I’ll give you one .... no! half a guess what was on my mind today. It. One of the reasons I’m walking this morning is the increasing threat of four months purdah. Four months! I ask you! Four months! (I promise that’s the last exclamation mark! Sorry. That one.) For me it would, will, not be a problem. I can read and/or listen to music, or write, indefinitely. And the park is just here where I can walk at any time, shunning close contact which I would continue to do whatever the official advice/instructions. It will be sad not to see family and friends but we must have recourse to Skype or the telephone.
But will this enable me/us to avoid the disease? Should we? Try to avoid it? The latest news this morning is that catching it will inoculate you and there will be no repeat. So, despite our ages, 78 and 72, we are basically physically fit. Aside from constantly changing aches and pains that decide to crop up in new places at intervals. So, there’s an argument for deciding, not to try to catch it, but carry on as close to normal as you can and not be too concerned because catching it now would, hopefully, mean a few days of pain and discomfort, leaving us immune. But .... if by chance you take a couple of months to contract it, and if by chance you get the more serious consequences, you could be rushed to a hospital that already has too many patients to enable the staff to cope, too little equipment etc. etc. Further complication. We have our son Louis here. Going to work five days per week. Shopping every day. Using, of course, same kitchen, same cooking equipment, same bathroom. We’re taking precautions. Watch this space! Oops.
So far, the main consequence is the cancellation of Pauline’s trip to New Zealand to see the section of the family down there, including our newest grandchildren, who are at the stage where they’re changing, physically and intellectually, by leaps and bounds. Now it’s a case of doing everything she can to get our money back and rebook for later in the year. Unfortunately, hundreds of people are trying to do the same thing. So hours on the telephone, listening interminably to vacuous lift musak. Aaaargh. (That deserved an exclamation mark).
And it seems somewhere between very likely and inevitable, that our planned three weeks in Greece mid-May to early June will also be crossed off the calendar. Which is a great shame. But, as always in overwhelming circumstances like this, far worse lies in wait in the coming months for a multitude of people worldwide. This tiny virus is exposing the whole capitalist/globalised system, based on production at the point where goods are cheapest. Years ago, many years ago, when the EU was much smaller, I was involved in setting up a company to serve the newly emerging markets in Russia and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall and we had a customer sending material, cut into pieces for the manufacture of suits, to Poland, where they were sewn together and the completed suits sent back to the UK. Simply to save money. Sell cheaper suits. Now we have situations where cars constructed here depend, in some cases, on parts sent from China. So, when China sneezes the world catches cold. For these now seen to be short sighted commercial arrangements seem to be in place throughout Europe as well. The logical outcome will be attempts to satisfy needs by producing the required items more locally. And globalisation will stutter.
Since I started this, the purdah threat from the first paragraph has become real. Boris wants us to stay in. But we shall continue to act as outlined. Pauline has been using Ocado for our larger shops for some time, to avoid the need to carry heavy items mainly. And as regular customers we have been given the opportunity to book a slot for the same day/time each week for the foreseeable future. As a result we have no fears regarding food supply, particularly as we have a cupboard partially filled with some already, accrued as the result of fears generated by the dreaded Brexit! Is it me or is shit happening all the time?
Another day later and now we’re into desertion of cities. Suddenly. Or so it seems. Two weeks ago, we were preparing, physically and mentally, to be separated across half the planet for five weeks. Now it’s been two days of attempting to cancel all the arrangements and, wherever possible, get at least some of our cash back. As you’d expect, just getting in touch has been a problem. And, when you succeed, some are ducking and diving, attempting to invoke this clause and that, to avoid paying up. Suddenly surreality becomes every daily reality. Been for (first) walk in park already and people few and far between. Radio and television dominated by talking heads and unless you switch off, you receive the same information from them all. Time after time. The road outside, always congested with parked cars, is now totally congested as people are working from home. Hang on a minute! Why am I telling you this when it’s a shared experience already?!
