Supsliskans in lockdown: Week 1, 16-22 March 2020

Little did Sue guess the avalanche of emails she would unleash when she asked from the other side of the globe how we were surviving the Covid-19 lockdown in Britain. That first week, which already seems so long ago, was one when public life gradually closed down. On 15 March all Supsliskans, being over 70, were told to self-isolate. On 16 March the general public were advised to avoid non-essential travel, on 20 March it was announced that eating places and gyms would close,  and full lockdown was announced on 20 March with schools closing to all but the children of essential works from 27 March. This new unreality became the norm with an upheaval comparable to the War but this time with the front line in hospitals with NHS staff risking their lives fighting an invisible enemy. These pages record some of the experiences of the class of '67 as recorded in the emails that they exchanged. 

Sue 19 March 2020

Hi Supsliskans

Very best wishes to you all in the current health emergency. Stay safe and well.

Kind regards, Sue

Jane 19 March 2020

You have beaten me to it, Sue! I was about to email greetings from a deserted St Andrews to Supliskans and find out how everyone is.

We are alone in our building. David is glued to his laptop continuing with research while I miss meeting friends for coffee and gossip  just like friends who have academic husbands. We manage a walk to the harbour each afternoon, and the garden will be empty soon if I continue with destructive gardening. We were supposed to meet all the family in Amsterdam for my significant birthday in May but the boys did not get themselves organised so fortunately nothing needs cancellation .

So hope you are all well. We will have a reunion when the panic is over!

Love,

Jane

Tony ‎20 March 2020

And best wishes from Sussex, where we too are keeping our distance, apart from the necessary and depressing trips to the supermarkets. We do have a village store about 50 yards away which makes things a little easier.

I escaped Bewdley with its Severn floods (and a visit from Boris) to a damp and squelchy Sussex where the combination of heavy clay soil and incessant rain has made golf, and country walks, fairly impossible. We do however have the Downs Link about half a mile from the house which is a converted rail line stretching from Surrey to the Channel. Good for getting the daily paces in, but a little monotonous in doing the same stretch each day.

I'm placing great faith in the restorative powers of the phenols in Islay malt to get though the current crisis. I found a glorious bottle on our Islay visit last Autumn.

Take care everyone, Tony

Margaret 20 March 2020

Another network setup - good.! I in particular appreciate it as I am in hospital. On my 7th week at St Luke's. I came in for pain management and an MRI revealed a fractured vertebra. Two days after being admitted I had an attack of pseudo gout. That is female equivalent of male gout but different crystals - not uric acid - and a dose of steroids soon cleared it up.

I am being very well looked after here and advised by my rheumatologist to stay until I am better rather than go home and depend on a package of carers. It means digging into capital but worth it. Friends have been so good visiting but from today are banned. The daily sudoku helps.!

Do keep in touch. Best wishes, Margaret

Anne 20 March 2020

Thank you Sue, Jane and Tony and best wishes to you all. Somehow one feels the need for communication even more. I have just been listening to a press conference by the Bavarian State. Our President Markus Söder has just announced a curfew for 2 weeks as from midnight tonight - people can go to work if their workplaces are still functioning, they can go shopping and go for a walk (with or without dog) but it's really to curb those stupid people, unfortunately many young people who have been holding Corona parties etc. The schools have been closed for a week now so I suppose they are feeling bored, though they are supposed to be doing school work at home. There are fortunately others who are more concerned and are out in the fields helping the hop farmers and the asparagus growers as their foreign workers can't come now. All this doesn't really concern me at the moment as I was operated on my left foot on Tuesday (hallux ,bent toes ...) and am more or less confined to the house anyway. I think I was only able to get the slot for the op because some of the clinic's foreign clients - Russians, Arabians, were not able to come!

