Sunday 5 July:

Emerging from Lockdown?

It’s the day after pubs, hairdressers, cafés, restaurants, hotels, cinemas and such like were allowed to re-open. Other ‘rules’ have also been relaxed, including:

·         People can meet in groups of up to two households in any location - public or private, indoors or outdoors (as long as social distancing is observed with others not in one’s household)(‘support bubbles’ count as one household).

·         When outside, people can continue to meet in groups of up to six people from different households, following social distancing guidelines.

·         People can stay overnight away from their home with their own household or support bubble, or with members of one other household.

·         It will be against the law to gather in groups larger than 30 people, except for a limited set of circumstances to be set out in law.

Some other important restrictions do, however, still remain in place. For example, people should NOT:

·         Gather indoors in groups of more than two households (this includes when dining out or going to the pub).

·         Gather outdoors in a group of more than six people from different households (gatherings larger than 6 should only take place if everyone is from just two households).

·         Interact socially with anyone outside the group people are attending a place with, even if you see other people you know (eg. in a restaurant).

·         Hold or attend celebrations (such as parties) where it is difficult to maintain social distancing.

·         Stay overnight away from your home with members of more than one other household.

·         Gatherings of more than 30 people will be prohibited, apart from some limited circumstances to be set out in law.

Understandably, people are keen to return back to ‘normal’ life. Some families are able to ‘get together’, thanks to the reduced restrictions; some groups are able to socialise more freely (much to the obvious relief of ‘young people’ in particular). The majority of the population are continuing to take a cautious approach to returning to ‘normality’ and many are indicating that they won’t be rushing back to frequenting pubs, restaurants, cinemas or taking public transport any time soon.

The underlying fear, of course, is that people become blase, fail to take the necessary precautions and a ‘second wave’ of the virus to return… and seeing photographs of crowds of drinkers in London’s Soho last night only underlines such fears.  

Of course, it’s lovely to see or hear about families and friends re-connecting again and for people to able to travel more widely… but it’s also highlighted things that Moira and I are currently UNABLE to do. We’ve been self-isolating for nearly 16 weeks – avoiding shops, public transport and other people(!), but (for our physical and mental health) we’ve been endeavouring to get out and walk every day; we’re also not allowed to form a ‘support bubble’ with other family members. I’ve been classified as a ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ person and, as such, my ‘shielding’ obligations (and therefore Moira’s too) remain in place until the next stage of the government’s restrictions comes into play on 1 August. So, in theory, from that date we’ll be able to go to work (except that we’re both retired); go outside to buy food and to exercise (we’ll continue to take daily exercise but we’ve resolved to avoid to go shopping); and, if we do go out, we’ll need to follow strict social distancing (which would have done anyway).

For the foreseeable future at least, we’re unlikely visit restaurants, pubs, cinemas, theatres or cafés.

So, in reality, nothing will change for us.

Having said that, we’re incredibly fortunate to live where we do in Bristol (a 10 minute walk to the harbourside and a 30 minute walk to Ashton Court/Leigh Woods) but we’ve also had to accept that, having no car and relying on public transport (which we’re likely to avoid for the remainder of this year), we are very much restricted in our movements. Even though we are car club members (which we use only say 3-4 times a year), we feel somewhat loathe to use this facility (ie. sharing a vehicle used by others/needing to fill up with petrol at service stations etc) at least for the being. In the course of the next few weeks, our views might change, of course, and it’s just possible that, perhaps within the next two months(?), we’ll end up taking an occasional car club trip (to local destinations such as the grounds of a local National Trust property or for a walk on Berrow beach?).

So, while the rest of the world gets back to ‘normal’, Moira and I will be ‘hanging back’ (we’ll almost certainly continue to take the cautious approach).

Of course, the wonders of modern technology have been hugely important during ‘lockdown’… one wonders how on earth we’d have all coped without it. But, clearly, the thing that we’ve both missing most is the simple pleasure of hugging our lovely family! When we’ll be able to meet up normally with family and friends is anyone’s guess at this stage (and I suspect that, like with all the other measures, Moira and I will be among the ‘extremely vulnerable’ group that are required to delay such celebrations… which will, of course, be doubly hard.

Image: London drinkers in Soho last night… what social distancing?