In 2020 there was an outbreak of 'flu. It started in China, and by March 2020 the WHO labelled it a pandemic.
The UK government's response was to restrict people's activities in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. These policies meant many people, myself included, were unable to go to work.
I decided I should spend some of my spare time writing this journal. There will be no theme to individual entries; just whatever I feel like writing. The images are (with a few obvious exceptions) taken within a half mile radius of our house.
It's the first of May, everything should change. Nothing has.
There's more political noise of how we're going to get back to life again. I avoid the word "normal", I'm really not sure what that means.
Trump is trying to blame China for the plague.
The DIY shops are beginning to re-open.
Captain Tom Moore is a 100 year old veteran who raised over £30 million for the NHS through a sponsored walk around his garden. In recognition of this, he was appointed honorary colonel. I want to know why I am the only one who thinks it would have been more memorable if he had been awarded "major" rather then "colonel".
We have a delivery slot from Tesco! Hil checked and there were loads of slots available, so we took one.
Our boiler was beginning to play up. I phoned the plumber, not expecting a lot of joy. He was here the next day. It took him a while to fix things, and he was quite chatty (we obviously staid on the other side of the room). He was the first person to set foot in the house since 13 March, and this was the biggest social gathering Hil or I had been a part of in 6 weeks.
It's interesting, but I am sure the number of things breaking around the house has increased over the past 5 weeks or so. I have fixed the garage door and the cooker hood bulb over the past week.
We watched the film "28 weeks later". This film deals with the rebuilding society after the virus has supposedly passed. There is, of course, a second wave of infections which overwhelmed the organisation trying to keep them all safe. We are looking forward to Sunday, when the Prime Minister will outline how our restrictions will be eased over the next few weeks. We have become experts on R-numbers and infection rates.
I got involved in an online pub quiz on Sunday. I suspect I am one of the last people on the planet to do one.
We took a Sunday walk to Devil's Dyke. It's about 6km to get there and normally takes us around 1 hour 15 minutes. At the start of the walk there were loads of people on the path. The number of people decreased as we climbed the Downs. There were relatively few people at the top, and most of them had arrived on bike. The weather was disappointing; damp with low cloud and light rain. We perched on a fence with a can of beer. I think the wildlife has benefited from less human intervention, there are many flowers spread across the valley floor.
Devil's car-park has barriers over the entrance and all the outside tables and chairs have been removed. You can't help but keep gong back to the images at the start of the film "28 days later".
After the weekend the weather has made a dramatic improvement. 21 degrees today. I have enjoyed two Zoom gym sessions in the garden. They don't work for everyone; we have had bee stings, wireless drop-out, excessive machinery noise (who'd have though it?). I feel better jumping around the garden rather than the lounge.
The traffic noise is slowly creeping up, as people start to drive again. I gather there are more shops open now, though I have not left the house other than go to the allotment all week.
I have been filling my time with DIY projects. Today I have lined the bedroom cupboards which sit against an outside wall. I hope to be able to make them a little less cool and damp in winter. We also did quite a bit of re-painting last week.
Politically, the President of USA is still making the most ridiculous comments. The UK government has confirmed Furlough payments will not continue at the current level after three months. That could be interesting; businesses that have only survived beacuse of those payments could suddenly disappear.
All British Gymnastics events have been cancelled until September. The September ones will go ahead assuming the gyms are re-opened by the start of August. These dates are by no means certain.
This month's full moon is called the "Flower moon". This year it is also a super moon. The image is an experiment using a telephoto lens strapped to the phone. You can't hold the phone in your hand for this sort of photo, there would be too much camera shake. The phone was placed on a tripod and the picture was taken using a remote control. It's nothing a telescope can't see, but it was fun.