Day: March 17, 2020

We did a trip to our local supermarket last week, as we normally do each week. My wife takes paracetamol regularly to relieve aches and pains, and really, apart from unbranded paracetamol, we got everything we went in for.

Even the unbranded paracetamol, we saw that there was branded paracetamol still on the shelves, but we will not pay 10x for a branded version of something which is exactly the same.

At the same time, we observed an aisle absolutely full of toilet rolls. This was after the stories of panic-buying of toilet roll first appeared, because we had a conversation on that very subject.

Yesterday, we went out again. Same shop.

The situation was still the same with the paracetamol. There were fewer branded boxes, but still some in stock. Nothing unbranded, but there was plenty of unbranded ibuprofen.

There were plentiful supplies of milk, something which you’d generally think that people need a steady, fresh supply of.

Apples – another fresh thing – no problem.

We generally saw fewer things on the shelves, though. My wife specifically eats gluten-free wherever possible – mostly the shelves were empty but she managed to get some spaghetti. It was in some flash Italian box, she probably paid silly money for it, but it was, at least, in stock. Just general (with-gluten) pasta appeared to be gone. Doesn’t much bother me as I have pasta twice a year in any case. It’s a bugger with my diabetes.

Gone too was dried rice (including these room-temperature microwaveable sachets), although the frozen microwaveable rice with vegetables that we usually buy, no problem.

That aisle of toilet rolls that we saw last week was now completely empty. Although there was plenty of kitchen roll. At a push, I have interchanged.

There were also no eggs. Comments, please. Why on earth are people panic buying eggs? Are we going to became a nation of bakers as a result of this crisis? As it happens we are quite lucky there – we’re out in the country, lots of people keep chickens anyway and sell the eggs – cheaper, fresher and a darned site more tasty! The only thing the supermarket offers is convenience. But, why eggs?

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For those of you who are not in the UK, we have now been told to avoid unnecessary contact with each other, including things like working from home wherever possible. When you’re me, pretty much all contact is unnecessary. I expect the next time I leave the house will be next week when I shop.

I usually do my charity work today, but it is certainly not essential that I go to their office. The work I do is telephone calls anyway, which can be made from anywhere, and they have given me both the permission and the means to access their client database. So I will be working as normal, but from the comfort of my sofa. I guess that means more frequent cups of tea, at least!

My wife has just had the week off work. She is a nurse in the local doctor’s surgery. She is still expected to turn up for work, although once inside, the door is locked and nobody allowed in. When somebody comes along to collect their repeat prescription, say, somebody goes out, has a brief conversation, then comes in and sorts the paperwork. They are trying to convey that for anything except Corona, it is almost business as usual. But my wife usually needs to see her diabetic patients personally, to measure their blood pressure, for example, so she’s not sure how she’ll be asked to work. It is not safe to assume that all her clients have computers.

Just thought I’d update you. This is the UK and currently I am very well, but things can change daily at the moment. I’m glad Tom Hanks and his wife have been discharged from hospital – I know he’s a gozillionaire and will have received the best treatment money can buy, but he is still our age group so it’s good to see somebody walk away from this.