May 12

May 12 Annie, London

Ollie was off to the side spritzing his plant. He spritzes it like, four times a day. I can hear it from all over the house.

I’m Annie, I’m 30, I live in London and I’m a lawyer.

I’m at home in my apartment in East London, just on the edge of the city. I’m with my husband Ollie, he’s also a lawyer. We’re both working in our tiny little lounge / kitchen, it’s the only room in our house really, except for our bedroom. We’re both set up at different tables, working all day, facing each other. Ollie is really busy. He’s currently still on the phone and it’s 8.30pm. He’s on the phone all the time. In a lot of ways it’s kind of like being in an office. We just do our own thing and I sometimes forget he’s even there. Sorry Ollie.

Before this, in the morning we’d get ready, eat breakfast and walk to work together. Every morning we’d walk through this little park, where there’s a coffee cart run by an Australian guy who makes really good coffee. We’d stop there for our first flat white of the day, then we’d say goodbye at the same little spot. Every day. Have a little smooch – the smooch spot, Ollie calls it. No, you can’t put that in the interview. Ok, you can. Usually I’d finish work before him so quite often I’d get the tube to Covent Garden and do a dance class. We’d either pick up salads on the way home or order Deliveroo for dinner.

We’re being quite strict with having a bit of a routine. We’re trying to get up at a normal time and we’re making the bed every morning. We’re still having our morning coffee together, we just make it ourselves in the plunger. It’s not the same, but … you know. There’s one place near us that’s selling takeaway coffees again. One person at a time can go into the shop … but we’re too nervous to do it. I think takeaways can be open so it’s probably legal…as long as people don’t sit down? I dunno, it feels like pushing it. Imagine if a flat white gave me coronavirus.

We’re getting outside and going for runs, which is kind of new for me. Although the other day when Ollie was on a conference call, I went for a run by myself. He saw me out the window and said it looked like The Flash going past. I only ran 2km, I couldn’t even run the whole way. I sprinted some and walked the rest. Must’ve seen me on a sprint.

The hardest thing is probably … honestly, just feeling bored. I’m finding it hard not doing all the things I love to do in London, like getting dressed up and going out for meals. We don’t usually cook, ever. Our kitchen doesn’t know what’s hit it. It’s in shock. If we’ve got something to celebrate, if someone’s having a bad day, if we’re just feeling like, ‘Ugghh, everything’s a bit boring’, we’ll go out and find somewhere new to try. That’s one of our favourite things about London. We both also love the routine of being regulars at a place. Getting coffee from the same place every day. I’ve missed flat whites more than I ever imagined I would. On the weekend we tried to make it feel more weekend-ey, so we had Mexican night with margaritas and burritos and we listened to Mexican music. Then we had a roast on Sunday, which we’d often have at a pub, but we went to the effort of making one ourselves.

Ollie’s playing an Xbox game to keep him going, with lots of old-timey characters and fighting. His character is a woman who rides a unicorn. She has abs in her armour and the unicorn’s tail is very sparkly. He made her himself. He's also looking after his plants like they are his own precious children. One night when Ollie was having cyber drinks with friends and playing a game, I could see them all up on the screen with their drinks in their hands and their headsets on … but Ollie was off to the side spritzing his plant. He spritzes it like, four times a day. I can hear it from all over the house. He thinks it loves it because it’s a natural rainforest plant, but he’s had to put a tea-towel underneath it, cos he’s spritzing so much it's dripping everywhere. And he lovingly turns it every day, so a different part of the plant can get some sun. We have two plants, one sits on the desk by me, and that’s grown a lot too … but the one next to him is seriously thriving. It’s really blossomed.

There is a real feeling of fear here. At the supermarket, people are peering around corners … it’s scary. We’ve found that right from the beginning. Maybe it started off being a bit exciting and like a holiday, but now it’s not. There have been a lot of deaths in London but we are so lucky, we don’t even know anyone who’s got it yet. I read something yesterday that said a large number of bus drivers in London have died. It’s unbearable, these people who are having to continue doing their jobs. It made me so sad. We’ve had the option of getting home as soon as we needed to, we’re still getting paid our salaries. It really draws attention to how close so many people are to being in a situation where they can’t survive, so they have to keep working no matter what. It makes you feel really lucky but also really guilty. I always see people working in the supermarket and think, ‘I wish you could just go home.’

I hope there will be positives to come out of this. I’m worried we’ve taken for granted exactly how we thought the world would be for the next five, ten, twenty years. We’ve got a lot of plans, everyone does, you plan your life around what you take for granted. That’s scary. The recession in 2008 felt like something that was happening to someone else, as an 18-19-year-old, I didn’t feel impacted by it. Now, there’s so much instability around jobs and how things are going to play out. Compared to how certain it all seemed two months ago … that terrifies me.

I think this has shown that a lot more people could have more flexibility and live in a way that suits them better. I’m hopeful that there’ll be change around this … but it doesn’t necessarily suit the people who are running the world for things to change. So, we’ll see. But it would be great if there were enough people being like, ‘Wait a minute, there’s no reason why the world can’t work in a different way.’

I felt bad for Boris, when he got sick. I really don't agree with his politics or anything, but at the end of the day he's still a person. And his partner was pregnant at the time, so all I could think was, ‘God, what a scary time for her.’ I think Jacinda’s handling everything beautifully, I feel so proud of her. I love the teddies in the window in New Zealand, I’m sad to be missing out on it. I’ve been putting my teddies in the window here, just in case any kids look up, but I don’t think it’s taking off - I'm pretty sure no one has seen them, except me when I go out for a walk and check up on them from outside. Still, it’s nice for the teddies regardless, I think.