Day 21: Boris Johnson in hospital

Monday, 6th April

Sorry, I skipped the 5th. There are confinement days like that, and it was Sunday after all.

An eventful weekend in the UK

In the UK, it was a very eventful weekend. On Saturday, Labour got a new leader, Keir Starmer: a serious and competent politician according to The Guardian.

The Queen gave a very rare televised broadcast (only the fifth in her long reign other than the xmas messages). It sounded like a wartime speech, in which she praised Britain’s “national spirit”, ending with “We will meet again” (the 1939 Very Lynn hit).

Queen Elizabeth gives rare address on 5th April 2020

And there was shocking news yesterday morning: the British prime minister Boris Johnson, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 just over a week ago, has been hospitalised.

4th week of confinement

In France, we are starting our 4th week of confinement. It is also our 4th week of homeschooling. And today, I am handing over to Otherhalf, who is back home after a week of “Covid-reporting”. As I said at the end of last week, I am not a natural teacher, and I am happy to delegate for a couple of days. Plus, I have an assignment for a production company I work with: they want to launch a campaign on building a “post-Covid world”. A challenge to say the least.

My 10-year old daughter’s teacher has given the class an interesting project: they are to write a poem on how they feel about confinement. I will definitely post it in this diary when she’s written it. Another assignment both my kids have every week is to write an email to their teachers, talking about what they’ve been up to and how they are feeling. It’s a great exercise which makes them sit down and think about the way they feel. They talk about the frustration of not being able to go out and how much they miss their friends, but also about the gardening we do, the games we play, the funny, creative videos that people post on the internet.

Super-creative confinement video by Philipp Klein

Like many people stuck at home, I am part of a number of WhatsApp groups with family and friends around the world: we organise the occasional “online apéro”, which is an interesting experience. It is good to see my friends’ faces and hear how they are doing. Those who have a garden try not to gloat. The rest of us drink another beer 🙂

One Reply to “Day 21: Boris Johnson in hospital”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *