Today is 200 days since lockdown began!
I am pleased to say that the few articles reporting this in the media, got the correct day as today, not yesterday. You may remember on Day 99, there was massive confusion on which day fell on the 100th day!
ITV News today reported on ‘Six things we’ve learned since the country first went into lockdown 200 days ago’
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-10-09/covid-six-things-weve-learned-since-the-country-first-went-into-lockdown-200-days-ago
- Covid symptoms to watch out for are wilder than first thought.
- Britain’s ‘world beating’ Test and Trace system has proved anything but.
- ‘Long Covid’ shows the debilitating effect of the virus can linger.
- Some treatments have a positive impact on survival and recovery.
- Scientists believe they’re on track for a vaccine by the end of 2020.
- The clap for carers brought Britain together.
The Star looked at ‘These are the positive things Sheffield people have taken from 200 days of lockdown’.
This blog from a lady in Canada, writes about “How to get excited for fall [autumn] even after 200 days of lockdown”.
https://thefinancialdiet.com/how-to-get-excited-for-fall-even-after-200-days-of-lockdown
- Embrace the season of warm comfort food.
- Take out your camera (or phone).
- Get creative with your clothes.
- Reflect on goals and routine.
- Plan something for Halloween.
I’d like to add one thing from my own list…
- Buy a boat to live on 🙂
Although, it has been 200 days since lockdown began, the only conversation in Edinburgh today has been the new lockdown restrictions coming into force at 6pm today. In fact, there was NO mention of the 200 Day Anniversary – apart from by myself telling everyone 😉
As people tried to find loop-holes in Nicola Sturgeon‘s U-Turn yesterday (Day 199) on considering turning their restaurant into a café, she was forced to explain how a café was different to a restaurant. Ultimately, that a cafe’s main focus is to sell non alcoholic drinks, snacks and cakes, compared to a restaurant which has a main focus on selling alcohol and full meals.
You may remember yesterday, after Nicola read my blog on Day 198, she decided to allow cafe’s who had an alcohol licence to remain open (like unlicensed cafes) in the Central Belt (between 6am to 6pm) if they did not sell any alcohol. Although, to make it more confusing they are allowed to sell alcohol as a take-away.
The main focus of today was that ALL pubs and restaurants in the Central Belt had to close at 6pm, for at least 16 days. It is interesting to note, that the media doesn’t say it will only be 16 days!
On my morning walk with Honey the Dog, I noticed two pubs – Riordan’s Sports Bar (formerly the Four in Hand) and Middletons were both open at 10am and people were in them drinking! In fact, by the afternoon most pubs I past were pretty full. I spotted one pub announcing they would be closed at 6pm.
After our afternoon walk across Arthur’s Seat, Honey and I headed to Tollcross for a Community Meal, which is part of Soul Food. I had considered going to the boat afterwards, but then remembered I had to get home for Tom Brace’s Bingo night!
On the way home, as I walked through Newington area, I started to play the game of trying to work out if a café/restaurant that was open was actually a café or a restaurant. I was surprised how hard it way. Some places that looked like cafes were still open, when in fact they should have shut at 6pm.
It maybe wonder, if I am finding the rules hard to get my head round AND I am finding it hard to work out if somewhere is a café or a restaurant, how is someone who does not write about it everyday going to know?!
Of course, the rules also state that pubs and restaurants can remain open until 10pm (I think) for take-aways!
I spotted quite a few places with temporary take-away signs on their windows. I also noticed quite a few places which looked like restaurants and were open, with no take-aways signs on them.
I then thought about Bistros, they have not been addressed at all !! Also, what about places that are open as a café in the daytime and a restaurant in the evening? Or even just call themselves a ‘Café & Restaurant’?
I walked past Spoon – which calls itself a ‘Café & Restaurant’ and remembered the Facebook post I saw yesterday announcing, that after 12 years of trading it would close for good at 6pm today – https://www.spoonedinburgh.co.uk
In the early days of self-employed work, I often used to go in to Spoon for meetings. When I delivered freelance training for NHS Lothian, we would always meet in Spoon to prepare the training.
Many years ago, a friend of mine, told the story that he used to go into this café (before it was called Spoon), to write up his PhD. There was a single mother writing a book there each day too. They used to say hello and have a chat before settling down to get on with their writings. The mother was JK Rowling, who was writing the first Harry Potter book!
Farewell to Spoon 🙁
Face-Mask Corner
Today we have Majk (aka Majk Stokes) who I met yesterday (Day 199) for a tea!
Majk bought his face-mask in ‘Dig In’ in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, which is a Community Greengrocer – http://www.diginbruntsfield.co.uk
Thanks for sharing Majk, I will have to check out Dig In when I move to that area of Edinburgh 🙂
Readers Corner
Today we have two posts.
Fi
Fi left a Facebook comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 199), in regards to me trying to work out Nicola Sturgeons acronym FACTS:
“FACTS – Face coverings, Avoid crowded places, Clean hands and surfaces, Two metre distance, Self-isolate if you have symptoms”.
Thanks Fi! Well, I got 1 out of 5 correct. I got the ‘F’ correct for ‘Face-coverings’, but thought the ‘S’ was ‘Social distancing’.
Natalie
Natalie left a Facebook comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 199), in regards to Music Corner, saying:
“Adam Holmes is super! Particularly love ‘mother oak’”.
Thanks Natalie, just listened to ‘Mother Oak’ more fully. I love ‘Oh My God’ 🙂
It Made Me Smile
This made me smile 🙂
Music Corner
Following from Natalie’s comment in ‘Readers Corner’, I thought I would include Adam Holmes singer ‘Mother Oak’ and ‘Oh My God’ in non-Spotify format, so all you readers who don’t use Spotify can listen.
Mother Oak
Oh My God
As I come to the end of today’s blog, I am feeling good. I pretty much ran all the way to Tollcross with Honey, although not in my running gear, to get to the Community Meal on time. Then walked home another way, afterwards. It felt good to be running, so have decided to head over to the boat tomorrow morning, in my running gear, incorporating my morning run.
It was good to explore the area of Edinburgh that I am going to be living in. Feels good to be moving to a new area, without moving completely out of Edinburgh which feels familiar to me.
I am sad to see another Edinburgh iconic café/restaurant/bistro shut down due to Covid. You will remember on Day 112, I wrote that Henderson’s were shutting after 58 years. I am sure other well known places in Edinburgh will close due to Covid. Once it is all over, Edinburgh (and the world) is going to be a very different place!
Have been thinking about change and how, my upcoming change is feeling good. Despite the many things I need to do before I finally move and rent out my flat, the change is shaking up my energy and familiarity. Where I feel safe and secure is going to change massively, which is giving me a youthful feel within me 🙂
This morning there was blue skies and sunshine, although quite cold. More cloud arrived this afternoon, but still remained quite cold. It hasn’t rained today. I missed getting Honey out for a bedtime walk in the light, hence why the photo in this section is so dark!
Hope you’ve had a Fun Friday.
Lots of Love
Jim x