Wednesday 1st July 2020 – Back to the office
First day back in the office since 23rd March, but even now not back in my own office, which is not yet adapted for social distancing. Instead we are in an annexe of the Council’s main building. I pass the office where I used to work until lockdown, and see a group waiting to enter, probably the deep-cleaning team working its way through the building.
The annexe is fine, just two of us in an office made safe for about a dozen people, although for a while there are three of us, each on separate islands of desks, since one colleague misread his calendar and thought he was on call. There is just enough room between islands of desks for floor-marked one-way system, although this is superfluous with just two or three of us. Permitted work stations, labelled as such, are diagonally opposite, with solid Perspex screens at either side of each. For lavatory purposes we follow the one-way arrows to the door, cross a yard to the main building, and pick up another marked one-way system past reception, with its plastic screening, to the toilets.
The office has cleaning materials in abundance; antibacterial sprays, wipes and soap, cloths, alcohol-based hand sanitiser. After a couple of hours, a lady popped in to ask if we have been trained to clean our desks. Of the three of us, one has been trained, and offers to give us a lesson. Fold a new cloth so that eight fresh surfaces can be used in turn, repeatedly apply antiseptic spray, and wipe monitor, keyboard & mouse, desk surface, chair seat, chair back, chair arms, and each Perspex screen. Fortunately, this is pretty much what we had done on arrival, although I tended to spray surfaces liberally rather then the cloth. The keyboard may never be the same again. As I write I realise that I failed to sign the “I Have Been Trained” book.
I need to go out in the shared pool car, and follow the one-way arrows to the car parked outside. I have forgotten to bring wipes, and those in the car are locked in, and so I have to use an un-sanitised door handle before reaching in for the pack of wipes. I wipe the inside door handles, window-opening buttons, gear lever, handbrake, steering wheel, and seat, before confidently getting is, starting the engine and reaching behind me to grab the seat belt, habitually buckling up before realising that it is un-wiped. During my shift I receive calls to visit areas of Leicester that have high levels of Covid infections. Despite not entering homes, I am not comfortable.
This has most definitely not been a normal day in the office, with a distinct feeling that I shouldn’t be out and about in Locked-Down Leicester, which makes me unsettled and just slightly stressed.
Thursday 2nd July 2020 – Tales from Croft Hill
I wake from a vivid and disconcerting dream. I am in our local pub, propping up the bar, the dogs at my feet waiting for treats. It is the first time that the pub is open following lockdown and I am waiting for my friends to arrive – it must be a Tuesday night. So why is the dream disconcerting? Because, in my dream, the pub is decorated for Christmas. I know that our pub, like others locally, have decided to remain closed until the Leicester is released from lockdown, but surely we haven’t got to wait for five more months?
While we are walking around Croft Hill we all note the profusion of yellow ragwort. Normally there are only a few isolated clumps of the plant, which is poisonous to horses. In most years a small herd of cattle graze the Hill, planned grazing to keep down weeds, and encourage wild flowers to flourish, but not this year, maybe because of the large gatherings and associated rubbish, as well as damaged fences, that have been a feature during lockdown. Ragwort is poisonous to cattle as well as horses and I have seen people clearing ragwort in previous years, maybe in preparation for the arrival of the cows. This year no cows, and so no clearing of Ragwort.
The character of the Hill has certainly changed during lockdown. At first we only met regulars, all self-consciously socially-distancing. Gradually the Hill became busier with walkers and families, then the blokes-with-barbeques-and-beer arrived during most evenings, before the Centennials and Millennials started visiting with their garden chairs and picnics. The latter haven’t been seen for a week or so, and the beer drinkers are again making occasional visits. Is this a reflection of lockdown in reverse, and maybe we locals will get “our” Hill back?
Friday 3rd July 2020 – Back on the bike
A shock to the system this morning. I am on call from the office at 9am for the first time since 11th March, and must be up at 6am to breakfast, walk the dogs, get on my bike, and be at work on time. It is a joy to be back on my e-bike, but less of a joy yesterday when I opened the bike-shed to retrieve it for the first time in months – there was an active wasps nest above it, soon dealt with using the hit-with-a-broom-and-run-fast method.
