COVID-19: ANOTHER UPDATE FROM SOLIHULL...

Necessities & The Virus Walk, Monday April 6th, 2020…

So a walk around the Solihull area was undertaken today in breezy conditions but there was some sun about, albeit leaden clouds hauled themselves across the bright light to threaten rain… 

2.3 miles were walked, involving regular zig-zagging, bringing to mind negotiating  no-man’s-land in World War One but having to avoid other people, rather than machine-gun bullets. It was like being involved in an expansive game of British Bulldog…

INTERESTED WREN...

However, the main news brought back to the house was that a woman boarded a bus… Even the driver looked shocked and cast me a glance which seemed to read, “Where the f… is she going?” 

An inauspicious start was made though, for within a minute of beginning the exercise walk, a black car with slightly darkened windows but I think containing two young blokes, raced past us on a side-road at around 45 mph, despite the lurking speed bumps… Presumably a necessary outing.

STOCKPILING...

On into Tanworth Lane and soon another vehicle shot by, regardless of the regular speed bumps there too, which tipped the car like it was jacking up for a tyre change. Another necessary outing, then…

WATCHFUL...

A stolid, pedantic and middle-aged couple trundled along on the opposite side of the road and bullishly forced a woman with (presumably) necessary shopping to cross over to the side we walked on, meaning we had to walk up someone’s drive to allow her space to pass by, thus maintaining social distancing. Incredibly, another woman and her son, both on bikes, cycled along the pavement on the opposite side too, meaning they were no more than a metre away from any pedestrians they passed. The stolid couple took no notice at all of the cyclists but did stop to kiss each other on one occasion…

MORNING SUNLIGHT...

Cars had pulled up, apparently necessarily, outside both Tanworth Lane’s store and One Stop on the Stratford Road, for necessities, I guess but then he appeared… A lad, probably around 14 or 15 years old was doing ‘wheelies’ along a main service road, just off the Stratford Road carriageway… Unbelievable. And dangerous… But I guess a quicker death might have been achieved than suffering horribly from Covid-19 in a hospital.

An obdurate vaping man approached too, his vision impaired by the vapour before him, so we ducked into a gully to allow him to pass. Suddenly he turned: “Hello…” he said in a light manner. I mumbled “Pillock…” in reply and we walked on.

Amazingly, one chap was standing on an acquaintance’s driveway, talking to the house-owner, whilst holding onto his bicycle which was attached to a trailer. The visitor wore a high visibility jacket and, er, a mask… The other chap wore a tee-shirt and shorts, stood around 72 centimetres from the odd chap with the bike and both appeared to be laughing… More like anti-social clinging than social distancing, surely?

AWARE OF NEXT DOOR'S VILE WHITE CAT...

More zig-zagging was engaged in without further incident but then a woman who was necessarily walking her dog became an obstacle. She was hesitant, gaunt, bespectacled and had just bagged up her small dog’s rather enormous dollop of shit. She crossed the road rather doubtfully and we were forced to check our steps and await her decision about which way to progress to be made and finally she did so, dangling a black bag which looked like it contained a turnip…

It only remained for a couple of blokes to cause us switches of pavements because they had decided to, er, dig an incongruous hole in a side-road and shove up a set of traffic lights…

The last 400 metres were managed necessarily quickly and coffee was first necessity on the agenda back at the house…