It was one hundred days ago yesterday that the UK went into lockdown, which must make it somewhere in the region of one hundred and five days since I was last in a restaurant or coffeeshop.
I’d gone to Cambridge for the day to see my dad and we managed to fit in coffee at Espresso Library and lunch at The Ivy while I was there. Over lunch we talked about the persistent rumours of an imminent UK lockdown but even at that late stage it still felt slightly fanciful and not really likely to happen. Looking back I can’t quite decide if we were just being naive or if it was the wine with lunch that clouded our judgement. Either way it did happen and the doors of coffeeshops and restaurants closed.
Since then the urge to get back out into the open and to start indulging again has been a lockdown constant, but now that the opportunity to actually do it could be just around the corner I really find myself torn. Here in England the government has given the green light for pubs, coffeeshops and restaurants to reopen from this Saturday and while all logic says I should want to be first in the queue there’s a whole range of conflicting feelings holding me back.
As much as I’m desperate to end this hermit like existence it still feels like a very big step to venture into Norwich city centre for the first time in three months and to start going into some of the quite compact spaces that are my favourite haunts. I appreciate that suddenly we’re being told one metre social distancing is going be fine as of July 4th, but it’s going to make everyone feel very close after the two metres we’ve all grown used to.
Then there’s the question of will I actually enjoy it. I know everyone is going to be super welcoming when you go in. How could they not be after being closed for so long. But I keep imagining places full of stilted and paranoid customers, all feeling they are there because they should be rather than actually wanting to be. All thinking ‘yes we want to support you, but please don’t feel offended if we get out of here rather quickly’.
I know it won’t be long until the lure of a coffee & pastry gets too strong to resist. But for now the government can bang on about this Saturday being ‘Independence Day’ as much as it likes. I think I’ll stay where I am.
That’s me with my nose pressed up against the window. Glad that there’s something going on inside, just not quite ready to join in yet.
David in the kitchen. 