LONDON, U.K. -- Dear Diary,
Another sleepless night and then the crazy dog downstairs started yapping, and my phone began beeping, and this all happened before the sun came up. You know, diary, I think I鈥檓 losing it. Day 50. How much longer can this go on?
That bottle of vodka I bought? I can鈥檛 tell if it鈥檚 half-full or half-empty. Either way, it鈥檚 half gone. (This is where somebody else would insert one of those wide-eyed smiley faces.)
You鈥檙e right. I should have bought more vodka and less toilet paper. This lockdown is messing with my priorities. You should see the cans of pork and beans in our cupboard. I hate pork and beans.
I have to go now diary, I need to walk the dog and avoid coming into contact with anybody who might remotely be a COVID super spreader. They鈥檙e still out there, I can feel it, hiding in the bushes, waiting to pounce. Sometimes I think they鈥檙e coming after me.
Told you I was losing it.
Okay, hand-washers, how many of you are really keeping a lockdown diary?
A lot of people in this country are鈥攖eams of people in fact鈥攚riting down their feelings, their fears, anything about their daily lives as part of a living history project.
The idea goes back to 1937 when three former students at Cambridge started something called, Mass Observation鈥攎ostly because they didn鈥檛 like what the newspapers were describing as the 鈥減ublic mood鈥 in Britain.
It really came to prominence in the war when 500 鈥渃itizen journalists鈥 were recruited to write about virtually every aspect of their daily lives鈥攍ife on the home front. And they did, in great and personal detail.
The project and the title were both ambitious: 鈥淎nthropology of Ourselves.鈥 Winston Churchill used it to craft some of his wartime policies.
The same mass observation technique is being applied to this age of pandemic鈥攁lbeit the tools of messaging and posting and vlogging and blogging make it far easier.
鈥淚 have an iffy heart,鈥 one diarist wrote. 鈥淪o I reckon I鈥檓 in a possible 鈥榞oing downhill鈥 bracket if I catch it.鈥
Some postings complain about lockdown violators and the 鈥渋rresponsible media鈥 of course, but also, there鈥檚 a good deal of heartfelt affection towards people they know, and some they don鈥檛鈥攁ll enduring this ordeal together.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 lovely,鈥 the same man wrote, 鈥渋s folk smiling and waving, sometimes stopping to talk. I鈥檝e stood and chatted to folk for nearly half an hour sometimes.鈥
So, diary, as I was saying earlier, I鈥檓 reaching my limit. No seriously, there are moments when I just want to rip off my facemask, dump my surgical gloves, throw away my bottle of hand sanitizer鈥nd go sunbathing.
It鈥檚 allowed now you know. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said so.
Unfortunately, his health secretary announced today that summer has been cancelled. Good cop, bad cop.
No, no diary. Those aren鈥檛 tears. And the bottle of vodka is definitely half-empty.
