Sinking sourdough and DIY haircuts aside, TESSâFINCH-LEESâis viewing lockdown in a positive light.
âWhoâs that?â says Gobnait (not her real name) whose house I used to pass on my pre-lockdown walk. âItâs me,â Iâd say, lifting my oversized red framed sunglasses to prove Iâm not Lady Gaga incognito.
Itâs her way of telling me I should catch myself on for wearing sunglasses in the middle of January. I could tell her I have light sensitive eyes but she doesnât suffer fools gladly and I admire her astuteness.
Iâve changed my route since lockdown because the road isnât wide enough to accommodate my ego and social distancing. Thatâs what Gobnait would say and I miss our daily dalliance.
Despite that, and with the easing of lockdown imminent, I find myself reluctant to relinquish my newfound bubble, for various reasons.
My DIY haircut with blunt scissors didnât go as planned. Just cut in a straight line, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything.
One side was shorter than the other and in a scene reminiscent of Father Tedâs dented car sketch (Iâll just give it one more tap), I kept cutting until one side was aligned with my upper ear while the other hovered in follicular limbo just below the chin.
Panicking ahead of a Zoom meeting, my options included the following: a bandana (a la Duran Duran), a balaclava (a la bank robber) or a baseball cap (a la whoâs that eejit?). I went with the latter and kept my head down until someone said: âwhoâs that in the baseball capâ?
I also havenât mastered the art of making sourdough bread (my heartâs not really in it) and, while the rest of the country has been spring cleaning since March, I havenât even started.
Iâm not ready to stop listening to the sound of the cuckoo, carried in the wind from the Burren across the bay and the butterflies of giddiness it unleashes, leaving endorphin infused contrails in their wake.
Whilst I cling to lockdown like Paschal Donohoe clings to his ministerial salary, many are chomping at the bit for "freedom".
A vexed psychologist on RTE, warned of the psychological impact of children not being able to hug their grannies.
If thereâs a second wave, as already seen in Germany and China, what about the psychological impact on the child if granny dies of Coronavirus?
What about the psychological impact on the doctor working with dwindling resources who has to decide who gets the last ICU bed and/or ventilator?
And what about the psychological impact on the nurse who has to tell the family that their loved one has died?
At time of writing, 30% of the people diagnosed with Coronavirus are previously healthy Health Care Workers. What of the psychological impact on them and their families who risk their lives to save ours?
The shortage of PPE is an ongoing worry for healthcare staff with reports of post-traumatic stress disorder emerging, unsurprisingly. If there is a second wave, our capacity to respond could be significantly depleted.
Meanwhile, having spent six weeks in lockdown, leaving many financially destitute, it emerged that people continued to enter Ireland and the safeguards, such as self-isolating and filling in contact tracing forms, werenât actually mandatory and therefore as effective as a chocolate tea pot.
Data from one week alone revealed that more than a third of passengers arriving at Dublin Airport and a quarter of those coming in at Dublin Port who were asked to self-isolate did not respond to follow-up calls, many were untraceable.
When confronted with this revelation in the DĂĄil last week, Leo Varadkar said that mandatory quarantine might be forthcoming but warned about the impact on tourism.
The elephant in the room of course is Britain. Our nearest neighbour, which has the second highest death rate from Coronavirus in the world.
In non-lockdown conditions, one contagious person can infect, on average three people, who will then potentially infect another three.
By the time you multiply that variable ten times, exponentially the original person could have infected over 88,000 people.
Thatâs why New Zealandâs premier, Jacinda Ardern locked down early, quarantining everyone entering the country and rolling out rigorous contact tracing and testing regimes.
After one month and twenty deaths, she reduced the infection rate to zero enabling the safe easing of lockdown.
As long as Irelandâs border strategy against Coronavirus remains that of voluntary quarantining, Iâll be maintaining a social distance.
Gobnait and I have started a Zoom Book Club and our first book is, âWhoâs thatâ by D.U. Lally.
Itâs about a girl with lopsided hair who wears dark glasses in January and goes cuckoo trying to make sourdough bread in a ramshackled kitchen, somewhere in County Galway (recommended reading age 0-3 mths).
