Mass Observation May 12th Diary 2020
Goodbye May 12th may the country be free of Covid 19 by this this time next year.
May 12th 2020. In the time of Coronavirus
Woke at about 6.15, the sky beautifully blue and being so and this a Coronavirus day since March 16th for me , as is every day, I decided to go for a walk. En route I went past an Italian restaurant . I have taken a photo of a print of an old painting of old Naples in the window previously and sent to a friend as she and I were to go to Naples after Christmas in 2020 and as I went over to it I saw another one of a different view. I looked for and didn’t find my phone to take a photo.
I carried on down the street, saw a man I interpreted as trying to get into a building, acting nervously. This is all interpretation, this viewing of what’s going on so I became aware of that. As I walked past the station I was really surprised to see people going into the station. That entrance has become the only entrance but was still surprised.
The main road was thronging with traffic, which I noticed another day last week but from high up in the park. It appears the time of quiet is ending. I went into a place up several steps, that is a path by the railway that leads down to an ecology park. At the top of the steps there was a lovely cat, reminding me of one I used to live with that had a bushy tail. It looked like it as watching a mouse but came along with me and as we walked I chatted to it and at one point it responded. It continued with me until we came to a place where a path was trodden down, it appeared to know that path and disappeared down it.
I picked a few wildflowers, and a bit of white hydrangea and wild rose. I carried on and went into a field where lupins grow to see how they are getting on. On a wooden seat made from railway sleepers I saw two keys which looked like house keys, nothing to do with them so I left them there. I found my phone and thought I’d sit down and read a bit of an an ebook that is due back to the library in a very few days. It’s Paula Hawkins Into the Water. I noticed there was some frost on the grass. I took a photo of some parakeet obviously feeding from a bird feeder intender for small wild birds.
I carried on , saying hello to a Chinese (?) man I sometimes see there. I passed the pond where a woman waited on the side whilst I looked over it. Then I carried on walking , passing two women with two dogs, chatting. I left the park and walked up a road I haven’t in ages and the gardens were a treat, with one having two huge tolmasi , tolmezi, cant spell it, (coral flowered) A man and woman were taking pieces of wood from a garden, 2 white turned chair legs specifically.
On the busy road ahead I noted that there wasn’t a big queue outside Lidl so I stopped.I need ed garlic but bought as well:
2 pastel nata
2 cheese twists
Corned beef
A bag of sweet peppers
A bottle of olive oil, the wrong kind I reflected
A bag of salad
I spent £12.?? And was really happy to be served by a person rather than having to use a machine. The young man who served me looked a bit unhappy, we chatted a bit, he said he was OK. He looked like perhaps he came from Nepal, perhaps, but what do I know? About 25 ish, It was really nice to speak with him.
I came home, wiped the shopping with an antibacterial wipe after pouring a filled up 2 litre bottle of water over pots in the from garden.
I began writing this whist listening to Radio 4 , the life scientific, a programme by Lauren Laverne ABOUT desert island discs and book of the week. To be continued………………………….
I phoned C who I read to over the phone to see if she would like a chapter before I started work on the bedroom to organise things if possible after structural repairs to the house which finished on March 13th. She didn't want to get too relaxed at that time it was a bit too early for her which I understood and said I would ring later or tomorrow. I went upstairs and did start just taking out some things to put them elsewhere Sisyphus like as is the case with us earthlings. I listen to some news on BBC news channel all about the end of furloughing blah blah blah. This government disgust me that lack of clarity is second only to the lack of competence. How many people have died unnecessarily because of lack of PPE, because of lack of rigorous guidelines. Having said that my daughter then rang me and asked me to do something which is not strictly allowed which I did do, joyfully, and that was perhaps the best part of the day, I cannot expect more fun than that and if I do not say what it is.She has torn a ligament in her ankle and needs all the help she can get.
Then I messed around in the garden for a while pulling up what I thought were wild garlic but which turns out now not to be but what on earth it is I do not know, small white bell shaped flowers with a green line running through them but they are not white bells.
I had a bath before which I put a baked potato in the oven, well raw potato to bake and a cooking apple to bake also. I hope it's ready very soon as I have a meditation online with my teacher at 4 o’clock.
The meditation on zoom was great, a group of about 14 people, some of whom sit together in real life on a Wednesday at the teachers house, the others people he knows in various capacities. I ate something afterwards, a bowl of gazpacho I made yesterday, a container of which I took round to my daughters earlier as she likes it too and liked this more than usual since I put less garlic in. It was garlic I went to Lidl’s for earlier in the day.
I did another meditation at 6.30 with a different teacher, on zoom also. It was more centred in the body although not as much as usual.
I ate a cheese twist afterwards looking forward to the life drawing class on TV but found it dull. I phoned my sister and she told me what she and her husband had done today and I told her what I had done. 320.000 and above are dead from the Corona virus. Shocking and tragic, utterly tragic, we talked of how South Korea , and Singapore have done a much better job than this country of managing the pandemic. The suggestion that we should be clapping for change is a good one and it is the governments inefficiency that is responsible for so many of their deaths, unnecessary deaths. We should not only be thanking the NHS for putting their lives at risk because the government are irresponsible in the way they have addressed this. I detest them at the best of times, in this the worst of times they have acted shamefully.
I am going to watch a TV programme before going to bed. I’m really tired and went to bed late last night at 11.30 and was awake at 6.0 and went out before 7.00, not enough sleep. Goodbye May 12th may the country be free of Covid 19 by this this time next year.
Anon.