LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - Day 84, Sunday 8th June

There are, I have discovered the hard, wet way, no joys in riding a bike in a thunderstorm.

     In the way that these things happen, the storm waited until I was at the furthest distance from home before it broke, and so I made my rain-soaked way back looking at the sodden streets through raindrop heavy glasses.

     I must admit that I did stop at one point when the rain had become more that usually aggressive, cwtching in a bus shelter where the shelter was more notional than real.  The arrival of a drenched, faceguard wearing, mumbling female person of restricted growth encouraged me to brave the elements and splash my way towards the dry house.

     It took only a few minutes of torrential downpour to flood the gutters and soon I was riding though surprisingly warm floodwater with an aroma redolent of sewers.  The drainage system for your roads is woefully inadequate and any reasonable downpour overwhelms the drains’ ability to deal with the excess water.  Luckily I am ‘wise in the ways’ of our local road network and can anticipate the areas most likely to support puddles.

     Once or twice I felt the bike aquaplaning, that heart-racingly exciting moment when control seems to drift away and you suddenly realize your vulnerability perched on a contraption where only your velocity and delicate equilibrium keep you upright.  Those moments made me even more paranoid, searching the road ahead (as far as I could see it through my rain-compromised glasses) for tell-tale, glassy-pocked patches of slippery water.

     It eventually got to the stage that, as I couldn’t really get any wetter, I might as well ‘ignore’ the rain and press on to a shower (such irony) and a dry set of clothes.

     As I sloshed my way along, I passed and was passed by other sturdily masochistic cyclists, and saw on the pavement runners doggedly pursuing their sad sport.  I don’t think that I have ever seen a happy runner; I have seen determined runners, zombie runners, exhausted runners and glisteningly arrogant runners, but runners sporting a cheery smile?  No.  Never.  Cyclists often have irritatingly enthusiastic chats as they cycle, often ignoring the drivers backed up behind them- perhaps that is what makes them laugh and smile?

     The shower and shave when I returned (together with another brush of my teeth to keep a sense of occasion) was revivifying and I felt that my post-shower cup of tea was more than deserved.  I wonder if you get theoretical brownie points for cycling in the rain, my smartwatch should take such things into consideration, after all it does have access to my geographical location and the climactic conditions at the time, it would hardly be difficult for my phone and watch to combine and give a little bonus for battling the elements!

 

In the UK traction seems to be growing for the establishment of an Inquiry into the management of the Covid Disaster to try and ensure that the results can inform the second spike of infection if (!) we have one.   Johnson (Cummings’ mouthpiece) has nothing to fear with his majority of 80; however damming the final report is, he will be able to carry on unless his mindless pack of Brexiteers have Collective Lemming Syndrome.

     It is significant that even after the accumulating disasters of this risible administration, its lies and ineptitude, the Conservatives are still ahead of the Labour Party in the polls!  Not by much and the rating of Johnson are abysmally low, but he has years (dear god!) ahead and that bloody majority, so he will be well able to bumble his fatal way along, destroying ‘ere he steps!

 

Here in Catalonia we move into the next stage of the relaxation of lockdown, though how it can be very much more relaxed than the present behaviour of the majority of the population already I find hard to imagine.

     We are following the guidelines for appropriate behaviour but, just like driving a car, one’s safety is not entirely dependant on one’s own careful driving, but rather on the sense and reasonableness of others.  In that case, we are well and truly flummoxed.  Which was not the first word that came to mind.

     My concern for Monday is to find somewhere that can repair my expensively dropped expensive mobile phone.  The back has shattered, though it is holding together, but the back plate has lifted away from the body of the phone leaving a sort of gaping wound.  The phone cost far too much to be junked and, no, I do not have insurance; and, yes, it was in its protective cover when I dropped it.  Hey ho, so it goes!

 

I did try and go out for my evening bike ride, the last of this particular level of lockdown, but there was rain in the wind and I wimped my way back home to the dry, with the only wet thing a rewarding cup of tea by way of compensation.

     On an even more positive note, I have checked my swim bag to make sure that everything that should be there is there.

     At least tomorrow will give me a clear idea of how they are going to organize a swim in the New Normal!

 

 

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - Day 83 - Saturday 7th June

Evening, early June, Castelldefels. 

     There should perhaps have been a fourth part to that opening sentence, something like, “during a Covid-19 pandemic”, but there again, why should I add that? 

     From what I could see as I cycled along, it was a normal, a perfectly normal Saturday evening in a seaside resort. Traffic jams with parking spaces all filled.  The early days of lockdown where the air quality took on a surrealistically pure smell and look is now a thing of the past.  All the old aggression of an overcrowded resort surfaced, even down to drivers losing patience at being held in a queue and abruptly turning off the main road in a savage breakaway from the barely moving line of cars and neatly knocking down a pedestrian on a crossing.  How to ruin a Saturday night!

     I would estimate that about 5% of the people I saw were wearing masks and there was little obvious physical distancing.  There was no observance of the timed slots for different age groups, they were all there metaphorically (and in some cases literally) rubbing shoulders with each other.

     What this attitude does suggest is that the dreaded “Second Wave” of the virus is almost certain to strike, and the social, political and moral fall-out is going to be severe the second time around.

