#whencoronaends - Except it Won't and I WANT MY CHOICE BACK!

@theycallmedan 's latest initiative is to share what you are most looking forward to doing after the current crisis situation subsides and the world starts getting back to normal.

The problem is of course, it won't end. Unless the virus is completely eradicated somehow which on a planet crammed full of over 7 billion people would be almost impossible to achieve. The disease Polio which is caused by transmission of the Poliovirus was declared as eradicated (type 2) in 2015 after no cases were seen since 1999. This is of course a long time, but are we sure its not being carried by a host animal or insect or even plant and could strike the minute we begin to stop vaccinating against it?

Enough already! The point if the post wasn't to freak people out. Merely to give us all something to look forward to when things have improved and it looks like the world has brought the virus under at least some limited form of control. Whenever that maybe!

What's going on in Thailand then?

Glad you asked. Here the latest government figures are that cumulatively, 2258 people have contracted the disease and that 31 people have died. Hmmmm. Thailand is the number one destination for Chinese tourists. In January and February there were over 250,000 visited. Today they are telling us there have only been 52 new cases. Damn these masks we use are good! But seriously, I think masks are very important. They don't protect you, but protect others FROM you, so if everyone wears them, everyone has some protection! Simple. If you can't blast the virus out of your nose or mouth into the air for it to land on a surface, or someone else then no one can ingest it. It seems the west is only just cottoning onto this fact, but whatever way you look at it, and obviously the figures from South Asian governments aren't convincing me, there are still massively fewer cases in out masked up countries than in Europe and the Americas. The heat may also have something to do with it.

Even the street vendors are having a tough time

So the deal is this. We are currently under legal curfew from 10pm to 4am and it is rigourously being enforced. Passenger flights into Thiland are banned, all the borders are closed both ways and its illegal for me and the wife to ride the bike without facemasks on.

Everything is closed apart from food shops and food markets, the supermarkets are not allowed to sell none food goods but online shopping is doing a roaring trade. I feel almost guilty, but the wife's online kids bookshop is having its best monthly sales in 4 years!

Street vendors are still out on the streets and restaurants and cafes are all open for takeaway only. No sitting down. Schools are closed until the 1st of July now and when we go into nearly all shops, we have to have out temperatures taken and get squirted with gel. I think this is more a psychological thing as the thermometers used to take our temperature are just held in front of our foreheads for a few seconds. It seems I actually had hypothermia in Tesco last night as I registered a 34.6C!

What normality once looked like. Food, market and fully revealed faces!

People are starting to get worried here and it's making me a little uneasy, especially as an almost trapped foreigner. Some comments by the senior government health minister a week ago blaming the spread in Thailand on dirty 'ferangs' not wearing masks has caused some anti-foreigner feeling and I am certainly more situationally aware now if I am out shopping or going to the post office every morning.

Stop waffling and padding....what ARE you looking forward to?

Easily top of the list is CHOICE. I want my choice back. I want to choose when I go out, where I go and what I do. I am not anti-governance per se, but this lack of choices and being told what to do is seriously beginning to wind me up. I hate stopping in at the best of times so I am currently feeling rather claustrophobic.

In reality, we are free to go out outside curfew hours although there is nowhere to go. The streets are not deserted but travelling outside the province isn't allowed now without a very good reason and from some provinces, a letter of permission from the local governor.

Secondly. I am not particularly sociable. I don't like people very much so being on my own isn't a big deal, but I do sometimes like to be around people even if I don't necessarily want to communicate or engage with them so second on my list would be my couple of hours in the pub on my own on a Saturday night with a beer, some chips and the football. Simple.

"Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end....."

Sing it Mary!

Strangely, most of my real-life friends started out as online friends and thankfully we still have internet. My online life has been such an intrinsic part of who I am for 25 years now that I can't imagine been without it or being without my online friends.

Obviously I'm also really looking forward to going back to the UK for a few weeks and see my Mum and friends. That will really make everything feel a bit more real. Watching my 79-year-old Mum on Skype every night stuck in the house going mad isn't fun. She is like me, likes to be out and about and doing what she feels, when she feels. Two short trips a week into town for the groceries isn't really doing it for her right now and when we call her, I can't get her off the phone. I don't think I've ever talked to her so much!

That's it really. That's all I want. My usual liberties back and to see Leeds get crowned as Championship winners and start next season in the Premier League.

Gratuitous Leeds photo, 'cos it would be rude not to!!

(Courtesy of lufc.com)

Haircut!! I seriously need a haircut. In the tropics, this is especially important as I sweat like a fatted calf! Incredible how its the most mundane things that are most important in times of crisis!

Wait....

While we are all dreaming of things we want to do after the crisis has subsided, there will be literally millions of people who want one thing:

To have their loved ones back

Hundreds of thousands will have lost their lives and barely anyone on this planet won't have been touched by the death of a loved one, so perhaps the most important thing any of us could wish for is for peace and healing for those who have lost their friends and family.

I send my best wishes to everyone out there and hope you and your loved ones can remain safe and untouched by this awful virus. Please wear a mask and stay at home wherever you can.

UK Samaritans helpline 116 123

NHS Direct 111

Sane Mental Health helpline 0300 304 7000

And Google is always your friend in times of need!!

Even more so today, it's NOT about the hustle, it's all about the humanity

@nathen007

Hopefully a brighter new dawn will arise