DigiFest – Page 2 – Pelican Stairs

1 May 2020

Nice catch up call with Ana & Seb & Adi & Emma. Revealing moment when they were all bragging about their robot vacuums and Adi said “You can’t do without a real vacuum entirely,” and Seb said, “We seem to be doing fine,” and Adi said “What about the stairs?” and Ana said, “I’ve vacuumed the stairs twice in the past three weeks, and Seb said, “You vacuum the stairs?” and Ana said, “Who do you think has been doing it?” Then later as we were ending the call they all asked “But Cait, are you really okay on your own, don’t you wish you had someone for company?” Honestly. Big rainstorm yesterday afternoon: glad I got out for my walk in the morning. Slightly hairy moment on the path when I thought a large German shepherd was going to be aggressive with me on the narrow bit by the old power station but his owner kept him to heel and though he wanted to lunge forward to see what was happening he didn’t bark. I left a drawing (“take care <3”) on the Thames foreshore. I thought of it getting washed away later when the rain started. Sat outside briefly with a cup of tea enjoying the quiet between video calls.

April, DigiFest, Uncategorized

11 April 2020

Might need to make a double batch of Neighbour Cookies–18 takers so far and I want to make sure they all get a decent amount! The Highway remains inexplicably busy outside. Perhaps the traffic has eased but the noise has barely abated at all. The first night after the stay at home order was quiet but since then it seems like the same as always. I keep waiting for the lockdown extension to be announced. But they did say they’d review it in 3 weeks, which should be just when the Prime Minister is getting well again. If he makes it–out of the ICU but many accounts of people who’ve been through it talk about waves of relapses, of doing better and worse in intervals. News headlines also talking about people who thought they were well and truly over it getting ill again many weeks later. But scaremongering or real danger? It could be poor testing or incomplete info, or this virus could be like herpes or verrucas or something where you never really get over it, they just flare up at regular intervals and live dormant the rest of the time. I can hear a delivery person blipping packages outside. I heard a helicopter earlier (normal one, not military one) and now a plane–such banal sounds but all unusual now. Weather continues to be beautiful and sunny. Rain would help people stay off the streets. But though I still see a lot of exercisers (including sweaty and heavy breathing joggers exuding droplets everywhere) no swimmers which there normally would be on hot days like these flouting all the rules and signage, most of which has been blown to tatters by the wind. And the fishing tents have disappeared again, thank goodness. Perhaps last weekend was some kind of farewell party. Turner’s Old Star has been dobbed in for opening against lockdown orders–when I walked by last Sunday their sign said “We ask patrons not to enter if showing signs of illness” not that they were totally shut–which is BS because it can live undetected for up to 14 days. So finally our local busybody blogger posted a photo and tagged in Tower Hamlets police. I expect that will put an end to that. I’ll walk by and see if they’ve updated the sign.

April, DigiFest, Uncategorized

2 April 2020

Had a little cry at the 6 o’clock news which had a segment on people not being allowed to see one’s dying relatives, or even attend their funerals. I was overwhelmed with a sense of not wanting to die alone. But when I got on the phone with my parents they said they were talking about what they’d do if I got sick and I really need to make clear to them that they wouldn’t be allowed to see me. Plus they might not be able to fly home.

DigiFest, March, Uncategorized

27 March 2020

Yesterday at 8 PM there was an organized effort to get everyone outside to applaud for the NHS and care workers. I thought there would be a poor showing and I’d seen some doctors and nurses saying they didn’t want applause, they wanted more PPI so they could do their jobs more safely. But at 8 PM I heard a noise–through my noise-cancelling headphones–and when I went out every single balcony in Newlands Quay, Maynards Quay, and all the other surrounding housing units had someone one it making a joyful noise. It was really stunningly moving. We could hear fireworks and air horns in the distance. Really beautiful. I felt connected to the neighbourhood in ways I hadn’t before. The next few weeks are going to be difficult and grim but now I feel we can do it together.

DigiFest, March, Uncategorized

17 March 2020

Yesterday the UK government completely changed its coronavirus strategy on the realization they’d messed up the modeling. They used viral pneumonia rather than the novel coronavirus to model its ‘herd immunity’ strategy and the two diseases are not alike. So they’ve completely changed tactics, perhaps too little too late. And they’ve strongly advised against public gatherings without actually ordering anything to shut. Meaning that restaurants, pubs and theatres won’t have any income but can’t claim any insurance either. I’m furious and sad for my friends in those industries. And selfishly annoyed because where am I going to go when this is over if all those places are closed? People keep saying “this might change everything–it won’t go back to the way it was” and I can believe that for office work but humans are social creatures–perhaps the most social species that ever existed — and we won’t be able to sustain long term quarantine conditions no matter how risky getting together is. We need each other.