Corona in Cortona… Isolation in Italy…..Covid Chronicles…. part 6
Friday 27 — 30 March…. Days 17–21 — New season, new habits?
Friday 27th March
Boris has got it! Bit of a shock! I will never forgive him for the Brexit lies, but I wouldn’t wish that on him. Only time will tell if the UK response to the virus has been more, or less, sensible than Italy’s. The delay in the UK of instigating the lockdown struck me as being very unwise, but who knows?
What seems amazing is the Westminster and the cabinet haven’t been following its own advice, and has not been practising social distancing. Did they think they were above it? Immune? So far none of them have got it badly, but at least it will be a bit of a taste for them of what others are going through; of course, they don’t have to worry about getting paid, or where their food is going to come from, but it’s a start.
Only time will tell if the British government got it right; although in terms of preparation, I wonder if the eventual judgement will be, ‘too little, too late’?The other day I saw that George Bush was warning about a flu-like pandemic many years ago. Obama warned that preparations and plans needed to be put in place back in 2015. Five years ago, Bill Gates was saying the same thing, and I see he has now donated a lot of money towards finding a vaccine.
Rishi Sunak seems to be quite on top of things — what an opportunity for him. (Question, how will he be viewed in two years’ time when it will have to be ‘Austerity Plus’?).
I wonder, how long can a shutdown of the whole world continue? Will there come a point when the rubbish is piling up in the streets, there really isn’t any food in the shops and not just because of panic buying, power cuts with cables unfixed etc? When life as we know it is completely and utterly grinding to a halt because of lack of workers? Will there come a time when they just have to say, ‘ok, lockdown over, we will just all have to take our chances… survival of the fittest etc? I hope not… but it’s a scenario…
Saturday 28th March
We are now on form number 5 that we have to print out and carry with us when leaving the house. I think its form 5, I never quite got around to printing out form 4, as some days I don’t actually leave the house.
I am feeling rather proud of myself, as a hobby painter for several years, I have been collecting pictures, photos, articles, and tutorials from various painting magazines; five folders-worth as it turns out. Yesterday I finally got down to it and filed them… each now categorised and easy to access. Ok truthfully, I haven’t quite finished, but I am definitely more than half way … they say that starting is the hardest thing. I will finish tomorrow… Where does the time go?
I must be one of the few in isolation who finds there are not enough hours in the day. I have this urgent feeling that I must make the most of this strange sad time to get my house, my garden, my computer and indeed, my whole life in order, while there is a chance; clearly if I don’t achieve it now then I never will. Perhaps the ‘whole life’ bit is a little optimistic!
Sunday 29 March
A cold start to my day… the heating didn’t come on — I only use it for half an hour each morning, but with overnight temperatures outside close to zero that’s pretty crucial. More importantly why didn’t my new woodburning stufa come on at 5.30? Only when I hear on Radio 4 that it is the first day of spring, does the penny drop — the clocks have gone forward. I have reset the thermostat for the central heating, and am summoning up courage and brain power to tackle the digital thermostat of the stufa. Or maybe I will just leave it off… after all from now on in the days are longer, and should soon be warmer.
There is such a lift to the spirits when the clocks finally ‘spring forward’. I have already been noticing the riot of the spring wildflowers — as if they too can’t bear any longer to be stuck in the damp dark and yearn to reach up and out for warmth. Probably most people, (but not me), know the answer to this already, but I have been wondering about the etymology of the word ‘primavera’. ‘First something’, I assume. Perhaps the ‘vera’ bit actually comes from the same root as the word green — verde in Italian, vert in French; so maybe it’s ‘first green’, or ‘first growth’. For me it feels almost like a rebirth. A new year is springing into life.
I suppose, that winter provides the perfect counterpoint to those long lazy days of summer. After all, without black, there’s no white; without dark there’s no light. So, here’s to Winter –and, please god, for now, lets drink to the fact that ITS ALL OVER!!!
Monday 30th March
It’s not quite two weeks yet since the emergency cabinet briefings started, but it seems to be fast becoming a habit amongst many of my British friends to listen to the ‘Boris Briefing’ every evening at 5 pm (6 pm for us in Italy).
It reminds me of those old British war films you see, where the whole family gathers around the old radio to listen to the latest news from the front. And of course, since the sun is over the yardarm, a little glass of wine is sometimes in order.
Literally nothing like this has ever happened in the world before, and yet it seems for many the new social distancing measures have become habit very quickly. Depending on who or what you read, it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit, and an average of 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic. I think its’ possible that during this strange time, while many things have slowed down, habit forming might have speeded up.
When you are watching tv, do you know that instant, just a split second, when you have what isn’t exactly a thought, more of a twinge, when you’re watching a film, and you feel that a car is driving on the wrong side of the road. For Brits it’s when watching an American or Italian film, and presumably vice-a-versa. Actually, having been here fourteen years, it’s when I see a car hurtling along on the left-hand side that I get the ‘huh?’ moment. The other evening, I had that same instantaneous twinge when I saw several people who didn’t live in the same house, all gathered, clustered very closely, together. For a split second it felt all wrong, then I remembered it was a TV programme from several years ago.
