Sainsbury's Saturday
Oct. 31st, 2020 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinI came, I bought, I got home again (eventually ...).
It was just as quiet as I had hoped it would be, despite last night's late quasi-announcement that we're likely going into Second Lockdown this coming week, which made me fear people would get an early start on their panic-buying. Bless you and your late-rising ways, Cambridge. I think it was the first time I'd been in the city centre Sainsbury's since I moved ... I used to be in there a few times a week, before, so it was a little nostalgic.
It turned out that I could buy a bikeload of animal products – which is also about as much as I can fit in my freezer – without needing my second voucher. The voucher says it's good for two years; hopefully in that time there will be a moment when redeeming it won't be so fraught or so timely.
We really should have gone into Second Lockdown ages ago. The scientific advisory panel to the government suggested it in September; Labour has been calling for it since mid-October; the government have dragged their feet in the face of all evidence ostensibly because Labour wanted it. So we're back in the same position as in March, where those in charge don't want to take any responsibility, and so put it off and put it off until it gets really bad and much harder to recover from. They had all summer to prepare for this, and now the trends in the nationwide case rate are far worse than their worst-case projections. While the characterisation of the Terra Nova Expedition as doomed by its own bumbling hubris is not at all backed up by the historical record, it is very easy to see how, when suggested, one might suppose it must be true, as this character trait seems to be nailed to the flagstaff of British leadership. 'Lions led by donkeys' is just as true now as it was in WWI. Laden with 20lbs of groceries and cycling into an incoming storm, my trip home was much longer and harder than it ought to have been; the symbolism was really rather clunky.
On my own completely selfish part, I'm looking forward to lockdown. Schools are supposed to be staying open, so traffic won't be as low as it was this spring, but it'll be nice to have it a little quieter again. I've got a massive bag of flour, more apples than I know what to do with, a freezer full of cooked meals and ingredients for more. This afternoon I'll be moving the main parts of my workstation down to my bedroom, so I can keep that warm and abandon this draughty corner of the open-plan first floor until spring. The burrowing therefore is very nearly literal, and lockdown gives me every excuse to keep my burrow to myself.
There's a chance of frost on Wednesday. The bird feeders are full and the garden more or less put to bed. I observed, my first autumn in Britain, how even if one didn't know Halloween/Samhain was a thing, this precise day was perceptible as a turning point from autumn into winter. You can just feel it. This year, the human world is participating in step with the natural and spiritual one. Wherever we are going, we are going together, but where that might be is anyone's guess ...
It was just as quiet as I had hoped it would be, despite last night's late quasi-announcement that we're likely going into Second Lockdown this coming week, which made me fear people would get an early start on their panic-buying. Bless you and your late-rising ways, Cambridge. I think it was the first time I'd been in the city centre Sainsbury's since I moved ... I used to be in there a few times a week, before, so it was a little nostalgic.
It turned out that I could buy a bikeload of animal products – which is also about as much as I can fit in my freezer – without needing my second voucher. The voucher says it's good for two years; hopefully in that time there will be a moment when redeeming it won't be so fraught or so timely.
We really should have gone into Second Lockdown ages ago. The scientific advisory panel to the government suggested it in September; Labour has been calling for it since mid-October; the government have dragged their feet in the face of all evidence ostensibly because Labour wanted it. So we're back in the same position as in March, where those in charge don't want to take any responsibility, and so put it off and put it off until it gets really bad and much harder to recover from. They had all summer to prepare for this, and now the trends in the nationwide case rate are far worse than their worst-case projections. While the characterisation of the Terra Nova Expedition as doomed by its own bumbling hubris is not at all backed up by the historical record, it is very easy to see how, when suggested, one might suppose it must be true, as this character trait seems to be nailed to the flagstaff of British leadership. 'Lions led by donkeys' is just as true now as it was in WWI. Laden with 20lbs of groceries and cycling into an incoming storm, my trip home was much longer and harder than it ought to have been; the symbolism was really rather clunky.
On my own completely selfish part, I'm looking forward to lockdown. Schools are supposed to be staying open, so traffic won't be as low as it was this spring, but it'll be nice to have it a little quieter again. I've got a massive bag of flour, more apples than I know what to do with, a freezer full of cooked meals and ingredients for more. This afternoon I'll be moving the main parts of my workstation down to my bedroom, so I can keep that warm and abandon this draughty corner of the open-plan first floor until spring. The burrowing therefore is very nearly literal, and lockdown gives me every excuse to keep my burrow to myself.
There's a chance of frost on Wednesday. The bird feeders are full and the garden more or less put to bed. I observed, my first autumn in Britain, how even if one didn't know Halloween/Samhain was a thing, this precise day was perceptible as a turning point from autumn into winter. You can just feel it. This year, the human world is participating in step with the natural and spiritual one. Wherever we are going, we are going together, but where that might be is anyone's guess ...
no subject
Date: 2020-11-03 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 05:31 pm (UTC)Oh boy, that is some fine vintage regret to be nursing there ... I am sorry.