Thinking about lifting restrictions?

On last night’s television news we saw footage of Spaniards in Madrid having got up early to go outside for something other than essential shopping, visiting the pharmacy or going to essential work. In a complicated system that allocated time slots to different age groups, adults were allowed out to exercise between 6.00am and 8.00am, at least I think that’s what it was. So people were getting up at the time that some of them would have just been getting home from a Friday night out before lockdown.

The sense of liberation was obvious. And so they ran and walked through parks, looking very much as though social distancing was something they had never heard of. We wondered if this was not just a Spanish unawareness of the proximity of others - that tendency they have to walk out of doorways without looking to see if anyone is there and to stop in groups and block the pavement to have a chat - but because they have not been as it were “trained” into social distancing. Because we have had more freedom to go out and exercise in the UK we have grown accustomed to stepping aside to let others pass at a safe distance. A very exaggerated British courtesy.

I almost accused my Spanish sister of totally disregarding any concern for social distancing when she posted a photo of herself and her consuegra (her daughter’s mother-in-law) with their respective grandchildren all close together on a seesaw in a playground. Then I realised that this was an old picture posted because today in the Spanish Día de la Madre - Mothers’ Day. How did I work this out? My sister’s hair in that photo is as short as she ever wears it whereas her hair now is in thick curls a good couple of inches long, the result of the lockdown preventing visits to the hairdresser! Normally on el Día de la Madre people would flock to bakers’ shops to buy cakes to take to their mother’s home for a family tea. Not today!

While every country seems to be getting impatient about getting out of lockdown, here in the UK it seems that most people - not just the scientists - are wary of easing the lockdown too soon or too quickly. There’s this from the London Economic:-

“Public not letting up on the lockdown

Currently, four in five say they are following the lockdown restrictions and instructions as strictly as they were when they were first introduced.
Public appetite for lifting the lockdown measures remains miniscule. Very few people believe that conditions have been met to allow for public spaces and venues to re-open on May 8th and, while some are treating the lockdown rules less strictly than before, most say they are not and few admit to breaching them.”

There are, as you might expect, some who feel a little differently. The London Economic also tells us this:-

 “However, 14 per cent admit they are starting to be more relaxed about bending the rules slightly now if they don’t think it will harm anyone, while 3 per cent say they never followed the rules in the first place.
Those that are bending the rules are mainly shopping for non-essentials (23 per cent) or exercising more than once a day (21 per cent).
Fifteen per cent have admitted to visiting family they do not live with and 13 per cent say they have met up with friends and family to go for a walk.”

I still find it hard to define which bits of shopping count as essentials and which count as non-essentials. I doubt that hummus and sun-dried tomatoes count as real essentials. And what about Seville orange marmalade or almond butter to go on my breakfast toast. In fact, quite a lot of what we eat might not be basic enough. And certainly not the supplies of San Pellegrino soft drinks that I know an Italian friend of mine has bought in bulk.

I also have to confess to frequently going for a solitary run in the morning and then for a walk with Phil in the afternoon. Not that I am getting into close proximity with anyone on either occasion. But definitely no home visits to or from friends and family!!

Much discussion is going on about when pupils should return to school. One head teacher interviewed expressed his dismay at the impossibility of maintaining social distancing between his 1300 secondary age pupils. He brought up another problem:-

 “When I read about Denmark going back to school, the first thing that struck me was that many walked or cycled. That is not possible for us in the same way, with many students commuting some distance. Part of me wants to see the school reopen as soon as possible. I love it. I miss it. There’s another part that says, ‘hold on a minute – even playing with ideas around doing it is too early’.”

And I think of our youngsters who crowd (used to crowd) rowdily onto buses and trams to travel to school. Even with arrangements for dividing the school so that the two halves of a school’s cohort attend, for example, on alternate days, it would still be hard to social distance on the buses! Even if they reduce the required distancing!

Maybe we should wait and see how things go in those countries which are ahead of us in the struggle and even ask their advice! Or would that be too European? We shall see.

In the meantime. It’s another moderately fine Sunday. Not much sunshine here but good enough to get out and about. We have bluebells to admire!

On the menu today we have egg noodles with whatever mix of vegetables I come up with. Tomorrow I need to venture into the co-op store to replenish supplies of this and that, including non-essentials such as chocolate!

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!