Mush

Today in the small supermarket I visited in the evening there was a decent amount of fresh veg. The only thing that had a sign stating the purchasing limit was mushrooms. I was very surprised by this. Out of all vegetables that needed controlling, I didn’t think it would be the one that half the adult population seems to hate.

I got back into the warmth timed with the fallout from Boris Johnson’s latest address. I understand the need for tighter guidance after a sunny weekend where everyone apparently frolicked in parks. The impact of isolation is potentially massive, especially for those of us who are alone. A friend described it as ‘psychologically taxing.’ I personally feel very daunted by it as when I want to act like a hermit, it’s temporary and voluntary. What I hope is that measures are equally strict across the board so that something half-hearted doesn’t negate something stringent. For example, ten people walking in a group, which is now not permitted, is less risky than ten people touching the same door handle of a shop given how much we’ve heard that the infection can linger. The latter risk doesn’t seem to have been addressed at all based on the shops I’ve been in: no alcohol gel at entrances, no doors propped open to reduce touching and certainly not uniform use of gloves and protective measures at checkouts. For me this feels flawed based on the very real challenges that isolation poses, if we are then all funnelled to supermarkets where transmission risk isn’t lowered via easy measures. If we’re lax anywhere where there is a lot of footfall, the virus will be harder to contain so social measures will be harsher for longer, which prolongs the impact on people. I’d much rather see these measures improved in parallel with social distancing.

I had 15 minutes in the sun after returning the rental car, and walked through one of the very quiet commons in Cambridge. It was joyous.