10th January 2021

 Those who were expecting this new year to bring calm couldn’t have been more wrong. For those, like us, still living in our government-imposed bubble, life seems strangely surreal. For Americans reading this, perhaps still planning vacations:  under your new regime, please take note. We’ve been under enforced ‘house arrest’ now for almost a year. We haven’t been shopping for over a year and are only allowed to go outside within walking distance of the house. All our food is delivered by drivers who keep their distance. We had hoped to have braved the covid vaccine by now but only silence from our local GP surgery, where all is shuttered and barred like the mental institution it used to be a century ago. I read that most GPs aren’t actually trained to give vaccinations, so what exactly are they doing? They don’t appear to be seeing non-covid patients, just phone appointments, so it’s not a good idea to get ill with something serious at the moment. Couldn’t the staff at least send registered local patients an informative email? I used to laugh at ‘far-fetched’ Star Trek episodes depicting scenes like this, but as I gaze yet again out of our window, will life ever return to normal anytime soon? Not as we know it, Jim!