vivoitalia – Page 3 – JenandAlsbigItalianadventure

April 3, 2020

And the beat goes on…

What’s new pussycat

It had been hard to think what to write this week. Up until yesterday afternoon essentially everything was the same, I was working 2 jobs part time and learning how to teach online. A small amount of structure for my time and Al was keeping himself busy with cooking. However, the 1^st school called me to confirm it was going into temporary shut down, something that is inexplicably being referred to as “furlough” in the UK. I will get 80% of my contracted hours under the Italian insurance scheme, which is 7 hours a week. The 2^nd job is only for 3 hours on a Tuesday and is due to finish at the end of April. There is no news yet on what is happening with exams so I don’t know if there will be any invigilation work. To be honest I was expecting it, I thought the 1^st school might have been in trouble before the virus and now we aren’t going to be attracting new students. It’s disappointing, but we know we are not alone in facing work uncertainty at the moment.

Al cooked a Lemon drizzle cake to replace the chocolate cake we finished yesterday (see main picture with strawberries and tea). I don’t have any human weighing scales so I can’t confirm how much weight I might be putting on, but I know that I put half an inch back on my waist. We are still watching movies and TV series and although we have not started Tiger King yet, I feel it’s only a matter of time. We are reading books and listening to music. I subscribed to London Review of Books on a half price deal, just before this started and so I am building a mammoth book list for when this is over as well as loading my Kindle. We both have “at home” workout routines. We take it in turns to go to the shop and do bin runs as we’re not supposed to go out together. The weather has been sunny and cold this week. The sun cream turned up yesterday, hopefully the warm weather will follow.

The Future

I think it is probably natural to be looking to the future at the moment. It is difficult when we don’t know when this situation will end or how it will be brought to a conclusion. It’s hard to imagine that there will be a day when we are all let loose to return to our previous patterns of behaviour and scoot gleefully across the world again. Presumably restrictions of some sort or another will still be in place for some time to come and will depend on the downward trajectory of infection rates in various locations. The rate of new cases here has slowed but not yet started to come down. Our initial lockdown end date was today but this was extended to 14^th April, although I can’t see this ending before May.

However, I am entertaining myself by planning for something that I have decided to reclaim from the Brexit mess and that is “Liberation day” – when we are all able to move freely again and the Covid-19 virus is no longer posing an immediate threat to lives. I would contribute to hear some Big Ben bongs on that day, I can tell you. I’m saving up my last hair dye and deciding which of Bologna’s many fabulous restaurants and bars will be graced with my post quarantine presence first. I cordially invite you to join me in this and repurposing Liberation Day into a day of inclusive global celebration!

A little help from my friends

Something that I hope we will take forward once this is all over is this spirit of community and helping each other out. I have witnessed this firsthand here in Italy and I am gratified to see examples from the UK such as the overwhelming response to the UK Government volunteer request. We watched the Frank Turner benefit for The Joiners last night and hope to watch the one for The Railway Inn in Winchester next week. There are so many people performing or working on -line, which is great to see and be part of (even if it’s just in the audience). It had become all to easy to think that we lived in a selfish time when people were only looking out for themselves, but I think the response to this situation demonstrates more what is best about people. There are plenty of us that, when the chips are down, get together (not literally in these circumstances) and work out new solutions and ways of supporting each other and staying positive. My social media might be a bubble but its one filled with beautiful people doing awe inspiring things and helping each other. Many people and businesses are suffering right now, but if we all continue to do what we can and work together as a community we can help ensure as many as possible keep going. We are amazing when we work together.

Al and I on the way to the shop, before the one person rule

March 26, 2020

So glad you could join us

Benvenuti a Lockdown!

When I was thinking about writing this week’s blog I was conscious that the likelihood was by the time I came to write it lockdown would be a reality for the UK too. Comparing the numbers of Corona Virus cases from Italy two weeks before the UK, it seemed a similar story was emerging. I am sorry it had to come to this, but I think it’s in everyone’s interests. Hopefully they are finding, so far, it’s ok. A great many kind people, organisations and businesses are offering services for free or on reduced rates for us to do/use while we are at home. However, as I said last week, we shouldn’t try to do too much. We are in strange days and there is a mental aspect to this as much as a physical restriction. No doubt your thoughts and feelings about being in lockdown have changed and will change. Make sure you look for and hold onto the positives of which there are many.

