Lockdown: Day 27 - 19/04/20

There's be no extra walking when Easter Monday comes around, as temperatures take a turn for the chilly, and then as the time comes around to return to work, we start to settle into that phase of Spring where we enjoy mornings that are cold enough to have you needing to wear three layers of clothing before we shift right around to evenings where its too warm to really require more than one, but the brightness keeps the spirits up as we plough into the fourth week of Lockdown. The floweriness and renewed colour of the season will also give a much needed lift as we push on, with the blooms of blossom and dandelions coming out in full effect, with the still air giving the feeling of a higher than usual pollen count, as if the lack of traffic pollution is making it feel that bit more pungent (though I'm assured by those who know about such things that my projection runs completely counter to reality) inducing a rare need for antihistamines, to combat the hay-feverishness. The brightness of the mornings and evening also invites the need to carry a camera to engage in some photography around the semi-deserted city, as it's still got a novelty that needs to be captured, though you need to remind yourself along the way that having Key Worker status is in no way a license to wander the commercial streets of the city centre at will, and it's not as if everyone else is staying home, aside from the NHS workers. The real business going on at present about the place is, of course, roadworks, with almost all the main arteries through the town being fenced off or dug up in some capacity as part of the major reworking program that was in place before the lockdown started, and I can only assume that the workmen are thrilled to get an opportunity to get on with their work without getting in the way of the commuter traffic, making it look like the projected completion date of Spring 2021 could easliy be beaten. My only real need to stary far from work whilst I'm out is to do some food shopping as I make best use of my out of the house time, and this is done by venturing to the Tesco Metro on the Bond Street - Upper Basinghall Street corner, as it's the best appointed supermarket on my path, and it's set up well for social distancing, despite most of it's passing constituency of shop workers being elsewhere at present, and thus it's super quiet and well enough stocked for my irregular needs, only really lacking in fresh bread and a wide vegetable selection, so that will be my future port of calls while I do my best to avoid the suburban melee at Morley Morrisons.

Leeds City station in a state of virtual silence during Lockdown.

There will be a change of pace at work too, as I'm needed to fill in at the main medical records hub at the LGI site while my colleague takes the post-Easter week off, and that means I'll be covering the routine of collections and deliveries, around the hospital, giving me some freedom to see exactly what's been going on around the place after a more than a month of pandemic conditions as I go about my business, finding that there's more work returning to the libraries system than I might have expected. I'd venture that this is largely due to the wards still being open to the acute patients that are still passing through the system and producing the amounts of paperwork that still need to be processed by clinical coding, and the only real changes that we need to be making to our pathways across the site come with avoiding clinical areas and anywhere else which might be 'hot' or where we might just get in the way, such as the ICU corridors. It's disappointing to see very little of what might be regarded as good social distancing among the many staff out and about in the generally accessible areas, but I have no impression at all of what proximity they may be forced into elsewhere, and I'm sure that this behaviour is somewhat offset by the lack of outpatients and visitors around the place, as it all seems strangely devoid of folk who aren't in hospital uniform, giving it all a feel of being in a state of being perpetually out of hours after all the clinical cancellations and barring of visitors. Four days of that honestly feels more useful than merely doing work inside the medical records library, as I'm happy to mitigate the mild risks that fall within the boundaries of my regular site work, but there's not enough of that to fill whole days, and thus I 'm compelled to split time with the business of file reduction again, and that ironically ends up giving me a workout as the paperwork I need to process needs to be transported from one wing of the hospital to another, thus getting me more exercised than  in any of the preceding weeks of lockdown. Still, another short week of work is most welcome, as the LGI records hub still suffers from the problems of a non-functional air-conditioning system, and that's neatly coupled to the old library space having the workmen in to continue the stripping and refitting work necessary to convert it into a bed store, which means there's airborne dust aplenty to clog the lungs along with the excessive heat, to ensure a properly uncomfortable mix of effects when you're feeling the need to be alert to the indicative symptoms of COVID-19, like a feverish temperature and persistent cough.

Sadly, as the weekend rolls up, the positivity of the week has been lost, and Saturday brings on the grayest of moods, as the lack of sunshine induces a feeling of really wanting to stay in bed all day (the first time that I've felt that bad since the lockdown started), and a whole day is not lost to trying to sleep it off only because someone in my apartment building uses all of the daylight hours as an opportunity to tune his car in the yard at great length and volume, which also does nothing to massage my moods around. So sunshine of Sunday gives me the push to get me out of house and to take in the air and warmth (as well as the sound and colour), which pushes me back in a better direction, as now I start to get the feeling that the stresses of the Corona Virus pandemic, and the need to work through it, are really starting to tell, as I fear that any mood downturn in the future is not going to ever quite come back around and return me to normal, and while I can say that I'm nowhere near my breaking point, I do still feel like I'm bending significantly, past the point of elasticity and into plasticity. Looking further afield for anything to pin my hopes on gives me no joy either, as the news seems to be making much of deliveries of PPE finally being made from overseas suppliers (incidentally illustrating a major problem in having a global economy in times of international shutdown, of which I'll say no more as my less than useful opinion on economics is that it's little more than witchcraft), and not enough is being said about the lack of preparedness that has been revealed in HM Government over the last couple of months. It's especially frustrating to here ministers trying to talk up some rhetoric as if this is a wartime situation, which surely makes every key worker feel like a soldier far from home right about now, and you wonder on if this is war, where's the economy to go with it, as there's still no sign of testing being rolled out to being rolled out to those who are at the frontline of this pandemic. Indeed, if you want to run with this theme, total COVID-19 fatalities in the UK have now exceeded 16,000, which is a total greater than all British military fatalities in all theatres of war since 1945, and is indeed in the immediate vicinity of the total of deaths on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army, now widely regarded as one of this country's worst debacles, and if you are still on board with this metaphor, I'd venture that as the notional soldiers in this conflict, we could easily conclude that our generals are failing us.

Walks: Morley Social Distancing Circuit. Walked: 19/4
2.8 miles, via Valley Mills, Broad Oaks, White Rose, and Daisy Hill.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 4381.7 miles
2020 Total: 115.2 miles
Up Country Total: 3918.7 miles
Solo Total: 4067.5 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 2975.5 miles

Next Up: My first five day week of work during Lockdown.