One pleasant thing for me, aside from not losing the wife around the place, cooking for me and looking after me, has been as follows. A friend who we met with his wife some years ago in Karpathos, who lost his wife some three years ago, has sought my help and advice on taking steps to increase his knowledge of classical music. So I have been forced? invited? to offer some initial suggestions. To pass on links to great performances available on YouTube. Of course, Beethoven was the go-to composer for me to start. But I am now spending some time in cogitation (you all know that’s no problem for me!) to ensure a fair progress as and when his enquiries continue and point him in the direction of other (less) great composers. I have done something similar for our daughter Victoria and her husband, Mark for the past three or four years and it is fulfilling to introduce others to the joys of some of my favourites.
I have another friend, .... I say I meaning we but I say I because John is a senior school friend who I have therefore known for over 60 years .... , an artist, now living in West Sussex, who I see on occasions when we meet in London to visit an exhibition and who I talk to on a regular basis to chat about predominantly art and jazz, which he also likes. I mention John because we have talked together recently about our opinions of ‘the best’ in each arena of art, or rather Art, and agreed that, before you commence any argument there are a very few people who are above discussion. You must place them to one side as their genius so far exceeds the norm that they hold a place on the altar of their art, a sublime place that brooks no argument. For both of us, these people are Shakespeare, Beethoven, Rembrandt and Coltrane. I would add Beckett to my pantheon. In fiction I am torn between Tolstoi and Dostoyevsky.
We have not taken this, what? Foible? Obsessive behaviour? any further. But having so much time and nothing to do, I thought it might be amusing (maybe to me only!) to think of a top ten in my appreciation of every aspect of the arts. Composers, artists, novels, films, classical music works (even my top ten Beethoven works!), jazz albums (even my top ten Coltrane tracks!) A shorter list of those areas where I have less experience like poetry, sculpture. Just for myself as an exercise, not simply a quick appraisal but a proper analysis of who or what gives me more pleasure than another who or what. In this time of self-incarceration, you will be pleased to know that, as this exercise will be for my own pleasure and amusement, I shall not be appending these details to this.
Lots of reading ahead, also. I calculate I have a total of 39 unread books, either sitting on the shelves or lurking in my Kindle and the Kindle Apps on my iPad and iPhone. I often read two or more books on this way but when it becomes clear to me that any book deserves my undivided attention it gets it. I am currently reading solely the recently published One Thousand Moons by an Irish author, Sebastian Barry, without reference to its quality or not. The reason for this is that it is a sequel to his previous novel Days Without End. And this was the best ‘new’ book I have read for many years. I would recommend it to anyone reading this. I would also wish you good health, both physical and mental during this extraordinary period. Find a way to navigate the day. And sound sleep at night. I look forward to meeting up again sometime soon(ish)!
But .... I am moved to add a codicil which I would title ‘It ain’t all bad!’
I use Paracetamol every day. Four per day. And I like to keep at least a week in hand. As you may be aware, they have become difficult to buy. I, Pauline and Louis have attempted to do so at local supermarkets all this week without success. I have been to the local pharmacy twice to no avail. This morning I called the practice pharmacist at our doctors’ who told me that the pharmacy attached to the doctors had a supply so I immediately took the bus. To find a queue, a limit of two people inside at a time and eight people waiting. When this was reduced to three the lady next to me told me that she had tried three supermarkets in the past two days without success. But she had been to Morrisons this morning where there was a large quantity but she was only permitted to but one box of sixteen pills! 1 p.m. approached and a member of staff came out and advised us that the pharmacy would now close until 2 p.m. We remonstrated and I, being next in the queue, asked for Paracetamol. Gone! I remonstrated some more, asking if they kept any in reserve as I had been advised by the practice pharmacist and I really did need them. No change. At which, said lady withdrew from her bag the single packet that she had finally managed to obtain this morning, thrust it into my hand and insisted I keep it! And refused any payment! ‘What goes around comes around’, she said.
Any further comment on my part would be redundant.