30.03.2020

Community spirit in Whitechapel

On the Byrds’ version of Hickory Wind on Sweetheart of the Rodeo there’s cough, about 20 seconds in, after Gram sings “in South Carolina.” I always thought that bit of grit in the syrup made the recording, but that was when a cough was just a cough.

I’m constantly hearing people outside coughing. Last night an old boy was stood outside his front door having a fag with a local pal, hacking away, throwing virus all over the pavement. Sadly, from what I hear, we can probably expect to see him picked up by an ambulance in a week or so.

The weather’s turned gloomy, and Shadwell is very sombre. The only homeless people still around look completely bewildered. One lad who’s been around a year or so looked permanently lost even before the pandemic, because that’s what I think he is. I think he has learning difficulties and there’s no provision to give him support, so instead he wonders around Shadwell Station with a duvet slung over his shoulder asking for money, which probably gets taken off him. I have no idea what actually happened to him, apart from that he’s not economically productive, so our society doesn’t see any value in him at all. There are so many vulnerable people like him, but I think he maybe can’t comprehend what’s going on. There’s no one around to give him any money (and people do, despite the recordings on the train telling them not to), none of the usual people he sees in the street. Yesterday he looked more lost and puzzled than I’ve ever seen him. His filthy duvet was flung over his shoulder as usual, but his trousers had one leg ripped off, and his boots were flopping around, laceless and sockless, like a 21^st century Charlie Chaplin without the laughs. And unusually for the time of year, it was snowing.

I don’t know what to do about him. It’s odd, in the news there’s so many stories of people looking out for each other, but looking around it doesn’t seem like that. Everyone seems to be shut away understandably looking out for themselves. Usually there’s a soup kitchen in Shadwell outside the station, that’s gone. And normally even the crackheads look out for each other, but this poor lad looked like a lamb lost in an abattoir. I’ll see if there’s a shelter I can point him in the direction of if I see him again.

I walked down to a Waitrose near by to drop my CV in yesterday. The queue was round the block. Not much to report on there, just very quiet streets. I had a look into the yachts on St Kathrine’s dock, the million and billionaires seem to be lying low too.

I’ve been back in touch with the pizza shop and am going in for a shift tonight, so I’ll have a few more horror stories for you tomorrow dear readers, all 25 or so of you. It’s definitely not an essential service, but paying me is, so while it’s open I’ll keep working. It’s better than universal credit. Also my panic is subsiding and I want to get back on the scoot and see what's going on. 

 Usually one of the busiest roads in and out of east London.

Just up the road from me there’s a big exhibition hall called the Excel Centre. They’re converting it into a huge hospital and morgue, with around 4000 beds. I applied for a DBS check this morning, which I think used to be called a CRB check. It’s basically official certification from the law that you’re not a crook, villain, delinquent or swindler. You need it to apply to work there, which I did. I’m sure they’ll need people to drive stuff around, deliver medicine and food, and people to work as porters, as well as admin and organisation which is beyond my talents. I’d much rather be doing work that has some meaning than delivering pizzas. Also the pay is a lot better, and it’s a proper job with sick pay, which I expect I will be needing sooner or later whatever I do. It will probably be scary, but I think we all have a responsibility to chip in if we are able and low risk. The only issue is I think you may need to stay near by in quarantine for the duration of the job. And yes, I think it’s a risk, I may catch the virus but I probably will anyway.

I also applied for some freelance copy work which I was surprised to see come up. It’s a bit below my usual rate, but it’s a four-month booking. Nice little earner if it comes off. There must be hundreds of out of work copywriters though, so I’d say my chances are slim.

Fake police in Shadwell. 

I’m forcing myself to be productive. Having more time to get stuff done doesn’t help me at all, in fact, thanks to my ADHD, it seems to make it worse. However, I managed to tidy my desk today (which is a big achievement for me), applied for jobs, finished my essay for my course and challenged a parking ticket by ludicrously appealing to the council’s humanity, “due to the virus, I have lost all my work and am facing financial hardship and don’t know how I can pay the ticket. We are in an unprecedented situation so would be grateful if you considered waiving the charge.” Might just work. I’ve got off them before just by apologising.

In other news, Dominic Cummings, the government special advisor, proponent of herd immunity who allegedly said something along the lines of, ‘if a few old people have to die in order for us to protect the economy, so be it,’ has himself contracted coronavirus.

And tax exile Richard Branson, has applied for a tax payer bailout for his airline, despite forcing staff to take unpaid leave, and the fact that he could bail the airline out from his own pocket.

The government are busy shifting the blame to whoever they can, today it’s the Chinese, and our pliant media are going along with it, not by lying but not accurately portraying events. We’ve applauded the Chinese and Cuban governments for sending teams of doctors and medical supplies to hard hit biological disaster zones like Italy, and countries whose poor health services are unable to meet the needs of their citizens, like Jamaica and the UK. Only, when the Chinese doctors arrived in the UK on Friday, not a single media outlet reported it. Almost like they’ve been told to go along with the narrative. I only found out from people putting personal photos up showing the doctors arrive in London.

Doctors here are still having to wear bin bags because they don’t have the right protective equipment. A fetish company who make sexy doctor and nurse clothes are doing a better job of supplying the NHS than the government at the moment, they’ve donated lots of masks for them to use. People are talking about creating a sort of red nose day every year to raise money for the NHS, it makes my blood boil. It’s amazing that that’s even an acceptable thing to suggest, and how debased our view of what we are entitled to is. We pay tax already!

Three doctors have died already.