Juliet, Holloway, 24 March 2020

Mum update: Covid-19 swab came back negative and she’s still making good progress. When I phoned at 8 am she was eating breakfast and her temperature was normal. Phoned again at 5 pm and she was fine, back on the ward out of isolation and making good progress. She even managed to phone Dad earlier in the day with the aid of a nurse.

Today’s the first day of lockdown. I’ve decided to get as much as I can from the two village stores. We’re lucky to have a top-class butcher who also sells homemade ready meals and some groceries. We have a post office and village shop with a good range of staples too.

I’m worried about contamination and am going to try to copy advice from an ex-nurse and fellow translator, Emma Goldsmith, who’s locked down in Spain: remove shoes at the front door; spray soles with homemade bleach solution (1 tablespoon bleach to 1 litre of water); leave shopping bags on kitchen floor; remove outer clothes into “contaminated” bag on terrace along with bagged bank card and shoes; wash reusable gloves for 20 secs and leave them to dry on top of contaminated bag; open shopping bags, taking out food and unpacking everything possible; take shopping bags off to “contaminated” terrace;
wash hands.

Also: keep phone on silent mode in a zipped inner pocket and don’t touch it.

A note of my own: our local shop says reusable bags are a bad source of contamination so we might have to go back to accepting new plastic bags temporarily.

Dad is fine. We’ve agreed to meet for a sundowner in his back garden once a day while the weather’s fine, sitting 6 feet apart. I can get into the garden through a side gate and it’s actually very pleasant watching the sun set with the birds twittering.

I picked up a couple of translating jobs yesterday, so won’t get bored over the next few weeks. I’ve ordered a portable second screen for my laptop to make life easier. We’ve also ordered a recumbent exercise bike for Dad. Should be interesting!