Five days of emerging from lockdown
Jun. 16th, 2020 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI'm in no hurry to rush out and enjoy the new freedoms the government has given us: I'll spare you the scare quotes in that statement, but feel free to envisage them pretty much anywhere, and you won't be far wrong. I'm lucky enough to have a life which can continue comfortably in lockdown, and the things I miss are not the things which have been restored this weekend. Nonetheless, I'm seeing changes, for us and for others:
- Friday
- durham_rambler went shopping - for the first time since the lockdown started, and shopping solo is not something he did often, even before. This was for essentials: he had to collect his beer order from Fram Ferment. But he asked if I needed anything, and since I had strawberries, I asked for cream, so he went to the Co-op - and bought crisps and whisky while he was there, because he could.
- Saturday
- The students have returned to the house next door. There are five of them, and while you could argue that they were a single household back in March, before they scattered to their various homes, I don't think the rules allow them to resume that status as if it hadn't been lost. They sit on the decking in the garden, and talk loudly, which is probably healthier than sitting together indoors, but is also more annoying. But does it actually matter? I don't know. It may be trivial, but then all we can do is stack up the details to nudge the odds in our favour. I think it bothered durham_rambler more than it did me, and he talked about phoning the police. Eventually, we settled on calling the university's liaison person (who recommended calling the police, but we let it go).
On Suday, though, they had visitors: there were a dozen of them out there, anddurham_rambler did call the police (who said they would come and have a word with them, but Sunday night is music night, and I don't know what happened). To judge by the noise from the back lane, though, Monday night is party night... - Sunday
- We had been talking about local sculptures: the County Council has announced that it is carrying out an audit of monuments and statues in its care to ensure that they are consistent with its values (I suspect that Durham doesn't have many monuments to slave traders but might want to consider contextualising its monuments to mine owners - and that's not entirely a joke). Anyway, durham_rambler told me that there were some sculptures I hadn't seen, not far away, and we went out for a walk to look at them. Before we were even out of our road, while I was busy photographing a flower:
we met a fellow-member of the pub quiz team, and were able to do actual, unplanned, face to face conversation, which was very pleasant in all sorts of ways.
Sheraton Park is a development of housing surrounding a university college, and at the centre of it there is an International sculpture garden, which is a tree surrounded by a circular paved area, with three sculptures spaced around its edge:
The theme chosen for the sculptures is 'pilgrimage', but if I start my rant on that particular flavour-of-the-month I'll be here all night, so I'll simply say that the reason the word 'Italy' appears on the plinth below those scallop shells is that Fabio Viale, the sculptor of this 'European Journey' is Italian. There is an 'American Journey' which is a lump of gold on a base of iron, but I couldn't find an angle on it which pleased me. I'm not entirely satisfied with my picture of the 'Chinese Journey', either:
but the thing itself has a certain charm. The photos on the artist's website are better - and his larger pieces look better still.
On our way home, we paused to chat with a neighbour who was in her garden: a day of two unplanned conversations, things really are changing! - Monday
- The Prime Minister informed us that now shops were beginning to open again, it was our patriotic duty to get out and buy inessentials. I'll consider going into town when the market reopens, but just to show willing I ordered a couple of Sunday Night at the Hove Palladium t-shirts: I love the idea of a gig t-shirt for a virtual gig.
- Tuesday
- This morning, over breakfast, durham_rambler announced that he had a meeting this evening, at seven o' clock. Since I had Reading Group at six o' clock, this completely scuppered any plans I might have had for the catering. Now, that really is like old times!
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Date: 2020-06-17 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-17 09:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-17 04:03 am (UTC)That is delightful!
Thank you for these daily, sometimes literal snapshots.
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Date: 2020-06-17 09:24 am (UTC)I think of it as Mass Observation. Thankd for indulging me!
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Date: 2020-06-17 09:13 am (UTC)'Shop with confidence'?
Yeah......right.....
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Date: 2020-06-17 09:27 am (UTC)Thankyou. I particularly appreciate that from you!
Shop with confidence'?
Confidence is what Boris does best. Confidence, how ever misplaced, is what you get from his kind of education. That's the real confidence trick...