As many of you know, the landlady of our excellent local died at the start of December, so they didn't open in the short window before Christmas. Now it's possible again.
I've been thinking about what it'll take to start running barbecues again.
I vaguely wish I'd known that the most recent shopping trip I'd made would be the last one for the moment.
Officially last week it was still only possible to book a vaccination if you were over 55. When I'd tried it the week before (giving NHS number and birth date) I was quite properly told to come back later. But…
Now that millions of people in the UK have had their first COVID-19 vaccination, our tireless team of imaginary researchers has had plenty of opportunities to examine the tracking chip that is, we are assured by many people with no possible ulterior motive, being implanted with every shot.
(Guest post from Gus.)
As of this week, I fall into a cohort eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, one of the few things that makes me feel batter about being fifty-mumble. I like vaccines.
(Guest post from Chris.)
The Covid19 vaccine: it's a big deal, right? Right. But the actual vaccination, it turns out, isn't. Perhaps my experience will give anyone anxious about it a reason to worry rather less. If you have had a flu jab, it's very similar.
Shopping continues to be a bit strange.
As National restrictions apply from 16 December, we want to assure customers that we are continuing to deliver the range of services to serial, spree and cult killers across the country while the majority of our people work from home.
On the last day of the most recent isolation period, I went shopping. It turns out there were two separate panics on at the same time.
I think people just don't have the attention span to cope with something that goes on for months.
So it's to be a "lockdown" again. Only not.
The local council has issued a press release. Excuse me while I run round and round in small circles.
There is at long last an "official NHS contact-tracing app". Should one use it?
Mostly people continue to wear masks.
People have finally started wearing masks in the shops round here.
Haven't you heard? Masks are last month's thing.
One huge advantage of living outside London is that my local pub does not need to be hugely crowded at all times to stay in business. So when it reopened on Saturday I went along.
Some personal behaviour seems to have improved since last time. (But I'm only taking one sample every two weeks…)
Things are mostly as they were last time in the shops; a bit better, a bit worse.
The "lockdown" has affected me relatively little: things I mail-order take longer to arrive, role-playing games have moved online, and I haven't seen my boardgame groups at all. But now it starts to feel as though people have gone into a kind of stasis.
Not that I shop in person very often anyway. But it's gone a bit strange.
So we finally got something like precautions being applied, though piecemeal and rather later than would have been sensible.