Empty shelves in The View from the Terrace

We went shopping yesterday. I was nervous about going but, as well as groceries, I needed to go to the pharmacy to get some co-codamol for my migraines and Louise needed some vegan cheese from the health shop. We parked and I went to get the cheese. Louise won’t go into the health shop herself because she went there regularly with David and she is worried they might ask about him, there are lots of places like that. It is a small shop and there were two women chatting by the door, so I walked up and down the pavement until they were gone. The advice is to stay two meters away from other people and I am following it. When I got back to the car I wiped over the cheese and my change with an antiseptic wipe. I have been doing that for a while now in small shops where the assistant handles the goods. I usually pay by contactless card for the same reason, but they don’t take them there for purchases under £5.

The supermarket cafe was closed. We usually have a coffee and a snack there when we shop, but we wouldn’t have done that now anyway, I’m not eating anything that a stranger has handled. There was a queue for the supermarket pharmacy. Everyone was standing apart. The woman at the front of the queue was coughing which was nervewracking, but she was four people in front of me. When the woman behind the counter served the person in front of me she wiped her nose with a tissue, which really unnerved me, though I assume she wouldn’t be at work in a pharmacy if she could have the virus, it was probably hay fever or something, I hope so. There was a notice saying their hours were reduced because of staff illness which did not put my mind at rest. I bought the things I needed and walked to a quiet corner of the store where I wiped them over then we set off to do our shopping.

Many of the shelves were empty. Of course, there were no toilet rolls or kitchen towels or tissues; the frozen goods section was very depleted; they were low on breakfast cereals, no baked beans, pasta or potatoes. This is all especially hard for Louise. Autistic people live by routine; she likes to buy the same things every week. Just changing brands is hard for her, changing her regular diet almost impossible and she hasn’t been eating properly lately. Halfway through our shop an assistant came up our aisle and said, ‘Do you ladies need toilet rolls because we have just had a delivery and they are at the front of the store?’ Louise dashed off to grab two packs. There’s no point in them putting them on the shelves nowadays as they were gone in minutes. I guess one day Louise and others of her generation will be telling their grandchildren about the pandemic of 2020 and all of the panic buying it sparked.

On the way home we passed a young cyclist with no lights and riding with his hands in the air. He doesn’t have to worry about Corona as he probably isn’t going to live long enough to get it!

This morning a beautiful bunch of flowers arrived for me from Louise. She wanted to take me out to a garden centre tomorrow, Mother’s Day, to buy plants and have tea and cakes in the cafe afterwards. That is off now but, if the weather is good, we will go to a park instead.

The flowers

and the beautiful note with them, makes it all worthwhile.