I went out a couple of times yesterday.

First of all I had to drive up to the hospital. All the way up the motorway and beyond there were large signs telling me “We are all in this together. Stay safe” and “Support the frontline workers. Stay at home“. The hospital was all cones separating people into lanes and everyone running for cover if they saw me walking towards them. Hand sanitisers everywhere and countless warnings and notices. It was a vision [I hope] of the past insane panic. The only sign of normality was a woman sitting in a wheelchair outside the front door having a smoke under a No Smoking sign.

I then stopped off at the village. Shops are starting to open and there were fading markings on the pavement supposedly showing where people were supposed to stand while queueing. People weren’t taking that much notice of them and while not exactly hugging each other, they were staying maybe an arm’s length apart while they stopped and chatted to friends and neighbours. They were using that fast fading concept of common sense. This seems to be a vision of the present.

Later I took a long walk up one of the valleys. It was a beautiful day, calm and warm and the air so fresh it nearly made me dizzy. There were quite a few others up there. Some were walking briskly while others just strolled along. There were no yellow signs anywhere. There was nothing marking any two meter distances. There were no warnings or hectoring notices. People passed within inches. We greeted each other and commented on the weather. There wasn’t even a hint of a mention of The Virus anywhere.

I hope this is a vision of the future.