Friday 20th March 2020. By now things were escalating fast. Schools had mostly switched to remote learning for as many pupils as possible - and the gym I use, attached to a school, had been closed for several days - had it not been I don’t think I would have felt comfortable using it, by that stage. Our office was open but along with many others in the area we had a notice on the door asking people to phone for assistance if possible, and if not, to come in but keep distance from D and myself, inside. The other partner in the firm, R, had already switched to working remotely and it now seemed inevitable that some form of official “work from home” instruction would be issued before too long. D and I were preparing for this - there is a limited amount of my work that I can do remotely but I was working frantically to gather together as much as I could, indeed, working on a Friday when usually I would be off. MrEH who has no choice but to travel into central London on the Underground to his office had already begun WFH - telling his employers the day before that he wasn’t willing to take that risk any more, they agreed. Over the four days of the week that he did travel in the morning trains had got progressively less busy, but the evening commutes still features full to bursting carriages, prompting his decision.
By now the Government had started holding daily televised press briefings at 5pm - these began on 16th March and at the time were by far the best way of getting an accurate picture of how things were unfolding. Frustratingly though - and this frustration continued throughout the year - on almost every occasion things were leaked in advance. On this Friday, the hot-take during the day was that pubs, bars and restaurants were to be told that they were to close from 9pm that day, with no date set when they might be allowed to reopen. MrEH exchanged notes with a few rugby club pals and it was agreed that we’d meet at the club that evening, to help them with drinking the stock they had in, and also to get what was feeling as though it might be our last chance for a while for some socialising...
At the club, people were being respectful of distancing - there weren’t the usual hugs and handshakes being exchanged which felt a little odd, but I think everyone realised it was necessary by then. It felt strange not knowing when we’d be back there again but at that point I think it was fair to say that nobody really expected it would be more than a few months at the most, time to get the “pesky virus” under control and then back to normal, surely? As 9pm approached Di, behind the bar, called last orders - which definitely felt significant!
Robyn.
No comments:
Post a Comment