Darling Paloma, I began to write to you yesterday but by the time I had finished, I realised my words had described the gloom that I have been experiencing over the last couple of days. I don’t need you to look back and read individual days of sadness. I had the sense I was beginningContinue reading “11th April 2020”
Author Archives: Simon Astaire
9th April 2020
Darling Paloma, For today’s daily exercise, I walked to Trafalgar Square. It took around 30 minutes. I hadn’t been there for years not since I was a little boy. The square was completely empty. Social isolation at its very best. Even the pigeons had chosen to move on. No scenes of people and pigeons cooingContinue reading “9th April 2020”
8th April 2020
He was not there. The man in the tweed suit had not returned since I promised I would get him a bath plug! Stupid really because since Saturday I had been carrying the plug around with me. Last night in bed I thought of him and of the gentleman being helped into the ambulance awayContinue reading “8th April 2020”
7th April 2020
Darling Paloma He’s been looking worn out. His daily briefings have been difficult to watch. He was as white as a shroud but still tried to give that look of such self assurance. And yet when he turned to leave, his shoulders slumped and he slunk away like a retreating army. I’m sure I wasn’tContinue reading “7th April 2020”
4th April
Darling Paloma, Maybe this is how you are going to throw dinner parties in the future. Gossiping with friends through the screen of your laptop. Everyone sort of turned up on time. One guest had trouble with their internet but fixed it and joined in without missing too much. There we all were, sitting atContinue reading “4th April”
3rd April 2020
Darling Paloma, The number of coronavirus cases in the world is now over one million. Irrelevant in part as so few of us have yet to be tested but it’s a milestone nevertheless which fills us with trepidation of what is to come. I don’t think I’d be wild in describing it as an existentialContinue reading “3rd April 2020”
2nd April 2020
Darling Paloma On my morning walk, I find comfort in ordinary things seen quickly, smelt quickly. Those ordinary things which before these last few weeks I did not notice. A gentle trace of coffee from the local coffee bar when a door swings open, a man sleeping contentedly on a park bench, torn paper blowingContinue reading “2nd April 2020”
1st April 2020
Darling Paloma, Your mum nodded her head. She can tell that I was still thinking of the image I saw yesterday morning. It was on my daily walk to the park. An ambulance blocked the road leading to a neighbouring square. All yellow with flashing blue lights (what happened to the all-white ambulance that IContinue reading “1st April 2020”
31st March 2020
Darling Paloma, I thought of this story yesterday from when I was about five years old. I always remember the sun coming up and its view from my bedroom window. Even at that young age I loved spending those first moments of the day alone taking in what was happening around me. How the noisesContinue reading “31st March 2020”
30th March 2020
Darling Paloma, I cannot hold back certain thoughts, I’m frightened those thoughts distinguish me from from everyone else. Questions twist round me like a snake. I try to stifle them but they are springs which however hard I press down , they will eventually leap up when I run of force. I think about theContinue reading “30th March 2020”
28th March 2020
Darling Paloma, It doesn’t feel like a Saturday. It feels like no particular day. I wonder when weekends will return to feel like weekends again. The disturbing surge of case numbers can only be matched by the connected spirit of good will throughout the world . On Thursday in Tangiers a friend sent a filmContinue reading “28th March 2020”
27th March 2020
Darling Paloma For the majority of us, it’s like being on a moving train watching the spread of this virus. We only catch sight of, never properly see, anything. The imagination fills in what the eye, because of the speed of the train, can’t fully digest. It is only when the news grows closer doContinue reading “27th March 2020”
26th March 2020
It is still so strange to see empty restaurants when I go for my daily exercise. There is a restaurant opposite where on a Sunday we would see it filling up with families, full of cheerful cousins and glowing grandparents and children playing games. I used to grumble like mad wishing that they’d turn downContinue reading “26th March 2020”
25th March 2020
My darling daughter, I’m following the new enforced rules carefully but I had to head down the Kings Road to visit the pharmacist. I have been going to Ebi at IT Chemists since I was a teenager. He is that old fashioned pharmacist which rarely exists these days and certainly won’t be around when youContinue reading “25th March 2020”
