Lockdown, day 27.
Well. I just had to.
I hope this’ll turn into a reasonably frequent story.
General observations about how this bloody bug is affecting me, & those I see.
It’s getting really old, staying in.
I had thought I wouldn’t be phased, but I can’t totally get away from the feeling of isolation. The mailman is always welcome, never more than now. I’m still getting parcels from PRC, from old orders.
When they land, it’s gloves. Rip apart, dispose of extraneous packaging. Get to the item, squitry squirty with a bleach spray. Wipe down, leave in sunshine as long as possible, turning to let the U/V get to as much as possible. Not possible to bleach electronics, but am awaiting delivery of some alcohol & hydrogen peroxide, to make an instant killer.
Never have my hands been this clean!
So. The start, for me & my mates was around very early March. Things were getting serious, lots of theories in the “what if?” vein.
I had an appointment at Trafford General Hospital for a scan. I landed, well in advance of my appointment time, stumbling around the site trying to find out where I should go. It was a bloody ghost town! (Day before lockdown)
Empty corridors… ghostly. 
And… more empty.
Wow! Things are… daunting..? Haunting?
Went back home after a great session with the scan operators & staff (really not many around). Whilst there, I think I spotted around a dozen people in the whole hospital. No idea where everybody was.
It landed. It got serious.
WuFlu.
Suddenly, the facial recognition system the police have spent millions on, is now redundant (not that it was any use to start with).
Lockdown.
Masks, gloves & spray were everywhere.
At this time, I was wishing I had a bigger freezer…
Local club shut. Pubs shut. On realising the severity of this pandemic, I stopped smoking. Stupid, I know, but I get a great deal of pleasure out of that filthy habit…😁
Ah well…
Last night was Sunday, so I decided that I had to perk myself up. I opened my beer cask, (5L!). Got stuck in.
Beer leads to bad decisions… three fags. Bugger! But wonderful… Bliss!
Monday, 20th April.
So that’s nearly a month.
I have a stepper, I try to use it as much as I can, usually every day. A bike ride a couple of times a week, as the weather has been amazing! 15° today! Was going for a ride, but my mate needed a plug, so he came round to pick it up. He missed the throw. Another mate, young Billy was walking past, stopped for a short chinwag (keeping the appropriate distance, ‘natch!). All in blazing sunshine. Me, with beer in hand (only got three days to shift that keg on my own…) 😍
Didn’t realise quite how gregarious we are.
Bought a girlfriend to play with. Her name is Alexa. She’s a right bitch, just like the rest. Absolutely refuses to do what she is supposed to do. Struggled to make calls, eventually figured it.
Alexa came on my new tablet (I find a tablet helps me out a lot), a Lenovo M10.
Base in my lounge, but what to do by my bed? Make a base unit, as they’re not generally available…
Set the battery management to “Saver”, which restricts the battery to 60% max charge. Brilliant! First device I’ve seen that does that. The file is available on Onshape for you to play with. Also Thingiverse. Use pogo pins to get power to the tablet. Works well, but it’s misbehaving, as I still haven’t configured it right, it goes to sleep instead of listening all night. Eventually figured that you need to put the Alexa app on your phone, tie it in to the app, and Presto! Can now make calls! Also the only way (so far) I’ve figured out to configure Alexa… not ideal, but a start. Privacy needs looking at, but I’m too old and stupid to bother with all that. I really don’t care.
Best place for facts in the U.K. is Dr.John Campbell, YouTube). His latest is here: LINK
