"...badly affected parts of Britain have now been confined to our homes for three months". Well quite. Except that sitting here in the Midlands I don't think even the wider (trying to emphasise not directing this specifically at Helen) UK commentariat...ok I will say this...let alone the London commentariat have really engaged with the lockdown experience in the midlands and north. I am locked down in Nottingham. Here there has been no social life - if measured by when you were allowed to sit outside a bar or restaurant - since the last week of October. Repeat for emphasis, since October. Unlike in London there was no Tier 2 Kay Burley style Christmas restaurant crawls in December. Like everything Helen wrote here. It has been hard. Really hard. I can't think of anywhere in the world that has had the full social-isolation pandemic experience of the midlands, north of England and some other parts of the UK. Where in the world has been locked down - not for three months - but getting on for five months with nearly another two months to go before we can properly socialise again. Has anywhere else had anything like this experience? I am frustrated that the catastrophic awfulness of the Boris Johnson government's handling of the pandemic hasn't been properly told. I wonder how much the fact that most of the UK's media had the relative release of Tier 2 in December has blinded them to the lived experience of all of this for us living elsewhere. Well, that's my reckons for today.
Yeah I'm done. As the parent of a small child, the reopening of the soft-play seems like a beautiful future of which I can only dream. Oh, for something to actually DO with your toddler. But aside from moaning: one interesting thing I've observed returning to school as a teacher this week is that no one is making much effort to engage with anyone else. We've all been away from each other for 3 months, but there's nothing to say, no small talk to be had. Like we're on an interminable coach journey, and we all just want to sit with our headphones in, and we're waiting until we've arrived at the place and had a shower and a meal, and THEN we might actually make an effort.
Helen great tip on Libby which looks like it might be a useful addition to my odd assortment of not often used apps, apart from the one that makes me doomscroll. If I’m going to have my head down in a screen maybe this will be the one that at least makes this horrible compulsion more worthwhile. I really enjoy this newsletter. Always find something good to to read or discover. Thank you.
"...badly affected parts of Britain have now been confined to our homes for three months". Well quite. Except that sitting here in the Midlands I don't think even the wider (trying to emphasise not directing this specifically at Helen) UK commentariat...ok I will say this...let alone the London commentariat have really engaged with the lockdown experience in the midlands and north. I am locked down in Nottingham. Here there has been no social life - if measured by when you were allowed to sit outside a bar or restaurant - since the last week of October. Repeat for emphasis, since October. Unlike in London there was no Tier 2 Kay Burley style Christmas restaurant crawls in December. Like everything Helen wrote here. It has been hard. Really hard. I can't think of anywhere in the world that has had the full social-isolation pandemic experience of the midlands, north of England and some other parts of the UK. Where in the world has been locked down - not for three months - but getting on for five months with nearly another two months to go before we can properly socialise again. Has anywhere else had anything like this experience? I am frustrated that the catastrophic awfulness of the Boris Johnson government's handling of the pandemic hasn't been properly told. I wonder how much the fact that most of the UK's media had the relative release of Tier 2 in December has blinded them to the lived experience of all of this for us living elsewhere. Well, that's my reckons for today.
Yeah I'm done. As the parent of a small child, the reopening of the soft-play seems like a beautiful future of which I can only dream. Oh, for something to actually DO with your toddler. But aside from moaning: one interesting thing I've observed returning to school as a teacher this week is that no one is making much effort to engage with anyone else. We've all been away from each other for 3 months, but there's nothing to say, no small talk to be had. Like we're on an interminable coach journey, and we all just want to sit with our headphones in, and we're waiting until we've arrived at the place and had a shower and a meal, and THEN we might actually make an effort.
Helen great tip on Libby which looks like it might be a useful addition to my odd assortment of not often used apps, apart from the one that makes me doomscroll. If I’m going to have my head down in a screen maybe this will be the one that at least makes this horrible compulsion more worthwhile. I really enjoy this newsletter. Always find something good to to read or discover. Thank you.