2020 March – EDF v Sparks, Scruffts, Panic Buying, Midnight Snack, Prep, Isolation, Brave New World
EDF v Sparks
This is a picture of me helping offspring #3 change energy supplier.
Apparently it isn’t going very well.
As you can tell I am being supportive although I feel as if may be in need of a bit of an energy supply myself to be honest.
I expect it’s because I am due a treat.
That is, if offspring #3 can tear herself away from her riveting conversation.
Scruffts
This is a picture of me resolutely ignoring offspring #3 who is talking to me about Scruffts.
I am being so resolute that I may, in fact, have fallen asleep. That is how interested I am in attending Scruffts.
Anyway, gotta give the other cross breed dogs a chance – rude not to eh?
I may be many things including loud and barky, but I’m not rude.
Panic Buying
This is a picture of me with my tennis balls.
I am just checking out the situation in case I need to send Mum out to panic buy some more.
It’s a tough call.
Midnight snack (only early)
This is a picture of me after my dinner.
If I stare very hard at Mum she will get me a treat as well. I can keep this up for ages and eventually she will feel guilty and comply.
Yeah, you all know she will.
Prep
Everyone is getting ready to work from home.
All the offspring and boyfriends seem to have multiple screens and multiple nervous breakdowns prepping for the inevitable.
Isolation
This is a picture of me self isolating.
Oh wait. That’s just a normal day for me.
I s’pose it will make any adjustments not so difficult – maybe..???
Brave New World
This is a picture of me in the brave new world.
It all looks the same to me but apparently everything has quite literally changed overnight due to the pandemic.
Mum is now her Aunt’s official carer. Since I am Mum’s full time carer anyway, it means I must have inherited another human to look after. This is the final straw really. I’m not quite sure how I’m expected to cope. As you all know, Mum is a handful on her own.
As this is the brave new world I will play along and be brave about it, but I don’t have to like it.
The sooner this pandemic malarkey is over, the better, in my opinion.
Saffron’s recommendations this month:
Music: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (and I feel fine) by R.E.M
Reading: Pale Rider (The Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it changed the world) by Laura Spinney, published by Jonathan Cape.
An interesting and horribly bleak back cover:
‘Your best chance of survival was to be utterly selfish. Assuming you had a place you could call home, the optimal strategy was to stay there, not answer the door, jealously guard your hoard of food and water and ignore all pleas for help’.
Let’s hope things have moved on a little since 1918.
Or a lot.
Film: Contagion – starring Mat Damon. Let’s face it, watching this has apparently informed some of the Government’s Covid-19 strategy. Might be one of the more sensible things they’ve done so far. You never know. This is what it says on Wiki about the film:
The plot concerns the spread of a virus transmitted by respiratory droplets and, attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease, the loss of social order in a pandemic and the introduction of a vaccine to halt its spread so that the virus will likely become an endemic disease.
Let’s watch this play out eh?
In the news:
Schools in all four countries of the United Kingdom will shut from the afternoon of Friday 20 March, except for those looking after the children of keyworkers and vulnerable children, and no exams will take place in England and Wales this academic year
23rd March COVID-19 in the UK: In a televised address, PM Boris Johnson announces a UK-wide lockdown with immediate effect, to contain the spread of Covid-19. People can leave their homes only for “very limited purposes” – shopping for basic necessities; for one form of exercise a day; for any medical need; and to travel to and from work when “absolutely necessary”. A number of other restrictions are imposed, with police given powers to enforce the measures, including the use of fines
For the first time, all of the UK’s mobile networks send out a government text alert, ordering people to stay at home. The message reads: “GOV.UK CORONAVIRUS ALERT. New rules in force now: you must stay at home. More info and exemptions at gov.uk/coronavirus Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.
Ministers urges shoppers to stop panic buying as supermarkets around the UK struggle to keep up with demand – toilet paper is the new currency.
At 8 pm, millions of people around the country take part in a ‘clap for our carers’ tribute, applauding the NHS and other care workers – repeated every Thursday for ten weeks