The Extreme Staycation

Location: London, UK  COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown London Underground Prior to the lockdown and depending on my week, I would be on the tube pretty regularly. Today I got the tube for the first time since March 13th - that's a long time ago.  I didn't even know if I had any money on my Oyster card (I did). I was quite anxious about it.  I'm a confident traveller - growing up in London and without a family car, I have used public transport extensively throughout my life.  I know the tube map pretty well, I am happy hopping on and off buses, I've been on the DLR, boats, trams, even the cable car in my travels across the capital. Masks are mandatory on all public transport so I was pretty annoyed when the first carriage I got in had three people in it (spaced out) two who had their masks around their necks and one who didn't have one at all.  As more got on, the two with them around their necks put them on and the guy without one produced it as he got o...

Location: London, UK COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak Lockdown Boris Johnson made a long-awaited speech last night which I think left many more confused than anything, brilliantly summed up by Matt Lucas (below). There was a noticeable increase in traffic on the roads today and some restaurants / coffee chains have started sending out notifications that they will slowly start to re-open. But can we go back to "normal"?  What is normal anymore?  Normal is going to be facemasks for some time that's for certain - and you can't really sip a latte out of one of those. And I think there is understandable fear - we have been separated for 7 weeks.  That's a long time.  That's long enough for a new normal to become imbedded.  Do I want to run into a room full of people?  No.  Do I want to get on the tube?  No.  Do I want to go and get that latte?  I'm really not sure. So while I think some people will bounce back gang-h...