Alive and Kicking

One month in…

As you all would expect this week has progressed much like the others in the now established pattern of Lockdown. Good Friday marks one month in and we don’t know when it will end. Technically it could be lifted on 13^th April, but we all expect to see an extension, with some level of restrictions on travel and non-essential services continuing for some time even when lockdown is lifted. The good news is our numbers finally seem to be taking a turn in a more positive direction, no matter which measurements you are using for comparison. To be blunt the daily death count here has started to drop but is still in the hundreds. Italy has lost almost 18,000 people and so far more than 85,000 worldwide have died (source WHO). I know that the UK is about to enter its most difficult period in terms of numbers of infections and deaths and our hearts are with you. I hope our improving numbers offer hope that an end is in sight, but we are by no means out of the woods yet.

It’s impossible to calculate how many impacted families and friends there are with lives completely altered. It is an appropriate time to think of others: those still fighting the virus, those who may continue to have complications long after and those providing medical and other essential services. These are very sobering thoughts and any frustrations I might feel about being cooped up are easily addressed by remembering how, by staying in, we are helping to minimise the number of people who will be affected by this event.

Yada yada

On Tuesday I taught my last class for at least a week. We take it in turns to go to the shops only when we really need to go. We have been eating well as you’d expect from us. If you follow Al’s Instagram you have already seen the chocolate buns, but I’m still going to share them again. They were amazing. Today we had doughnuts but I may have forgotten to take any photos before we ate them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any raspberry jam at the shop, so we had to settle for strawberry, but that’s hardly a complaint.

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The temperatures have been building all week with today hitting 22 and 26 expected by Saturday, so we have been spending a lot of time outside. There have been times when we have wondered if we would have been better off if we had tried to return to the UK at the beginning of all this, but its hard to see how that would be an improvement on our current situation. We think the Italian government at a local and national level have been doing a great job. I think we both have a lurking fear about something going wrong and us having to deal with Italian medical or social services and not understanding what we need to do or ask for. However, we have an amazing landlord who is in contact to make sure we are ok and if we need help (with Italian) or if we have any concerns he can help with. Luckily, we don’t, but it is a comfort to know that help is there (albeit in Venice) if we do.

Strengthen our communication

Last Friday we had our first virtual pub experience courtesy of some friends with a zoom account and it was so successful that we will repeat it this Friday. It was great to catch up with people and exchange experiences of this crazy time. There were differences in what would really happen at the pub for example, everyone has to be in the one conversation rather than breaking out into separate ones. You can’t read body language or account for slight delays so you inevitably spend some time interrupting each other. However, it’s a pretty good stand in and the drinks range is perfect.

On Tuesday morning I attended a Pilates class thanks to Chrissy of  CMdance . I can’t usually get to it because it’s in Southampton, however it has moved online for the time being, which is lucky for me. It was good to see and talk to people while adding a change to my exercise routine. There seem to be no end of activities you can join in with online now, which I think is fantastic, but I have to be honest and say this is the first one I have done.

It’s great to be able to keep in touch and talk to people face to face, albeit not in person. We are so lucky to have the technology readily available in our homes and we would do well to remember that we have it all the time, not just in the time of a global pandemic.

Cryptology

When the lockdown first began, we printed out the guardian quick crossword and every day would start with coffee and the crossword. It’s not the most difficult crossword though and we started to finish it a bit too quickly. We decided to have another crack at Cryptic crosswords, which we have attempted before but pushed into the too hard pile. We even had a cryptic crossword as a wedding present which we really enjoyed doing, but we just found them difficult to do on an on-going basis. So, now seems like the ideal time to be looking at them again.

This week we have printed an old Everyman cryptic from the Observer every day, so that we can also look up the answers when we give up, which we have to do, a lot. We haven’t finished one without assistance yet, but we are enjoying trying to work them out and learning how the clues work. Some are fiendish works of genius; some are tenuous stretches. Today we only had to look up four, which I think is pretty impressive.

The bit at the end

I wanted to ensure I ended this on a positive note as I felt the start was bleak. Possibly this aptly sums up where I am with it all. I start with some hard and disconcerting facts, move onto some life minutia then try to focus on the positive. Something which I have seen emerge as a kind of sign off on messages and emails is “stay safe” or “stay well” or both. I like this as a kind of subtle identifier of a time before as well as a time after. It’s one of many changes in the way we speak and relate to each other. We have a renewed experience of our power as a community and the importance of everyone in it. The world will be different after this and we have the power to make it better, if we want it.