Hometown

I’ve been cocooned in my house since last Friday, so today I decided it was time to go out and about and I took a little trip up to London. It is frightening to see so many people out and about in crowds without masks. Perhaps they truly believe that the pandemic is over. Maybe it’s just a case of being comforted by believing what you want to believe. I don’t know.

 Accustomed anyway to wearing mine constantly when I leave the house in Hong Kong, I was glad of it today. I know that a mask is worn to protect those around you, but it really feels like armour here. I encountered my first anti-mask abuser who yelled at me from his bike, but it was as duck’s water. 

I walked around the South Bank a bit, and I am using this capture of the Houses of Parliament as today’s blip, but I’m wondering whether this should actually be an Extra, because I was really there to photograph the (unofficial) national Covid memorial opposite Parliament on the other side of the Thames, an impromptu tribute to those loved ones who have perished through herd immunity without vaccination. The hearts on the memorial wall stretch for hundreds of metres, and I can’t help wondering how much more space it will eventually need.

Now I’m back home I’m wondering whether I have been exposed to the virus. My mask is going in the wash immediately, and I’ll take a Rapid Flow Test in the next day or so. And this is the reality, far away from the Hermit Kingdom.