When the sun emerged on Sunday, I felt a rush of joy and optimism, so intense that it was tangible. After the drenching the ground got on Saturday, all seemed vibrant and fecund, the snowdrops a portent of better times ahead. I wanted to savour these intoxicating feelings of hope and renewal, after so much heaviness for so long.
Two winters ago now, LSB took me to see Liam Gallagher in Dublin. I was ambivalent about this trip: I loved Oasis, enough to endure a bus journey from the Europa Bus Station all the way to Knebworth in 1996, but just to see Liam on his own, pontificating about shite? I wasnāt sure. But now, can you imagine the luxury of being able to say, āIām not sure if I can be bothered spending the night in a classy hotel on the banks of the Liffey with just my husband, dinner and cocktails and a gig thrown in, to boot. Oh, those halcyon days, when you could sleep on, undisturbed by cats wandering in and sitting on your bladder at 3:30am because they think you ought to fetch them a night time snack.
I digress. What I started to say, was that Liam Gallagher wouldnāt usually be top of the list of those doling out advice, but he was giving it stacks because the lunatics in the pit were lighting massive flares and he clearly didnāt want to be remembered as the rock and roll star whose audience burnt to death in 2019.
Well, today itās me, not a Gallagher brother who is giving the advice, because Iām fed up with dickheads doing whatever they like, which is why, (and Iām sure Iāll have a rake of anti-vaxxers and tin-foil hat wearers on to me now) the lockdown isnāt working as it should.
I was in Sainsburyās on Monday, and in trots a man, nice shirt and jumper and all on him, and the security chap says: āWould you wear a mask please?ā and he says haughtily, āIād rather not,ā and ploughs on in. He had no more notion of social distancing, leaning over an old woman as she chose her carrots, and later on hovering, like a seagull outside a chip shop, at the reduced section. Now, Iāve an acerbic tongue on me, (hence the moniker SWB), and I was tempted to tell him what I made of his attitude, but I desisted as I didnāt want to face a barrage of invective.
There was another clown in M&S with no mask on her either, chatting away on her phone with great animation. She was taking her time, pawing over the āDine-Inā selection, lifting up item after item and setting them back, like a one-woman infection machine.
The Mothership assures me that itās as bad in Bangor and that itās as well sheās ālight on her feetā and can skip sideways when other shoppers crowd her. So thatās the shops covered- no one doing what theyāre told.
My greys are becoming increasingly visible, and a FB friend happened to remark that her hairdresser is doing āhomersā. āSheās never been busier!ā she crowed. So, opinions on this please. Salons arenāt allowed to open to the public, yet some hairdressers are merrily going into several private houses a day? One can only hope that they are taking the necessary precautions, but we canāt be sure. Call me slovenly or drab or but I donāt give two shits whether my highlights are overdue: Iām 41 and Iām stressed to fuck, and if it shows in my hair, then so be it.
Even if the Executive would do a TV ad on how to effectively wear a mask, since this seems to be beyond the average personās abilities too. Everywhere I look, people are just covering their mouths and not their noses. I totally get it, we arenāt familiar with masks so they feel uncomfortable, and thus the temptation is to fiddle. But by touching the front of the mask where the viral load has gathered, it transfers it to your fingers, which inevitably comes into contact with your face and eyes. People clearly arenāt āstaying homeā so at least if we were more adept at wearing a mask it would be a help.
My point is this: it feels like finally we can begin to look forward to an end to lockdown. But it hasnāt happened yet. As a teacher I might be asked any day now to go back into schools and as Iām not vaccinated, I donāt feel safe to do so. The combination of some good weather, lockdown fatigue and the inconsistencies of the governmentās approach have, IMHO, made us feel as though we can relax the rules. I just wonder if Iām alone in thinking that itās too soon to get ācarried away with ourselvesā as The Mothership would say.