This can also only be good for the environment - fewer flights, less traffic, fewer people around . We can only wait and see. My Easter trip to UK has been cancelled but of course I'm hoping that the planned trip to York end of August can still take place. So, take care everyone and stay healthy,

Love, Anne

Howard 20 March 2020

Hi everyone

Good to hear from everyone. Things are quite well organised on our little island. Food deliveries organised and toilet rolls in  the shops!  I was in Tenerife in Feb and left just before the lock downs started. Have been self isolating and now still being really careful and hardly going out. Anyone coming to the Bailiwick has to self isolate for two weeks whether they have symptoms or not. One wonders how long it will go on - hopefully not into 2021. We must try to keep safe and look forward to our  next get together.

Best wishes, Howard

Sylvia 20 March 2020

Hi Everyone,

I'm not usually late in responding to SUPSLISKA emails, but I've actually been doing things outside the house today for the first time since Monday.  Friday is my usual shopping day and I'm delighted to report that the shoppers in Hereford Lidl were very controlled and reasonable.  I had my usual shopping list, plus a couple of things I had genuinely run out of, and managed to get everything other than eggs, which I could manage without, so didn't try anywhere else.  As I was turning into my drive, my neighbours opposite were also returning home, so we exchanged pleasantries and on hearing that I hadn't got eggs, they turned up with 3 "spare" ones!  So now, I have my weekly shop and am hoping that things continue in that very civilised and generous vein.

Other things which are keeping me occupied are work sent to me by the Record Office, which I can do on my computer.  It will at least stop the brain from atrophying completely.  There had been a plan to set up a virtual choir this afternoon, since we can't attend rehearsals, but the system crashed.  No doubt it will take off soon, and it will be another enjoyable thing to look forward to.  Unfortunately, my volunteer driving has had to stop, as much for the sake of the old and vulnerable clients as for me.

Howard, it looks as though any plans to visit you again will have to be put on hold, as will another proposed trip, to Nuremberg.  Our walking group had booked another holiday in Patterdale, Ullswater, in early June.  That, I'm sure will have to be cancelled, but we'll have to wait for the hotel to do so before we can claim for the £50 deposit on insurance.

Anne, I hope your op. has been a success and that you will find walking easier as a result.

Margaret, Ange emailed me a couple of days ago with the latest update. I will ring you soon.

Sue, a lovely article in the Guardian online today spoke of a heroic taxi driver rescuing fledgling Hutton's shearwater chicks from the streets of Kaikoura.

Everyone else, stay well and positive. Love, Sylvia

Angela 20 March 2020

Hello Everyone

It is great to hear from so many  people and glad to hear that everyone is generally OK.

I hope your foot heals soon Anne and that you carry on making  good progress Margaret - I will continue to keep in touch.

We are hunkered down in Norfolk and feel very fortunate to have sea views, beaches and marshes so near. We had excellent views of a nearly pure white Barn Owl from the house the other day. He is appropriately named 'Casper'! We are keeping to ourselves here and helping elderly neighbours where needed, but have had to come to terms with the fact that we are now well into that category ourselves too! We miss seeing the family in Ealing but are thankful for phone and internet links.

So far, our food supplies are OK. We have a Tesco in Sheringham which seemed fairly well stocked  on Monday, but we will probably use the 'oldies' slots in future. We have a nice Deli and a   smokery in Cley village plus a Spar in Blakeney, so I am sure we won't starve!

I have lots of 'projects' all waiting for just this sort of enforced time at home, family histories, botanical painting  and the eternal 'sorting of papers', so no shortage of things to do. We will  unfortunately have to miss a family funeral in Devon in 2 week's time. Leo's sister died at the weekend, not unexpectedly, but with increased social isolation, and other family members in the 'seriously at risk' category, we feel it would be too great a risk all round to go.  Apparently online link ups for ceremonies are now becoming increasingly used, so the answer may lie in that direction.

Leo would agree with Tony on the   excellent medicinal effect of a good malt! I attach a photo of another suggestion for a drink for our times!