Numerous uniformed army personnel have been present all day in the Council’s main building, which we visit from our Annexe when we need a “comfort break”. The army appear to have taken over a Committee Room, presumably for multi-agency briefings, and to manage the Covid testing stations around the City, now manned by Army personnel. Later, I see on TV that there was a press conference in the building this morning, which would account for the unusually busy reception area during one of my trips to the lavatory. These really are unusual times, which I hope will never become normal.
Saturday 4th July 2020 – Fancy a pint? Then get on your bike.
An auspicious day for most of England, as pubs open for the first time in months. Not around here though. We are almost 3 miles from the boundary of the local lockdown area of Greater Leicester, but our local village pubs have decided to remain closed for the time being to discourage Leicester Lepers (as has become a common phrase for those within the lockdown area) from visiting for a pint. I suspect that it would be more than just the occasional thirsty visitor from The Metropolis
A friend is staying overnight on his narrow boat in Staffordshire, berthed in a boatyard with a clubhouse. I WhatsApp him to ask how his first draught pint went down. The ale on offer was one that would not normally be a pint of choice, but as it was the first non-bottled beer since we last left our beloved local pub on the night of 20th March, 15 pub-free weeks ago, he reports that he it tasted gorgeous, or least as far as he can remember. He was on his fifth pint, maybe, or maybe not, all in one session. I need to wait for another week, when I will be Yorkshire for a few days. I hope that Yorkshire folk have been busy brewing and distributing Theakston’s and Black Sheep ales, or indeed any for the real ales that Yorkshire is famed for.
I spend much of today continuing preparations for church opening later in the month, reading the reams of guidance (can you have a ream of something that isn’t actually printed in paper?) that has been issued by Government and by the Church nationally, making sure that our procedures have included everything necessary, from cleaning and antibacterial supplies, to one way systems and signs.
This evening the dogs and I have a delightful walk on Croft Hill. Those local pubs that have opened must be full of families, beer-drinking-blokes, and centennials and Millennials who liked to picnic up here, because all of these have vacated the Hill. The dogs and I have the Hill completely to ourselves. Bliss.
Sunday July 5th 2020 – A material risk
Church Zoom service this morning, and, unlike last week, the service was smooth and seamless, even including a short drama, with the participants, including me, spread over three South Leicestershire villages. Thanks to screen-sharing limiting the number of visible participants, I could only see one other person taking part, but it worked.
A brief shopping trip to the local Co-op for snacks to take to a neighbour’s garden. The shop was quiet, no queuing, and customers moving aside for each other, now second nature. No masks were in evidence. Later six of us enjoyed refreshments, seated safely and suitably socially distanced, outdoors in a neighbours garden, in rather breezy sunshine.
There is talk of the Leicester Covid spike being at least partially due to working conditions in textile factories, workers unavoidably close with no PPE, low wages, and no sick pay to encourage people with symptoms to stay at home. I have previously visited some of these factories in connection with work. The operators may be 2 metres from each other when operating knitting machines or similar, but with so many people on a shop floor, maintaining social distancing will be difficult. Workshops are often in old buildings that house dozens of individual independent workshops, with narrow winding corridors, no room for a one system, the owner of each business usually rents an individual unit, and so have no control over the management of common corridors. It is unsurprising that it doesn’t take many individual cases to escalate to an “outbreak”.
Monday July 6th 2020 – Perms and Pints
The Ladies in my wide circle of friends have all been asking each other the same question. It is clearly a topic of major concern and importance. “When is your hair appointment?” To date, two have had their first post-lockdown appointments. When my wife has her appointment, it needs to be in my calendar as well as hers, so I am reminded to compliment the haircut when she gets home. This got me into trouble once, when I complimented my wife, only to be told that the appointment had been cancelled.
Croft Hill continues to be claimed back by locals from the Lockdown invaders, and this morning I meet a regular walker descending the Hill. When ladies are asking about haircuts, for gentlemen the question is “Had your first draught pint yet?” With pubs in the immediate vicinity remaining closed until the end of the Leicester Lockdown, this gentleman had travelled slightly further beyond the immediate villages, to a pub/restaurant a local village a little further from the Leicester City boundary, and so open. He found only lager on sale, probably because lager has a long shelf life, tasting awful no matter how old the keg is. This gentleman consequently moved on to a traditional pub in the next village where he found proper ale, with waitresses (no mention of waiters) serving customers at outdoor tables. He didn’t mention whether indoor seating was an option. Both establishments required him to provide his name and a phone number for contact tracing purposes.
