After all the drama of the weekend, Prime Minister middle of the night conference (on Facebook) to tell us the lockdown would become more strict, i.e. no solitary walks in the fields for me, I decided it would be a good idea to go shopping for food, just in case Ciuseppi (that is our PM as Donald theDonald calls him) wakes up tomorrow to shut food stores down too. And so I took off for my weely leisurely adventure at the supermarket.
I was wearing a strange face mask, disposable gloves (those left by my cleaner), carrying my own shopping bags, and a piece of paper with a self declaration of identity and that I am leaving the house out of necessity (this form has already changed three times in the past two weeks, making me feel sorry for all those people without a printer). Plus my shopping list, which I had taken two days to prepare, trying very hard to think of all the things, aside from food I might need. Here is your warrior, in action
Have you finally stopped laughing, climbed back from the floor and recomposed yourselves? Right. Next piece of information. In this small albeit charming village where I am based, there is only one supermarket, and a pretty good one normally, except it does not have a fish counter (for fresh fish you need to drive circa 20km, and now this is not allowed alas). I am especially fond of it because every now and then it sells large and beautiful orchids at Eur 4 each.. so my house is normally well stocked with amazing flowers. (Well now I am stuck with forsythia until the roses bloom). Normally this place is crowded and the shelves are well stocked with a large variety of food and non food (I was going to say non essential argh) items.
I think that during the weekend everyone made a long shopping list like me, as when I arrived there there was a long queue outside. They only let few people in at any time. I waited 35 minutes. Fortunately it was sunny and not so cold. Entertainment provided by the lady in front of me who was shouting abuse at those whom she thought were jumping the queue. She then turned to me and told me she loathed our government in particular for having chosen a Big Brother contender as communications manager. Our Alastair Campbell is Mr Casalino, who advises the PM to communicate to the nation the progressive loss of their rights from Facebook, at night.
Once inside, not many people, and all who were there, both supermarket staff and clients, wearing face mask and disposable gloves. I spent almost one hour there. Many things were not available, the most annoying of which was fruit other than kiwis, apples and oranges. So I bought tons of those. I was also doing some food shopping for the elderly neighbours so I ended up with similar amount of shopping bags top those I was used to whilst living in London (family of four plus au pair and perennial flow of guests). Shopping like there was no tomorrow is the name of the game.
I suspect I will wait at least two weeks before I return there.
I started exercising seriously after noticing that inaction is really not good for the body. I now have my threadmill in front of the tv set, an old and small one, so I cannot for the sake of God link it to Netflix or Premium. I am happy to tell you I now know how the ancient Greeks used to play James Bond underwater. Fascinating. Apparently they used a sack made of animal gut skin filled with air which they were inhaling from and exhaling into, so they could swim underwater all armed and clothed to reach their destination in incognito. When I finished with the exercise they were moving on to the Roman catapult. Sadly for you, I switched the tv off.
Last night Boris introduced lockdown in the UK. I was expecting it, as I don’t think any national health service can survive the number of patients this virus is producing so fast. So , dear old Boris went from the stoical attitude of the first weeks (‘many more families are going to lose loved ones’) to more aggressive measures (‘stay home to stay safe’). Having been in lockdown myself for a couple of weeks, and having seen our government move from ‘it’s just a flu’, ‘there is no chance the virus will come to Italy from China’, to increasingly more restrictive measures, and increasingly heavier punishment for those who do not respect the new rules, I was trying to figure how Boris was going to enforce the limits he set.
So, first thing I noticed is that he was a bit vague. All those who can work from remote should do so, the rest should go to work… what does it mean really when it is not generally up to the employee to make that decision. I was expecting him to have studied the Italian experience. Only last night the cabinet was in session, for the third day in a row, trying to decide what is an essential business (to stay open) and what is not (shut down). Well in my view Italy and the UK should only shut down those places of work where the employer cannot guarantee safety for his employees (i.e. minimum distance, face masks, disposable gloves). The rest should stay open making maximum use of remote working (the famous ‘smart’ working of the Italians!). Italy I am afraid has missed the train. Maybe there is still time for Boris to avoid doing harakiri with the whole economy.
Second, he mentioned that everyone can go out for a walk or run alone or with other members of the household once a day. How on earth is the police going to ascertain that this is not the third or fourth little walk one is taking? In Italy we use forms to declare who we are, where we live, that we havent tested positive and what are we doing outdoors. Despite the form about 50,000 have been fined so far. BJ has not mentioned forms or God forbid, GPS tracing systems. He must rely a lot on citizen’s sense of duty, compliance, but with a country so divided by the recent Brexit saga if I were him I wouldn’t count on it. And proof of this were the photos of crowded London tube trains this morning.
It’s late now and I need to eat something. So I am going to say goodbye and goodnight xxx