Looking  forward to keeping in touch. Very best wishes to everyone for good health and good cheer! Love, Angela

Janet 20 March 2020

Dear All

Many thanks to Sue for starting this off. It's really good to hear from everyone.

We are managing fine as we always buy a lot of stuff in ready for visits from our children and growing (but healthy) grandchildren and then have all kinds of frozen stuff, tinned goods and dry goods left over which we try to gradually work through before their next visit, so that it's not out of date. They were due to visit for Easter but now won't be coming, so we are Skypeing regularly instead. A propos of Ange's idea for a Quarantini I suggest that people who like that sort of thing arrange a suitable time and then have a virtual cocktail party by Skype. We did that for our eldest grandson's 16th birthday - not a cocktail party but a birthday cake with candles. We each put a cake with candles in front of the camera, lit the candles, sang Happy Birthday, then blew out the candles and ate the cake as if we were all sitting at the same table. Works for us!

Another thing people might consider for funerals is to agree to have a Service of Thanksgiving at some future date, once all this is over. It's lovely to have a get together to celebrate someone's life and share memories, even if they are no longer there. They wouldn't be anyway, except as a kindly spirit looking on from above, and that spirit might be glad to see all their friends gathered together in that way.

I agree it's hard to know how to help "elderly" neighbours when we neither want to pass bugs on to them nor catch any ourselves, so we have resorted to just phoning people for a chat and to check they have enough of what they need. So far everyone we have asked is OK but there is a general problem with getting a supermarket delivery slot round here and we have only managed to get the occasional "click and collect" slot, which is OK for us but we feel we have to check in case anyone needs us to collect an order for them. No shortage of eggs round here as we are surrounded by farms, luckily, but there is a dearth of loo rolls. We may end up having to use our stocks of brightly coloured paper napkins if the situation continues.

Lovely to hear everyone's news. Very best wishes to all. Janet.

Ian 21 March 2020 

Hello Supsliskans

Well, we are finding out what everyone is doing while confined - keeping in touch by email and by phone, and I must pick up the pen (ifI can find where I put it) and write letters to those who are unconnected, like Peter Miles. Other ideas from you as well, tidying and sorting (filling our digital and actual waste bins), gardening like Jane, transcribing records like Sylvia, family history, arts and crafts etc will help fill our time. We are really a very fortunate bunch without the worries of lost jobs and the threat of homelessness but also separated from family who might need our help. Like Anne I hope that some good may come of it and people will rethink how society works and the impact we are having on our finite planet. Global interconnectivity and over-population have helped in the spread and we must try to ensure that communities are more self-sufficient, globally, nationally and locally. I have read reports that in China more lives have been saved by the lower pollution levels than have been lost through Covid-19. Perhaps that is a message for us.

As for us, we are isolated at home in Exeter, fortunate in having a large garden which is already looking much neater with vegetables planted out - and we will be there to look after them this spring rather than gadding about Europe in Modestine. Our sole excursions are for shopping (no panic buying for us as we were already well stocked with most things), taking shopping to Jill's sister Julie in Topsham (a pleasant four mile bike ride away along the canal banks) or walks by the river or in other green spaces while we are still allowed to do this. We no longer collect the grandchildren from school or go out to the Devon Heritage Centre for research. Meetings of the Exeter Civic Society, the Exeter University Club and other groups we belong to have been cancelled. Like Angela we too have funerals of friends and work colleagues we will not be able to attend. In our neighbourhood a self-help network has been set up by a retired medic (who has just been called back by the NHS) largely run through Whatsapp which is not among our social networks but we have lined to that all the same.

The sole exception to our geriatric isolation this week was on Friday 20th, the unveiling of a blue plaque by the Civic Society to Sabine Baring-Gould. This was a much diminished event for which a recital of folk songs and exhibition of books and manuscripts had already been cancelled. The programme had already been prepared and twenty organisations and individuals had been involved, the American descendant who was to unveil it had her flight cancelled but at the unveiling another descendant of SBG just happened to be passing our little group assembled in front of his birthplace, so she was enlisted to pull the cover off, much to her surprise and delight.