Leicester’s lockdown continues to make the news headlines, in particular the reasons for the Covid spike. Stories blaming conditions in local “sweatshops” have led to demands for investigations into working conditions in general, irrespective of the contribution to the spike. The Spinney Hill area of Leicester has never been specifically referred to as the main area of increased cases, but this is the area which is repeatedly filmed for news reports, and is certainly the area around which the textile trade in the City is based. A couple of locals in the area are interviewed today, and one states that social-distancing has never been normal practice at work or shops during lockdown. There appears to be something unique about this area, but it is not something that is open or obvious. Equally dense housing is found elsewhere in the City, where there has been no Covid spike, although perhaps not with the same deprivation.
Dog training tonight, and we are joined by one of the older members of the club, who we haven’t seen for months, but not just because of lockdown. Early this year she was diagnosed with cancer, and for her the timing of lockdown was perfect. She had an operation at the end of February, just before such operations were cancelled. She spent lockdown being waited on by her partner as she recovered, and is now fit and well. The only normal activity that she cannot yet resume, thanks to international Covid precautions, is travel. She is a veteran traveller, last year clocking up her 100th country. For now, she must be patient, and spend time planning.
Tuesday 7th July 2020 – No Trace
It seems to have gone quiet on the UK track-and-trace app, since the Government abandoned the NHS app in favour of an app linked to the Apple/Android app. Eire has launched its app Where is ours, Boris?
Following the Leicester Covid spike, working conditions in textile factories are under the spotlight, and the Health and Safety Executive has closed one factory, and are inspecting others. Today I receive the first complaint for years about noise from a textile machine operated from home. Coincidence? Probably.
Wednesday 8th July 2020 – No escape from the Front Line
My dog-walking friend is uncharacteristically quiet this morning. She comments that she never gets any respite from the Covid Culture. Her sons are home schooling, her partner is furloughed, and at work as a nurse, she may be on a “Green Ward”, Covid-free, but Covid is still at the forefront of decisions and procedures. She sported a new hairdo, thanks to a recent visit to her hairdresser, which should have cheered her up, but was significantly more expensive than expected, possibly because hairdressers must half the throughput of clients to allow time to clean.
My friend also notes that HM Revenue and Customs have decided that if Covid testing is undertaken in connection with work, for example care workers, it is a benefit in kind, and so is taxable, although as an NHS worker she is exempt. I cannot believe this, and so “Google” this, and find that it was true. Clearly HMRC are tasked with clawing back as much as possible to pay for the Government Covid spending deficit. However, someone has clearly “had a word”, and the policy has been withdrawn.
Thursday July 9th 2020 – Making ready
I make my final recommendations to my church for Covid precautions before the building opens for its first public Sunday service next week. Everything is ready for the public to visit, but I must make final recommendations on the cleaning regime. There is a lot of guidance about a lot of public buildings from various sources, and pick out the relevant information to put into a single document that applies to our circumstances. Essentially there must be three regimes. Normal cleaning, when more than 72 hours has elapsed between each service, is fine for now. As the building use becomes more frequent, “deep cleaning” is required, a carefully planned and thorough clean to include every surface that may have been touched. Finally, there is the “extra deep clean” if we find that a Covid-positive person has visited, with appropriate sprays and wipes, and protective clothing. I leave it to others to decide who will be cleaning.
I receive an “newsletter” e-mail from Leicester City Council, which I suspect was sent to both employees and local residents, entitled “What we now know about where the Covid outbreaks have taken place”. I read on, hoping for more details of who was affected, where, and maybe why. I am disappointed. The article mostly states that the Council still doesn’t know, and that this is the fault of the Government. Which may be true.
Friday 10th July 2020 – Getting away
Today we travel to North Yorkshire for a week. Thanks to Covid precautions, our holiday cottage needs additional cleaning between guests, and so we cannot gain access until 4.30pm, later than we would normally expect. Consequently, we leave at lunchtime, when we would normally expect heavy traffic on the M1, with southerners heading north for the weekend. I am relieved that traffic is not back to pre-Covid normality, and we have a smooth journey to our cottage, nestled in fields on the edge of moorland.
