a feeling of real life.
31 October: PM announces a second lockdown in England from 5 November to
prevent a “medical and moral disaster” for the NHS
Another treat. Another live concert at the Wigmore Hall. Steven Isserlis and an excellent woman pianist. Afterwards a late lunch at a nearby Lebanese restaurant. Again morale lifted. But a feeling of impending gloom as almost certain we’re going to have a lockdown very soon. Next day it is announced. Too late as cases soar but at the moment it is at least time-limited for only four weeks. It is my birthday present from the government as the lockdown starts on 5 November which is a change from fireworks for my 86th birthday.
I had been planning on giving myself some kind of treat on the day but Boris has taken away that chance. And on the sixth Chris and I were going to the Mozart Requiem at the ENO which will now be cancelled.
So I have to think about what I’m going to do in the next few days including doing things I should NOT do just like the youngsters in Nottingham who had a street party the night before their lockdown. I am going to do yet another Dominic Cummings. I’m not supposed to go into anyone’s home I’m not supposed to have anyone in my home and I am doing both.
So I’m going to have coffee with Rosa, treat my conservatory as being part of my garden which is where I can meet people so anyone visiting me will sit out with me in my conservatory in full view of everyone. I await the anonymous notes put through the door threatening me as I’ve heard other people have had – ‘we know what you’re up to’. I will await the thought police or perhaps the real live ones calling on me.
But I have decided to try desperately to treat these four weeks as an opportunity!!! I have things I should be doing. What chance I now have to get on with them. So every day I must/will do my exercises, I must read, I must do Italian, I must eat healthily. Long may this last! If it doesn’t, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this winter. It will really be unbearable.
Another addition to Covid language – bubble
A single person household can form a bubble with another household of up to 6 people.
One cannot change one’s bubble.
This creates difficulties. Chris and I are going to a concert together. But she has already bubbled with John. So she has to forget that she has done so when we go in together. The Wigmore Hall instructions are that I can only take a second person from my household or with whom I am in a bubble. I have not yet bubbled with anyone officially, but I do have a lot of unofficial bubbles. So I go in with a clear conscience, bubbling for the moment with Chris. Being any different from those youngsters who have parties the night before their lockdown? Am I not taking what I see as a logical decision like Dominic Cummings? Which of us are pure?
24 November: PM announces up to three households will be able to meet up during
a five-day Christmas period of 23 to 27 December
2 December: Second lockdown ends after four weeks
and England returns to a stricter three-tier system of restrictions
15 December: PM says Christmas rules will still be relaxed
but urges the public to keep celebrations “short” and “small”
The first vaccines were given in December. I got mine, as an older person at risk, on the 16th December 2020 with my second vaccine being given on the 6th January 2021.
'What will the vaccine do to me?' I wondered
Turns out, very little!
19 December: PM announces tougher restrictions for London and South East England,
with a new Tier 4: ‘Stay at Home’ alert level. Christmas mixing rules tightened.
21 December: Tier 4 restrictions come into force in London and South East England
26 December: More areas of England enter tier 4 restrictions
