I’m at the stage of lockdown I could no longer deal with spending the day wearing gym kit. So I got up, had a shower, and put on a dress and a touch of make-up. This is certainly not a big deal, nor any sort of deal in the scheme of things. And while I’m back in gym kit having just been for a speedy walk around Peckham Rye, there will be more days of dress wearing.
Day 42 of lockdown, 6 weeks. I stopped going to the gym 3 weeks before that. And I’m noticing a difference in my shape and not in the direction of travel I like. I’m getting a bit more of a belly and a little soggier around the edges. I’ve decided it’s time to reduce the snacking and wine consumption and keep up with the daily walks, a bit of running, some more exercise at home. One day the gym will be open again, though obviously it won’t be for some months unless they plan to have about 5 people in at a time and do a deep clean in between.
And I’ll stick with my approach of ‘no baking’. I have no great desire to make sourdough bread, or make scones or biscuits or cakes. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. And it seems that shortages of yeast and flour remain.
On the positive side, only going to the shops once or twice a week means I have to plan. There’s no just going by to buy treats as my mood dictates. Day by day, a little like managing the tedium of lockdown.
And it is so tedious as days melt into weeks. I miss cafes. I miss being able to see friends. I miss going to talks. I miss regular paid work as a self-employed person – I have some, but much of it at the moment is working on various proposals for future projects.
But things are shifting a little. The Nightingale Hospital, built in 10 days at London’s Excel Centre, to handle coronavirus case surges has been put in standby, meaning it will be shut for the timebeing. There remains quite a bit a criticism – it’s a white elephant etc. The challenge will then be the need for catch-up and freeing up capacity in hospital for all those treatments and operations put on hold.
Plans are being developed for increased usage of public transport. Very unhelpfully, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has suggested increasing public transport costs at peak times to and in London. Don’t even know where to start with this one. The TUC is concerned, and rightly so, about the vague nature of draft government guidelines on people returning to work, particularly where social distancing isn’t possible.
6.3 million workers have been furloughed, across 800,000 employers.
From tomorrow, test, track and trace will be piloted in the Isle of Wight. My understanding is that about 50% of people to upload it to their phones to be of use. That’s an incredibly high uptake when only about 12% of Singapore citizens uploaded the App developed there. They’re doing much better on uptake in Australia.
We seem to have passed the peak. Another 288 deaths bringing it to a total of 28,734. This is the lowest level since the end of March but to flag that figures over the weekend are lower due to less timely death reporting. The real test for government going forward will be how they manage relaxing some of the current lockdown restrictions without a rise in the numbers of people infected.
So that’s it for Day 42. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home!