Thursday 9^th April

Steven makes at interesting observation. If Coronavirus had spread 20 years ago, could we have socially isolated, without social media keeping us in touch and web communication enabling work at home? Maybe 20 years ago, with the travel patterns and limitations at the time, the virus may have not have spread so quickly from China and the Far East. In 2002 the vast majority of SARS cases were in China and bordering countries, despite the source being a more accessible province of China than for Coronavirus. The number of cases of Coronavirus far exceeds those during the SARS pandemic. It is Aldi day. I manage to postpone shopping until later in the day, but still queue for 15 minutes, starting in the car park. Car park white lines are more than 2m apart, but we are all now trained not to cross a line, and so the queue in the car park is more spread out. I find myself a bit irritated because a bloke a few places in front stands between the 2m lines, 3m from the person in front of him. The person behind him does not budge from her line. Thus, the queue before me is now 2m longer than it should be. It makes absolutely no difference to the time to the front door, but queuing has this effect on me. I am beginning to remember where to find items in Aldi, and remember to organise my trolley-loading such that bag-packing at the checkout goes smoothly. I am driving away just an hour after arrival. I stop briefly at the Co-op, mainly for beer for me and a neighbour – the Co-op selection is better than Aldi. Such is the range of folk on our Lane that I buy fresh fruit for one neighbour, and beer for another. The Co-op has introduced an Ikea-style arrowed one-way system to keep a steady socially-distanced flow of customers around the store. At 8pm Chantal, Steven and I step outside to join many of our neighbours in making a noise to show our appreciation for the NHS. It is still light, and neighbours up and down the Lane wave to each other as we clap and bang our pots and pans, in my case a large and rather noisy metal dog-bowl.

Posted: Friday, April 10th, 2020
Category: News and Views from the Oakstump
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