Lock and key

‘Boris Johnson waved thanks to NHS staff as he left intensive care’. I read this headline soon after waking. Is this event noteworthy? Even the Guardian featured it, but even though I scoured the story I could find precisely no reason for it. It’s Easter and I’m not religious but even I pray for the day we may become less vacuous as lappers-up of ‘news’.

I worked a bit whilst Gugs exercised and curled up on a chair to read a book in the sun, à la a more literary and less disdainful cat.

As neither of us were expecting to be in the UK for long (I hate to say indefinitely but it’s worthwhile managing our own expectations), Gugs and I have to be resourceful. So that she can have a bike for exercise, I performed a Challenge Anneka style mission to get tools and a key from friends Sophie and Gildas two miles away, to unlock and fix up Sophie’s bike from the work storage unit in the city centre. We didn’t know whether we’d be successful but to be honest I was just grateful for a purposeful errand and a socially distanced chat with old friends as we exchanged items on their drive.

Marvellously, the bike rescue worked, so we headed to a quiet area on the edge of the city and sat in a field for a while. The weather was lovely and if it continues in this way it will make lockdown more bearable by a factor of one million. For energy I snaffled a Boost and a tub of pineapple and then sat along the Backs catching up with Hannah and Clare via the wonderful Marco Polo app, and then Leigh for a great video call. Introspection is soaring to new heights during the lockdown. As I was perched a policeman strode purposefully in my direction and I was about to argue about why I needed to be moved on when I was at least 100 metres from the nearest person. However he gave me a cheerful greeting and furtled in the bushes nearby from where a couple of lads had not long since emerged. All very cloak and dagger, but I surmised that solitary bench sitters are being left to their own devices.

The Cambridge Central Mosque has locked its doors due to coronavirus but arrested me as I passed, having been completed since I left for Mozambique. It’s a beautiful wooden building, constructed with the environment in mind, natural forms and state-of-the-art heating and cooling technology.