In early November 2020 a second lockdown began. At the same time, Commando was told he was under threat of redundancy. The second thing somewhat eclipsed the first, obviously. Escaping into the past was a blessing in many ways. Learning about the General Strike and the terrible depravations the strikers went through during those nine May days in 1926 put things into perspective.
Continue reading Lockdowns, redundancies and strikes
As September 2020 crawled to a warm, lazy close I kept walking. It was too hot for epic walks and all the pretty places were still crowded with furloughed workers so I mostly stuck close to home and walked the streets. The leaves were slowly beginning to turn as autumn approached and the mornings were often misty.
Continue reading Throw away society
On 14 September 2020, I set off for an early morning walk along the river. It was one of those mornings that felt like the cusp between summer and autumn. A slight haze of mist hung over the water but the sun was trying to burn it off. When I reached the bay there were swans and ship’s masts, plus the merest hint of pink clinging on from the dawn. We’d made it to mid September. Schools were open again, the furlough scheme was coming to an end and the Chancellor was making promises that there would be no ‘horror show’ of tax rises to cover the financial impact of COVID19.
Continue reading On the cusp
Those of us born in England after the middle of the last century have been privileged to live in relatively prosperous and peaceful times. We may have had our trials and tribulations and seen many changes but, until COVID19 arrived, our lives had not been touched by famines, plagues, or world wars. For most of us it came as a shock to realise that we were not immune to such events, our science and technology was not invincible. Each of us had to cope as best we could. For me, the writing project I’d begun in 2019 helped keep my mind occupied but, in some ways, it was a mixed blessing.
Continue reading Mixed blessings
On 4 June 2020, I was feeling a touch emotional. The walk I’d planned on Monday with Kim had been cancelled because she had a terrible headache. Now I knew it was a lot more than a headache, she’d tested positive for COVID19 and was extremely unwell. Suddenly the virus felt far too close to home. Kim was one of the NHS heroes we’d all been clapping on Thursday evenings and she’d caught the virus from the asymptomatic parent of one of the children in her care. Kim is much younger than me. She’s fit and healthy, she’s a runner and she was at home in bed not in hospital but I was horribly worried about her.
Continue reading Seven swans and tree fellers
With Commando on furlough, I suddenly found myself with a walking companion. I’d been telling him about the fairy doors I’d seen on the Butterfly Trail and the fact that many had been removed. He suggested a little circular walk to have a look at what was left. The idea of walking down to the sea was appealing, although from what I’d seen on social media, it was so crowded down there that actually walking along the shingle wasn’t going to be an option.
Continue reading Beware of trolls
By mid may 2020, the lockdown restrictions were slowly being eased. It had been a strange couple of months. Many people had worked from home, others had been furloughed and were being paid to stay at home. Non essential shops were closed, as were pubs and clubs. Some people had been self isolating and not going out at all and the supermarket suddenly felt like a dangerous place. Despite all this, lots of unsung heroes had been working through it all.
Continue reading Out of the blue
If two abortive attempts to walk along the river had taught me anything, it was that walking along the river during lockdown was a bad idea. For almost a week , my daily exercise had consisted of various different loops of the streets around my house with the odd fraught incursion into the supermarket for necessities. No matter how much I tried to enjoy the new flowers and the blossom in the gardens, it was boring but it was only for a few weeks wasn’t it? The problem was, all the Spanish flu research I’d been doing was swilling around in my head and, even with the miracles of modern science, a few weeks of lockdown seemed a tad optimistic.
Continue reading A plan, sort of
When the first UK lockdown was announced, on 23 March 2020, the one saving grace was being allowed to walk every day. The long walks I’d been used to were out of the question but I was sure I could live with that. After all, there were some lovely places to walk right on my doorstep. So, two days after the lockdown announcement, feeling quite optimistic, I set out to walk one of my favourite routes, along the River Itchen at Riverside Park.
Continue reading Lockdown blues
For months Kim and I had been training hard for the Clarendon Marathon. We’d been out in all weathers, mostly wet, walking miles and miles to prepare ourselves for what lay ahead. Of course, neither of us really knew what lay ahead, except that it would be hilly, or at least the last part would be. What I wasn’t prepared for though, was a horrible cold, striking me in the week leading up to the big day. In an attempt to get rid of it quickly I took tons of Lemsip and had lots of sleep and rest but, when the big day arrived, I felt dreadful and it was clear my cold was going nowhere fast.
Continue reading The Clarendon Marathon debacle