Thursday 26 March 2020

On Becoming a Hermit, Sort of ... Day 9

Day 9
(Wednesday, 25th March 2020)

I was first up this morning. B had done the last two, for no particular reason than that she was awake and ready to go downstairs and feed the menagerie and get the first news of the day.

It was me who got the first news, which was largely more depressing statistics on the number of cases and deaths caused by COVID-19 (shall we call it C-19 from now on? Yes, I think we should. It seems we are two weeks behind Italy, who now have recorded more cases and more deaths (apparently) than China, where it all started back in November. Monday afternoon's announcement by the PM that staying at home was to become more than an 'instruction', that it would within days become enforced by law. At this point most people are taking notice and following the advice, but this morning's news confirmed that is still no uncertain amount of ignorance on display. The stubbornness, refusal to follow the instruction, arrogance and, frankly utter stupidity in ignoring official advice, which is coming from the highest authorities on the science and medical epidemiology (which I spoke at some length about in Day 3 of this journal). Still, it seems there are crowds of mainly young people meeting in public for their social pleasure.

My day finished with my fourth on line conference call, but this time with fellow choristers in Fox Valley Voices. We tried (against my advice, given the experience of Hallmark) to sing through a song, "Autumn Leaves" all together with harmonies. Whilst there was the odd moment when I could detect the odd harmonious phrase, for the most part it was a car crash. The greatest value, as with Hallmark, was being 'together', talking about how we are fairing in the Corona virus crisis ... and generally having a good old laugh. There's a result, then.


Today's Music Choice from Clemency Burton-Hill's "Year of Wonder" is Romanian Folk Dances 2: 'Sash Dance' by Bela Bartok 





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