Sunday 18 October
I was wondering today what might stay after Coronavirus has subsided.
During the football matches that I officiated at the subtle changes are the ones that I feel might hang around. Before the game there are pitch side sanitizer stations with gel and disinfecting wipes. And there is the now obligatory laminated track-and-trace QR code for everyone to zap with their phones.
Then afterwards, we all mingle haphazardly around the centre circle bumping fists or elbows. Some still get a little confused as one approaches with an outstretched fist towards someone with an elbow and they kind of meet in the middle with a forearm. Players used to all line up in a very orderly way and shake hands or low-five as they passed alongside each other repeating the words “Well played” at least eleven times. I wonder what will stay and what will go?
I mentioned how, a few weeks back, I shook hands with Stan. It was a very odd feeling. I wonder how much of that will come back? Will people remain as festidious as they currently are about hand hygiene? I used to watch blokes not wash their hands after a visit to the gents toilets. I hope that changes.
A couple of things pinged the bell of my local little world today. First, there’s this lump of moss that has been growing outside our bathroom window for as long as I can remember. In the summer it contracts and browns and appears to have finally died. But this morning it was lush and green and has been joined by a few other ‘lumps’.
Then, a crow flew above me today when I got out of the car. It rasped out it ‘caw-caw’ call and put me on edge. As a species it really doesn’t do much to endear itself to us. Cloaked in black, it hangs together at this time of year, circling tree canopies. Making that haunting sound.
The Bald Birder 