We are the second guests since staying away from home was permitted, and the first guests staying for a full week. There are some changes to the normal arrangements that we would expect when we arrive at the cottage. No homemade cake – just individually wrapped biscuits. The tea, sugar and coffee jars are empty, and no condiments, but individual sachets of tea bags and coffee are provided. Naturally there are plenty of wipes and bottles of alcohol-based hand sanitising gel,. The information sheet states that the risk assessment suggested that games and books be removed, but the owners decided to leave them, asking that holidaymakers wipe any games etc after use. We are self-sufficient in beverages, condiments, books and games. The information also states that in the event of suffering Covid symptoms during the holiday, we must call 111. If the advice is that we must stay in the cottage for 14 days, then we are liable for the full cost of the additional stay, and consequently travel insurance is recommended. It’s a bit late for that.
Saturday 11th July 2020 – Leicester pariahs
I see from the news that some countries are relaxing Covid precautions and allowing UK citizens to visit. Some specifically exclude citizens of Leicester. Leicester has not been so internationally famous since the football team won the Premier League in 2016.
Sunday 12th July 2020 – A long awaited pint
It has been like returning to my youth. Most blokes have dreamed of doing it. Many of my friends have done it. Some have bragged about it. I have wanted to do it, but have not been given the opportunity to do it. Doing it home has not been an option. But today, after travelling to somewhere where am not known, I finally did it. After four long months I sat outside a pub and had a draught pint. My pint of Black Sheep, supped outside the Crown, Hutton-le-Hole, in North Yorkshire, was gorgeous.
The New Normality for buying a pint? Sign in by the pub door, providing your name and contact number to the visor-wearing landlord. Place an order for the beer (and cider for Chantal), and go and sit at an allocated table, where the drink is delivered by a waiter, his face covered, who also takes any food order. For now, it is all a novelty, with banter between customers, and people arriving asking what the arrangements are, but it certainly detracts from the Great British Pub Atmosphere.
Tuesday 14th July 2020 – More on the masking question
Face coverings are to be mandatory in shops, which is a good thing. At the moment the decision over whether or not to wear a mask in a shop is based on peer pressure. I once wore a mask in Aldi, but removed it when I realised that I was the only one with a face covering. I have also felt that I ought to be wearing a mask in a store where others doing so, although I didn’t do so because the majority were not. During a visit to Whitby many people in the street were wearing masks or face coverings, but many people seen leaving shops were bare faced. Presumably mask wearers are those who feel vulnerable, or are risk-averse, and stay in the well-ventilated outdoors. Those not wearing a mask are clearly less concerned about the risk of contracting Covid, and it is this latter group who are more likely to visit a shop.
Compulsory face covering will hopefully encourage the risk-averse to partake in retail therapy, which will be needed to kick start the retail economy. Yesterday I got into trouble for taking my wife to visit a village where craft shops dominated. She loves craft shops, and I have often spent hours (or so it seems) on holidays waiting patiently(ish) with the dogs outside craft-type shops, but yesterday I was firmly told that she does not wish to browse in craft shops, or indeed any other shop, the risk of being unable to socially distance being far too great. I pointed out that she has been known to browse in Aldi and Sainsbury, and on Sunday she popped into a hardware shop in Pickering for a bird feeder, and surely craft shops were of the same risk? Her answer was very brief and to the point. We will not be visiting any craft shops.
Today I went up to a bar in a pub, no-one else at the bar, and ordered drinks and a meal, paid for them, and took the drinks away to our outdoor table. Risk-wise there is no difference between this and buying, say, a bird feeder in an almost-empty shop. Both are relatively safe, but under proposed rules the latter will require a mask, whereas the former will not. Compulsory wearing of a mask inside any public accessed building, unless seated at a table for food and drink, would be appropriate, and fair to those serving us.
Wednesday 15th July 2020 – Cashless options
The cashless contactless option to pay for car parking at Staithes car park is disabled, and I have no coins. It is a long walk down to the harbour village of Staithes, where, in common with many outlets, most of the shops now only offer contactless payments, no potentially Covid-contaminated notes, but also no use for obtaining change. I eventually find a sweet shop that still accepts notes, where a nice young lady kindly sells me a bag of mint imperials and so I get some change in return for my tenner. I toil back up the long hill, approach the car park pay machine with a handful of pound coins, and only then, on the side of the machine, do I see the option of using a carparking app. Eventually I successfully use the recommended phone app to pay without cash. After years of suspicion of such apps, this could now become my preferred method of payment for car parks
Today is the first time that I have to queue to get into a pub. Remember that nice smell of beer when you first enter a pub? This has now been replaced by the distinctive odour of hand sanitiser.