A change in the weather

Last week we had balmy 20 degree days. You might remember my photo of the garden, glass of wine in hand. I want to make as much use of the garden as possible at this time and I was worried for my pale blue Celtic skin so I put in an Amazon order for sun cream. The supermarket we can walk too does not have a lot of choice available as it’s not a big store. I thought getting an order would be better than travelling out to a bigger store and potentially encountering more people even if social distancing is practiced here. This week has rewarded us with a wind warning and days barely reaching the 10s so it hasn’t been garden weather, although it has been sunny. However, this morning we were greeted by snow!!! Snow and it was settling, which we were not expecting at all. A quick check of the weather forecast confirms the 20 degree days will return by Sunday, which is good because my sun cream has not arrived yet.

Learning new skills and being bored

This week I learned to use a new online teaching platform as well as how to set up and use groups on Skype. My lessons are spread out over the week a couple of hours, usually not more than 3, at a time. A lot of the day feels like waiting for lessons and other activities are fitted around lessons and prep. I think I pulled a muscle in my stomach doing Yoga, so I’ve been laying off that and I caution those who are planning a vigorous exercise regime during this time not to over do it. Al has been bored because he doesn’t have any work to give structure, however I will mention that tonight I will be eating a chicken pie with handmade puff pastry. The chicken filling was also several processes and days in the making. We’ve also had homemade pasta and bread this week.

Last thoughts for this post

We are a couple of weeks ahead of the UK in this weird netherworld of lockdown. There is a stoicism that says just keep going which is good and helpful but, its ok to admit this is frightening. We have never seen the like of this in our lifetimes. We have no reference data to tell us how to feel and what to do. We are in an event we have only read about in post-apocalyptic books and seen in disaster movies. By staying in and minimising our contact with others less people will die, but that’s still pretty stark. There’s a part of you that feels like this is a holiday, a part that feels like this is an inconvenience and a part of you that is terrified and it’s all correct and OK to feel. We don’t know what is going to happen, which is always true, but is scarier now because we didn’t really think this would happen. One day this week I said to Al that I had a lot of work to do but I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. I’m not always sleeping and I’m imagining symptoms (luckily a fever can’t be psychosomatically generated) on a consistent basis because, hey, that’s the kind of girl I am. Turns out, it’s perfectly natural. Everyone is doing it, because it’s part of a natural human reaction. Allow yourself to have these moments. It will be ok and we will get through this, but if we have the occasional tremble, or just need to pull the duvet over our heads today, so be it. Be kind to everyone, but especially yourself. We can choose what elements of this experience we hold onto and take forward and which elements of our old life we want to let go of and leave behind.

March 12, 2020

Bologna in the time of the Corona Virus

Life before lockdown

If I had written this piece last week it would be completely different. I was into the start of the second week of Skype only lessons with the school closed. Al had just been advised that the place where his restaurant is located would be closing for evenings. This was a move as related to falling demand as to public safely as people had stopped going out as much. Corona Virus was largely to the north of us in the mountains and ski resort areas. We had taken advantage of more free time by visiting a few sites we hadn’t got round to like the walk to San Luca (to be told in a future posting), finding groups of school kids excited at the unexpected holidays pretty much everywhere we went. Museums and galleries were closed so there was nothing but views to admire.

The tourist numbers had been quick to drop and the arteries of the quadrilatero (medieval centre) were no longer so clogged as to make them impassable. In fact, one of the busiest streets, Via Pescherie Vecchie was so empty of customers I thought about stopping for lunch just because it might be the only time I could get into a restaurant here. Usually the voices around the centre of town are Italian with the occasional English, American or Chinese accent being quite striking and evidently tourist, so I hadn’t appreciated how many of those voices were Italian tourists and not locals. This became apparent by the reduction of people around. We knew the fall in visitors would have a financial impact so we decided to spend our money in shops that were likely to suffer the most.

Staying informed

We are using a mixture of media to keep abreast of what is going on from the BBC, The Local.it, La Repubblica and The Commune di Bologna (local council) as well as staying up to date with current travel advice on Gov.uk. We have been surprised by the differences in the tone of reporting that we were accessing with a lot of UK news articles on social media having overtones of panic and fear. I was amazed to see an article from Sky News and other British tabloids reporting everyone returning from Italy had to put themselves in self-quarantine. A quick check of gov.uk at the time confirmed what I thought, this advice was only if you were returning from one of the hot spots or if you had any symptoms. While we knew of the international reputation (infamy) of the British Press these events have really highlighted the stark difference between keeping people informed and acting in public interests and trying to sell copy, distract and manipulate the public agenda. Unfortunately, almost without exception the British reporting has fallen into the latter rather than the former.

Even the stories from the region published in the British press seem to be the more hysterical ones. They do not chime with my experience at all. Is this because people like me don’t contact the UK press to provide comment, or because our stories are not exciting enough? I have seen quiet calm and dignity. I have heard stories of panic buying, but I haven’t seen any for myself and the shops here have plenty of toilet roll.

