Day 26 – Curfew – Saturday 18 April 2020.
I haven’t written for five whole days: in spite of my comittment to document each day of this curfew I just seem to have either run out of time or motivation!
Most days pass in a similar way. Runs are run, pilates is practiced, recipes are re-invented (nothing new in our house) according to what ingredients I have in stock.
It’s raining today so will be the first day in a while I haven’t pottered around, or just sat relaxing with a book, in the garden. Many plants are either in flower or budding and the seeds that I planted at the beginning of curfew are coming along nicely – lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, sweet peas and a couple of cherry tree cuttings all look pretty good for a novice gardener like me!
My neighbours glorious Magnolia is now losing it’s stunning flowers; it reminds me of how short life can be, one minute it was in full bloom and the next it’s all over.
I now have several friends/acquaintances who have (more than likely) been infected with Covid 19…and one friend who has sadly lost his life to it.
I received the news on Wednesday evening. ‘M’ was living in a care home due to dementia and I knew he was becoming frail. Only in his 70’s this gentle, super-intelligent (member of MENSA) and supportive man will be remembered – not with dementia but as a genuinely good guy (we were Samaritans together many years back) who gave his time freely to anyone who needed help.
I’ll remember him wearing his brightly-coloured trousers and laughing loudly with his head thrown back. He edited a couple of books for me and I accepted his edits 100% – not the norm for me as other ‘editors’ change things that I ‘don’t want changing’!
My heart goes out to his gorgeous partner ‘H’ and their family – death is all the more hard to bear when you can’t grieve with the physical support of others.
We are still under curfew for (at least) the next 3 weeks, which most people agree is a good call. It does appear as though this Virus may be levelling out in the U.K. – 888 people have died in the last 24 hours – although this is awful, once the figure dropped below 1000 it has stayed below 1000.
Other ‘good news’ is Boris Johnson is recuperating at his country residence – Chequers – and the Nightingale Hospital in London, built to take 4,000 beds, only has 40 patients right now.
Ordinary people are making scrubs, masks, and bags for NHS staff to pop their uniforms in when they finish their shift – to save contamination. Thursday evenings have become ‘Clap for the NHS’ evenings; most of us go outside our homes and clap and cheer at 8pm. We are also clapping for all key workers in my mind. It’s also lovely to see your neighbours – just to nod or wave – and watching the children clapping (or banging saucepans and kitchen utensils) is just wonderful.
Ordinary people have set up voluntary groups to help the more vulnerable in their communities, and thousands of ordinary people have now become ‘NHS Volunteer Responders’.
Bands and singers have banded together to produce a ‘feel good’ concert this evening – streamed via YouTube and Apple TV. This was the idea of Lady Gaga – who is adamant it is not a fundraiser but just a concert to sort of ‘thank and recognise’ everyone’ whether a key worker, or someone sticking to social-distancing. Apparently the highlights of this 8 hour concert will be shown on BBC tomorrow evening.
A wonderful 99 year old man – Captain Tom Moore – has completed 100 laps of his garden to raise £1000 for the NHS: he decided to do so before his hundredth birthday which is on 30 April 2020. He has actually raised (to date) more that £20 million. Yes, 20 million pounds! I salute him – what an inspiration?
There are many positives coming out of this curfew: communities coming together, people volunteering their time, seeing more people out walking (instead of driving) and having the time to have more in-depth conversations via video-calling with friends and family.
It’s easy to moan about ‘being stuck at home’ but I, for one, have belief that we will come out of this for the better.
Hope and positivity – It’s definitely this Girl’s Thing.
Hugs
Leigh
PS I don’t consistently watch TV or the **news but, my oh my, the ‘news’ is dumbing down. Give us Covid 19 updates (not repeated every few hours unless there is something ‘new’ to tell) but please don’t make out that not having your hair, nails, eyebrows etc. done is important enough to have media coverage. Bring back the test card – it beats repetition and unimportant ‘news’.
**don’t they realise ‘news’ should be about something new? The clue is in the word…rant over!