My day, our future

I should think that by now most people will have settled into a weekly routine - a week spent in the home (and in the garden too, if they have one) - punctuated by shopping forays and local exercising.

This is my own routine.

Monday
I wake just before 7.00am. I get on with chores and projects at home, with plenty of blogging and photo work. During the day, I cook and eat, and may sun myself on a recliner. If I want to snooze off, I will.

Late afternoon, or early evening: a brisk exercise walk, with the aim of topping up the steps taken during the day to 10,000. (I generally succeed) I may, or may not, drive to a nearby spot where I won't meet anyone, and take my sunset walk there. But that mostly depends on the weather.

In the evening, I process any pictures taken at home or outside, listening to the radio while I do that. Sometimes, if any interesting programme is on, I'll make time to watch live TV. Sometimes I'll watch catch-up TV, or listen to catch-up radio. I don't just wallow in my armchair and binge.

Throughout the day, I read a lot, both paper books and online articles. I'll also play Cribbage and Piquet on my phone. Late in the evening, as part of my bedtime routine, I play Klondike Solitaire on my phone. If I concentrate, I consistently win 70% of the Piquet games, 60% of the Cribbage games, and 50% of the Solitaire games. I go to bed sometime after midnight.

Tuesday
As Monday, plus shopping at Waitrose at 8.30am, and pilates via Zoom at 11.00am.

Wednesday
As Monday, plus shopping at the farm shop at 8.30am, then a call at the filling station afterwards.

Thursday
As Monday.

Friday
As Monday, plus shopping at Waitrose at 8.30am.

Saturday
As Monday.

Sunday
As Monday.

All this is sustainable indefinitely. It's very similar to the routine I follow when on a caravan holiday, except that I don't do my shopping so early in the morning, and will of course always drive somewhere nice during the day. Another difference is that when on holiday I constantly have opportunities of saying hello to other people and chatting with them - meeting local friends too, by arrangement - all something present conditions make impossible.

Obviously I have an awful lot of time for blogging at the moment, with posts of variable quality. If any strike you as sub-par, then I apologise. It's obviously one way for me to stay creative and occupied, and therefore it's important to keep posting. The same for uploading photos to my Flickr site. There are a surprising number to upload, but then I'm alert to the changing scene (and the changing news) day by day, and want to capture local effects in my pictures. History on the hoof, so to speak.

These are very unusual times, and who knows when we get back to the 'new normal'. I think it's worth recording how it's going for posterity. And in a curious way, I feel privileged to be alive to see the world - the whole world - coping with something that affects us all. Surely, after this global event, governments everywhere will have to drop any pretence that 'their' regime was 'right' and 'did best'. It's a humbling process that may prove very good for the way human beings behave in the future.

Wouldn't it be a relief to have no more cant?