I will admit that, with hindsight, we might not have thought this as serious as we perhaps should. We continued to go to our favourite bars and restaurants, although they were quieter. We continued to meet with friends and discuss the situation. We were not feeling ill and not overly concerned as although we knew the Corona Virus would eventually come here, it was not really here yet. We were even still encouraging people to come here and have a relatively crowd free experience.

What a difference a week makes

Last Thursday we were advised that the schools nationwide would be closed for 10 days, so we knew our schools would not be opening here. We knew people who had been forced to take holidays as local, small businesses began taking efforts to restrict the financial impacts. After that things moved quickly. On Saturday the Red sites or hot spots were extended to include Modena 23 miles to our North and Rimini 70 miles to our south. Although we were not in lock down, we were surrounded by areas that were. On Sunday Al went to work to be told his workplace would be closing until 3^rd April. As he had the night off and it was the anniversary of our arrival in Bologna we decided to go out for dinner. We went to a restaurant on Via Pescherie Vecchie. The centre was not as lively as a typical Sunday night, but it was a little livelier than we were expecting so we felt more hopeful that this time would pass soon enough. On Monday we went to the vegetable shop and bought more food than normal because Al usually eats at work but now, we would both be having our meals at home. We focused on fruit and vegetables to ensure we ate healthily and as a boost to our immune systems. Late on Monday night we got the news that all of Italy would be put into lockdown, there were no such things as red sites anymore.

Via Pescherie Vecchie into the Quadrilatero

The Corona Virus

I have heard many things about the Corona Virus ranging from its no worse than Flu to it’s the end of the world. I just wanted to unpack some of the things from either end and the middle. The flu is not like a cold. If you think it is, then be thankful you have never had the flu. I cannot count the colds of varying severity I’ve had but I know I have had flu twice. It is a horrible illness and I would be happy never to have it again. Flu does kill every year and while the happy majority manage to rest it out at home, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I don’t want Corona virus anymore than I want another dose of flu thanks very much.

The odds might well be that like 80% of people (source WHO) I would not have a bad case and that I would be able to recover at home. It’s not really me I’m concerned about. It’s who I might come into contact with, who I might unwittingly infect. It’s the old lady in the street who I might have exchanged pleasantries with, it’s the shop worker who has to work so people can eat. I am more aware than ever before of the people whose lives I touch, even if it is just in passing. You can have this virus for up to two weeks before you develop any symptoms. Can you remember everywhere you have been in the last fortnight? Everyone you spoke to, everything you touched? It’s people who are coming into contact with friends and family with asthma, with diabetes, with compromised immune systems and any other number of health issues who would not be able to manage an infection so nonchalantly that concern me and so we all need to take responsibility.

We owe it to our friends, families and the wider communities in which we live to take this seriously and make sure that we are taking the precautions that we can. We are not able to stop the transmission of the flu (although actually the same measures would help) but there is still time to contain this virus and we should all make every effort to do that so that those in our communities who are vulnerable are not put at risk by our cavalier attitudes because we think we would be able to handle the sickness.

In Europe and the US the weather is starting to get warmer and we can hope the increase in temperatures will help to kill off this virus in the same way the flu is reduced in the summer months. However, we can’t know if that’s the case and the other half of the world is in the opposite situation, getting colder and with their flu season about to start.

Let’s all try not to panic and inflict pain and misery on others; hoarding goods we don’t need; reducing the supplies of gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, medical support and medicines from those that really need them. Let’s stop thinking only of ourselves and what the impact is, or could be, on us. Let’s demonstrate the best of humanity by washing our hands especially after we have been in public places; minimising unnecessary contact with others; minimising travel; checking in on our family, friends and neighbours and only buying what we actually need to get through this period.

It’s not all doom and gloom

So here we are, in day 2 of the Italian lockdown. Food shops are still open and people are still free to move in their towns and streets, going to work etc. They are advised to minimise contact with other people and of course the ubiquitous hand washing advice. We weren’t planning on going anywhere else and we’re in the city so we don’t feel too restricted. Yesterday we went to the butchers and I waited outside while Al ordered because they had a two customers at a time restriction. We went to a large supermarket, where shelves were stacked and no one appeared to be panicking. Shop staff wear masks and gloves.

The school I work for is making plans to extend online lessons. Al is making bread and pasta. It was 19 degrees and sunny today so we had lunch in our garden while reading. I don’t know what will happen next, no one does, but I look forward to giving you an update next week.