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12/52 A Week in the Life
Mar. 22nd, 2020 05:03 pmFor me, like everyone, it's been a strange week. Time is moving especially strangely, stretching out and then clumping up and flying by in a single gulp. I thought I'd record the outline of my week here, as a little road marker in this peculiar journey we are on.
Monday I went into work and spoke to 4 or 5 colleague who were also in - all of them stood at the door of my office and spoke to me from there. I deep cleaned the staff kitchen (which is not cleaned by facilities even though it's a shared space provided by the university...) and went home with the vague expectation I would be able to keep doing a couple of days in the office and three at home for future weeks. I walk to work so it didn't seem like it was much different for me to walk in and go to my office compared to staying in my flat. One colleague who is going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks left me all her plants to look after so I put them in my office. By the end of Monday the uni annouced everyone who could should be working from home so I planned to bring everything home on the Tuesday.
Tuesday was student phone calls for supervision and general disaster planning. Went for a swim which was great, pool was empty. Packed up everything I could think of, short of bringing all my books home, got a taxi with my books and plants and the packs of porridge I keep in my office for afternoon snacks.
Wednesday the uni annouced the Sports Centre would close on Sunday, and that campus would be pretty much closing down entirely but the library and my building would remain open. They have a truly insane plan of having people use individual offices in my building on a rota; we were asked if we happy for our offices to be used - I didn't reply. I assume it will get requistioned if needed but no mention they will be deep cleaned after use by unknown number of people so I didn't volunteer. Seems hard to understand why anyone who can work in a office which isn't theirs cannot also work from home. And indeed, none of us are essential beyond payroll stuff and student services so why even require most people to continue working from home?
Thursday I steeled myself and headed into my local high street to try and get a few essentials I'd run out of (sanitary towels, toothpaste, veggie mince, vegetables) and hit three stores to fulfil my list with pretty good success. The sanitary towels were especially challenging. The woman in Boots told me people were buying them to line their fucking face masks with? Which is insane. It struck me that period poverty is likely to deepen now - I can afford to buy these at more or less any price and I did pay more than I usually do. People who just about manage buying the cheapest options are not going to be able to buy anything. Sainsbury's freaked me out a bit as the empty shelves were more numerous than I expected and the vegetarian freezer section was totally empty so I have no veggie mince in now which is a pain as it's a key component of a few of the easy/few ingredient meals I do. I'm also out of tinned tomatoes and obviously they have long since vanished from supermarket shelves.
Friday I had more student phone appointments which I really enjoyed and was glad to have a focus/feeling of usefulness after a very unfocused week. Decided to go for a swim and swam in an empty pool for an hour/just over 2km. By the time I got out of the pool the library had annouced they'd close indefinitely from 6pm, and Boris had ordered leisure centres to close. I went home via the library - like me there were a lot of people checking out great piles of books. So hard to know what you need when we simply don't know how long this level of restriction will continue.
Saturday I decided I would do one last non-essential, 'essential' trip and went for a long walk across the city, via the Common, to Wilko. The walk was absolutely glorious, sunshine and warm temps really boosted my mood tremendously - as did seeing lots of people also on walks in twos and threes, and playing in what looked like family groups. There's been a lot of noise on twitter in the last 48 hours berating people for going to the parks but I struggle to know what else people should do when they don't have a garden, or have a dog to exercise. If you're not symptomatic, if you're practicing social distancing, if you're only with the people you live with when you're outside, what is the harm of going for walk around the park or playing frisbee? My understanding was that this is entirely within the realm of what's allowed. There's so little firm, clear guidance from the government on any of this. It's such a shocking lack of leadership in a time when doing it right hardly seems to be easier.
Wilko was really quiet, I asked the cashier how she was and she said customers first thing in the morning had been rude and frantic but that it calmed after a few hours. I bought £20 worth of bulbs, compost, and pots to plant out on my balcony and try and ensure some green and colour as this quarantine deepens. The thought of facing out onto that concrete carpark with only distant trees for next 3 or more months would about finish me off. Got a taxi home and had a chat with driver to similar to the one I had on Tuesday whereby they have no work, are all self employed, and are about to go broke - but also feel anxious and unhappy about picking up passengers because of the risk to their health. I paid via their app to at least minimise that contact. Spent the afternoon planting and sorting out pots. Realised I'd ignored instructions to soak some of the bulbs overnight before planting so resolved to dig them up and do it properly on Sunday.