Our trip to Europe in April was due to include visits to libraries and archives with the widow of our friend Alain to present copies of the dictionary of book trade personnel in Lower Normandy 1701-1789 to libraries and archives in Caen where he had worked or researched. He died in 1996 and the finished work, edited and extended by me with help from Jean-Dominique Mellot of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris  was only published in January. Genevieve was to present them on her own but now this too has been cancelled with the general lock-down in France.

We wish Anne and Margaret well after their hospital experiences and hope that our enforced  "social distancing" will be diminished well before the end of the year, but it does make Fishburn Tours to York uncertain this year, Anne. We hoped to be upthat way visiting Neil in Beverley but even that is uncertain with government strategy to lengthen the isolation in waves to avoid spikes which could overwhelm the NHS.

Interesting times - appropriate in a way that it forms part of an ancient Chinese curse. Not that I join Trump in referring to Covid-19 as "the Chinese virus because it comes from China". What a chump!

Stay safe all of you, Ian and Jill

Lesley 21 March 2020

Hello from a wonderful place to self isolate!

Echo all the reflective thinking and hopes of good that could come out of the current situation....and, for those of you not offended by swearing, I'm sharing this link sent to me a friend of many, many years:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hks6Nq7g6P4 Honest Government Ad: Coronavirus: Flatten The Curve. [A satirical announcement taking a dig at Donald Trump's handling of Covid-19 or the "Chinese virus" as he prefers to call it].

I'm sure you too are kicking and sreaming against the label of 'elderly'....which, of course, I've made full use of when it suits me (Senior Citizen Railcard and Bus Pass to name just two) but this is my limit!

Beth, our daughter, a respiratory consultant, is clearly at the forefront of all the planning & preparation; the hospital here in Inverness (Raigmore) serves all the Highlands & Islands (with smaller hospitals across the region) and I have found it interesting that the very small amount she ever talks about work, has not been tinged with anger, frustration or anxiety at the NHS as it was on occasions in London.   We shall FaceTime tomorrow morning, so she may share more; there are 6 known cases (at last night) in the whole region and, 'from gossip in the glen' one is in isolation in Raigmore. Beth had shared their 'capacity had doubled from two to four beds'!  She seemed quite relaxed at the state of things last weekend...just waiting for whatever will be thrown at them; she is relieved government is asking people not to travel to the Highlands to self isolate as, without tourists and incomers for outdoor events, staff and resources can/should cope...the influx of visitors strains capacities even in normal times.

Please forgive any typos...I broke my right wrist just over a week ago on my fifth game of curling, when someone came from behind me just as I was bending down to make my 'slider shoe' safe with its rubber 'kipper'!!!  Great shame as have been enjoying the new challenge to my spatial awareness and balance!  anyway, all matches stopped now until next season in Sept.  Pat, having had plenty of practice at domestics over this past nine years, has slipped into role very easily, especially as there is no anxiety of an unknown outcome this time - just a process to be waded through!

Warmest wishes everyone, Lesley

Jane  21 March 2020

Good to hear from you all and know that you are coping. As we are. But it is quite surreal here in St Andrews.  We decided to take a walk in town, up South Street from the flat and back down  Market Street (calling into Tesco to buy the last large loaf of bread). Apart from less crowded streets and some shops and all 60 eating places closed, one would not have known that there was a pandemic. People were wandering around as usual, blocking the path of those with a purpose, and queuing 2 and 3 deep outside the 'gelateria' as usual. Sometimes small tubs of surplus vanilla are given away. I think it was a hot chocolate drink today - more appropriate in the icy wind. If I give up on reading papers and watching news  I  could imagine all is normal - and we are saving money by not being able to go anywhere since we are dependent on unsafe public transport. So the Watkinsons are happy - for the moment!

Love to all, Jane