Is there life after lockdown?

It’s August, and I’ve hardly been out of the house since the Covid-19 lockdown started in March. It’s been a couple of weeks now since restrictions have eased, and restaurants are allowed to open, so I decided to risk this brave new world. Here’s what happened:

I walked 15 minutes to my local south London suburban rail station, and waved my Oyster card over the electronic ticket gate as usual. For a weekday, outside of “usual commute hours” there seemed to be about the usual number of people, ie not very busy. Most people were wearing masks, on the platform and on the train.

I had decided to head for Borough Market, which is covered, but has good airflow! All these things we now need to think about before planning an outing! Borough Market is near London Bridge station, so it was about a 20 minute train ride for me.

I’ve been to Borough Market several times, and it’s usually packed, especially around lunchtime. It was sad to see most of the food and produce stalls set up, but very few people walking around. Mask-wearing was about 50/50.

Lunchtime! I often graze from the stalls, but today I wanted to sit down and enjoy a glass of wine too, so I headed for Brindisa Tapas Bar. They had a touchless hand sanitizer dispenser by the door, as well as a scannable bar code station. I was greeted and asked to use my phone to scan the barcode – that didn’t work, possibly because of reflections on the glass covering! But the waiter was friendly and accommodating and soon had me logged in by hand: name and phone number. As soon as he pressed enter I got a text message telling me I was logged in.

I had a lovely tapas lunch, including several glasses of sherry. I chatted with the waiter about how the test and trace system worked. Neither of us knew. He thought if I develop symptoms, I should tell “the NHS” and they would alert Brindisa, who would then provide names of other customers today. I’ve heard lots of things about the track and trace system, some of it claiming that it doesn’t seem to work well. Of course it relies heavily on individuals self-reporting. BUT what I haven’t heard is statements from the UK Government on what exactly we’re expected to do. So if I develop symptoms, who do I call? my GP, 111, the new 119 number? Not enough information!

I wandered around the market, lamenting to myself the scarcity of people, wondering how the stall-holders could be making a living, wondering if “normal” would ever appear again.

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As I continued to walk around, I bought some burrata cheese for supper in a couple of days. I stopped at the lovely Turkish Deli stall to see what flavour helva they had today. Usually they would have masses of trays of helva, ranging from pistacchio, to sesame seed, chocolate, vanilla. Today there were a few pieces of homemade chocolate helva, and some (still good) but pre-packaged slabs. They generally also have a wide selection of mezzes, Turkish delight, and of course the wonderful scent of coffee wafts around the stall. I bought some helva to remind me later of my day out at the market.

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Borough Market without the usual throngs of people is a rather sad place to see. But I did my best today to inject a little cash into the economy.

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There is simply no way of predicting how this pandemic will develop, or more hopefully fade in the face of a new vaccine. In the meantime we can only cautiously tiptoe out, wearing masks, keeping an appropriate distance, sanitizing our hands, putting money into our local economies where we can.

As for international travel, who knows? I’ve had two planned trips re-scheduled multiple times, and now finally cancelled. I’m sad of course, but I’m most saddest of all for the local communities who rely almost entirely on international travel. I urge you, if you’re able to, to support your local economy, your local food bank, and if you’ve made friends in communities where you’ve travelled in the past, reach out and see if you can help them too.

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