1. Yes, I am getting old, but I'm not yet in the 'elderly' category. Also, twice as many men have died from Covid-19 than women, so that ups my odds of survival!
2. Yes, my partner, who is on immune-suppressant drugs for Crohn's Disease and also has asthma, is having to self-isolate, which means that I am too, but at least it is giving him a well-earned rest. He has been exhausted for the past year, dreaming of early retirement, and he could do with a few months of sleeping til midmorning, dossing around, bingewatching boxsets, working on the book of philosophy he has been wanting to write for years, and generally being idle.
3. Yes, we both have elderly mothers who live alone. But I am phoning my mum everyday now, which hasn't been the case in the past few years as our relationship is pretty poor. Admittedly, if I talk to her for more than two minutes I inevitably annoy the fuck out of her for reasons beyond my understanding (maybe I have this effect on everyone but most people are too polite to show it?), but at least we are communicating more. What the government don't appreciate is that getting old people to do anything different from what they usually do is like trying to get a river to flow uphill. They are all feisty buggers to varying degrees. But my partner's mum barely consumes anything anyway, being excessively parsimonious, and my mum has always been a hoarder of food and household necessities. I think she has been stocking up for an apocalypse since my childhood. So I doubt she'll starve, even if I can't get food to her.
4. My sister and her partner live some distance away, across the other side of the Peak District (basically, they've gone to the Dark Side - ie, not Yorkshire), and sis can't drive at the moment. She is having to continue working as she is a key worker, but her partner might be sent home as his job is non-essential (he's a traffic warden). But on the bright side, people will be able to park where they like! We won't be able to visit each other for a while, but that'll save me money buying her lunch every time I visit her...
5. Worst thing - I won't be able to see my six year old great-nephew (I'm an extremely young and glamorous great-aunt). I like to think he'll be sad at not seeing us, or his great-grandma, and he probably will be, but I'm sure he'll cope better than us. As long as he is safe and has enough toy cars to play with, he'll be fine.
6. I thought I'd lost my personal income as there will be no examining work in the summer, and I assumed my private tutees would no longer want their lessons but in fact the students do want their lessons and I expect that many kids will choose to sit the exams when they are offered later in the year, so there might be examining work available then. So my only problem now is working out how to teach them online. Still, hooray for the internet. How would we cope without it?
7. Self-isolating shouldn't be a problem for people like me. I'm a bookworm. I'm a writer. I'm physically lazy. I like to sleep in and go to bed very late. My favourite place in fact is in bed. My view is that everything worth doing can be done in bed. We bought a smart TV last winter and there are loads of Prime series I want to watch. My idea of doing exercise is doing Wii-fit yoga. My idea of entertainment is working out new recipes based on stuff I have left over in the cupboard and fridge. It will give us the chance to give the entire house a thorough clean. We could have a 'project' of getting fitter and slimmer during our enforced isolation, like those convicts who spend ten hours a day lifting weights and doing sit ups. I have my Masters course to complete and a writing challenge I'm attempting where you write a story a month. I also have my children's fantasy novel, Hollowmouth, to finish. I have no shortage of things to do. And it won't be a lot different from my usual life except that I won't be able to go to coffee shops for a while - good god! I might have to learn how to use the beautiful coffee machine my partner bought me two years ago! And of course I will have to spend much more time with my partner, but that's just a burden he's going to have to bear. If he didn't want to spend several months in a small house with only me for company, he shouldn't have developed Crohn's and asthma. It's his own fault....
8. I am by nature a misanthrope - I am grumpy, cynical, antisocial. But I now feel the urge to contact people constantly to check they're ok. This must be a good thing, surely? Covid-19 is making me more kind and sociable. It's just my basic bloody-mindedness, I guess.
9. And it's making much less profligate with toilet roll.
This is very good and cheered me up as very funny with good descriptive writing
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