This blogpost should be all about our New York trip. The coronavirus cancelled that and well, what can you do? Let’s not mention it again. “Stop spreading the news, we’re not leaving today…”. An Outbreak of Altruism has erupted here in the UK though and that can spread as far and wide as it likes.
Approaching 90 Years Old, my dad, my hero, smiling as always last week. My wife has the same attitude, no point in worrying about anything you can’t control. This is going to be a positive blog even though I’m generally a realist. None of this half full, half empty stuff with me, I see a glass with some water in it. I know there’s a huge amount of anxiety around the globe currently and we’re all feeling it. There’s a health emergency and a financial one, this is serious, but there are some things to smile about and a little positive news. I’ll tell you a little about our own situation and a few anecdotes which I hope will bring a smile to your face. The children say some fascinating/disturbing things. I’ll try to cram in as many photos from this last week as I can.
People will be judged ultimately by how they behave during this pandemic, acts of kindness, calmness and so forth. The human race maybe a lot of things, but one thing for certain it is adaptable. Once the initial shock is over, people will settle down into their new way of life, regardless as to whether they wanted to change their life or not. Perhaps once this is all over there’ll be a few changes to lifestyles that will continue. Here’s a positive: The NHS (National Health Service) put out a request for volunteers to help deliver medicines, assist already frail or elderly patients with rides to hospital and so forth. They may want these volunteers to simply speak and offer reassurance over the phone to those that are vulnerable and live alone. This releases NHS Frontline Staff and therefore the effort to save lives. Over 500,000 people volunteered within 48 hours. Add to that 35,000 former doctors and nurses who have already agreed to return to their old jobs and we can see that ‘Altruism Outbreak’ spreading rapidly.
Before we move on there’s dad again at the circus, looking and smiling straight at the local newspaper photographer whilst the audience watch the trapeze artists. Circa 1960. I’m a big fan of this shot and whoever the photographer was…one word…genius. I visited my mum (also approaching 90) and dad last week because, like all of us, I knew that bloody virus was approaching. My sister lives a lot closer to them than I do, still it’s thirty minutes drive away for her, but she is always on hand when they need anything and has for the last few years spent her time running around for them, organising hospital appointments, food shopping etc. Sibling rivalry might prevent me from saying this, but to hell with it, the care and love she shows on a daily basis is absolutely incredible.
We’ve also been on the receiving end of some acts of kindness this last week or so too because of our self isolation. Louis developed a new persistent cough 9 days ago. On that day during the Prime Minister’s daily news conference Boris announced that anyone with this symptom or fever should self isolate for 7 days, if others are in the household make that 14 Days for everyone. So nearly complete, except the Lock Down was announced and so we’re stuck for longer. Food is starting to run out and even if we could get out to the supermarkets they don’t have a lot to offer. Here comes that Altruism Outbreak again: Our friends Christophe and Rachael Bonneau who own a delicatessen in Bradford-on-Avon, (he appears in an old blog here ) dropped off a food parcel for us. He even offered me a bottle of red wine from his car, which almost did bring a tear to my eye! Our neighbours Nick and Cath Adsett dropped some bags of sweets for the children, Cath has been in contact regularly to ask if we need anything. One of the mums from school Lecia Watts dropped off plenty of fresh fruit, a game for the children to play and a couple of packs of Marlboro. The Marlboro were for me, not the kids, they’ve given up ;-) Please don’t judge me, I haven’t smoked indoors for at least 12 years and I’m what they would probably describe as a light smoker. Another mum from School our friend Cat Phillips has been in contact daily to check with Sam that we’re okay and good for everything. I would like to thank all of our friends for their thoughtfulness and generosity of spirit, it’s both heart warming and comforting. What’s more, and despite their own acute financial circumstances these Samaritans wouldn’t accept payment. Here’s a shot of Sam and the kids, Louis was more or less over his cough here, I think we took the decision that we’d probably get it anyway. That said I’m slightly disturbed that he was on my side of the bed. Louis has a cavalier attitude towards personal hygiene at the best of times, coughing into a tissue or even his sleeve is never going to happen. The other day I was sat on the sofa, he came over to tell me something and literally coughed into my face from less than a foot, I could fell those droplets splattering my face. Forget 2 Metres and the Coronavirus, neither I nor the scientific community have no idea what other bacteria he might be spreading ;-)
I looked up at the night sky yesterday, they are so bright at the moment. Partly because this is usually the case at this time of year, perhaps less pollution is also having an effect. One way I found to put things into perspective is to think of space, I often do if I feel anxious. What if our ‘glorious’ leaders told us there was an asteroid heading this way in two weeks time? Now that’s bloody scary, it would wipe out every living thing. This Coronavirus isn’t going to kill us all, life will continue. At the end of February you may have read that there was an explosion in space. Don’t worry, it was 390 million light years away. It does put things into perspective for me, especially when I contemplate the fact that this explosion was the size of 15 Milky Ways. Incidentally, our own galaxy (the Milky Way ) contains between 100-400 Billion Stars! A lot of millions and billions in that paragraph, vast numbers. One I always quote to the children is: A Million seconds equals 11 Days. A billion seconds equals 31 Years. I’m still not sure they get it, time is almost meaningless to them.
