Greetings and consolations...

From everything I’m hearing, it’s likely that the pandemic’s trajectory will extend to months and years, rather than just a few weeks. We’ll have to do without the familiar greetings and consolations: shaking hands, a hug, a kiss, an arm around the shoulder. And the freedoms of older people may be curtailed even more. At age 69 I can count myself among their number. I have no ‘underlying health issues’, thankfully, which would make me much more vulnerable, but I’m going to have to get used to a lot more of my own company.

I can forsee a gradual opening up of shops and businesses, with people wearing masks, and with ‘social distancing’ maintained. But pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, music gigs, S&M dungeons, etc, where close proximity to other people is the point of the exercise? That’s going to be more difficult. Airlines will go bust if they only have, say, one paying passenger in every row of seats. One thing’s for sure: we’re in unfamiliar territory. We’re going to have to acquire a whole new repertoire of social skills.

Licensed yesterday: Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire...