Loo rolls left: Still OK

I still do not exist, at least as far as our I.T. department are concerned. Question, if I no longer exist is it possible to catch Covid-19? I don’t seem to manage to catch the IT department. It has been another frustrating day. Information Technology is wonderful when it works but when it doesn’t…….

Another potential problem has reared its head (pun intended). Haircuts. My barber is closed, all the barber shops are closed. My hair isn’t too bad yet… Diane has offered to cut it for me. She has experience she says, she used to cut her dolls hair. Her son sent us photos of the haircuts he has given his boys (and himself). If the construction business is slow in picking up after this is over, he will have a future……. shearing sheep.

Loo Rolls Left: n+4

We are now one week into this lock-down thing. I’m still at work because inspecting boilers is an essential occupation, but where and how we are allowed to inspect is changing by the hour. Another conference call this afternoon brought a new set of guidelines, tomorrow may well bring another set. The basics are, wash your hands, keep two meters apart and if you are not sure, don’t go ahead with the inspection.

Today started off reasonably normally. I made a few calls to try and sort out some work. I don’t know if it is due to the current situation, but clients have been unusually cooperative. I have decided to reduce the risk of my cross-contaminating sites I am only going to visit one site per day if possible. So I sorted out my work for the day I set off to the job for the day.

When I opened my car door, I could hear this regular beep beep sound. Two things about it puzzled me. Firstly, I had never heard this sound before. Secondly, it seemed to carry on whether the ignition was on or off. There were no warning lights up. The car started and ran normally. So, I decided to ignore it for the time being. I turned the music up louder to drown it out. That worked to get me to the site. I did the inspections. When I got back to the car, the beeping was still there. It seemed to be coming from somewhere between the roof lining and the roof.

I carried back to my house with the beeping beginning to do my head in. I still couldn’t see anything about the car that might be causing it. I stopped to buy petrol. As I leaned down to release the fuel cap cover, I saw my oxygen meter flashing away. The battery had died and as well as the flashing red lights it was going beep beep. I switched it off and silence reigned.

I went home/my house. (I’m not quite sure where home is now.) I wanted to cut the grass and pick up some of my gardening tools. I also planned to have a coffee with a slice of Diane’s excellent fruit cake. While I was home, I received a text from my manager. It said that we needed to have a conference call about our new working arrangements. Great fun. After about an hour of conferencing I’m still not any clearer about what I am supposed be doing.

By the time I made it home, it was too late to go up to the allotment. We had a G&T instead.

Day 9

The day started well. I woke up with the alarm. Diane just rolled over and went back to sleep. I got up, had a shower and went down stairs and made breakfast. Then brought a cup of tea up to Diane. After that things started to go downhill.

I tried to log on to my work computer. It told me that I no longer existed. At least, that’s the case as far as the company I work for is concerned. My contract was due to end yesterday, but it was agreed to extend it for another six months. Someone forgot to tell the IT department.

I went back to how we used to do it back in the days before laptops were invented. Note book and pen were sourced, with the plan being to write up the report when I went home. When my log on problems would be solved. Unfortunately this was not the case, although it did get a different error message when I tried to log on.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the news very much. I am not uninterested or not paying attention. I just don’t consider most of the output of our media at the moment to be news. There is some good news. For example, a team of Mercedes F1 engineers and researchers from Imperial College and UCL have produced a machine. This machine assists breathing and can be produced cheaply from off the shelf parts. Panic buying of toilet roll seems to be over for the time being. However, getting eggs remains difficult. Finding flour is also still a challenge. Other than that, there is a daily update. It tells me more people have died. It also tells me more people have been infected.

So far, Diane and I have been OK. I still have my work, I think. We have each other and we have the allotment, so hopefully food, come the apocalypse.

Loo rolls left: Still sufficient.

We are now in the second day of n days of lock-down. My sister who is a Senior NHS critical care manager thinks that it may be six months. So six months of lockdown. Six months before things get back to “normal”, whatever normal turns out to be.

