Day Ninety- Seven - Unease, Homeless and an Unsocial distance

In spite of the fact that I do go out every morning so early, sometimes it's before 5.30, I've never actually felt bothered by that. But for the first time today I actually felt slightly vulnerable. I could see something in the distance. Initially I thought it was an inanimate object of some kind. But when I got closer I realised it was a person. A body, I thought to begin with, and my overactive imagination started doing all kinds of cerebral gymnastics. But it was somebody trying to sleep, right out there in the open. I think it was a homeless guy. His feet were bare but they were incredibly tanned so I guess the poor fella had no shoes, maybe no socks either. He raised his head once or twice as I walked by and I have to say I did feel anxious. There was nobody else about. And he was enormous. It's given me food for thought I have to say.

I thought I'd freed up enough space on my phone to take some video of the Covid snake. But after a couple of minutes it just stopped recording and wouldn't do it any more so I guess I didn't free up quite enough space. But the fact that I could film for two minutes gives you some idea of how long the snake is. On my return journey I counted the number of paces I took along the length of the snake, 110. It is most impressive.

The parks department have started planting the beds out for summer. It's already looking very nice. There are geraniums. In another bed there are various coloured Cosmos. Another has purple petunias and white begonias. I feared with lockdown that it might be one of the things that they let go.

It seems very likely that the two meter social distancing rules will be changed next week. Ministers have hinted at it. It's to benefit the businesses who can't sustain the two meter ruling profitably. That makes me feel very sorry for all those businesses that have worked towards the two meter parameters and probably spent money to do so. Will they change it?. I still prefer it to be 2 m. So I'm going to have a really tough time. Probably going to make me become even more paranoid and more of a recluse than I already am.

One of the tabloid newspapers also hinted today that the Prime Minister is ready to end the lockdown completely in a couple of weeks. But I wouldn't set much store by that. Tabloid newspapers seem to have made an art out of reporting inaccurate information. I also read that New Zealand has some new cases of coronavirus. Apparently six people were released on compassionate grounds to attend a funeral and then absconded rather than returning to quarantine. Two of them weren't tested but were later found to be infected with the virus. Doesn't it show how quickly this thing can change and spiral out of control again? No one could've been more zealous than the New Zealanders in trying to stop the spread. One lapse and this is what happens. Do you see why I get so anxious?