Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog

I promise I won’t say ‘unprecedented’.

100 days without my major diversions – travel, theatre, concerts, exhibitions, opera, dance – is simply unprecedented. OK, I lied. Six cancelled trips, four international, and 63 lost cultural events. So far. I got myself set up with extra streaming services early on, but nothing really replaces live anything. As much as I’ve appreciated the lengths arts organisations have gone to sharing recordings of their work, or creating socially distanced new work, little of it has really engaged me. Lack of concentration appears to be a common complaint and it certainly marred my reading, listening and viewing.

An early positive was exploring the neighbourhood. I’ve lived here for over 21 years, but I’d hardly ventured onto the 220 acre common and even nearer woods 100m from my front door. My daily walks (I only missed one day), latterly twice daily, through the change of seasons from the tail end of winter through spring to early summer were a revelation of nature. When I started the thirty-something trees on the small green I overlook were bare. An entire season revealed itself before my eyes as they came fully into leaf, with blossom coming and going. After the purchase of some new earphones, music accompanied my walks enabling me to mine my vast music collection and reconnect with some classic albums.

Soon, though, the fine weather meant people started invading these spaces in big numbers and it became increasingly difficult to maintain social distance with others two three or more abreast, dogs off leads, pram pushers on kamikaze missions, inconsiderate cyclists on pedestrian only paths……I became a grumpy old man. OK, an even grumpier old man. As is often the case, we see both the best and worst in people in a crisis, so this was balanced by kindness and consideration.

At first impressed by the government’s handling of it all, particularly the economic aspects, despite the slowness of the initial response, it didn’t take long before the lack of clarity, indecision, hypocrisy and incompetence meant I climbed the grumpy old man scale even further. Only the US seemed to be making more of a hash of it.

I shall campaign for Sir Tim Berners-Lee to be elevated to a peerage, as the internet proved to be my saviour, by enabling me to continue my part-time work online, advising clients and running training sessions, and by bringing people into my living room, individually and in groups, on video calls. Some included diversions like quiz’s and other ‘games’. I’ve only spoken to a handful of people face-to-face, socially distanced of course, so this proved crucial. I was expecting the internet or broadband to break, but it didn’t. If only I’d sold my BA shares and bought Zoom shares.

The garage rang asking if I wanted to reschedule the cancelled service, the hairdresser rang to offer me the first appointment on their first day back and the chiropodist reopened to take care of my feet after all that walking. All we need now is the dentist to repair the broken tooth and the green shoots will be complete. There won’t be any live culture for a while yet, but I should get to travel, if only in the UK.

It’s been a tough 100 days, but I stayed sane, didn’t put on weight and strengthened many friendships. I didn’t get very far down the ‘to do’ list, though, and I consumed 23 box sets and too much wine. As I write I’m planning local picnics, visits to friends in other parts of the UK and to hire a cottage or two with others for a change of scenery and some good company. This is what the next 100 days are beginning to look like. Better than the first 100 but a long way from a normal 100.

End of Pandemic Part One.