Rhododendrons

This morning I went to Fakenham to go to B&Q to get them to order the fence woodstain I want. Despite my protests I had to do this in person rather than via their website or over the phone. Then I dropped a carpet sample back and agreed with the carpet company that whilst I want to go ahead, it's better for me, them and their supplier to postpone the order until things are a bit calmer. I felt so sorry for this small local company, it doesn't take much of a drop off in trade for businesses to run out of cash and become insolvent. On a positive note I heard from my psychology group that they're trying to set up a conference group for up to 10 of us to discuss psychology videos we've been sent to watch. I sent the leader 2 Ted talks relevant to the talk I gave last week to start this off. This afternoon G, H and I went for a nice walk at Sheringham Park - good to see the National Trust opening the area to all for free.

Day 5 (for my record)
UK deaths up 33 to 177; Italy up 627 to 4,032 with death rate for men double that for women; cases in Spain exceed 10,000; 40 million go into lock-down in California; WHO says young people not taking this seriously enough. 65,000 retired medical staff have been asked to return to work; key workers have been defined; PM tells pubs, cafes, restaurants, clubs, theatres, cinemas, leisure centres and gyms to close from tonight  (except for take out meals). A major London hospital ran out of critical care capacity. 

A stunning financial support package announced by the Chancellor: Coronavirus job retention scheme set up with grants to cover 80% of wages for retained staff (not working due to coronavirus) up to £2,500 pp pm backdated to 1st Mar; VAT payments to be deferred for next quarter (a £30bn cash injection); an extra £7bn to benefit system with universal credit and tax credits each increased by £1k this year; self assessment payments for self employed deferred; £1bn support for renters.