MDF Magazine Issue 64 April 2021

LIFE IN THE TIMES OF COVID
It's easy to write. The hard part is
knowing what to say....
Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy film starring
Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Murray portrays
a cynical television weatherman covering the
annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania, who becomes trapped in a time
loop forcing him to relive February 2 repeatedly. I
can't help thinking that the last year of lockdown
and isolation has been like one long, very long,
Groundhog Day for many of us. With a limited
palette of things to do, not many places to go,
and strictly speaking no one to see, each day
has rolled into the next with very little difference
in our activity other than to fine-tune the few
options we have had available.
We are surviving lockdown
… just!
Since my wife and I are both considered
vulnerable, the protocols have been followed
quite closely and our exposure to others limited
as much as possible, with the only exception
being necessary shopping. Even that has been
controlled noticeably by supporting local traders
on a strictly one-to-one basis and keeping visits
to the shopping mall to an absolute minimum.
No window shopping, no browsing; just quickly
in and out using a prepared list, followed by a
good scrubdown!
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