2nd July 2020 … The Lockdown Rollercoaster (Thoughts)
The Lockdown Rollercoaster
Since Lockdown began I’ve been through all sorts of different emotions. I guess we all have, right? Firstly, everyone’s big thing was to stress about when Bozo the Clown was going to let Britain go on permanent hiatus along with our friends in the rest of Europe. The gravity of events occurring in some of our more urban areas hadn’t quite sunk in yet and the idea of a Wednesday morning paid up lie in beyond 8am sounded great!
But then even Bozo (I’m sorry, I can’t call him Boris or Bojo) got sick and nearly died!!!
A couple of weeks into Lockdown, I was teaching English to high school kids remotely and getting into a routine. The kids were on the whole, working hard too, from their homes and that was that.
I dispensed with my usual introspective selfishness and started to look out for people in my community while still making sure I got at least a bike ride or a long walk in each day for the exercise. I started planting veg in earnest, totally wrapped up in all of the sad and tragic news. We cancelled our family supermarket delivery to free up the slot for more vulnerable people and my wife signed up to do some shopping for the old in our village. I started donning the old mask and went shopping in the superstore for the first time in years – socially distanced – except down the tightly packed wine and spirits aisles.
Wanting it all to end…?
I don’t know about you all, but I’ve kind of had enough now. I’ve got projects and plans! Grand schemes and stuff that I want to do! I want to get back to France in the summer; see how the land lies over there with the in laws, parler francais!
Of course, in terms of Covid-19 we’re all well here… I’m stressed about other things I won’t go into. I just hope that if you’re reading this, you’re good to go and safe! Are you able to think back on the positives? Do you question what we’ve achieved as a society during Lockdown? And, will anything really change come the autumn?
Positives +
Farm shopping for fruit and veg went up! People learned to sew masks and bake bread…People baked a lot of bread. I had to ask on a village Facebook forum for some yeast when the shops ran out in April! Lots of people have taken up outdoor hobbies, painted garden fences, mended stuff that needed it and seen their extended families more than ever on weekly Zoom quizzes or group chats just to share Lockdown tales.
… Oh, and Liverpool won the league!
Negatives –
On the flip side, when you don’t have to get up at 6.30am every day, procrastination and binge watching/drinking/eating have been on the rise too right? And, I for one find it tricky to breathe behind the mask!
But worst of all, it’s the still not knowing… We’re all going back to work (unless we’re fired, laid off, or as a staggering 40% of the UK population are apparently now thinking… “of quitting” and looking for a stress free future). Yet, the disease is still out there… People are still dropping dead…Leicester’s been locked down again as the rest of the country starts to open its pubs! And, we’ve still got a Tory government (Yawn).
I get their worries about economy etc. Yeh! I’m middle aged. My communist days are well behind me! But, at what cost, business as usual? Surely nothing can be worth risking our lives over? There’s no vaccine! What’s changed since March on that score? They no longer refer to the science or the “R number” on the 6 o’clock news ‘cos they’ve locked all the scientists in a closet somewhere and only kept out the ones on the payroll who say what they want them to say! Sad really… The capitalists have had the ideal opportunity to seek a different route through this, yet heck no! Hedge funds and profits and going back to polluting the skies for the few by the few are all clearly still far more important than the rest of us!
I hear you Bozo! Don’t think I don’t. “The plebs have got their football back. They’re not looking anymore. Let’s get everything open and cut the distancing down to metre while we’re at it! They never notice so long as they can drink beer, fight and watch the good Old Etonians’ pig skin game!”
Then there’s Brexit! Recession in the EU or recession out and with no deal? I know what I’d choose… Seems insane to me! We could all be eating either cheaply imported chlorinated battery chickens or Corona Special Batwings on a stick by the middle of 2021 and I for one want neither! But the alternative… Tofu. Plastic flavoured feta. Or, plant based burgers. Vile. You need a whole bottle of ketchup to cover that stench!
… I’ve got a French passport by marriage. I know loads of people who’ve become Maltese or Italian because of a grandad, and surely there’s loads of Brits who can go Irish and then move on down to Spain or Greece for a place in the sun!
Is it time to move on? Who knows…It’s time I stopped this blog anyway.
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