Weekender 17: Howzat

Cricket! It's back in season, although I don't remember the announcement. Why should I when I've no interest in it. But what Middle England wants, it gets. So out on the local cricket pitch it's game on. As you might expect, on a fine Summer's afternoon, there are lots of people out watching, picnicking and doing all the things they do when watching cricket. Not one instance of social distancing that I could so. Nor any masks.

The problem with normality is that it dulls the blade. If, and I hope it's only if, a second wave happens necessitating a retreat I think it will be a hard sell. How quickly everything is forgotten, even though the virus hasn't really gone away. It's still there and will remain there until it can be cured. If it can be cured. Winter is coming, to coin a phrase.

I was even planning to travel. I haven't caught a bus in four months. Five months ago, if you'd told me that was going to happen I would have laughed. I can't think there's been such a period since the day I caught my first bus as an adult. Unthinkable. Yet reality.

I didn't, I haven't. I might do, I'd like to. There's a lot of useful stuff I'd like to buy, but then I think about what the shops will be like. Ironically the buses seem much emptier which is always a good thing. As for what it's like in town...I have no idea. It could be 28 days later, or the 28th of December (that didn't make much sense). I don't at all object to the added social distancing and limits placed on behaviour as a shopper, it's just the unusual nature contributes to my reticence, in the same way that seeing people in masks makes you think of the virus.

I don't know if this feeling will ever disappear. Perhaps one day, when the virus is no longer a threat. It's more likely I will have to make a decision prior because this isn't going away anytime soon. The ultimate risk assessment. Life has always been full of them; crossing the road to catch a bus is no different. It's just tripping over in the middle the highway isn't contagious, however unfortunate. Sooner or later I'm going to have to go out. That decision may well be made on my behalf if I'm called in to the Job centre for a Work Focused Interview - assuming they are still happening. Given that the DWp seems to be operating business as usual I think that likely.

This is our world now. We are dancing in the ruins.