#SoCS 7/11/20 - Jour(ney) through lockdown.

 

#SoCS is hosted by Linda - here

Pop over to her blog to see how to take part and who else is joining in.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “jour.” Find a word containing “jour” or use it as is. Bonus points if you start or end your post with that word. Enjoy!

Journeying through lockdown - again! Yes we're in our second lockdown thanks to the rising numbers of Corona virus cases, more hospital admisions and, inevitably more deaths.

Someone asked me in a comment yesterday what the lockdown meant and I decided to blog about it rather than just reply to the comment.  And then today's prompt seemed rather apt so here we go:

Our first lockdown began back in March 2020. (24th to be precise - I made a note of this.)  Initially it did feel like we were under house arrest.  You could only go to work if you couldn't work from home, no contact with anyone outside your house.  It was awful.  But we adapted.  We had to.  There seemed to be no end in sight as we watched the numbers climb and climb.

Living in London we saw the worst of the numbers.  The awful situations in the hospitals, the temporary morgue built at the end of the road.  

Things didn't start easing until June and then it was only gradual.  I couldn't get a haircut until July.  We didn't go out to eat until the end of August.  Schools reopened in September.  Universities reopened in October and then numbers started to rise again.

A tiered system of restrictions were tried but, as numbers continued to rise a national 4 week lockdown was imposed for England from last Thursday.

Which means we are supposed to stay home as much as possible.  People have to work at home unless they can't.  Only essential shops and services remain open although places such as coffee shops, pubs restaurants etc can serve takeaways.

We can go out to exercise but can only meet up with one person from outside our household.  This means I can meet with my son OR my DIL but not both at the same time.  They can bring the little ones with them though as they're aged under 4.

Schools and universities will remain open but uni students are finding uni life challenging.  Many have been isolating in their halls of residence as corona cases in unis have risen.  One uni in Manchester tried to fence in residences.  Students, understandably as there was no warning of this,  were not happy and protested.  The fences were torn down.  Unfortunately during the protests many students can be seen without masks and definitely not social distancing.

We are constantly being reminded of HANDS, FACE, SPACE i.e. washing our hands frequently, wearing a face mask and leaving space between us. 

Thankfully we can form a childcare "bubble" with one other household so we've done that with my daughter and her family as their second baby is due later this month and we will be looking after our grandson when that happens.  This means we can visit them in their home and even stay overnight when necessary.  But this does mean we can only meet Grandsons Rory and Vinny's parents as described above.  We also cannot travel to Nottingham to see my eldest son and his family.  That's hard when they have a new baby too and they change so quickly during these early months.  I console myself with the photos/videos etc and contact that social media enables and that the baby is none the wiser really as to what is going on.

Our Prime Minister has advised that the lockdown will end after 4 weeks.  I'm not holding my breath on that one but hopefully things will be easier by Christmas.  I think the biggest of the many mistakes the Government have made were allowing households to mix in places like restaurants and pubs where face and space were totally disregarded and allowing unis to open to students rather than doing online tutoring.

Another failing has been in our Track & Trace system which is still nowhere near good enough.  They changed course on this too and now we have an app that only works on some phones - I've recently upgraded my phone and now have the app but my old phone, and that of my husband were unable to download the app.

Testing has also been patchy.  In some areas it's been fine but in others it's proved difficult to get a test and then results have taken too long to be returned. 

Of course this pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for world leaders and even some of those that seemed to be doing well initially are now battling increasing cases.

Some asian countries (South Korea is often quoted) seem to be doing better but I can't help but think their citizens are more likey to comply with restrictions and instructions than others that see them as draconian and an infringement of their civil liberties.

As an island nation we should have done better.  New Zealand set a good example but we haven't followed it.

For Hubby and me the lockdown is not really that hard.  We have a nice home, hubby is still employed, we've managed to get our shopping online right through this difficult time and we are in a nice area for getting out for a daily walk.  Things could be a lot worse.

Yes I'm desperate to be able to see more of the kids and Grandkids and to be able to give them a hug.  A holiday would be nice but I think it will be a while before I take that sort of journey.