It’s the third week of living under lockdown here in Barcelona, and things have been changing rapidly. For a start, we’ve had to develop a whole new vocabulary. Previously esoteric medical terms like “herd immunity”, “flattening the peak”, “self-isolation” and “social distancing” are now common currency, as everyone becomes an amateur epidemiologist. Continue reading “Journal of the Plague Year – Life under Lockdown”
Month: March 2020
Maggie – remembering my mum
So ok – we’ve just had a version, at least, of a funeral for my mum. I couldn’t be there, and neither could many people, but my brother Tim and his wife Karen were there, along with her partner John and his daughter Jo, and mum’s old friend Gareth.
It was webcast, and I was able to read the eulogy I’d written by phone from my apartment here in Barcelona. I’m posting it here, for all those who knew her, all those who wanted to meet her, and all those who loved her, here and all over the world. Continue reading “Maggie – remembering my mum”
Journal of the Plague Year – Part 1
“Isn’t it odd? You talk about millions dying in India and China, and it has no impact at all…”
Survivors episode 1 – The Fourth Horseman, 1975
It started slowly, like it always does. A new report about an outbreak of a new disease, somewhere remote from where I was. Nothing new, nothing unusual – we’d seen it before, with Ebola and SARS and countless others. Distant tragedies that had no real impact other than a bit of humanitarian hand wringing until the outbreaks inevitably flared and burned out. A story I’d seen a dozen times before. Continue reading “Journal of the Plague Year – Part 1”
Simon’s Incoherent Blog 