the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

This week I escaped from my regime of work and weekly shop. My eldest daughter had sent me a voucher for a driving experience day and so off I went to a public event.

Social distancing was in place, although you can’t stay 2 metres apart from someone sharing your car. The organisers did try hard though and as soon as a car came back to the staging area after a run once the driver was out one of the crew was straight in with anti-viral spray and wipes to clean the controls, door handles and everything else that might have been touched. Masks were compulsory and any silliness like not keeping your nose covered was challenged: Behave, comply or you don’t drive.

I have also had a husband and wife local team in for a few hours each day doing some of the heavy work in the garden that, for various reasons, I was not going to do. We have kept our distance, refrained from shaking hands on the deal and, in some ways, it has seemed like a return to more normal ways.

Whilst my small crew have moved the garden project forward massively it seems that so many others have been at similar projects during lockdown and that, combined with factories having been shut down, has seen a shortage of some materials. I had planned to buy a new shed once I knew how much space I had available, but, now I know what I can do, I can’t have one for 3-4 months. Plan F looms perhaps.

It has been a big frustration to go onto a website, select a product with all of its options and then get to the payment page before being told that the item is not in stock, That is not just the shed, I have had the same problem with a range of DIY products and it has been a blot on an otherwise easy period of internet buying during lockdown.

Today we went over to the requirement to wear face coverings in shops. Some, mostly the smaller shops, are refusing admission to those who refuse to comply, but the larger chains are taking the view that their employees are at risk if they challenge non-compliance. Why people have to be stupid about this is beyond me (I have been waring a mask whilst shopping from the start of the plague), but there is the usual bleating about infringement of ‘uman rights. Personally I feel that it is a shame that Daleks are not real; a few of those around to deal with miscreants would soon sort the problem.

The position in some other countries seems dire. America has lost the plot entirely and those who have bemoaned the UK, at one time, leading the world in deaths per capita have gone strangely quiet now that we have both lost that position and begun to understand that our own stats are flawed.

Here in Swindon we have had a little surge in reported cases, but that was to be expected as we try to get people back to work. In one case it seems that a company allowed an employee from Leicester, which is in lockdown because of the number of cases there, to come to their office here. If it is true it is mindbogglingly stupid.

Anyway, another week has gone by and me and mine still seem to be thriving and surviving so I can’t complain. Stay safe out there one and all.