Since U Been Gone

To quote the highly regarded Kelly Clarkson hit (and surely she was an early adopter of text speak with that one), for exercise I strolled Cambridge on my final day of leave, observing changes over the last month.

Pizza Hut has been boarded up, as the Cambridge branch was one of those slated for closure. In Tier 4 cafés remain open for takeaway, which wasn’t the same in the first lockdown as I distinctly remember the excitement of buying a coffee some time around June last year. There are also about ten times more cars on the road than in the first lockdown, even though the guidance is similar. People’s discipline and willingness to comply have ebbed.

The market is boarded up and the Christmas tree remains standing. I think this is the final day by which it needs to be taken down, to avoid a run of bad luck. Although, wait. I doubt we’d say our luck was currently ‘in’.

In the evening I was consumed by coverage of the storming of the US Capitol building. This is what eventually happens when incompetent populists, sorely lacking in the appropriate knowledge and approach for high office, are elected. What a pathetic low for the history books. Countries and electorates of the world, take note.