This is the state the roll. At this rate and with current reserves I should be good until August.
One week went by and I have left my flat only three times.
After a short walk in the park on Monday, I travelled to central London on Thursday to get some pipe tobacco in one of my favourite shops: JJ Fox (I heard it kills people, it should work on viruses, and anyway this is not the time for quitting).
Even if there’s not nearly the level of shut-down my family is experiencing in Italy, there was a lot less people around. All the tourist are gone. Most restaurants were already closed. Here’s what Piccadilly looked like:
If it is true that the UK is two weeks behind Italy, next week is when things should become serious. I was curious about the effectiveness of the different approaches taken in these two countries: the prescriptive approach in Italy (you get fined if you are caught out without a good reason) versus the collaborative approach here, were people are just advised to stay home and avoid contact.
Well… one week in it doesn’t look like moral suasion is working. Not only there’s still plenty of people everywhere (and they don’t all look like NHS staff on their way to work), but the repeated advice not to panic buy is clearly not being respected.
Yesterday I went to M&S for some grocery shopping. I have been using their shopping app for a while, but now it’s nicer than ever to be able to walk in, get some stuff in my own shopping bag and leave, without having to touch anything but the products I’m buying! It works quite well, highly recommended.
Anyway, the store had been stormed and was half empty. I could still buy everything I had on my list, except for eggs. This hoarding of fresh food doesn’t make any sense, but it looks like it’s still happening and it’s not getting any better.
My initial plan was to go out early this morning to try to find eggs, but then decided not to. I don’t really need eggs, so I opted to stay home and write a blog post complaining about people who did go out and got my eggs.
Everything else is smooth, as expected working from home is not a big challenge, I have re-started meditating regularly (I’m back on Headspace), I’m enjoying cooking all the time.
I’m still wearing my Apple watch every day, just because I find not having to unlock my Mac with a password very convenient, but of course the activity tracking is embarrassing.
I’m still following the news and reading everything I can, but at this point it’s quite clear that nobody really knows what is going to happen. There are bleak projections, slightly more hopeful ones, and in any case we are all waiting to see what happens in China.
So all we can do is take a breath, step back, and realise that in this moment we are doing just fine. Even without eggs.
Stay safe, be nice, and please do keep in touch.