Friday 17th July 2020 – An in-depth personal assessment of the Licenced Trade (involving several inspections…)
Home after a week among the moors of North Yorkshire. It has been a week full of happy memories; Sunday Black Sheep Ale, Monday Whitby Whaler, Tuesday Wold Gold, Wednesday Theakstons Best, Thursday Marstons Pedigree. For the record Whitby Whaler, at the Whitby microbrewery, was by far the best. Brewers were not given much notice that pubs were allowed to open again – maybe a microbrewery is better than an “industrial” brewery at adapting and getting an ale on stream quickly after an enforced pause in production.
Pubs seem to be coping well with the social distancing and contact tracing procedure, considering that staff have been working with the new arrangements for less than two weeks. The PPE of choice seems to be the same across most pubs; a visor for those taking orders, and mask for those “waiting at table”. Of the pubs visited (in the interest of research), seated outdoors in all of them, three took contact details before taking an order, one had a signing in book by the door, but served me without checking that I had provided details (I hadn’t – I didn’t notice the book until I asked if they were taking contact details), and one had an unmissable signing on book on the bar, which I signed without being asked. One landlady told me that I didn’t need to sign in because I was seated outside, although I had just queued to get in, and was now standing inside at the bar. All had one-way systems, and enforced it.
I chatted briefly to one landlady who told me that, thanks to the extra time spent managing customers, her staff are as busy as during the peak season, but only taking half of the orders. Persuading customers to follow the one-way system was a particular issue – with a queue at the entrance, newcomers were tempted to take a short cut, avoiding the queue by entering via the exit door, which happened to be the door closest top outdoor tables. The landlady told me that she started undertaking the risk assessment and social distancing arrangements as soon as an opening date was announced by the Government, but at one stage new guidance was being issued faster than she could implement new recommendations. The final guidance was 40 pages long.
Sunday 19th July 2020 – Keeping track
During the past week, mostly in North Yorkshire, we have visited seven busy pubs, albeit seated outside at all of them. I have left my details in five pubs, and had our names included with the details of a friend at another. Under the circumstances, today I find the details of the Track and Trace team and put the contact number in my phone, just in case. I wouldn’t like to be spreading viral particles willy-nilly just because I ignored a call from an unrecognised number. I wonder if Track and Trace leave a voicemail message?
Back in Leicestershire, we join friends to cycle to a village pub a few miles away – our local pub, closer to the Leicester City boundary, is still closed to avoid visits from Leicester residents still in lockdown. We discuss the implications of a call from track and trace, if they tell us that another customer in one of the Yorkshire pubs that we visited has suffered Covid-19 symptoms. presumably we tell Track and Trace of all the other six pubs that we have been to, and each then gets a call to with a request to provide contact details of customers who were in the pub at the same time as us. Each customer of all six pubs then gets a call from Track and Trace, because we, potentially infected, have visited the premises. Before you can say Ee-Bah-Gum-Lad, most of the beer-loving population of North Yorkshire, (not to mention the visiting tourists), are hanging up their flat caps and going into self-isolation for 14 days. And then common sense overcomes the influence of two pints of Abbotts Ale, and we realise that only “first generation” contacts need to isolate, those who have been in the same place and at the same time as the Covid-19 sufferer. In fact, the briefest of checks on how track and trace works reveals that someone who tests positive must only tell track and trace about recent “close contacts”, i.e. “people you’ve spent 15 minutes or more with at a distance of less than 2m, which, as far as the Yorkshire pubs are concerned, pretty much only involves my wife.
My church had its first service while I was away, just a small prayer service, eight attendees, a chance to test the practicality of implementing the Covid-19 precautions that we have put in place. The service went smoothly, with people happily providing contact details and following the one-way system as they arrived and left, and staying socially distanced as they took their allocated seats. It bodes well for the first full service in a weeks’ time.