I do have some shots from before our self isolation at the beginning of last week that I’ll scatter through this blogpost, like the one above. Essentially though we’re going to have a lot of family life portrayed in future blogposts. I see no point in venturing out onto the street, now is a time for community and any risk taking simply to get a Street Photo would be ridiculous. Every one of us has a responsibility to one another, we literally have each others lives in our hands. Social distancing is the key to put a hold on things. I see a few “well known international” photographers are still posting new shots on Instagram, claiming to be documenting this crisis for history. I say, get back indoors. This isn’t a war zone, we all know what someone looks like with a mask on, we’ve seen empty streets with one person walking through them. There are millions of photos already out there, exactly the same, they’re not helping or creating anything new. As I say, absolutely ridiculous, because all they’re really doing is a little more self promotion.
Those daily news conferences I mentioned earlier are totally fascinating and terrifying all at once. I have to say the PM is doing a brilliant job, he hasn’t delivered Churchill’s rousing wartime speech “We’ll fight them on the beaches…” just yet, but I sense it’s coming. By the way, Winston Churchill turned to an advisor after delivering that speech and said “And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got!”. Boris Johnson our PM now has a daily news conference. It’s more or less the only news I look at and I used to be addicted to my BBC and Reuters News Apps, as I suppose a lot of people are. We’re no longer Environmental Experts or Political Commentators regarding Brexit, no, now everyone is a Professor in Viral Studies. I suggest that it’s the only news we need to know and even then you could miss a day or so and probably be aware somehow of any important developments. There’s a lot of unnecessary noise out there, theories, advice…just ignore it, unless it’s coming from your government.
During the news conference Boris is flanked by chief medical or science officers. They deliver their message and then take questions from the invited press. “Yes, John Harper, John Harper Photography”. “Good afternoon Prime Minister, myself and many other are wondering what your plans are for future supplies of Marlboro and Rioja?”. “Thank you John, this is an important issue that we are looking into. We in government are convinced that the best way forward is for everyone to get drunk”! I say that, and I wasn’t being frivolous: Millions of people are loosing their jobs, our income in this household has vanished overnight and yet the supermarkets shelves are empty of any form of alcohol. Or so I hear. Sam’s mum works for a supermarket chain and she was told that they’d get first choice before the hoards and hoarders appeared each day. She returned to her home the other day with some grapes and two bananas. In some other good news today: ‘Off Licenses’ (the places we can buy alcohol) have been added to the list of ‘essential’ services that can stay open during the lock down!
My friend Kev is possibly best described as a heavy smoker. He’s also a keen bowler, not tenpin, this is the kind you play on a pristine green. I’m being careful here because he might get upset if he reads this. Not about me mentioning his smoking, more if I name his game, sorry sport, incorrectly. It’s either Lawn Bowls, Green Bowls or Crown Green Bowls. I wrote about his bowls club in an old blog which you can read here. Currently they play at an indoor arena until the weather improves and the season starts. He was at one such game the other evening and began a coughing fit. All the other teams stopped, in shock and fear. Remember that a majority of bowlers are over 70 years old. His partner shouted out “It’s okay everyone, he’s a smoker”. They all sighed with relief, carried on playing and left him to it. When the UK government announced new measures then of course over 70’s came into it. There was concern at his bowling club, they wouldn’t be allowed to play, whereby Kev announced that he thought it highly unlikely that there would be a constant Police cordon surrounding the bowling club to prevent them! I’m guessing that their season for this year is scuppered.
