Self-quarantine day 10. Me and two other neighbours ran into each other in our pyjamas down by the bins and stood in a broad triangle, laughing helplessly at ourselves as the grey sun struggled to come out overhead. In Berlin we have been indoors since early November. “Does my guitar playing bother you through the floor?” ‘What? No! Does my typing bother you?’ Outside, the Spring trees are pinkening and from our courtyard we can see a square of sky and at night, three faint and distant stars.
Tag: covid-19
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staying at home in the Spring
It’s wonderful to be cheerful and I will be cheerful. We are alive and are blessed with refrigerator and bath tub, bookshelves and beloveds, hot and cold running comfort in which to be trapped.Also, the sky today was wild blue outside. Our little drawing group normally meets. I longed for the bicycle ride across town, the hours of shared and quiet concentration, the chat. The trees are filling out slowly with leaves. It’s occurred to me that Australian friends have no idea what it feels like to have to stay inside for days on end and potentially months… right at the tail end of the winter when we have blue skies literally for the first time in months. My mother is staying home more in Brisbane, a dense and singing garden quarantines her house. Most Berliners and urban Europeans don’t have even a balcony. There are a few open spaces large enough to be safe but they are hard to reach. We can open the window and take sips of still cold air. The pinkening buds will be bursting soon and we’ve been trapped indoors since October.