Tuesday 21st July – Being prepared
Three more days before face coverings become mandatory in shops in England. We have made our preparations. We do not have the skills to design a mask, we cannot sew fabric into a face coverings (although I suspect that Chantal would do a good job if she put her mind to it), and neither of us are inventive enough to produce a mask from a pair of old socks and a length of string. But we both take photographs. We will shortly be proudly wearing re-usable face masks, each adorned with a photograph that we have taken. Chantal has previously used a company that prints customers photos onto canvas, wood, cushions, blankets, mugs and other items, which has enterprisingly started printing photographs onto face masks. Our order has been submitted.
We will be wearing masks as required for at least three to four months, possibly for longer, and the mask-wearing culture of the Far East may suddenly become very British. Hence our decision to ease the strangeness of face covering by investing in a personal design to be worn with pride, which will hopefully fit better than a paper mask. I opted for rainbow-based images, a traditional sign of hope, using a photo taken from our back garden, and one taken over a ripening wheat field last year. Chantal has gone for floral designs, wild flower photographs.
We still have a stock of paper masks purchased shortly after the Scottish Parliament announced compulsory face covering in shops, and I was concerned that Boris would make a similar announcement for England, possibly at short notice, at a time that face masks were difficult to obtain. Those available at reasonable cost took over a month to deliver. We paid a slight premium for some to be delivered within a couple of weeks, and two more packs have arrived over the following two months. Now that Boris has made his announcement, paper masks are widely available in pharmacies, and commercial radio has advertisements from online companies that specialise in selling masks to the public. Our paper masks will be kept in cars, bags and pockets, just in case we unexpectedly need a mask, just as I carry a tenner in case we come across a coffee shop, or maybe a pub, when out on a walk.
We have also ordered a face mask for my stepson, who initially opted for a Leicester City Football Club design. We pointed out that, at the current time, with Leicester still in firm lockdown, this design may exclude him from more premises than those which give him access. Instead he has gone for very neutral plain option, to stay out of trouble.
I met with a neighbour while out walking this morning. Her family went for a local walk last week, and they all popped into a café for a snack. The café owner not only wanted contact details, but also demanded a postcode. Part of her daughter’s postcode area is within the Leicester Lockdown red zone. As soon as she told the owner, they were all promptly asked to leave.
Thursday 23rd July 2020 – The culture of the mask
I have a disturbed night after waking from a dream in which humanity is doomed, and I am one of a few survivors. I really must stop reading Apple News before going to sleep.
The rules have been released about where masks must be worn from tomorrow. The list includes banks, which, as I have noted before, will be a challenge in the event of a bank robbery, when Security staff may have a problem distinguishing robbers from customers. Last week my brother-in-law took Mum-in-Law out shopping, the first time that she has visited the local shops since March. One of the visits was to her bank, since Mum-in-Law insists on paying everyone with cash, and no-doubt the large withdrawal made when I took her to the bank just before Lockdown commenced has now run out. Mum-in-Law sensibly wears a mask throughout the trip, until she arrives at the bank, where a security guard sharply instructs her to remove the mask. Mum-in-Law is taken by surprise and does as she is told. Under normal circumstances the security guard may well have lost the argument, and subsequently needed his little radio surgically removing. In practice the bank proves to be a Covid-safe environment, since only one customer is allowed in at a time, and bank-tellers have enjoyed protective screens for years. No doubt from tomorrow the security guard will be sharply instructing people to wear a mask, but at least banks will be more secure, now that bank robbers are only allowed to enter one at a time.
I go shopping at my local Co-op, and decide that it is time to mask-up for the shop, whether or not everyone else is doing so. I put on my face mask mask before I enter the store, and keep it on until I am safely back in the car park. The shop is quiet, but at least half of the customers wear masks or face coverings, and all staff either wear masks or, seen for the first time in the Co-op, a visor. Being surrounded by masked customers feels disconcertingly normal.
I am generally a smiley sort of person, smiling in thanks as people allow me past, smiling as I let people past, and smiling as I greet the cashier. Now everyone will have to rely on my eyes to judge my mood. Maybe I should invest in a transparent visor, or one of the masks with a clear panel over the mouth that are being developed to help those who lip read. Maybe I should have ordered a mask with a big smile on the front, and another with a grumpy face for those “don’t-talk-to-me-I’m-in-a-bad-mood-because-the-wife-made-me-shop” days.
