London – Day 29 of lockdown

Graffiti image of Queen on hoverboard being led by 3 corgees

Today was a good day. The best day I’ve had in lockdown.

I got up. Drank coffee. Did some detailed prep for a meeting this afternoon as my head has been out of the game for a while when it comes to all things data and artificial intelligence. Did some work on a proposal. Had a great video chat with someone I run into every now and again at conferences but won’t now meet again in person for who knows how long. Had a toasted cheese sandwich for lunch, something I’ve not had for a few years but I had the need. Had a few meetings, including one last minute, where I had a contribution to make. There was much coffee throughout the day. I went for a walk. And now I’m cooking chicken and chickpea stew.

I don’t know what made today any different from other days. But I’m working on not analysing my moods anymore. There’s no rationale. There’s no logic. Trying to work it out is a bad idea. There is still an element of loneliness which is new for me, but it’s not as crushing as it’s been.

And it’s a bad idea to think too much about how I’m feeling. There’s a lot of shit happening.

The figures are again grim. Another 823 deaths in hospitals between 9am yesterday and 9am today. This brings the total number of deaths in the UK to 17,337. Figures are out from the Office of National Statistics on other deaths not included in this total. For the week ending 10 April, there were 8,000 excess deaths. This is something that will be investigated. I expect many of these will be related to Covid-19. I think it’s also likely that a proportion will be people who avoided A&E perhaps due to a mix of not wanting to add to NHS pressures and/or fearful of catching this bloody thing; and factors that will be linked, high levels of worry, of stress, which will be contributing factors.

We’ve still heard very little from Boris Johnson, the PM, who is currently recovering. There continue to be significant issues with sufficient PPE for frontline health and care services. The Nightingale Hospital, newly set up at the London Excel Centre for Coronavirus patients is now having to turn people away. The issue is not too many patients. It’s too few nurses.

It’s the Queen’s 94th birthday today. Obviously today there are none of the usual celebrations.

Strange days indeed. And we’re all negotiating this in our own ways. Good days, not such good days. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

So that’s it for Day 29. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home!

2 comments on “London – Day 29 of lockdown

  1. I had a terrible day yesterday as I had to go and buy vitamins and toiletries (haven’t done either for 7 weeks) and there was not good social distancing in Savers and I got very panicky when I got stuck trying to obey arrows on the floor everyone else was not obeying. Cried all the way home behind my sunglasses and buff-as-a-mask. Ugh. Today is better as I had a nice run though dashed as set out a bit late.

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