My Virus Diary
So. I thought it might be good for my sanity to diarise this madness. My team will get a mention, but some other thoughts as well.
TEAM
I refuse to lose free transfers as it goes against every bone in my body. Basic tactic will be to try to ensure a full playing XV, and having not really tooled up for GW31 I will have to have a think on where to go with the squad, probably focussing on those teams with the most games left to play.
It will be interesting to see which players return from injury in time for a league restart, and I can imagine the likes of Bruno F, Alonso, Son, Abraham, Rashford and others being attractive purchases.
For now, I have done:
Ryan
Leno (for fixtures)
This gives me:
Henderson / Leno
TAA / Robertson / Soyuncu / O'Connell / PvA
Salah / KdB / Maddison / Traore / Dendoncker
Vardy / Ings / Jimenez
VIRUS
My college is now totally online, which has proved a nightmare to retimetable at very short notice (we are right at the start of term and had already begun campus classes). However, it is just about done. Whether we have any of our professional exams this summer seems doubtful and I expect a cancellation notice shortly, which is likely to mean a huge drop in students even online. I suspect we may be forced into downsizing staff. it will not be pretty and nobody including me is safe. With Mrs R due to produce Baby R shortly and go on maternity leave, this is hardly good news.
Of course it is likely to be similar for lots of people, so at least our beloved government has to do something about it. Hopefully that means all the big bills can be deferred for a few months.
INTERESTING VIRUS DISCOVERIES
My car tax is due, and so is MOT. Just passed the deadline, and now I cannot get the MOT booked in so am potentially without a car. With online supermarket shopping slots impossible to find, and no decent shop nearby, this is rather unfortunate timing.
On the other side, at least we did not book the short Easter break in Europe we had planned, at least we went and got most of the baby things we need, at least we went away for a nice 50th birthday weekend in a hotel less than a fortnight ago while hotels still existed, and at least we take our main holidays in winter time so can live with not going away in the summer.
And, touch wood, so far we all seem healthy, including parents in their mid 70s. They never went out much anyway so I suspect will cope better than most with staying in.
ANNOYANCES
My boss, who put out a big LinkedIn post about how some people only care about themselves and money, and more should self-isolate, but then told me that my plan to work from home to avoid putting the pregnant Mrs R at further risk was not acceptable and that if others were still braving the office so must I. As it turned out, the office was closed down the following day, so in the legendary words of David Coleman, "One nil".
And the lack of supermarket delivery slots. I have no intention to stockpile. I think some people are doing so because of the difficulty in getting home deliveries coupled with the fear of a London lockdown. Whatever Boris says, I think they will lockdown (and should do) but fear that saying so will just cause more stockpiling.
Lock down at 9am tomorrow, that's what I say!
USING THE TIME
At present I am having to work 18 hour days sorting out the college's response to the virus. That should calm down in the coming days, and if the exams get cancelled I may find myself at home a lot and with time on my hands.
Time to get fitter. And get that reading backlog done. And sort out baby room. And rewrite some of our books. And …
PREDICTION
London gets locked down by the end of March. Other cities voluntarily follow. TV and phone services start to buckle under the strain. Some trouble on the streets and looting of any shops with food. A "peak" never actually seems to happen, we just keep on getting more cases through to August when it slowly starts to fall back, without disappearing completely.
Football season is completed by taking every PL squad to a Hebridean island (that has had its normal population of 26 removed) and quarantining them there, and then playing a slate of fixtures every 3-4 days in the fields. Somehow Sky and BT will get a cameraman and annoying pundit there, and millions of us will watch every second on live tv.
Been a long day, so for now, sleep.
