Difficult Times

I'm one of those folk who hates to think I might be "one of those people"...

So I'm trying really hard not to over-react to advice...nor to under-react.

There's been a weird virusy thing in our household for 3 weeks - since we last came back from Bristol - it has knocked the stuffing out of the pair of us and we're not right yet.  In fact, this morning I woke with a new and novel kind of wheezy cough.  Still, our lack of high temperature seems to indicate this is a standard, if rotten, cold-and-flu-season respiritory illness.

I'm really aware that, particularly for small businesses, the lack of normal business going on could be a genuine business-killer.  In my day job we're already thinking about how we support our staff as they're all casual workers but don't impact too badly on our finances, which are shaky at the best of times.

As a science, stats and medicine nerd I'm finding the discourse everywhere I look fascinating.

I'm finding the government information confusing.

On social media, I'm finding the diatribe obnoxious and appearing to be ill-informed.

As a beer drinker I'm wracked with indecision. 

We went to the pub on Thursday for the first time in a few days and it was a delight to have fresh cask beer after a few hard days of working with people.  On Friday, my version of the virus asserted itself again and I felt rough so we camped out in the lounge with a bottle of red and film instead.

Yesterday we were both a bit stir-crazy.  Should we go to the pub or not?

In the end we decided that a slightly longer than usual walk to a local would give us both fresh air and beer - so we went to the Hurst Arms.

For the time of day we drink it's a pretty good exercise in gentle social distancing.  We were initally the only people in the lounge and when we were joined by a small group - they sat over on the other side.

We only had a couple of pints and it definitely did us good.  It brought a tiny bit of revenue to the pub and I'm hoping it signalled an appropriate approach.  At least I'm hoping it did.

We're now working out how to get some emergency beer in the fridge.

Today we were supposed to be meeting a volunteer group in a pub to plan a project we're all working on.  Unfortunately, one of the people has a possible contact with someone with the virus; my cough is making me feel a bit rough and who wants to be "that person" coughing in the pub and then a third member of the party has another (unrelated) health flare-up so we're postponing.  I still think it's important we try and meet up for a beer once this bloody cough has gone though...