Tired and anxious today but ML managed to get me out to the local park for a walk. We now go off the path and over the grass to keep to the laws of Social Distancing.

ML needn’t have worried about not being able to get to a toolshop. Screwfix is open as long as you ring ahead to order and pay on the phone. When we arrived, I waited at a distance while we she collected a Very Important Radiator Part (Did you not even notice the leak, Rachel? It’s true, I didn’t). There was a trestle table set up outside which ML had to stand two metres away from and state what she’d ordered. Then the Sales guy disappeared into the warehouse to retrieve the part and then emerged and placed it on the table. He then had to step back while she picked it off the table.

In the evening we had a Zoom meeting with my sister and her wife. They only live ten minutes down the road but now no gatherings of more than two are allowed, this is the only way we can all be together. Emotionally, this feels like the biggest loss. I know it’s only temporary but I’m just saying. Their adorable cat joins the meeting halfway though and my heart lifts; I imagine reaching right into the screen and holding all that white fluff against me. They ask to see Sefi but we can’t return the favour because she’s doing her own thing and anyway does not do lap-sitting.

This is life now.