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11/52 - Plague
Mar. 16th, 2020 09:52 pmTotally normal week stopped being totally normal on Friday when shit got realz.
Spent the day not on the pickets (because they were cancelled) and not really on strike (although I sitll declared it as a strike day). Just glued to my professional twitter watching University closures roll in after mine was the third in the country to annouce immediate end to face-to-face teaching.
It feels a lifetime ago already, things are moving so fast.
Today I've mostly spent explaining to some of the lesbians that yes, you really do have to cancel that trip, no you really can't just go to the pub, and no, it's not a conspiracy.
Also, glued to social media and newsfeeds.
Also also sticking my neck out to try and protect the pay of most precarious members of staff in my department (with immediate success in short term and no hard commitment on the long term) and butting heads with my HoD over that.
And then, there's family. Text brothers, chatted on phone to parents.
My parents are both over 70 and my Dad has asthma. My middle brother is officially immuno-suppressed by his psych meds, his wife has MS. My eldest brother has somehow got into debt with the council over his rent/benefits/bedroom tax and my parents have been buying him groceries each week (but not handing him cash because he spends it on fags). So he's both high risk because of how much he smokes, and potentially isn't going to have any food. And I had to explain to parents no, social distancing doesn't mean you can go into town to go to the supermarket and then drop stuff off at brother's house and then go home. I know they're not going to listen until it's legally enforced - they won't take people up on genuine offers to get them shopping, they (understandably) don't want to see themselves as 'old' - they aren't old. But they are statistically vulnerable.
And of course, you can't book a fucking online grocery delivery for love nor money.
Have been compiling a list of stuff I need to bring home from my office tomorrow before the uni gets shut down entirely. Concerned, stupidly, about getting all my fucking plants home so they don't die...
It's going to be a hard few months ahead.
Spent the day not on the pickets (because they were cancelled) and not really on strike (although I sitll declared it as a strike day). Just glued to my professional twitter watching University closures roll in after mine was the third in the country to annouce immediate end to face-to-face teaching.
It feels a lifetime ago already, things are moving so fast.
Today I've mostly spent explaining to some of the lesbians that yes, you really do have to cancel that trip, no you really can't just go to the pub, and no, it's not a conspiracy.
Also, glued to social media and newsfeeds.
Also also sticking my neck out to try and protect the pay of most precarious members of staff in my department (with immediate success in short term and no hard commitment on the long term) and butting heads with my HoD over that.
And then, there's family. Text brothers, chatted on phone to parents.
My parents are both over 70 and my Dad has asthma. My middle brother is officially immuno-suppressed by his psych meds, his wife has MS. My eldest brother has somehow got into debt with the council over his rent/benefits/bedroom tax and my parents have been buying him groceries each week (but not handing him cash because he spends it on fags). So he's both high risk because of how much he smokes, and potentially isn't going to have any food. And I had to explain to parents no, social distancing doesn't mean you can go into town to go to the supermarket and then drop stuff off at brother's house and then go home. I know they're not going to listen until it's legally enforced - they won't take people up on genuine offers to get them shopping, they (understandably) don't want to see themselves as 'old' - they aren't old. But they are statistically vulnerable.
And of course, you can't book a fucking online grocery delivery for love nor money.
Have been compiling a list of stuff I need to bring home from my office tomorrow before the uni gets shut down entirely. Concerned, stupidly, about getting all my fucking plants home so they don't die...
It's going to be a hard few months ahead.