Here we go.
Day started well, on a lazy note. Reading in bed is a real luxury which I think is a big bonus of life in lockdown on my own. Whoah! I can do what I like and have breakfast when I want.
Today I socialised a bit. I had two friends who work in an office nearby for lunch. They came in smelling of disinfectant, totally sanitised like a portaloo toilet. They did not try to kiss or touch, very demure attitude, sat at opposite ends of very large dining table to respect (and exceed) the government prescribed safety distance of one meter. They are both very worried by the situation. completely different attitude from the jolly usual mood they had three weeks ago when I saw them last. They both have young children, working wives and elderly relatives. Schools have been shut for a while and they do not want to have either cleaners or baby sitters in the house for fear of contagion. They cannot ask their parents to provide childcare as elderly people are the ones most at risk ffrom coronavirus and need to be isolated, especially from the germ carrying grandchildren. As a result my friends take turns with their wives to look after their kids. Work suffers, needless to say. Kids are bored. Very. Nothing is open. You are allowed to go for a walk around the block, but not go for a run or cycle or play football. Swimming pools and gyms are shut, and so are libraries and everything else except for food shops, chemists, newsagents, tobacconists and laundry shops. One of them lives in Brescia, currently the virus epicentre. Very worried. The other friend lives with his family just across the border between Lombardia (the region I am in) and Veneto (the region next door). So he drives here through country lanes to avoid checkpoints which would delay him into work.
We normally have so many different topics of conversation, but guess what we talked about today? The big V. And it was such a good thing that I was busy with cooking, eating and clearing up. Because guess what? As I later discovered the stock market dropped another 17% today. Apparently Madame Lagarde had forgotten to call SuperMario this morning to figure the right set of policies for coronavirus time. Or maybe she did but she misplaced the post-it with the key words to reassure the markets, and here we go: worst ever press conference from the ECB head. Not much fun at all.
So to try and keep busy and not think, I decided to bake my unforgettable cake. But I was missing a couple of ingredients so I decided to venture to the local supermarket wrapped in my big scarf twice over my mouth and nose and wearing sunglasses. Last time I went shopping it was Sunday morning when it was all relatively normal. At least compared to today. Empty car park. No female shoppers. Just male shoppers with surgical face masks (where do they get them?) and disposable gloves. Also donning the same attire were all the supermarket staff. And to make it weirder and weirder there was the recorded message from our Prime Minister in a loop about keeping a distance from others, stay home, wash our hands, blah blah blah. A scene straight out of a bad science fiction movie. No, maybe a movie from the old Soviet Union days, except that here the supermarket shelves were very well stocked.
Sad sad sad. I managed to bake my cake and respond to the usual calls and messages of friends and family checking on me. And that is when you happen to realise that the circle is getting narrower and narrower. You start getting to hear more frequently of people you know who are having a case in the family or who are suddenly getting sick themselves. Someone told me we will all get it. I just so do not want to get it. I had the flu once in my life and that was bad enough for me, I don’t think I want to experience coronavirus, so please spare me.
I had dinner with my neighbours and brought them the cake which they loved. We managed to avoid talking about the stock market (that’s the new ‘don’t mention the war’ thing) and almost avoided talking about the virus, concentrating on bitching savagely about other neighbours. Except when at the very end of dinner someone let out that in the local supermarket four (four!!!) cashiers have it and are now in quarantene in their homes.
I must have it then. I am sure I must have caught it…. and on this note I will try to sleep tonight.
