Diary 20th March To 4th April 2020

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Thanks to the global pandemic Covid-19 crisis this has been the longest period of nothing to do I ever wrote about. I expected to be at a poetry show on March 19th, cancelled, I got to send my Mum a Mother's Day Card for Sunday 22nd March and sent off my book reviews though my publisher only uses library computers during the crisis and all our libraries closed for the duration of this long siege. I have to maintain my job searching online and aside from a few shopping trips I am effectively housebound. One elderly neighbour went for a short walk round the local village green, visible from my window, and took a moment to rest by sitting on a wooden bench before walking back home only to be pounced on by the police for not moving on fast enough. We haven't seen the police here on the beat since the Norman Conquest. (1066). More poetry events cancelled on March 26th and 28th, as was my scheduled welfare meeting with the team who pay me my unemployment universal credit, and who now have over a million more claimants to handle as many businesses are being decimated by the crisis. On Sunday 29th March the clocks went forward an hour but time and days barely mean anything now. My welfare came through OK on March 31st and I payed my bills on April 1st,,. My bank double charged me on my rent which they send on to my landlord and then told me I was overdrawn. Fortunately my lovely landlord quickly reimburses the over-payment before I incurred severe bank charges for unauthorized overdraughting that wasn't even my fault. It felt like a very unfunny April Fool's Day joke. There was a lovely celebration of the work of our National Health Service with so many nurses and doctors looking after critically ill Corona victims and in many cases losing their own lives. At 8pm on Thursday 2nd April people took to their doorsteps to applaud, and cheer these unsung heroes. There were even fireworks near me. Today, Saturday 4th April, I got some bread from the shops and a neighbour, who I had mentioned not being able to find any pasta too in the shops being subjected to panic buying, found some for me an gave it to me this morning which was awesome. Arthur Chappell.