Sunday has been pleasant. Another gloriously sunny day which boosts the mood. Of the modest blessings about when this has happened, it is at least in spring when the world is coming alive again. To quarantine in winter would surely have been the end of me. Did a load of laundry and put it out on the balcony to blow dry (why does laundry smell so much better for having dried outside compared to drying quickly on an indoor airer in a well ventilated room?). Dug up the anemone tubers/bulbs to soak them. "Went" to a museum with two friends via Google hangouts and spent a good two hours chatting with them and screen sharing the stuff we saw in the galleries.
Next week is going to be the test, and the beginning of this for real. No more frivolous shopping trips. No more shopping trips at all really - I've signed up to a veg box delivery and I've got enough cupboard stock to comfortably last for a few of weeks (fortunately, I had done my monthly big shop at the beginning of March and had loads of loo roll and cans before the supermarkets started emptying out - neglected to notice my low reserves of tomatoes and veggie mince when doing that order, unfortunately. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but these are interesting times).
No more swimming - the thing that in no small measure keeps me sane. Need to see if my knackered bike is a) still in the building's car park b) fixable to a level I can use it. And no more social face-to-face contact. At all.
All the yelling at people about failing to do social distancing "properly" seems to ignore how many of us live entirely alone. Social distancing for us ends up meaning self-isolation. I feel scared and very alone and very ashamed of the fact that I have plans to meet someone face-to-face in the park or in my flat, about once a week. She and I are both freaking out at the idea of not seeing real people regularly. I don't want to hurt anyone - I understand the concept of stemming the transmission rate and reducing people who can spread it. But I also don't understand what I am required to do to "do my part"; what is advised and what is essential in this social distancing thing? If I am home alone 6 days a week, only leaving to have a solo walk, surely meeting face to face once a week with one or two specific people is less risk than a majority of people who are still working and still using public transport etc?
ETA: looks like tonight's advice is now more robust. Can someone actually tell me what I can and can't do? I'm lost.
Monday I went into work and spoke to 4 or 5 colleague who were also in - all of them stood at the door of my office and spoke to me from there. I deep cleaned the staff kitchen (which is not cleaned by facilities even though it's a shared space provided by the university...) and went home with the vague expectation I would be able to keep doing a couple of days in the office and three at home for future weeks. I walk to work so it didn't seem like it was much different for me to walk in and go to my office compared to staying in my flat. One colleague who is going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks left me all her plants to look after so I put them in my office. By the end of Monday the uni annouced everyone who could should be working from home so I planned to bring everything home on the Tuesday.
Tuesday was student phone calls for supervision and general disaster planning. Went for a swim which was great, pool was empty. Packed up everything I could think of, short of bringing all my books home, got a taxi with my books and plants and the packs of porridge I keep in my office for afternoon snacks.
Wednesday the uni annouced the Sports Centre would close on Sunday, and that campus would be pretty much closing down entirely but the library and my building would remain open. They have a truly insane plan of having people use individual offices in my building on a rota; we were asked if we happy for our offices to be used - I didn't reply. I assume it will get requistioned if needed but no mention they will be deep cleaned after use by unknown number of people so I didn't volunteer. Seems hard to understand why anyone who can work in a office which isn't theirs cannot also work from home. And indeed, none of us are essential beyond payroll stuff and student services so why even require most people to continue working from home?
Thursday I steeled myself and headed into my local high street to try and get a few essentials I'd run out of (sanitary towels, toothpaste, veggie mince, vegetables) and hit three stores to fulfil my list with pretty good success. The sanitary towels were especially challenging. The woman in Boots told me people were buying them to line their fucking face masks with? Which is insane. It struck me that period poverty is likely to deepen now - I can afford to buy these at more or less any price and I did pay more than I usually do. People who just about manage buying the cheapest options are not going to be able to buy anything. Sainsbury's freaked me out a bit as the empty shelves were more numerous than I expected and the vegetarian freezer section was totally empty so I have no veggie mince in now which is a pain as it's a key component of a few of the easy/few ingredient meals I do. I'm also out of tinned tomatoes and obviously they have long since vanished from supermarket shelves.
