The Corona Diaries #5

I thought I’d try a different supermarket this week to have a bit of a change. It’s a bit further away but is a lot bigger and I wanted to buy a few things that aren’t stocked in my smaller local supermarket.

Bad move …

I thought because it was bigger, even if more people were allowed in at the same time it would be even easier to practise social distancing. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Although everyone was queuing outside and keeping their distance the queue was moving very quickly. That should have been a warning that too many were being allowed in at once, but I still didn’t expect it to be crowded inside.

It was madness. I felt like I was in a time warp and had gone back to February. The aisles were crowded, people were stopping and chatting and blocking the way, they were standing right next to each other to reach things from the shelves. Families and couples seemed to be on outings together. I saw one mum instructing her child to stay to the side and not get too close to anyone. One. Just one. All the other children were running around freely, touching things and slipping past people with barely a two centimetre gap let alone a two metre one.

Although there were arrows on the floor at the end of each aisle indicating a one-way system it was being completely ignored and there were no staff around to remind people about social distancing or to follow the one-way system. There were staff, but they were doing other jobs not enforcing social distancing.

At one point I needed to walk down an aisle where two women were stood having a chat. Instead of standing (two metres apart) on the same side they were stood on opposite sides, which meant I couldn’t get past without walking closely between them. I stopped to see if they’d notice me waiting and move to one side. I didn’t have a problem with them having a chat and a catch up (it’s probably something that’s good for their mental health after all), but I was concerned about where they’d chosen to stand.

One of them noticed and said, ‘It’s okay, you can come past’.

‘Thanks, but I won’t be able to get past without coming very close to you’

‘Have you got it?’

Unless they were mistaking me for Prince Charles or Michael Gove’s daughter then I wondered why they were even asking that question. Don’t they watch the news? Don’t they know that even frontline workers in the NHS can’t get tests? Why on earth would they think I might have been able to get one?

‘I have no idea’, I replied. ‘But if I do I don’t want to spread it and if I don’t have it I don’t want to catch it from you’.

They looked at me like I was crazy. I did walk past them as I could see there was no way they were going to move to one side and then I glanced back to see one of them have a little laugh and give that kind of indulgent look you might give to someone who’s harmless but a bit simple-minded.

I should have been angry about this, but instead I was fascinated. How can people still be so oblivious? I’m going to assume they do know what’s going on because unless they’d just woken up from a long coma how could they not know? And one of them had said ‘have you got it?’ which I assume was a reference to Covid-19. So are they stupid or do they just not care? What am I missing here?

Over 14,000 people have now died. How can you not care about that? How can you see someone who does care as someone to have a giggle about? Do they also not care that doctors are choosing which patients to give the limited number of ventilators to and so older people, people’s parents and grandparents, are being left to die, effectively through suffocation? Do they not care that the longer it takes to get rid of this virus the longer we’ll have to stay in lockdown and the more businesses will suffer with many small businesses never being able to recover? Do they not care about the stress and hardships those frontline NHS staff are going through every day? Maybe they stand on their doorsteps every Thursday evening at 8pm to join in the clapping but that’s just a bit of a chance for a catch up with their neighbours and they don’t really appreciate or want to support our NHS workers?

As you can see, my mind was rather boggled by all this. I suppose this is where I should admit that I could have walked back the way I’d come (it’s not as though anyone was following the one-way system after all) but after having been rather astounded by the behaviour in store I saw the two women as my chance to carry out a little experiment. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I thought maybe they just hadn’t thought about how someone would be able to safely pass them and maybe they’d have a sudden facepalm moment and say something along the lines of ‘oh sorry, of course, what are we thinking of standing like this’. I wasn’t really expecting that to happen and I wasn’t at all surprised when it played out the way it did.

I suppose it’s because so many people are still thinking like this that so many parties and vigils are still happening (I wrote about this in last week’s diary entry). The two ladies are probably quite nice people and aren’t really wishing horrible deaths on our elderly, but they still just don’t get it. Most worrying is that they’re far from alone in this.

Anyway, as depressing and disconcerting my trip was I couldn’t stop feeling fascinated too. I felt like I’d done a bit of participant observation into this whole different tribe I have no innate understanding of. Anthropology in Asda! Who knew?!

So, what else happened this week? It was the second week of my Easter holidays. I did a bit of work just really to check in and make sure I was on top of things, but otherwise took things rather easy and did a bit more pottering in the garden and a lot more sitting in the sun. This led to me having to make another shopping trip.

As I sat at the end of my garden I saw what I thought was a little bird running about between the pile of stuff I have to take to the tip when it opens (the problem with getting lots of jobs in the garden done when the tips are closed is that you end up with a pile of rubbish you can’t rid of). When it ran out into the open I realised it wasn’t a bird but a mouse and it ran straight into the yard. I followed it to try to chase it out but it had gone behind a stash of pots and I couldn’t find it.

About midnight I came downstairs to the kitchen and there, running around, was the little mouse. It ran underneath the gap at the bottom of the pantry door and disappeared. I’ve lived in places with mice before and definitely do not want to do so again. So next day I had to go to a local shop to buy a mousetrap.

I checked online to make sure they had them as I didn’t want an unnecessary trip and then went and queued up in the sun outside. It took quite a long time before I was allowed in as they were only allowing a few people in at a time. It couldn’t have been more different to Asda. I found the mousetrap section and bought one and as I was there bought some trellis and some oil to treat my wooden garden furniture as well.

My furniture is now oiled and the trellis is up. My mouse is now residing in my living room, enjoying peanut butter snacks each night, but refusing to actually go into the trap. I don’t actually know how it’s managing to eat the peanut butter without setting off the trap but it is. I may have to invest in a more elaborate trap. I am not being beaten by a mouse.

I feel like I’m settling quite well into my lockdown world. The nice weather is helping of course and I’m so glad I did a lot of work to make my garden nice last year so I can enjoy it now.

I’d never have thought that my most exciting happenings in a week would be walking past people in a supermarket and trying to catch a mouse. How things change!

How has your week been? What’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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