Life goes on - babies are being born - praise is given - meals are being planned!

Twelve years ago, in fact almost thirteen years ago now, I taught my very last ever A-Level class. My students already had my email address so that they could send me pieces of ongoing work as we went through the final year. Phil and I went off to spend a couple of years in Spain and my daughter got me onto Facebook so that she could easily send me photos of the grandchildren. Suddenly, one after another, my former students discovered me on Facebook and became friends. Some maintain intermittent contact and over the years I have watched them graduate from university, go off and work around the world, get married and, in more recent years, have babies.

At least one has had a baby since the lockdown started and another is about to do so. It must be quite terrifying to have planned and conceived a child in all innocence in less contagious times and now to realise that the very place where you thought delivery of that child would take place in safety, the hospital, has become one of the most dangerous places there is. Here is an article suggesting that hotels should be turned into birth centres for the duration. After all, they are standing empty. If it’s possible to transfer the necessary equipment that sounds like an excellent solution to me.

Yesterday evening loads of people stood on their doorsteps, their balconies, next to their open windows and applauded the NHS and emergency/essential services. It’s one way to see your neighbours, at a distance. We see the neighbours on our aide of the street across the back gardens but the across-the-street neighbours are a different kettle of fish. Our next-door-but-one neighbour stepped across the road to say something to the across-the-street neighbours, people she sees quite often as a rule, and almost forgot the social distancing rule. The cry of “keep your distance” went up, to much amusement.

Some people I know, well, myself included I must say, have been quick to remind everyone that the applause is for the key-workers, not for the government. However, I hear that a survey has found that at present 52 per cent of British people said they approve of Boris Johnson’s government’s record, compared to 26 per cent who disapprove. Really?!?! There must be a name for the syndrome that makes people take comfort from loving their leaders in time of crisis, However, research also found that 67 per cent of people think the government has handled the coronavirus test badly, compared to a quarter who believe they have handled it well. No further comment!

Easter is almost here and I read that tens of thousands of extra police and gendarmes are being posted across France to ensure people respect the lockdown and to stop the traditional “Grand Départ” for the Easter holidays on Friday. Patrols will set up checkpoints on all major roads and motorways out of towns and cities with orders to turn back those attempting to break the rules. Officials in areas popular with holidaymakers and where there is a high proportion of second homes have also been ordered to carry out checks to ensure there is no sudden influx of visitors.

Surely even the French, individualistic and a bit anarchic in some respects but very conformist in others, especially holidays, cannot be silly enough to insist on setting off on holiday at the moment.

It is to be hoped that restrictions might have eased by the time August comes along. Big cities in France traditionally empty at that point and routes to the seaside, especially heading south, fill up with laden cars and caravans. It has already crossed my mind that the Spanish will find it hard to give up a quick dip in the pool after work and a walk along the tideline up and down the beaches on high days and holidays, or just every weekend. Fingers crossed that the situation has improved as the temperatures rise! But we have to remember, as the French prime minister reminded his people, “The virus is not on holiday”.

When we organise a video chat with my daughter and family, at some point somebody at her end will find some way of embellishing their screen faces with crowns, flowers, hats, moustaches and odd contortions. I have no real idea how this is done. I simply do not have the app. Their faces are also converted into slices of pizza, animals or, very oddly, the sole of a foot! An article about how people are cheering each other up during the lockdown  ended like this: “Enjoy the shame of this American worker who somehow turned her face into a potato during a staff video conference. She couldn’t work out how to change it back and had to sit like a spud during the entire meeting.”

We are not alone in our silliness.

The food writer/ restaurant critic, Grace Dent, writes here about her cooking habits during the shutdown. So it’s not just me going on about food. On the menu today is a nameless dish made up of noodles and stir-fried onions, tomatoes and peppers with a good dose of soy sauce.

My daughter organised a delivery yesterday of  mixed fruit and veg. Now I have to find recipes for aubergine, never my favourite vegetable. So it goes!