Thursday 26th March
The news seems to have settled down somewhat, concentrating more on the practical aspects of the epidemic, numbers of ventilators and test kits for infection, rather than deaths, infections and more intrusive measures of social isolation. I come across a newspaper item about the Labour Leadership election, a relief to read some “normal” news. Later today a neighbour says that he avoids the news to avoid worrying about the epidemic. Both Radio 4 “Today” presenters are presenting from home, as are Classic FM presenters. Our dog walking friend Amy is planning a visit to a Tesco store and offers to buy flour, which I was unable to find yesterday, but later phones to say that Tesco has none. If I lose weight during the crisis it won’t be anxiety – it will a shortage of home-made cakes. Amy did find some sugar lumps for a diabetic neighbour, something else I couldn’t find yesterday. I work at home this morning and remember that our manager has set up a “Microsoft Team” for our Team. At the moment it is being used for the occasional banter that takes place between Noise Team Officers which binds us together as a Team. We’ll see if it is used for Team meetings. For a second day we have lunch in the sunshine on the patio at the bottom of the garden, and watch several couples and families on footpaths across the fields. The footpaths aren’t normally this busy – are these people who normally exercise by visiting shopping centres? Tonight, I remind Chantal and Steven to come outside at 8pm to applaud the NHS workers. Steven cannot believe that anyone will stand in the darkness of a country lane to clap at empty fields. He doesn’t know our Lane. At 8pm sharp, along with the rest of the UK, we join neighbours along the Lane in our respective front gardens to clap, cheer, whistle and saucepan-bang our gratitude to all in the NHS.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
