I’ve been off work since Wednesday March 18th, which is three weeks now. At first it was chaotic and creative, then well-ordered and clean as I scrubbed floors, cleaned shelves and cupboards, reorganized my CD, DVD, photo collections, and lifted up my bed to see what was underneath, gave a little shriek, and put it down again. There was, and still is, a ‘domestic goddess’ period as I made oatmeal raison muffins, orange syrup cake, pasta Bolognese, Korean sweet and sour meatballs, Indian dahls, and gratin dauphinois. Never have I eaten so well! Or so much! The problem is, all this food is for myself because I cannot share, so I feel like I’ve gained ten pounds. I have gained ten pounds!
But now, I’m bored. Three weeks of house arrest is enough, plus the weather is glorious. As I sit here typing, it’s currently 25°C (77°F) outside. Like a fine July day. I wonder where we’ll be in July. Will I still have a job? Yes. Will COVID-19 be a distant memory? Far from it. Will the economic damage be worse than that of the Great Depression or 2008? No.
But most importantly, will any good come from this?
So at 2 pm this afternoon I wrote out my government-imposed attestation by hand, slathered my forehead, arms and hands with suntan lotion, put on my mask and went outside. It was so good to walk and feel the sunshine on my skin. I usually go to my local supermarket, MONOPRIX, but decided to go further afield to a small, independent organic supermarket. As I walked down the street, just me and my caddy, I thought – why am I wearing a mask? The streets were completely empty. Later, I read that since the outbreak of this epidemic 200,000 Parisians left Paris for the countryside, as if fleeing a medieval plague.
After I had done my food shopping – shelves well-stocked except for the absence of eggs, bread and flour (I did manage to score a bag of organic farine d’épeautre which is spelt flour) – I made my way to the cash desks and thought, this is the new normal: cashiers wearing plastic visors over their entire face and the rest of us wearing facemasks and standing in line six feet apart. It looked so silly, and yet no one was laughing.
President Macron is scheduled to speak to the nation next Monday night on the 8 o’clock news. As predicted, he will prolong the lockdown which was supposed to end April 15th. We are in the dark as to the new date.
Here’s a good video clip from The Economist I just watched because I am very concerned about the world economy:
Juliet in Paris
Ugh. Tell me about it. I texted a friend not long ago (7am Vancouver time) saying, “I’ve made the bed and made myself a Nespresso. I feel like my day has already peaked.”
It’s true, there are good days and bad days. For me, today was a bit more productive than yesterday. People say it’s important to have some sort of routine, I dunno. In any case, I can’t believe we’re already Friday … where did the week go?
It’s crazy how quickly time is going! I’m trying to see the positive and tell myself each passing Friday means we’re another week closer to returning to something resembling life before. Weekends are hard though. All this free time with nowhere to go. I hope you have a nice Easter. 🐰
Thanks! Easter alone in my apartment. As for the rest, I’m keeping a journal and copying and pasting all the scary headlines, numbers of dead, etc. So that I can look back to this period 5 years from now and say “OMG, did that actually happen?” My biggest fear, though, is that there will be more epidemics. Remember SARS? My hometown, Toronto, took a bad hit.