October is only a couple of days away and I wonder how time has flown so quickly, it feels like only yesterday it was a strangely warm March, life was normal, I had a job, people went to work in offices…. but alas those days are gone. It is day 179 since we locked down and I started this diary. So much has changed.

Most recently I found myself in post holiday quarantine. We were not allowed outside just in case we were carrying French germs with us.

The two week period was fine, we knew we would have to quarantine before we went and were prepared. We cycled on the spin bike each morning instead of our daily walks, sat on the balcony in the last of the summer sun and just got on with it. I did however end up with some bug the first week. I spent the time moping around the house with a temperature and sore throat. A couple of days in I did request the covid-19 home test, which arrived 24 hours after ordering. The results however took 5 days. This was of course just as the announcement came out that there was a shortage of tests and testing labs were over run – joy! The results came back negative so I carried on the second week of quarantine getting ready to escape as soon as our 14 days was up.

To celebrate the end of quarantine we booked a table at a local wine bar that had opened during all of this madness. Hannah, is the sister bar to Heidi in Balham. It was nice, chilled out and had a good wine selection. Having been to France for 2 weeks and then quarantined for 2 weeks I was surprised by how busy the place was. All the tables outside taken, all the tables inside nearly occupied. I have to say I was a little worried about how people were social distancing! With the set up being self serve wine and beer people were up and about all the time, yes lots of hand sanitiser but how many people were using this? You also had the waiters running about serving food and bar drinks. It was at this moment I realised that things were going to get bad again before they got better. The government was dithering about what new rules to put in place to try and slow the spread but being sat in that bar watching people I knew whatever they did was not going to do much. The people in that bar just wanted to get on with life and see their mates, they were not worried about distancing.

On the following Tuesday it was announced that pubs, bars and restaurants would have to close at 10pm which has caused all sorts of chaos. Local lockdowns are going on and there is of course the rule of 6!

Its all so very strange again, as life felt slightly normal at the start of summer I find myself wanting to hermit away again, avoid people at all costs because I don’t understand why people are not wearing masks or trying to distance. I would not be surprised if London enters a local lockdown soon.