Surrealism, or Coronavirus #6

It is becoming more eerie. Whereas last week, a fair few customers argued that it's just a virus, or made fun of people in gloves, or behaved as if they didn't care, we now have almost 100% compliance in the supermarket. Not a single argument over the restrictions, not a single complaint about missing items. We now ask people to place their groceries on the counter and then step backwards from us, behind the line on the floor. I had at first thought that people would find it very rude - so at first I was apologising - but to my surprise, it's making people see that this is serious. And to my absolute astonishment it is EMPOWERING people. They now have something concrete that they can do, something constructive, where before they had been on tenterhooks of anticipation, tense with expectation but feeling utterly powerless. So now, they feel like they are "doing their bit", just by looking at a bit of tape on the floor and moving their feet to the other side of it.

The manager of my hotel job called me from her personal mobile tonight, they've been ordered to close completely, effective immediately. I am absolutely gutted for her and gutted for the ladies I worked with. Their hearts and souls are in that place and now they are also unsure about paying bills. I feel fortunate and also guilty that I will still have work elsewhere, for at least a few weeks.

Speaking of which, son has gotten a temporary job at the supermarket, which is good news. It is a day of mixed emotions.

We have also been ordered this evening to stop socialising outside our homes for any reason. But son and I each live alone. For the moment we agreed that we'll still eat dinner together every few nights. We already work in the same place so I can't see that it adds anything to each others' exposure.

Good: New board game arrived, Santorini, which is so great that we played four games in a row today, straight after unpacking it. I am going to write a review. Well worth the £16 purchase price.

Meh: Since shelves still get stripped bare, almost nothing actually goes out of date at work, meaning there's almost no free food on offer. I did manage to get some packaged apple slices, some lettuce and a few smoothees (which go in the weird soda water).