Well, we are heading into November, and there is no let up in the Corona Virus/ Covid power play that is raging across the globe. Mainstream media have cranked up the sensationalism once more, though not that they stopped the fear mongering for more than a few minutes during the summer. A summer which, how odd, there were very few deaths from Covid. Not that it’s a seasonal virus. Oh goodness, what would make you think that. Have you not heard the doctors tell you how novel it is. How we are still learning about it. How there is still so much we don’t know about it.

On and on and on and bloody on. Over the last 10 months I have been Covidded up to the eyeballs. Whilst living in China, I heard about a virus that was apparently deadly, spreading like a rumor at a 13 year old girls birthday party. We had a flight booked on the 27th of January to return to the UK for 3 weeks. The more I heard about it, the more concerned I was that this thing would curtail our planned trip. In the weeks leading up to the flight there was a slew of panic media circulating in China. In Qingdao, where we were living, parts of the city were being evacuated, buildings were being ‘cleaned, sprayed and garroted’. Shit, this thing sounded terrible. People were panicking.

At the airport on the day of the flight, all staff were in full PPE. Masks were on evryones faces, including mine. This shit seemed real, baby. Surely, all this fuss, the scale of this reaction couldn’t be put in place unless this ‘virus’ was the killer we were being told it was. When the plane took off, there was relief spreading all over me. Even though for the full flight everyone was masked up. Well apart from when we were eating are lovely airport meals. Funny how this plane journey would be mirrored 8 months later in the UK and many other countries.

Well, it is now November and we have been unable to return to China. Still in the UK and waiting for the tenants to leave our house so we can return there. I am now teaching online. I am trying to develop my own online course. I am trying to be optimistic. But it isn’t easy. It isn’t easy.