The new order
May. 13th, 2020 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustHaving a prescription to fill this morning, I also visited Marks & Spencer, for a mixture of treats and staples. Marks was busier than on my last visit, and more of the non-food shop was open: there were women leafing through the racks of summer tops. The one-way route in and out of rthe food hall seemed to have been abandoned, and the food hall itself was - not crowded, but not as sparse as it had been, and people were less inclined to speed up or slow down to avoid each other. My previous visit had reminded me of shopping just before Christmas, when people are quietly frantic, but full of sympathy for each other: this time, not so much. Is this a result of the new rules, of lockdown fatigue, or just some random variable? I don't know.
I can't see Boris's new rules making much difference to us: permission to visit a garden centre or estate agent, not really; permission to exercise outside more than once a day, not really (I might try to spend longer on the little walks I have been taking, and it's possible I have not in any case been punctilious about obeying any time limits there may be or have been); permission to socialise outdoors in a public place with one person at a time, but of coursedurham_rambler and I cannot socialise simultaneously with the same person (or rather, they cannot socialise simultaneously with both of us) - and does this mean that when I meet a couple of neighbours in the street, I have been breaking the rules when I stop to say hello, because there are two of them?
As for the new permission to drive as far as I like to take my exercise, this doesn't seem to apply to anywhere we might want to drive to. Yesterday's e-mails include a mailing from VisitNorthumberland which begins: "Following the recent announcement from the Prime Minister (Sunday 10th May) we feel that we must reiterate the message to Stay at Home and Stay Safe." In other words We heard what the Prime Minister said, and we disagree. Northumberland is not abandoning the 'Stay home' mantra, whatever Boris says, it is aligning itself with Scotland rather than with Westminster.
As you were, then ...
I can't see Boris's new rules making much difference to us: permission to visit a garden centre or estate agent, not really; permission to exercise outside more than once a day, not really (I might try to spend longer on the little walks I have been taking, and it's possible I have not in any case been punctilious about obeying any time limits there may be or have been); permission to socialise outdoors in a public place with one person at a time, but of course
durham_rambler and I cannot socialise simultaneously with the same person (or rather, they cannot socialise simultaneously with both of us) - and does this mean that when I meet a couple of neighbours in the street, I have been breaking the rules when I stop to say hello, because there are two of them?As for the new permission to drive as far as I like to take my exercise, this doesn't seem to apply to anywhere we might want to drive to. Yesterday's e-mails include a mailing from VisitNorthumberland which begins: "Following the recent announcement from the Prime Minister (Sunday 10th May) we feel that we must reiterate the message to Stay at Home and Stay Safe." In other words We heard what the Prime Minister said, and we disagree. Northumberland is not abandoning the 'Stay home' mantra, whatever Boris says, it is aligning itself with Scotland rather than with Westminster.
As you were, then ...
