Scrabble Induced Shame 28/03/2020

It is Friday night, and myself and my family are in our respective bedrooms by 11pm. It’s officially day 5 of the government imposed lockdown throughout Britain. It was announced today that Boris Johnson has tested positive for Covid-19. While this is unfortunate (in some respects), I am wondering why he, of all people, is being tested when there are a limited number of test kits. Surely they would be better used on the NHS staff who are tirelessly risking their health again and again during this crisis, especially given that in line with his own restrictions, Johnson should be staying inside and self isolating just like the rest of us. Perhaps he’s a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ sort of prime minister - it wouldn’t surprise me. 

Yesterday at 8pm, thousands of people across the country stepped outside of their houses to show their appreciation and support in applauding the NHS, including Boris himself. He clapped with as much vigour as he employed when he clapped and cheered alongside his fellow tories that pay rises for NHS staff were capped at 1% and student nurse bursaries were abolished. The hypocrisy is truly stifling. I’m sure all of the nurses appreciated the national show of gratification but I’m certain that they’d also really appreciate a fairer salary and free parking at their place of work. 

Social isolation is going as well as one might imagine in my household, given the circumstances. We pass most of the day separately, the advantage of us all having quite a proficient work ethic being that we’re all busy, thus allowing less time for petty arguments and annoyances. That’s not to say that there have been none, but I’d argue that the majority of conflicts have been avoided, or at the very least allowed to cool off before the metaphorical pot over-boils, so to speak. Yesterday after dinner, just about the only quality family time we’ve continued with, we all engaged in a game of scrabble. My dad of course thrashed all of us, even after joining the game late and having for the past week displayed numerous symptoms of the global virus. I came last, so that’s £9250 well spent on the first year of my English degree. Turns out a month of cancelled university due to strikes and further cancellations as the result of a global pandemic do not a budding novelist make - or at the very least a scrabble winner. 

During the day I went for a walk in the sunshine and saw more families and groups of people out for an afternoon stroll than I think I’ve seen in a long time; social distancing my arse. As of yet though, no one I know has been stopped by the military or fined for being outdoors, so we thank god for small mercies I guess. As for me, I’ve been banned from the supermarket “in case you cough on someone”. Whilst of course I understand the reasons behind this, it’s still frustrating when you make a list and somehow the people doing the supermarket run don’t seem to be capable of bringing back any soy yoghurt. How in God’s name am I supposed to have my yoghurt, granola and fresh fruit in a morning to ensure that my day begins seamlessly, when my family simply refuse to cater to my every awkward whim?! It’s an outrage, albeit a middle class, privileged, vegan outrage, but I’d like to think that my point still stands. 

Rather than being bored during our enforced entrapment in the house, I’ve found that the time seems to be passing relatively quickly. I think maybe I really needed this time to just sort my life out and make sure I was organised and on top of everything. This is becoming increasingly easier as it seems that every day I’m receiving emails from my university saying things about how my first year doesn’t count towards my degree at all now, or about how they’re lessening the content of my exams so that we have less to submit. Whilst I’m grateful that they’re trying to adapt the course and level of assessment in accordance with the current situation and taking into account the drastically varying circumstances of every student, I can’t help but feel that I’ve been cheated out of a first year university experience. I already thought it was a rip-off, this is all just taking the piss a bit to be honest. What a mess Corona Virus has made of an exploitative system that surely only had limited time left before its countless flaws began to surface, challenged by angered and neglected students.