Data points

• Removing the pop-up reminders from my calendar. Top of the list is a website update which I have actually done, hoorah! Then comes a lunch date we had been looking forward to, but cancelled, and the Parish Council which is about to attempt to meet in a Zoom session. The Reading Group also met by Zoom, and that seems to have gone well, so maybe I should see whether I can set up the technology (and in the meantime I won't delete that reminder, as there's something I want to write for the Group).



• And no pub quiz, of course, for the second week running - of how many?



• On Monday I went into town, to collect durham_rambler's prescription. Boots had closed their doors, and were only allowing two customers at a time (it's not a big store, but it's not that small). I called at the greengrocer, and bought some plums from the display outside, paying at the till by the door. The shop was full of people, but they were all staff, filling orders (and it doesn't take many people to make the shop feel full). Town was quiet, bit there were people around - but that was Monday, which was a long time ago.



• People are very kind. We had a note (with bonus child's drawing) from one set of neighbours; L. deposited a multi-pack of toilet paper on our doorstep, because durham_rambler had joked that this was the hard-to-find item; and this morning my local councillor brought me broccoli and bananas, which filled some gaps in my Ocado order.



• We were not short of supplies, and I was gradually compiling a list of longer term needs to order from Ocado. But the reports of how long you had to wait for a delivery were so bad, I decided I'd better take the plunge, and order well ahead. So on Tuesday I joined the queue for their site - twice, in fact, since the first time I thought I could work on another tab while I was queueing, and crashed out of the site. I didn't make that mistake again, and although it was a long wait, it was not as long as the timing indicated. When it came to choosing a delivery slot, the problem was the opposite to what I anticipated: slots were only released for the next two days - which is why I had an Ocado delivery on Wednesday. I was able to buy most of my list - no bananas, no flour and handwash only in bottles (durham_rambler wanted a refill).



• Wednesday also brought my coffee delivery from Traidcraft.



• They are rationing The Archers: down from six episodes a week to five. There's something authentically 1940s about that.



• Other radio personnel are working from home, and I enjoy the glimpses of this process.



• The Guardian is full of suggestions about how to fill the long empty days of confinement. Am I alone in not having this problem? I am able to work as normal, of course, and there is work to be done, updating websites with cancellations, not to mention the clients who are filling their time by thibking of things they need to do to their websites.



• I may be doing a bit more housework: certainly I'm a bit less relaxed about it. I think that's translating into actually doing more, as opposed to worrying about it, in the long dark hours of the early morning.



• Ah, yes, that. I have no trouble falling asleep. Indeed, I have trouble staying awake past 9.30, and in bed with a book (but that's another post) I'm very sound asleep in no time. But getting back to sleep once I've woken, that's another story.



• So I'm not spending afternoons on the sofa, because of the risk of that turning into an afternoon nap.



• I should spend more time in the garden. The council has delayed the start of garden waste collections, and there is work to be done which is beyond me, and requires the services of a tree surgeon. Nonetheless, while this weather lasts, if I'm not going any further I could at least spend more time in the garden.