Tigger’s employers are initiating a phased return to work and this week Tigger is going in to the office today (Monday) and tomorrow. Next week may bring a different arrangement. What the final pattern of attendance will be remains to be seen.

As I write this, then, I am, in the words of the title, “home alone”, a rather novel experience after the last few months during which I have enjoyed the continuous presence and companionship of the one I love.

Does it feel strange? Yes, it does. Do I feel lonely? Happily, no, because I know we will meet up later and I find that solitude is bearable as long as you know that it will last for only a limited time. Tigger will send me a text when she leaves work and again when her bus reaches the Old Street Roundabout. That will enable me to go out and meet her at Jusaka. There, she can tell me about her day at work over coffee.

———-

At 1:30 pm my phone rang. It was Tigger calling from work to see how I was doing. Nice surprise!

———-

I managed to keep myself occupied during the day, always with my eye on the clock, so as not to miss the important time of 5 pm. This duly came and with it a text from Tigger, saying she was on the way to the bus.

We continued to keep in touch (aren’t modern communications wonderful? 🙂 ) as Tigger wended her way towards the Angel. When she reached Old Street I set out to meet her. There was surprisingly little traffic on the roads for the time of day (this ought to have been the rush hour…) and so the bus and I reached the stop at more or less the same moment.

Joyous reunion! 🙂

We crossed the road to Jusaka and had our coffee. Then we made our way home. Tomorrow’s schedule will be the same as today’s.

I cannot say that I feel as though “normality” has resumed. The feeling is more of this being an imitation of normality which, I suppose it is.

Whether the world will ever return to what we once considered normal seems uncertain, according to today’s briefing by the Director-General of the WHO which contained this statement: “However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be.” In other words, there is as yet no evidence that an effective vaccine has been developed or even that one can be developed. As we are living now may be how we must live for the foreseeable future.