I wake up to a beautiful day outside. I catch up with the news and social media and housework.
I put my gym kit on with the intention of testing my lung capacity with a workout. I check Morrisons and Ocado for delivery slots. Morrisons have opened up April slots. They are already full. Ocado have a 2 hour queue to access the site but say they have opened up some slots. They are gone when I get there. I try to amend my forthcoming order with Morrisons. This facility seems to be broken. I print out the advice from Asthma UK to take to work. This takes longer than planned as the printer was enjoying it’s rest.
I make some breakfast smoothies for the next few days, clean the juicer and already there is little time for exercise. I forgo this.
I walk to work. It is sunny and warm. It feels good. I actually feel good. There are fewer cars on the road. The building works are still up the road are still in full swing. A portion of the population are taking advantage of the empty roads to practice their formula one moves.
I The daily briefing is cancelled today. the BI* will make an address to the nation later. This sounds ominous. Lockdown is imminent.
The address comes at 20:30. We stare at the subtitled news on the TV screens in the news.
Lockdown**
“You should only leave the house for one of four reasons:
- shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible.
- one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household.
- any medical need, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person.
- travelling to and from work, but only where this absolutely cannot be done from home.
These four reasons are exceptions – even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside of your household.”
In addition to this there are to be no gatherings of more than 2 people outside, except for members or your household.
The police will have powers to enforce this.
This is all that is talked about until I leave work at 1am. It is exhausting.
I begin to have a returning sense of usefulness and purpose in my work that has slowly waned to zero over the past few years. I feel like I might be doing good works. I have no asthma attacks and do not need to use my inhaler, although I am still a little breathless at times.
Mr C collects me from work again. I come home, we watch TV and go to bed, wondering what tomorrow will bring.
*Bimbling Idiot at Number 10