Day 2

After yesterdays uncertainty about whether we should, or could, continue to work, Engineer Surveyors have been classified as “essential workers”. We have been informed that certain settings are critical to the operation of the country. They are also vital in the fight against Covid-19. Places like hospitals and research laboratories fall into this category. Our inspections are safety critical and a legal requirement. Therefore, we have been told to carry on inspecting. However, this is only at essential sites.

Up to lunchtime was spent with phonecalls and emails trying to get a definition of an essential site. After that was agreed, I spent the rest of the time producing a spreadsheet for management. It detailed my essential work for the next three months. Duster came upstairs to join me, but then decided to self-isolate.

Producing spreadsheets is not my favorite activity. At about the time I had finished it Diane suggested taking a picnic up to the allotment for lunch. So we had our picnic lunch under clear blue skies and a bitterly cold east wind. It was a wonderful lunch.

Diane spent half her time trying to conduct a virtual tea party on her phone. A bit like herding cats. I spent my time clearing one of the beds and putting some seeds in; parsnips, beetroot, spring onions and radishes. Diane also planted some tomato, pepper and chili seeds which we have put into the cold frame. Hopefully it will work.

We finished the afternoon off with a bonfire.

Dinner in the spirit of self care (and because we had left-overs yesterday was steak and chips, followed by watching the film “Fisherman’s Friends”.

Day 3

I had to go and do some actual work today. I was out inspecting boilers at a school. Schools are considered essential. They provide care for the children of essential workers. These workers include NHS staff. Without this care, they might not be able to go to work otherwise. It felt quite strange having to make sure I was sufficiently distanced (2 metres) from other people. We have been instructed not to accept the offer of a cup of tea from the clients. By the time I got home, I was feeling quite de-caffeinated. I was also dehydrated because all my normal go-to cafes and coffee shops are shut for the duration as well.

I also managed to get some shopping done. Again a slightly surreal experience. I had to queue for about five minutes. I stood two meters apart from the people in front and behind me. This was necessary to get into the shop. The restriction wasn’t due to the shop being busy. It was to limit the number of people in the shop at any one time. I think that panic buying may be over. I managed to get everything I wanted. However, they were out of the brand of beer that I prefer.

Afternoon was spent redoing yesterdays spreadsheet, because management wants the data in a different form….grrr.

We just stood outside to give our NHS staff a minute of communal applause. I am about to take part in a virtual pub quiz. Life is becoming increasingly weird.

Loo rolls left: enough for the time being.

Our Prime Minister interrupted Coronation Street last night (so it has to be serious) to tell us that as of today the United Kingdom is in lock-down. More or less, details were a bit vague – work from home, unless you can’t, but only go to work if you are an essential worker. unless you work on a construction site, in which case it is apparently fine, because we need to keep the economy moving, or something. Now I am as keen as anyone to see our (AFC Wimbledon’s) new stadium completed in time for my birthday, but I don’t think that it is essential, or even, in the overall scheme of things important. The rest of the world is not exactly impressed either.

How has my first day in lock-down been? I received a text message last night from my team manager telling me, that in light of the announcement, to cancel all appointments for today and tomorrow, and to await instructions. After speaking to him it appears that we have been getting contradictory messages from the government about whether we (Engineer Surveyors) are essential workers or not. A meeting between the Inspection Authorities and the Government was being held.

I did a bit of “work” mainly down loading various collaborative tools that we couldn’t make work. we eventually fell back on something called WebEx, which is a bit clunky but did work.

After lunch (cheese toasties) we went all domestic and cleaned all the downstairs windows, inside and out. We also cut back a lot of over-hanging bushes and ivy, but that was before we found that the council would not be collecting garden waste for the foreseeable future. Minor mistake.

We then decided to take our daily permitted excursion for exercise and took our bikes along to Raynes Park. We also managed to find some milk, some veggies and tea bags. I arrived back to find a message asking me to log in to a conference call. The message of which was that some clarity about our status has been achieved but not a lot. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Dinner, in the spirit of the times was left overs. Left over veggie curry from two days ago, with left over rhubarb (from the allotment) crumble from yesterday. It was fine, but we might have steak tomorrow.