Day 46: Insulation in isolation
Work, balcony time, food, Zoom, wine. Maybe not exactly in that order.
6 weeks in, we decided to do our first ever online Esselunga shop, mostly to buy sufficient supplies of water. We also decided to set ourselves a challenge: that we should only eat what’s left in our fridge and cupboards, and not do any more supermarket runs until our order arrives, which will be on May 1st. I think I just got tricked into eating a lot of pasta. Also, the water was out of stock.
The day was spent like many others: work, balcony time, food, Zoom, wine. Maybe not exactly in that order. Signora Pina is still active. There is no chaos on the streets, and you don’t even hear that many ambulances anymore. Only a person shouting once every now and then (I feel you).
The longer you stay confined in the same space, the more you begin to notice little things that you’ve always tended to overlook. The cracks on the wall, created by the vibrations of the tram. The little corpses of insects on the windowsill that tried to escape by flying straight into your windows. The severe lack of insulation. I have lived in buildings that excelled at keeping the heat out in the summer. I have lived in buildings that thrived on keeping the heat in during the cold winter months. This is the first building I have ever lived in that manages to keep the heat in during the summer, and the cold in for a week after two hours of rain.
In general, life has continued to repeat itself. When you start doing things twice, it begins to feel like 80s and 90s arcade games, where you make it all the way to the final round, beat the boss, and the game restarts. Once it restarts, everything looks the same, but slightly different. The music sounds a little off-key. The characters wear slightly different clothes. The sky is a little darker. Essentially, your reward for making it to the end is that everything starts again. Thankfully, or probably not, we are in 2020, so narrative games have advanced since the time of Wonderboy (if you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, here you go). I do hope this is more of a PS4, 3D adventure game with a beginning, middle, and end. I also wish every time I did something twice, someone would reward me. Although if this premise is right for dogs, I think humans probably don’t deserve it.
I wonder what May 4th will look like, beyond all the annual Star Wars jokes. Will people actually go out? Will they interact with each other? Will they bring their spare pasta supplies and use them as weapons against people who are getting too close to them? Should we start building an ark, just in case?
My suspicion is that the experience of being out will feel like sneaking out to go clubbing as a teenager (or doing something else that would anger your parents, like sneaking out to go to a football match, but I will leave this story for another time). You are essentially having a decent time, but deep down you are shitting yourself, and the best moment of the night is when you’ve gone home to realise you haven’t been caught.
Lunch: Penne with parmesan, zucchini, and smoked ham
Song of the day: Yazoo - Nobody’s Diary
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