annanotbob2's Diaryland Diary
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March 16th
Ah, man, thank you for letting me know how you are. It's been really great, feeling that contact, that we're all here as well as all apart. Keeping these online communities is going to be vital over the next god knows how long, isn't it? And I think we'll all need to be in several. Bloody hell, though, eh? I had an email today from WSCC saying the libraries would be shut until further notice which tipped the whole thing right into scary reality. I've started to feel like the old woman in that Raymond Briggs comic book Where the Wind Blows, about nuclear war, bumbling about, thinking it's just a bit of a faff, ending up mental and dead under a table from radiation poisoning.
Bloke does all the food shopping as he has the money and although he requires instructions as to what to buy, he's also a twat about it. Won't use a trolley, will only get what he can carry in one basket, so if the list gets too long he chooses what to get/not get and as he has a morbid fear of not having to go every single fucking day he only gets what's essential for that day. Since the panic buying started I've been asking him to pick up a few things here and there so we have some kind of bloody store cupboard that's more than just spices and sauces, some pasta here, a bag of flour there, some yeast perhaps, tinned tomatoes, etc but he's kept on ignoring me till today when suddenly the shelves were empty. Fuck all of anything, including fresh fruit and veg, eggs, can't remember what else. Man. It was late in the day though so maybe it will be OK tomorrow if he goes in the morning. Mind you we do have loads of stuff in the freezer, mostly leftovers of homecooked stuff. And as I may have mentioned, I'm quite fat. But still, scared.
Fucking Johnson finally made an announcement, vague and useless as ever, but urging people like me, old, with compromised health (pneumonia last year) to "self-isolate" which is what I'd decided to do anyway. So no Tuesday art group. Me and B (my old mate B, who has recently started coming to art and who I've known for over 40 years, we calculated last Tuesday, though we weren't mates till he'd stopped drinking about 25 years ago), anyway, me and him are going to do art from 11-1 as usual, but at home, hopefully with a bit of texting and photo-sharing. This could be expanded to include anyone who wanted to join us.
Aw man, I just noticed it's gone 1 am, so I'm offski, though I had loads more to say. I walked on the city beach with Shirley today, after going to acupuncture and being careful to the point of paranoia about not touching anything, or getting too close to anyone, apart from the acupuncturist, and the bubble guy was there on the beach, delighting children of all ages:
Night night, keep safe and do keep in touch. If you have to stay in and you don't already, maybe this is a good time to start a blog, eh?
Today I am grateful for: daughter's temperature going down and staying down; having a big fat belly; having a dog to walk - you're allowed to walk your dog, just stay away from other people; for experiencing this in the era of the internet; having a whole load of art supplies.
xxx
1:15 a.m. - 17.03.20
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