Day 45: Social distancing does not start at home
Social nights and dusting shelves
The sun came back, and I listened to some Madonna. High Fidelity pops to mind, in which the main character says, “Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?” I don’t have the answer to this, or to other existential questions, but I do know that there are two kinds of pop music: good pop, and bad pop. My hope is that, like bad pop, Coronavirus might be having its moment now, but soon everyone will be over it. And the misery? I’ll leave that to you.
Speaking of bad pop, I had a nightmare a few days ago, in which I was going to a Justin Bieber concert. The nightmare should have stopped there, but in the dream, I also had to live stream the concert from my house, even though there were thousands in the crowd. There are so many layers to this that even Inception would break.
At lunch, I stood on my balcony, almost not noticing I was doing it. We have truly come a long way. My neighbour learning to play the recorder, not so much. Someone else in my neighbourhood is nailing the violin though. While on the balcony, I also spotted two of my neighbours not-social-distancing. I am silently confident a deeper investigation will reveal that the more or less steady number of 3,000 daily cases we have had here for a while, will be attributed to all the signore who take off their masks to stop and have a really nice chat inside their buildings, because the virus, of course, stops at gated entrances (but gossip goes through).
I also dusted our bookshelves, which led to another great life insight: if you’re not the one cleaning your house, the job won’t be done well. Though remember your greatest critic is probably not yourself, but the person you live with. If they’re not saying something, you should consider changing them. I might give this tip to my neighbour who lives upstairs, because since we moved here we have been hearing someone from above constantly clear her throat. If it’s not dust, it must be a severe case of acid reflux, and someone should mention it to her, at least so I can know.
The evening consisted of social-distancing-friendly socialising, via two back-to-back video calls. I almost had a third one, but in the end, we saved it for today. Another lesson from quarantine: you don’t want to peak too soon. Save some of your good tricks for later. Is it even acceptable to make Boris Johnson jokes anymore? I feel that since he got ill, he ruined it for all of us.
Lunch: Corona beans! Warmed in a pan with onion, garlic, sage and olive oil, and a tuna salad on the side
Song of the day: Madonna - Don’t Tell Me (but any song you like, really)