Thursday 5th March 2020

The Coronavirus is serious.

Irrespective of what you hear on Fox News or via keyboard warriors, it is serious and will kill a lot of people. And not necessarily those you thin. Such viruses can mutate and turn on the young and healthy. If the infection and mortality rates are correct, then over one million American will die. Far from being under control, it is everything but.

My employers are taking it seriously: they issue a weekly update from International SOS and that is advocating cutting out any air travel, face to face meetings, and that advice is a week old. It is likely that there will be no international travel for months, and that my audits for the summer will all be scrapped.

Coronavirus is a variant of the flu, but not like any flu you have seen. It has a mortality rate ten times that of normal flu, with the serious symptoms, a rasping cough and shortage of breath coming after the first flu-like signs.

News and advice changes on a daily basis, so any kind of planning is impossible. People have trained their whole life for a situation like this, there are plans and algorithms that people have learned and will act upon. Trump tells the US population to go to work if infected.

If followed, hundreds of thousands more people will be infected, and thousands more will die. Tonight it emerged some countries like Italy and Korea has tested tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, the US has tested 1,895 people in the 50 states. Missouri has tested nearly 17 people.

It is madness.

But with the other madness let lose, how can tell?

Thursday. Jools; last working day of the week. And for me, back on the treadmill.

Or cross trainer.

My legs ached, but only three more sessions to do for the week.

But Thursday was to be wet. Very wet. So, before the rain came, I filled the bird feeders and took out the rubbish for the dustbinmen, and then went up to the spare room to work out. Scully lay on the bed, looking at me pump lard, offering the occasional meow in support.

Its the thought that counts.

I do another twenty minutes, am all hot and bothered. So go downstairs to cool down, make breakfast and have another coffee.

And so to work. Sort mail and I find that my long term project is all approved and can now be published So good is it that it is already being used. I am marvellous. But you knew that already....

And the rain started at about nine, daylight faded and I carried on with work. Rain fell harder and harder. I took a shot out through the back door, all distorted by rain falling down it like a waterfall.

It didn't stop.

Into the afternoon.

After lunch, and at three I go and do another session, get out, cool down, have a shower and get dressed.

All done.

Dinner is courgette fritters. So I grate them, sprinkle them with salt, wring the water out of the pulp, then mix up the batter, add nuts and herbs and spices. Jools comes home and i cook.

We eat with garlic aioli and a glass of red. Or I do.

Matt comes round to service our boiler and so we swap news.

The evening is already half done.

Where does the time go?

We are all done by eight, I write and keep an eye on the Derby v Man Utd game, mainly beacuse we will meet the winner in the quarter finals. And it is Man Utd.

No fear there.