Well, we’re two weeks into the Lockdown, and we’re still more or less healthy. At least, no signs of COVID-19, which right now is the most important thing. There is a lot of frustration though, with the inability to find essentials like flour for baking; there’s not been a bag in any of our local supermarkets in a month.

So anyway, on the very first day of the lockdown, Louise’s PC shorted out its motherboard and died. We’ve had replacement parts on order since then, but there’s no sign at all of them coming into stock, let alone be dispatched to us. She’s stuck to using her work laptop now for everything, which isn’t exactly an optimal solution. We’ve tested and we know all her data is safe, it’s just accessing it that’s the issue for now.

Cooking is an issue too. While we can easily get frozen and junk foods, getting fresh produce and flour is next to impossible. We’ll survive, obviously, but it’s a big change from home cooking. More frustrating than anything, to be fair, and it’s better than many people have access to. At least there is bread on the supermarket shelves. It’s horrible, bland rubbish, but since we can’t buy flour, it’s the only option.

Another thing is toilet paper. Not seen a pack in supermarkets for ages. We’re not desperate yet, since we always buy in bulk, but it’s somewhat disconcerting to see the supply dwindle and not know if we’ll be able to restock when it does. At least our local ad-rag, the Hunts Post, is still being delivered. We’ll just have to start cutting it into squares.

Surprisingly, beers, wines and spirits are plentiful! No problems there. The supply chain is working at peak efficiency. I wonder if it would border on conspiracy theory to say it’s in the government’s interests to have a population nice and tipsy on alcohol to distract from their complete incompetence in dealing with the pandemic. Probably.

We’re told the weather will improve this weekend. I hope so; I want to get the lawn mowed out the back, and get the chairs out. It’ll be a nice little area to take a break from the walls of the house. I wonder, will we be able to get gas for the barbecue this summer? If we do, will we still be able to get things to put on it?

Anyway, as I said, we’re both healthy, and as of our last communications with them, so are our immediate families. They seem to be finding it a lot easier to get produce than we are too, which is a thing…