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Living through lockdown – a new normality!

First week of lockdown: The second week and I like everyone else, am trying to come to terms with this new world. The new normality which it brings, which would have been inconceiveable three weeks ago, is a bitter pill which must be taken.

I have decided to cocoon myself completely. Its just not worth taking the risk. Even though I went to Lidl Sunday morning, a place with silent, morose, masked people seemingly oblivious to social distance guidelines. It is quietly becoming a survival of the fittest game, from which I must disqualify myself.

There were terrible scenes in Glendalough last weekend, a place of unrivalled beauty, made so very ugly because of a thronged desire for fresh air and a huge bacterial cataclysm that could have resulted, if only one of the visitors had the virus.

A good friend of mine, who is stranded in her holiday home outside Barcelona, recommended that such national parks including the Pheonix park, should be closed immediately. Life and our new kind of living, is going to be undeniably tough for those with no access to nature.

This is my one consulation at this time. I made the point last year of getting a lot of tulip bulbs, which having emerged victorious from the winter harshness are now swelling and ready to explode into much awaited colour.

I am happy with Leo Varadkar and his ad hoc government, getting us through these difficult times. Surely its a great thing to have a qualified doctor, steering the ship and avoiding contagious bumps.

All non essential shops and businesses were closed yesterday, but I still think they have handled it much better than the British government, who seem to have gone from a very leisurely casual dawdle, to a charged sprint almost overnight. With all of the hurried harshness which a strict lockdown brings.

Its just been announced that Prince Charles has the virus, which hopefully will impress on everyone the impartial savagery which this virus posesses. Also I’ve just heard a very sad recollection, by an Irishwoman living in Bergamot, Italy about an old man dumbstruck in front of her house, overcome to hear the playful sounds of her young kids in the back garden, a happy exception to the new cacophany of ambulance sirens or air ambulances.

I was very happy with the innovative system which my local chemist displayed. Running low on medication, I was given a designated time to come in and collect it. Also the local butcher had assigned metre boxes which it asked customers to stay in, while waiting to be served by masked and gloved staff behind protective screens.

I think when all this is over, this now forced upon new normality, will be quite hard to be stripped away. I have heard about little vermin spawn, who consider it the height of fun, to jump out on elderly people taking a coveted and planned stroll, cough in their faces and run off!

Hopefully such displays of nastiness are countered by the better side of humanity. Although in fairness I have not seen one member of an organisation, civil or civilian, enquiring if help is needed.

The bodies I will be thanking after this are everyone involved with 3 Internet and even the ESB people, who keep the power going. I never want to hear a bad word again about the waste of time and money being put into fibre optic cables.

This crisis has lauded the Internet and its saving possibilities. Remote learning and working would not be possible without it and the calming reassurance which social connection gives.

Stay safe everyone!

 

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