     The USA at present shows what happens when you are hit by a pandemic and, in the middle of that you are faced by a fully justified howl of outrage at yet another killing of a black individual at the hands of the police – and all while you have a person who is supremely unfitted to be the President in the time of crisis.  From the black (if you will pardon the use of the word) farce of his inaugural speech, through the first lies (of the 18,000 or so that have been noted so far in his ‘presidency’) about the size of his crowds to his appalling references to George Floyd, Trump has made me search for new ways to describe the depths that he has plumbed in his degradation of the office of the presidency: however low our expectations, he manages to fall to depths previously unexpected or indeed dreaded.

     I now look back at my fears about Barry Goldwater running for the presidency in 1964, as little more than hysterical scaremongering on the part of my fourteen-year-old self!  Compared to Trump, Goldwater was a bloody statesman and I feel slightly ashamed that I was scared about the prospect of his winning.  Look at the terrible reality of 2020 and the unfeeling charlatan who now holds the office!

     Still there is some evidence that even parts of Trump's fanatical base are now responding to the reality of his complete mismanagement of virtually everything and the sobering fact that with his response to the virus and how to treat it, he is in a very real sense, trying to kill them off!

     The same goes for the imitation Trump that we have as our prime minister.  A friend phoned me today and said, “One of things that I don’t understand is why the wearing of face masks on public transport is going to be made compulsory on the 15^th of this month!  Why not now, if it is a necessary measure?”  And that, is unanswerable, like so many of the normal, sensible questions that government ministers are asked every day.  Unanswerable.  And people continue to die and be infected.

     The one sensible thing that I read today is that the Inquiry into the management of the crisis should be completed as quickly as possible so that we are prepared if there should be a second wave.  We do not want to make the same mistakes again.  Not with over 40,000 dead – so far.  And the ‘real’ number is well over 50,000, and counting!

     In the same telephone conversation with my friend, I mentioned again that there should be a charge of Corporate Manslaughter against Johnson and his cabinet over their mishandling of the crisis, to which my friend replied, “No!  A charge of murder.  Pure and simple.  Murder!”  And I tend to agree.

    

I am looking forward to my first swim in months with almost child-like enthusiasm.  I am sure that my legs are in fairly good order with all the cycling that I have done, but my arms have not had the same workout and, having booked for an hour, it would be shameful to stop before my allotted time!

     I usually take about 40 minutes to do my 1,500m or sixty lengths of the pool.  We will have to see if my performance is still up to standard.  Monday will tell.

LOCKDOWN CASTELLDEFELS - Day 82, Friday 5th June

Lunch in the centre of town and then a visit to the doctor as Toni isn’t feeling well and hasn’t been for the past week.  He does not have the symptoms of the virus, so there is not the panic than would accompany that diagnosis, but he is feeling unwell enough to necessitate further treatment.

     This is not a visit which is being undertaken lightly, but Toni is a person who takes advice seriously and he will not take any risks and will abide by all the rules and regulations.  The visit was swift and the result of the consultation is that we are going to cut down and out all of the sugar in our diet.  Well, who hasn’t put on a little weight in the sedentary paradise of lockdown?

 

My evening bike ride was transferred to the doctor’s to pick up something for Toni and I called into the sports club on my way back as I had noticed quite a number of cars in the car park on my way there.

     It turns out that swimming will recommence on Monday.  But not as normal.  All swimming must be booked in advance and there will only be five swimmers allowed each hour.  This makes sense as our pool has five lanes.  We will be allowed to use the changing rooms, but the only showers to be used will be those at the edge of the pool itself and the showers in the changing room are off limits.

     The café in the club will be fully opened on Monday, whatever that means.  As far as I can work out, the terrace will be operational and up to 50% of the interior can be used with well-spaced tables.

     The entrance has the counter behind screens and there is a bottle of alcohol soap to use as soon as you are inside.  There are the regulation adhesive strips on the floor to mark out the necessary distances, but there is also a sort of determination on the part of the staff to make the place be as normal as possible.  And, I’m sure that we will be abiding by the new rules as if they have been in place for ages in no time at all.

  So, on Monday at 8 am I will go for my first swim for months.  I wonder what lane I will be in.  I have not been able to book further ahead than two days in the new app that we have had to download to access the new booking system.  We will have to see how this all works out.

 

The situation in the UK does not seem to be getting any better with the number of deaths now reaching 40,000 – double the number that the chief scientific advisor said would have been a good result.  This is, by definition, a disaster.  And a continuing disaster, as the government seems to be flying by the seat of their collective pants and reacting to situations in a tardy and fatal way rather than being proactive.

     The UK progresses to the next stages of loosening the lockdown with nothing like a solid programme of tracking and testing in place.  Indeed, we have been told that a fully functioning system will not be operational until September!  You couldn’t make up their uselessness.

 

Tomorrow is Saturday, a weekend in the days before our movement to the next stage in the freeing of restrictions.  It will be an interesting indication of how things will progress and how seriously people are going to take the crisis as we get further into the summer months and the number of cases and deaths fall. 

     Every day as we go through the summer gets us nearer to the autumn and the traditional flu season and, unless something dramatic happens in terms of treatment or vaccine, who knows what September to January is going to look like.

     As long as I am around to watch!