It seems half the world is under some sort of lockdown right now. In the UK we are allowed out for 'essential' trips that can include getting to work, shopping for food and daily exercise. The last one may be under threat from people going overboard with trips out. Just today Scotland's chief medical office resigned when it was revealed she had make a couple of trips to her holiday home. I am still taking the train to work as I cannot do it from home yet. There are just a few of us in my office, so I do not see many.

We are fortunate in having a big garden and so can spend lots of time outside when the weather is good. Many people do not have a garden or even a balcony. Being cooped up is not good.

@theycallmedan kicked off the #WhenCoronaEnds challenge. There are a few things I am really missing.

Meeting up with family

My parents do not live too far from us as so we can see them at least once a month. They are staying in as they are in the most vulnerable age bracket and so are many of their friends. They are getting a bit bored with this. Luckily modern technology means we can do a video chat and we have been doing this most days with my sister's family connecting from Scotland. I expect a lot of families will have some sort of party when they can meet up again.

This is back in the 70s.

I will not post pictures of my own kids to respect their privacy.

Playing music at the pub

For quite a few years now I have been involved in some pub jam sessions where a crowd of us get together to play each other songs and quite often play some together. This has inspired me to play much more and even write a few songs. I know the others are also missing this weekly experience. We have tried to get by with some on-line sessions. It is not viable to actually play together on-line as there is always a slight delay, but we have experimented with doing a virtual 'open mic night'. One was was for people to upload videos and then use a Facebook 'Watch Party' to watch them together whilst posting comments. That works quite well. We also tried live-streaming using Zoom, but audio quality was very variable.

One I did for our virtual open mic.

I have a duo with a clarinettist and we had hoped to get some more gigs this year.

I feel for those who make a living from live performance. Many are streaming stuff, but that may not make them much.

Running with others

I am quite happy running on my own, but it is good to get out with others as it can push you to try harder or you can just chat. I was hoping to get to 50 parkruns this year and explore some other courses, but that is all on hold. I was due to be running a half-marathon next month, but that is off too.

Completing my first half marathon in 2018.

I know a lot of people are really into things like parkrun. Hundreds turn up to some events and the volunteers do an amazing job. Nobody is getting paid for it, but they will turn out in all weathers. I helped out once when it was windy and raining. I can tell you it is not a lot of fun, but the runners really appreciated it.

Life after lockdown

I do wonder what changes we will see when we come out the other side. This is not likely to be until infections have really dropped and they are still on the rise in most places. More people will want to work from home. Many businesses will fail unless they can get government support. No doubt some will profit from control of essential resources, by hoarding or from government handouts. We need to ensure money goes to those who really need it and what is essential may come into question.

In the UK we have the ruling Conservative party saying how valuable our Nations Health Service is after they have been trying to privatise it or just run it down for years. That has left it under-equipped to cope. Withdrawing from the EU is not helping as it reduces our access to shared resources. Actually they should still be available until the end of the year, but they will not want to be seen to depend on them to save face.

Meanwhile in the USA, Brazil and other countries you have leaders who spout pseudo-science or try to deny the scale of the problem. I get that the economy is fragile, but we have to find ways to cope with a slow-down. We know rampant free markets are damaging the planet, so it is an opportunity to find alternatives. These politicians also care a lot about their chances of getting re-elected. Making promises to get people back to churches or work too soon sets false expectations and would cause far more deaths if they happen. Trump is saying they would do well to having only 100,000 deaths, but it could be millions if he had got his way initially. Now he wants all the credit, but none of the responsibility for failures. He continually tries to blame the previous administration, the press or the opposition. What happened to 'the buck stops here'? We need brave politicians, not just those who make the most popular decisions.

My Hive friends mean a lot to me. I have met many of you in person and I wish you all well. I hope we can meet again once this is over in whatever world we have then.