Day 37

Hello everybody, how are you all doing? Here it is advanced spring, lots of blooms and sunshine. Everything is finally coming to life. Best thing of all the pool is now open and as from tomorrow I will be able to start swimming. Here is a rare selfie for you by the pool (when our great grandchildren will be playing cards with the selfies of their ancestors mine will be worth more, much more than yours as I only take them rarely).

I organised a rota system with the neighbours so that we don’t run into trouble with the neighbours/police etc for illegal gatherings. It will be tough as everyone answered stuff like: ‘the water is too cold now’, ‘I don’t normally spend a lot of time by the pool, relax’, ‘I will not go often’. Grrr what is so difficult to understand about the word rota? I think I will end up going swimming at lunch time when everybody else is tucking into their meals.

I cooked a large meal yesterday for my neighbours. As it is Passover I was told no pasta, no flour, no yeast on top of the usual suspects. So I went on a vegetarian meal, mostly Ottolenghi’s recipes. A pumpkin and red lentils dahl, castelluccio lentils with roast aubergine and yoghurt, followed by wonderful leek fritters (recipe slightly adjusted to avoid the flour), braised fennel with black olives, and a mandarin cake with almond flour. Not bad. So now I have leftovers for a week and can take a holiday from cooking although I am meditating an apple pie.

I am now well settled in my daily routine (although start and stop times differ everyday depending on how much uninterrupted sleep I manage to get at night). I start with 60-70mins of exercise everyday, at least ten of which outdoors, shower, small breakfast, read, socialise a bit with neighbours, lunch, read more, socialise a bit more, odd walk in the field behind, whatsapp video calls with friends and or family (although I am starting to show signs of video-fatigue, can’t really bear to have my face scrutinised as if there were no social etiquette of not staring) accompanied or not by aperitivo, dinner, quick check on the news, then Netflix. (Currently watching the series Casa de Papel which is superb). But every now and then something different from the ordinary happens. And that’s your acid test for how you keep your mental health in the lockdown situation.

Yesterday for example.

All of a sudden our little oasis of coronavirus free paradise was spoilt. A couple suddenly arrived (complete with two cats and luggage) from Milan (I assume) to spend the rest of the lockdown in one of the houses here. Let me just say that this is not the most popular couple ever, even in the absence of coronavirus, with one of them a dangerous psycopath, and the other one his mentally unstable victim whom he supposedly wants to rob of her belongings. Have you ever read one of Wilkie Collins books? I so, you know what I am talking about. He is the bad and devious guy, she is the weak person used as an instrument in his efforts to steal her belongings. The risk is high for all family members involved, and believe me you would not want to find yourself alone in a dark alley with the psyco.

This arrival disturbed me because I know it carries more trouble for the other family members than they have so far borne. Because I cannot stand the prevarication of a weak individual. Because I do not like to have unpredictable and devious people around. Because it lays another veil of uncertainty at a time of great preoccupation. Because I am alone and my mind keeps on ruminating over staff that is unusual.

And while ruminating alone, I suddenly realised these people have severely contravened the coronavirus lockdown rules which in this region are the strictest. No one can leave the town in which she is based. In large cities no one can leave the area in which he resides. Fines are high. And if it later transpires you have coronavirus asymptomatic or not, or not yet knowingly, once healed you will do prison time. Al gabbio as they say in Italy. There are some exceptions and are very few. Work reasons (it can’t be in their case as bad boy is unemployed, and damsel in distress is a teacher and schools are closed). Serious health reasons (like you broke a leg or had a heart attack and need to go to the nearest hospital which happens to be in a different town). In case you have more than one home if you want to transfer to another one, there needs to be an urgent problem you need to attend to (like a flooding, or roof falling, etc). But their house has currently no electricity or water and was completely locked, so there can’t have been a detected emergency. So they obviously signed a false declaration when leaving the motorway (checkpoints are everywhere now, and all motorway exits are patrolled).

I became very worried. If they broke one rule who knows they didn’t break others. They might be sick or incubating (after all they come from the worst affected city in the world). They might be careless. I thought, there it goes from tomorrow I start again with sanitysing gel, washing door handles, taking off shoes, etc, which I had recently limited to my outings outside the garden.

And so I started thinking I wanted them out of here. I wanted to report them to the police, but then got scared that if they found out I would have my car tyres slashed or worse. So I did nothing, went to bed, but before doing so I set the alarm on the groundfloor as if that would protect me from the virus. And yes I locked my bedroom door.

Ok I know, all this is unreasonable, live and let live. But the point is that everything which is slightly different from normal tends to become bigger in my mind, until I get a few hours sleep. Is it the same for everybody else or are you all normal and controlled? I am asking for a friend 😉

Dinner time. Spinach and sausages?