I hear another story, this time from dog-walking friends, of a local café demanding a home postcode before allowing entry, to keep out “Leicester Lepers”, Leicester citizens breaking out of the City social-isolation zone to have fun out in the County. This café is in a garden centre, and my friends are accompanied by her Mum. They live in the nearby village of Huncote, well outside of Leicester, but, like our neighbour’s daughter, who was ejected from a café last week, her Mum is from a postcode area that is divided by the red boundary enclosing the Leicester Lockdown zone. Fortunately my friends enter the café first, give the Huncote postcode, and all three are allowed to stay for tea and cake.
Sunday 26th July 2020 – The problems of driving while masked
Last night I was on call from the office, my first night-duty in over four months. As always when working at night, two of us work together, and so I was accompanied by an assistant who took the calls, allowing me to drive between visits without stopping to answer the phone, and consequently we both wore the paper face-masks provided as we were driving around in the (disinfected) pool car. This was not a pleasant experience on a warm and muggy night. At times it was raining heavily, and the screen quickly misted up. Applying an air-conditioned air flow to the screen had no effect, and I realised that the air flow was, in fact, clearing the screen effectively – it was my spectacles that were misting up, as the warm air from inside my face mask rose up to meet the cold surfaces of my glasses, cooled by the air conditioning. The air-conditioned draught directed at the screen did not clear my specs and I peered through a thick mist at the highway, where a combination of flowing rainwater and foggy specs made the white lines invisible. I could either breath or drive safely, but not both. The solution was to open the window, whereupon my glasses cleared, road markings could be distinguished, but my right arm and shoulder got soaked. A partially open window was a reasonably effective compromise, provided that I didn’t talk into my mask. Our conversation was kept to a minimum.
Thursday 30th July 2020 – Secure shopping
A day working from our City centre office gives me an opportunity to pop into Vision Express to have spectacles repaired and to a discount pharmacy for a couple of items, the first time that I have been in the city centre since the lockdown in Leicester was partially relaxed to allow non-essential shops to open, and also since face coverings in shops became compulsory. The centre was moderately busy, with a sprinkling of people wearing masks outside. Interestingly full-face visors have become more common as an alternative for face masks, although a friend who is a “professional” PPE wearer tells me that visors should really supplement masks, since virus-loaded droplets can escape around the side of the visor. I note that the indoor Highcross shopping centre was generally treated as an outdoor street, with few people wearing masks until they actually entered a shop.
Some shops had conspicuous security personnel outside the door, of the type normally seen on doormen outside bars on a Saturday night. I suppose such Leicester-based bouncers are glad of something to do during the current local lockdown. Presumably these doormen are to “persuade” customers without masks not to enter the store, since they supplemented the usual discrete corporately-dressed shop security who could still be seen standing inside the doors to assist customers and dissuade shoplifters. A high-end fashion store of a name that escapes me (I have limited familiarity with high end fashion stores) and Boots the Chemist seemed to have particularly chunky “guards” keeping an eye on those passing through the doors.
My brother in law recently took Mum-in-Law shopping for the first time since she began to socially isolate in early March. She described the experience as being “like an animal let out of its cage”. She found all of the changes to be a bit of a shock. Most of us have gradually got used to the precautionary arrangements, first the queues and social distancing, and then flimsy plastic screens around check-outs. One-way systems and contactless-only payment were introduced and finally permanent Perspex screens at counters, and masks worn by all. We experienced these changes being introduced over four months. Those who have been shielding met all of the changes on one day. Mum-in-Law felt unsettled, and the streets to be uncomfortably busy.
Friday 31st July 2020 – The man in charge
I bumped into the Director of Public Health for Leicester, as you do. I worked with Ivan for several years, when he, like me, was an Environmental Health Officer. “Who’s been a busy boy then?” I greet him. “It’s been manic!” he agrees. As well as managing the Covid peak and lockdown in Leicester, he has also been busy on local and national media. I asked how political it has been. That has been the worst part, he told me. Managing the lockdown and Covid cases take just a small part of his time. Much of his efforts are spent trying to please Tory Health Minister Matt Hancock on the right, and his, Ivan’s, boss, Labour City Mayor Peter Soulsby. He yearned for the old days, when he was a traditional Environmental Health Officer, and the most difficult task undertaken was to locate a blocked drain and get it cleared.
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Living with the mask culture, Eat Out To Help Out, and the rules for shopping and the pub
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Life in the UK changed for everyone in March 2020.