In 2020 there was an outbreak of 'flu. It started in China, and by March 2020 the WHO labelled it a pandemic.
The UK government's response was to restrict people's activities in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. These policies meant many people, myself included, were unable to go to work.
I decided I should spend some of my spare time writing this journal. There will be no theme to individual entries; just whatever I feel like writing. The images are (with a few obvious exceptions) taken within a half mile radius of our house.
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The latest government advice is "go back to work". It is now considered safe to travel to cities to work in crowded offices. The media reports around 40% of office workers agree with the sentiment, the rest choose to continue working from home. I gather the percentage of government ministers working from home is particularly high. Of course, cases of Covid-19 are rising quickly, although there are less deaths now. I think the hospitals are better at treating the disease.
Along with the pleas to return to the work-place, the government has introduced "the rule of six". This means we are no longer allowed to have social groups of greater than six. Work places, gyms, pubs, etc are basically exempt from this (you wouldn't be allowed to sit more than 6 around a single table), so I guess the only place it matters is in your own home.
The children have now returned to school and the gym is busy again. The Leisure Centre in general is still very quiet though.
There is a surge in divorces. All those months being locked up with your loved one have proved too much for some families.
We have had a bumper year for home grown cucumbers. We have given some away, but we have also fond many ways of using them; cucumber relish, cucumber chilli pickle and salads with tomatoes!
We have eaten in the garden with a barbecue the last two Saturdays. We had the neighbours round for one; they bought their own plates and salads. It is all quite normal to keep separated while in the same garden.
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Here is the news...
- those who can work at home should do so. This is a stark contrast to the instruction to return to work if at all possible. I dare say the city's takeaways and pubs are worried about this advice.
- pubs and restaurants must close at 10:00pm. Everyone inside must wear a mask, and it's table service only.
- indoor team sports are banned
I am sure there is more, but there are the details.
We do not think the gym will be effected; we are not team sports and there is no contact between anyone. We were hoping we would be able to support again soon, but I guess that is gone for a while now.
Today is the Autumnal Equinox. Closing time (the start of all the restrictions) happened just before the Spring Equinox (21 March). The day length is is rapidly decreasing as we move towards mid-winter, and we are still in the same situation.
We have had the boiler replaced. It was 15 years old, and we had an engineer to see three times this year. It was time to replace it.
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I have not written here for a while (Equinox - 22 September). A reflection on the fact I have been occupied elsewhere. Also, it's sad to say that nothing really has changed. We lurch from one government policy to the next. Nobody has any idea how we are going to get out of this situation.
We are all back to work, trying to adjust to the new normal. Quite predictably, there has been a significant rise in infections over the previous weeks. The number of people carrying the disease now is apparently higher than it was in May (when we were all in "lock-down").
The UK government introduced a new system of classifying the local risk. There are a series of tiers, 1 through 3. The lowest level (1) is "medium risk", then "high" and ultimately "very high". I guess they forgot to mention "Tier zero" to describe the areas that have no need to worry. Each area is assigned a Tier with restrictions according to that the risk level
Many people ignore the guidance for preventing the spread of the disease; they feel the restrictions are an infringement on their liberties and ineffective in controlling the disease. Wales also ignored the tier structure and placed itself in a higher risk level, locking everyone down again. Scotland has done similar. England has created a new "Tier 4" to go above Tier 3.
We are not a very "united kingdom" right now.
I recently built a shelter to sit in the garden. The idea is that we can provide somewhere we can socialise outside. There is just about room for 4 people and a small table under the roof.