A Long Week of Bewilderment

 

 

It's been a long, long week or at least that's how it feels to me. 

It really is hard to believe that it was only on Monday that Prime Minister Johnson addressed the nation in order to explain the road out of lockdown. Of course, it's even harder to explain why his announcement has been followed by media hype and public adulation heralding the end of restrictions. I know I've been inhabiting another planet since retirement but I seriously didn't think I'd forgotten how to speak Earth's lingo. It's either that or some kind of communication error because I'm pretty sure the only concession the Government has made to the current Stay at Home Order to theoretically affect me is that, from 8th March, in addition to being able to exercise in a public space with one other person I can meet them for coffee or a picnic too. If that's getting back to normality, I really have transmorphed into some kind of alien creature.

Also it might make a difference for some city slicker types, but if they can point me in the direction of a source for take-out coffee in a rural village then I'm all ears. Not that I'm a fan of coffee in a paper cup, far from it, but it might just provide some kind of change to the humdrum of sameness that's peppering life a little too much these days.

I do accept that the main thrust of his statement was that schools will return on 8th March. As somebody whose age, however, would probably justify a struggle to recall her school days it's not a tantalising prospect with any great significance, save that the number of 4x4's picking children up from the village school at 3.30pm every day will suddenly increase exponentially not to mention the on-pavement parking, continuous running of diesel engines and lack of awareness as car doors open and close. 

If I keep this mood up, I might actually convince myself that, irrespective of its purpose to decrease transmission of the virus,  lockdown is a good thing! Anyway the Government clearly thinks it is, because my interpretation of what's been said is that (save for the changes I've outlined) it is continuing for at least a little while longer. 

So, having got that off my chest, I can now move on to another news story that also had me scratching my head in bewilderment. Mister Potato Head, a toy made by Hasbro, is apparently going to be known simply as Potato Head. Fortunately further reading revealed that it is the brand that is dropping the Mister from its title and not the toy itself. 

Phew, I was wondering if to count as one of the truly woke and enlightened brigade, I was going to have to follow suit and rename Mister E. That had me worried. I mean E could be a minor bit player in the world of MI6 but I think most people would imagine I was referring to the drug world and Ecstasy. Mister E is a lot of things but he's certainly not that!

Still something good came out of that last episode of bafflement because, coupled with some sunny weather enabling me to start seasonal work in the garden, I remembered that it was time to start chitting actual potatoes. That of course necessitated a visit to the local agricultural merchant's for seed potatoes (I bought by the kilogram and not the tonne) providing a brief interlude in the interminable tedium of the week.