I met Jane in the plaza beneath my flat. We sat at opposite ends of a bench like two spies about to hand over state secrets. What we did actually hand over – or more accurately, what ran across the social distance between us – was Bertie.
We had a health scare with Coco at the beginning of the week, resulting in a couple of sleepless nights for us and an operation for her. She’s fine, and is recuperating at home. But what she doesn’t need is Bertie wrestling with her all hours of the day. So now I’m on Puppy Patrol.
This has had an enormously positive impact on my life. The cumulative weeks of insolation were having an effect on me that I wasn’t even admitting to myself. Now I have some company. He’s my Wilson to Tom Hanks’s Castaway. He’s one of the funniest, and certainly the most affectionate dog I’ve ever known, and barely leaves my side for a second.
Being a Working Cocker Spaniel his energy levels are off the scale. This has added some welcome enforced structure and exercise to my current life:
06:00 – 90 minute walk
08:00 – Breakfast for two
08:30 – Work
12:00 – Lunch for two
12:30 – 90 minute walk
14:00 – Work
18:00 – Dinner for two
19:00 – 60 minute walk
20:30 – Fall asleep in front of the telly whilst attempting to watch first episode of box set for the 10th time
I’m just very grateful that social distancing doesn’t extend to dogs.
Prior to this pandemic, thanks to Brexit and the ensuing culture war, Britain has been engulfed in political turmoil for three years. Each day seemed to bring a new political calamity, which was then promptly forgotten when the next one happened 24 hours later. Weeks felt like months, months felt like years. I really regret not keeping a simple note of events as they happened, just so I could look back and try and make some sense of it all.
So during this period I’ve decided to sum up the weekly events that have struck me the most, from the deadly serious to the absurdly ridiculous. If my tone seems flippant at times…well, we all have our own way of getting through this horror.
See all previous updates here
This week in The Coronapocalypse:
- US oil prices go below zero for first time on record
- Oktoberfest cancelled
- Denmark bans gatherings of 500+ until September
- France bans all flights outside the Schengen zone
- Parliament re-convenes using video conferencing technology
- President Trump announces plan to suspend immigration to US
- Government’s chief medical officer says return to normal in short term is ‘wholly unrealistic’
- UK will need social distancing until at least end of year
- Oxford University starts first human trials of Covid-19 vaccine
- In this week’s edition of Don’t Try This At Home, President Trump floats the idea of injecting disinfectant as a treatment for Covid-19
- Disinfectant & bleach manufacturers issue statements advsing people not to drink their products
- Government to setup website to roll out mass testing to UK keyworkers
- Government website runs out of tests within 120 seconds
- Road traffic levels on the rise again
- Home Secretry Priti Patel mocked for boasting shoplifting has declined. (clue: shops are closed)
- 99 Year old veteran Captain Tom Moore becomes oldest person ever to have UK No. 1 hit
Worldwide cases: 2,921,556 (previous week 2,332,471)
Worldwide deaths: 203,299 (previous week 160,784 )
UK cases: 148,377 (previous week 114,217 )
UK deaths: 20,319 (previous week 15,464)