A glorious day, in terms of weather that is. The weather is getting warmer and the sky is blue.
I headed out early this morning. There was traffic equivalent to what you’d see in ‘normal’ times on a Saturday morning. There were a lot of police around Peckham and Nunhead. This is unusual for a Saturday morning. Perhaps they had a day ahead of largely enforcing social distancing. I don’t envy them that task.
I did a little volunteer queue monitoring in Nunhead, only they didn’t need anyone, I didn’t know that. Ooops. Got to have some good chats with locals. One or two tetchy people complaining about queues. Many were silent. Overall people were friendly. There were a few smiles. One woman noted that the queues were worse than they were during the war. She must have been a very young child at the time.
And I always find it remarkable the shift in mood that goes along with the shift in seasons. Perhaps I notice it more being from Brisbane where it’s normal to get out of the house of 5am to walk/run/cycle and where Parkruns start at 7am. And yes, at 5am, especially in the summer months, the streets are busy with folks getting their exercise in. I was there over Christmas. I walked to Southbank to cheer on some of the Parkrunners. The runners coming in would be dripping in sweat. It was hard to tell if they’d been running or had a quick swim in one of the many pools there.
Weekends in London start off a lot more slowly even in summer with what seem like everlasting days. Parkruns start at 9am. At least they did up until 3 weeks ago. It was only fifteen days ago that pubs and gyms and libraries and ‘non-essential’ shops were still open. But today, another 708 deaths recorded, with those numbers getting worse each day. These are figures for those who died in health settings. Over the coming weeks we’ll also start seeing the numbers reflect those who have died at home.
These are strange times. With weather like today, it’s hard not to wander to the park and sit in the sun for hours, to finally feel some warmth from the sky. I didn’t. I did have coffee with a neighbour. We made our own coffees and then sat at least two metres apart on our respective front stairs. We also had a quick shout across the road to another neighbour who was putting the rubbish out. And another one who was out for her daily 15 minute walk – she’s more restricted than many of us.
So no more trips out for me today as nothing ‘essential’ is needed. And I sit here typing this and being grateful for renting a flat that lets in a remarkable amount of sunshine. I figure if I want a tan, all I need to do is spend time sitting by my window. There aren’t going to be any trips to a beach any time soon.
So that’s it for Day 12. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home!