Hello friends, I hope this letter finds you fit and well?
Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past 72 hours, you will have noticed that our illustrious leader and his No.10 cronies have finally decided to bring in a second national lockdown. Too little too late, in my opinion!
SAGE, the committee of scientists set up by the government to advise them about how to handle the pandemic, told ministers several weeks ago that they should implement a two-week "circuit-break" lockdown across the UK. In their view, this smaller lockdown would have flattened the curve and slowed the rate of infection, thus preventing a deadly second wave.
Did they listen? Did they fuck! Our government has a delicate balancing act to perform when it comes to the handling of the coronavirus pandemic; unfortunately, they seem skewed towards keeping the economy healthy, not the population.
I do despair!
This time around, I'm not taking any chances. We have plenty of PPE, hand-sanitiser and a decent stock of food. I even managed to secure several supermarket grocery delivery slots, meaning we won't need to leave the house except for daily walks. As I write this letter, I am still waiting for news from my wife about her job. We don't yet know if work will furlough her again; we assume they will.
So, what to do during a second lockdown? I will be fasting for up to 20 hours per day, being careful about what I eat - supplementing my diet with Zinc and Vitamins D3/K2 - taking long walks in the woods or along the coast and writing here as often as I can. I'll be reading plenty of books, listening to my favourite podcast, working in the garden and taking time to declutter my stuff. I have too much stuff!
At some point during the lockdown, we will be taking delivery of one of those new Xbox Series X gaming consoles, a birthday/Christmas gift for our teenage son, Karta. We were supposed to be collecting it on launch day; however, the shop will be closed due to LD2, so we will have to wait and see how that pans out.
I predict that this second lockdown will end up being longer than the four weeks that the government has proposed. This time around schools and universities will not close. I think that in around two weeks time government scientists will see that the spread of infection is not slowing as fast as they had hoped and will tell No.10 that schools will also have to close along with a further two-week extension to the lockdown. If that happens, the country should come out of lockdown on the 17th of December, a week before Christmas and in time for the school holidays to begin.
Keep an eye on your inbox for other letters; I'll try and give you links to things that might keep you entertained. In the meantime, please stay safe, love life and be kind to each other.
Until next time, adieu!