Friday I had more student phone appointments which I really enjoyed and was glad to have a focus/feeling of usefulness after a very unfocused week. Decided to go for a swim and swam in an empty pool for an hour/just over 2km. By the time I got out of the pool the library had annouced they'd close indefinitely from 6pm, and Boris had ordered leisure centres to close. I went home via the library - like me there were a lot of people checking out great piles of books. So hard to know what you need when we simply don't know how long this level of restriction will continue.
Saturday I decided I would do one last non-essential, 'essential' trip and went for a long walk across the city, via the Common, to Wilko. The walk was absolutely glorious, sunshine and warm temps really boosted my mood tremendously - as did seeing lots of people also on walks in twos and threes, and playing in what looked like family groups. There's been a lot of noise on twitter in the last 48 hours berating people for going to the parks but I struggle to know what else people should do when they don't have a garden, or have a dog to exercise. If you're not symptomatic, if you're practicing social distancing, if you're only with the people you live with when you're outside, what is the harm of going for walk around the park or playing frisbee? My understanding was that this is entirely within the realm of what's allowed. There's so little firm, clear guidance from the government on any of this. It's such a shocking lack of leadership in a time when doing it right hardly seems to be easier.
Wilko was really quiet, I asked the cashier how she was and she said customers first thing in the morning had been rude and frantic but that it calmed after a few hours. I bought £20 worth of bulbs, compost, and pots to plant out on my balcony and try and ensure some green and colour as this quarantine deepens. The thought of facing out onto that concrete carpark with only distant trees for next 3 or more months would about finish me off. Got a taxi home and had a chat with driver to similar to the one I had on Tuesday whereby they have no work, are all self employed, and are about to go broke - but also feel anxious and unhappy about picking up passengers because of the risk to their health. I paid via their app to at least minimise that contact. Spent the afternoon planting and sorting out pots. Realised I'd ignored instructions to soak some of the bulbs overnight before planting so resolved to dig them up and do it properly on Sunday.
Sunday has been pleasant. Another gloriously sunny day which boosts the mood. Of the modest blessings about when this has happened, it is at least in spring when the world is coming alive again. To quarantine in winter would surely have been the end of me. Did a load of laundry and put it out on the balcony to blow dry (why does laundry smell so much better for having dried outside compared to drying quickly on an indoor airer in a well ventilated room?). Dug up the anemone tubers/bulbs to soak them. "Went" to a museum with two friends via Google hangouts and spent a good two hours chatting with them and screen sharing the stuff we saw in the galleries.
Next week is going to be the test, and the beginning of this for real. No more frivolous shopping trips. No more shopping trips at all really - I've signed up to a veg box delivery and I've got enough cupboard stock to comfortably last for a few of weeks (fortunately, I had done my monthly big shop at the beginning of March and had loads of loo roll and cans before the supermarkets started emptying out - neglected to notice my low reserves of tomatoes and veggie mince when doing that order, unfortunately. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but these are interesting times).
No more swimming - the thing that in no small measure keeps me sane. Need to see if my knackered bike is a) still in the building's car park b) fixable to a level I can use it. And no more social face-to-face contact. At all.
All the yelling at people about failing to do social distancing "properly" seems to ignore how many of us live entirely alone. Social distancing for us ends up meaning self-isolation. I feel scared and very alone and very ashamed of the fact that I have plans to meet someone face-to-face in the park or in my flat, about once a week. She and I are both freaking out at the idea of not seeing real people regularly. I don't want to hurt anyone - I understand the concept of stemming the transmission rate and reducing people who can spread it. But I also don't understand what I am required to do to "do my part"; what is advised and what is essential in this social distancing thing? If I am home alone 6 days a week, only leaving to have a solo walk, surely meeting face to face once a week with one or two specific people is less risk than a majority of people who are still working and still using public transport etc?
ETA: looks like tonight's advice is now more robust. Can someone actually tell me what I can and can't do? I'm lost.