Avozka! String bags in the age of coronavirus

 

This is my first post in some time. Good to be back, friends! 

Yesterday I learned a new word, on Twitter of all places. I was exchanging comments with a fellow tweep, who was having trouble finding eggs. I mentioned that these days, the days of coronavirus, I was carrying around a shopping bag, just in case, and had recently found eggs at a small family supermarket near my home. That was when I learned a word new to me: avozka! Apparently it was what you called the string bag you carried around with you in Soviet times, just in case you spotted something. If you saw a queue outside a shop, you joined it, because something you wanted was bound to be in stock. So...I am carrying my avozka with me just in case. Often I do find something I need. 

 

It’s a crazy time. Everything has been cancelled, even the Nova Mob(SF club) monthly meeting. You can’t travel overseas without self isolating for fourteen days and there wouldn’t be planes to take you anyway. So far, ConZealand, this year’s Worldcon, has not cancelled, but is waiting to see what happens. I don’t blame them, it has been so much work and goodness knows, they would have put out a lot of money from their own pockets, but I have a sinking feeling that if it does go ahead it will be a local event. I was very much looking forward to it. But at this stage I probably won’t go. I have an elderly, fragile mother who really deserves better than having me give her something that could kill her. 

 

Meanwhile, there is daily life. If you are a teacher in a public school, or a healthcare worker, or work in a supermarket, you have to carry on. Private schools have started closing, because they can do what they want, and they know that their students have home Internet, so they can learn online, while half our disadvantaged students don’t have the Internet. But that’s not why state schools are forbidden to close. It’s “the economy” for the government, basically babysitting the kids of those other people who need to work. Thing is, there are a lot of problems involved. What about teacher health? And even if you go on, there are parents keeping some  kids home and you have to have the material ready to repeat when they come back, because you can’t do both online and face to face at once. 

 

As a retiree volunteer, I have reluctantly told the school I won’t be back till after the term break. Mum comes first, and I spend half the week looking after her. In fact, just after I emailed, I got one from Ardoch, which arranges volunteer work, saying that as of next week they are suspending all volunteer work. So, not just me. I feel bad for those who do have to go in. Thank goodness term ends next Friday! 

 

No theatre, no cinema, and I can’t even go for my weekly exercise at the local swimming pool. It’s open, for now, but too many people sharing a dressing room, and no guarantee the chlorine will be strong enough to protect you. I’ve been taking long walks by the beach instead. I’d love a swim, but I must admit I enjoy walking and looking at the water. Soon I will take along my lunch and a small thermos. 

 

Supermarkets are displaying empty shelves. This is something we have never had before.

 

Pasta, flour, eggs, canned veggies... I can, if necessary, make pasta and bread, but you need flour and eggs for those. I do have some frozen veggies at home. Toilet paper? I have a large pack now, because the supermarkets have ordered large packs and limited it to one per customer, but you do have to get in early. Nothing to stop the hoarders from buying a big pack a day. 

 

I see in the US people are lining up, not for toilet paper, but for guns! That is so very ugly! 

 

Ah, well, I’d better make sure I have my trusty avozka with me at all times.