So, this week we’ve still been able to go for a walk each day to maintain our mental health as well as physical wellbeing:
We’re fortunate and able to walk the same route which is roughly 3-4 miles without coming into contact with others. Okay we’ve seen a few people, especially now the lockdown has begun, but they are usually quite a fair distance away. I walk this everyday in any case, but my job now is to document these walks and I can tell you that it’s going to become a struggle. Talk about working the scene, this really is the same scenery over and over again with the same actors. I’m going to need to be a lot more creative. What I will do is experiment with different lenses, that new 28mm hasn’t been off the camera for two months.
Those actors weren’t over enthusiastic to begin with, but now they can’t wait to go out after they’ve finished their home schooling. I’m posting some of this weeks “walking” shots. Mostly to give you a sense of what we’re doing and where we’re doing it. The week started out windy and chilly as you’ll see from our coats, for the last few days it’s been wall to wall sunshine.
As I said, I do these walks everyday, I see things and take a mental note. For example I know where chickens are kept, ducks, cows and the like. Just saying. if it comes to it I will be feeding the family. The only downside to that is I’m not a big meat eater and I’m pretty sure there are laws against cattle rustling! Still, good to know we won’t go hungry. Currently we have enough vegetables that are made into fresh soup and Sam makes bread daily, we’ve been doing this for quite a while in any case so no change due to the virus. On these walks and at home there’s a lot of conversation. Mostly I’m trying to see what the dogs are up to, but I listen to them. Amélie is 10 years old, a dreamer and caught between becoming a teenager and a fight not to let go of the things she wants to believe in. Louis on the other hand has always been a realist. Here’s what they discussed the other day:
Amélie: “What will happen to the Easter Bunny and her deliveries?”
Louis: “Shouldn’t it be a chicken, or better, a snake, they do actually lay eggs you know….The Easter Snake sounds better”
Amélie: “No Louis. It’s the Easter Bunny and I’m worried she might spread the virus”
Louis: “In that case they’ll have to rename her the ‘Death Bunny’ then”
Man, that boy is twisted! Seriously, in reality he’s funny, sweet and caring, a really lovely boy. He just enjoys winding up his sister.
Here’s another for you. We were talking about school the other day. Next year Amélie will begin Senior School and we have chosen the one she is to attend. She’s fine with the choice. She was looking thoughtful a few days ago and then asked:
Amélie: “Mummy, if we needed to could we cancel my place at the big school?”
Sam: “Why would we want to cancel it?”
Amélie: “I may get a letter from Hogwarts when I’m 11 and I don’t want to miss the opportunity”
If she gets a letter to attend ‘Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft’ then believe me, she’ll be going!
Let’s wrap this up. The sun is out, the walks are fabulous. Life is almost good. Here’s some more positive news: The UK Government have announced that an antibody test will be made available to the general public. A do it yourself kit which can be ordered for home or have the test carried out at a chemist or pharmacy. It’s a game changer. We will know who has had the virus, not just when they’re having it. We’ll know how many were asymptomatic. People who have immunity can return to work, the government can see where the hotspots were and potentially have much greater knowledge of this disease.
If that isn’t enough here’s some more for you: Although a virus doesn’t think, it has an innate desire to survive. It can only do that by not killing the host it inhabits and continue spreading. Eventually Covid-19 will develop to a stage whereby it infects, but doesn’t kill. Oral Herpes has been around for 6 million years apparently, as have other types of virus. Many have evolved to become no more than a common cold, they live, we live. If they hadn’t then I wouldn’t be writing this.
If you made it to the end of this post, well done. I know sometimes this blog can be little more than a stream of consciousness from me. I try to keep it in some kind of order even though it might not appear to be!
I have a photography book to review in an upcoming blogpost from my friend Vasco Trancoso and we’ll see if I can get any better at snapping photos from our walks. I have the last three days still to look at and I think there might be some good ones, I’ll post just the best so as not to bore you too much.
Finally: Keep Smiling. Keep Well. Keep Safe. Look for the Positive. Failing that open a bottle of wine or play Pooh Sticks:
As always my sincere thanks go to anyone taking the time to read this blog.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are taken using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted.
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