First diary post

Dear Diary:

by Richard Banks

Hi Everyone,

Spoke to Sis recently. Discovered that she, like me, is keeping a diary - family history for generations to come. This is my entry for Wednesday, 25 March:

Set off for Iceland just before 8am. According to their web site, the Rayleigh branch opens at 8. Arrive to find the shutters down and a handwritten note on the door saying their opening hours are now 10-6pm. Go home have a cup of tea and go back at 10 to find a queue of shoppers some 30 metres long. People not wanting to get too close to each other but nothing like the recommended 6-foot gap. As one customer leaves the shop another is let in. The staff wear black surgical masks which on the younger girls is rather alluring.

Despite the first hour of opening being for wrinklies, there are several people in the queue conspicuously less than 70 years. They are let in and served like everyone else. Payment by cash is being discouraged so I pay by contactless debit card, the first time I have ever done so.

I encourage the young lady at the till by saying they are all heroes. She says she must be mad being there. I say that younger people, not at risk, so don’t worry but she has read something in the Daily Mail which says they are. Go home. I have purchased groceries to the value of £22; added to the stuff I already have I’m stocked up for the next two weeks.

Cousin John phones to say that Tony, the husband of our mutual cousin Anne, has died. Nothing to do with Covid 19. He has been unwell for quite awhile spending most of this year in hospital. No date yet for the funeral but when it happens there will be no funeral service, just a short committal service around the grave to which no more than five people, including Anne and Vicar, may attend. The worse thing happening at the worse possible time.

Tune into The Archers. Unbridled joy! Everyone in Ambridge safe and well. No one even talking about Covid 19, in fact no one seems to know anything about it. Where is this place? My road atlas tells me there’s no such town in the UK so logically it must be in some other corner of the world. I look at the map that Len has sent showing the unrelenting spread of the virus – what a boost this has been to my morale! The only place thereon that’s clear of it seems to be Greenland. This makes sense. Would anyone in the centre of that huge landmass know what was going on in the rest of the world?  Just think about it. Despite the fact that the Ambridge folk are constantly on Radio 4 do you ever recall any of them actually listening to the radio? And if they don’t get the radio signals what chance the internet! Someone needs to be warning them and soon. I mean to say why should I be housebound and washing my hands every five minutes when they don’t have to. It ain’t fair. I want them to suffer just like me.

I finish the bottle and go to bed.

How have your days been going? Write one down and send it out to the rest of the Group. What you do and think, however remarkable it may seem will be gold dust to future generations of descendants and social historians. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Richard

You are invited to add to this journal:

Thank you for starting it off Richard.  So whose next?