Desperate Times

The food shortage situation is getting so bad here that this morning Gavin delayed going in to the office and was at Teso by 6am (their opening time) to try and get some food for us. However he had to queue outside in the cold for an hour, as the supermarket were only allowing a maximum of 50 people in the store at one time. They had to stand far apart in the queue, and again when inside they had to keep their distance from other shoppers, especially when in the queue to pay. There were staff monitoring the situation. He was also only allowed to buy one item of certain products instead of two. Quite right too, I don't know why other supermarkets have not instituted such strict measures. 

He came home with armfuls of beautiful flowers - for Mother's Day on Sunday - and much smaller quantities of food than expected. But still he managed to get some products I have not seen in over 3 weeks , never knew I could get so excited about some Dettol wipes! It is a surreal situation, the food shortages almost feels like we are at war, and yet luxury items like flowers are in abundance. 

Today is Luke's birthday - he should have been celebrating in Germany for the weekend with his girlfriend and friends, instead he is holed up in his flat working from home. Thankfully London has not gone into lockdown yet.He is coming home tonight and I will cook a birthday meal and have already used two precious eggs to bake a banana loaf and made some butternut soup which is a family favourite. Adam is also coming home from Cambridge. It is such an unsettling time for him not knowing what the situation is regarding his research.

When will this all end? It seems like a long term problem according to this. Some places, like Royal Opera House, are closed until 19th April. Some, like Glyndebourne Opera are closed until 14 July. Every day there is another phone call or email cancelling something that was booked weeks/months in advance. Soon we are all going to be bored and depressed and the NHS will be facing a surge in mental health problems. 

I am still so concerned about the small local businesses around us. Our local cafe is still open - hand sanitiser on the counter to be used as you come in, take aways available, tables removed so as to increase the distance between customers, outside tables available - they are struggling to survive and as much as I am being strict about social distancing I feel a duty to support them so they do not go out of business. I will have a think about it and may go get a coffee there tomorrow. 

Some pretty primroses for Flower Friday.