Two months ago I was in my office, trying to make sure existing stuff was online, trying to work out a new laptop, blagging a headset and having a Skype or Teams call. I risked infection by meeting a grad student in the library, an hour or so it closed for the duration.

The Great Flour Drought had just begun.

A gig was cancelled, so the DVDs I bought to research it proved superfluous, unless I research the spin off article anyway. I haven’t watched any of them — I think I’ve watched two films (one of them being Transit) and only read one book, but I’ve seem a lot of documemtaries and some online theatre.

I self-isolated for a week, and the psychological effect of being away from people and, especially, traffic was clear when I went back to what felt like heaving pavements and roads. I can cross Rheims Way rather than needing the underpass though. People still look at you weird for keeping two metres away. But virtue of not leaving stuff until the last minute I didn’t need to queue at supermarkets for longer than a couple of minutes — I could walk round the block or not bother.

My new superhero skill is finding bags for life.

Some days I am getting 10k steps, but more often not and I’m trying not to beat myself up. My appetite was down and my throughput, er, negligible. Both are better with the exercise, but I’m keeping away from biscuits because I Have No Will Power.

The lack of exercise may mean a collapse of sleep patterns, never very great at the best of times. My body did its usual end of term IM JuST GONNA sToP thing — short of quasi-flu, but not far — and was fatigued. I was getting to sleep late and waking early, or going to sleep early and waking at 4am. Waking with the Today meant I still felt too tired to get up but still didn’t sleep. And I had a couple of days of just staring at the lap top.

There was much reading of work and writing of lectures.

I keep trying to Take Back Control, but I stumble after five days.

I’m comparatively lucky — I have no caring responsibilities and I have an income (for now), but it still seems a long time from now that I’ll have acres of free time. I know only three or four people who have caught COVID.

But, like a spring bud, I bought my first coffee from a coffee shop yesterday. It wasn’t great, but it felt like a start.