Jae In The Days Of The Virus 1

Three months ago seems like a different world.

The general election in December had set us clearly on the path to Brexit and I was saddened by that however, given our income was from America and we are quite comfortable, I wasn't scared of the coming year.

Then the news started reporting on a new virus in China. It seemed pretty awful out in Wusan (a city I hadn't even heard of before) but it was so far away and I'd lived through the SARS and Swine Flu news cycles so there was still reason to think it'd stay far away.

Jim had a pulmonary embolism (yes, another one!) in January so wasn't travelling for work like he normally would be (3 out of every 4 weeks!). His next trip was for the first week of March to his regular stop in Milan. I was planning to go with him to see Lake Como and travel up to Lugano in Switzerland.

It was not to be. As soon as I saw the news from Lombardy that COVID-19 was spreading there I turned to Jim and told him I bet his trip would be cancelled.

And it was, though Jim scoffed at the idea it should've been and even then it seemed unlikely to me that it'd spread to Milan so quickly. It'd only just arrived in Lombardy surely? Being the very cautious person I am though, in mid-February, I added a few extra tinned goods to the shopping, got a few toilet rolls in of course and Jim stocked our new large freezer in the garage up to full capacity. Not many people were doing that but as I said... I'm super cautious.

Things escalated quickly. The virus spread further and further and it soon became clear it had been here in the UK for some time.

Now the deaths in Europe are escalating. Countries shutting down. Flight routes closing. Borders being put back into use to try to slow the spread.

So, Dear Constant Reader, I thought I'd come back here to record what happens in my little corner of Kent in the coming days and weeks. With Jim's underlying conditions we've been moving into ever more seclusion. Jim's job is now at risk so he's been very stressed these last few days. This has meant he hasn't been out either however his normal devil-may-care attitude may well return and I'll need to try to persuade him he doesn't need to go out. Sigh.

Obviously, the dog walking continues and so I've been keeping up with the goings-on in the village a little.

The last few days the village had seemed significantly quieter than usual though, on Friday, some optimist put up adverts in the bus shelter for a circus in Deal opening during the last week of March.

Today the village returned to normal, as far as I can tell, the traffic was steady and there were the usual suspects going about their daily routines. The bakery is open. The Post Office continues as normal. The carers at the care home on the High Street were just turning up for their shift as always.

Monday 16th March 2020 was just another day in Eastry.