Friday 27^th March, 2020 2330

Yes, it's late. I have just finished marking over a hundred essays today in an attempt to leave my weekend relatively clear. I say relatively because a few hours ago another classload plopped in my inbox and I think perhaps another may arrive in the morning. I do get it easier on Mondays and Tuesdays working from home but there is never a day off. Certainly I can take one but knowing there is work just waiting for me when I get back rather dampens the mood. I like to clear the decks, at least temporarily.

Now, it seems rather pointless talking about Covid now that the rest of the world has gone where we were two months ago but do you remember the guy that argued with me that China was unprepared for Covid, something the world had never seen? And how he said America was always prepared? And I mentioned their preparedness for Pearl Harbour, Wall Street and sub-prime? Well, he has gone strangely quiet! Can't imagine why..........

Anyway, by the time I post this it will be Saturday. And then no foreigners will be allowed to enter China for the foreseeable future. This is because all the new cases in China lately have been returnees bringing it back in! I rather hope the Chinese don't turn on me and call me a “virus” as some of my countrymen did to Asian people in the UK not so long ago. I doubt they will, I suspect certainly locally the people all know I never left – although there was the drunk at the restaurant the other night who said I should be in quarantine! Probably as well Jody left it a few minutes before translating, by which time his mates had huckled him away.

Anyway, people with valid visas will be turned away. People with residence permits (such as me) will also be refused entry. Only Chinese nationals will be allowed in. So, had I decided to take a weekend away somewhere I could still get a flight to (God knows where that might have been) then I would now find myself marooned.

It's a funny old world isn't it? Suddenly nobody is bickering about Brexit. The kicking of China when she was down seems to have abated. Amazing what happens when the critics walk in the same shoes and find themselves in lockdown!

That is not to detract from the fact that although “ordinary” flu does for 650.000 people annually and so far Covid has claimed a “mere” 25,000, it is nonetheless serious. It is also not only levelling the playing field but digging up the Wembley turf!

I read an article the other day saying that this was the end of China as the world's factory. That was written before everywhere else was hit. China is stirring again while everywhere else is closing down. Soon China's plants will be pretty much the only major factories running again.

And if ships and seafarers are allowed to do their jobs the world can be supplied again. This new practice of allowing ships to dock but prohibiting crew changes is, as an ex-mariner, utterly reprehensible. As a singleton it wouldn't have troubled me much but the married officers and crew? Maybe some with loved ones who are infected?

All very well clapping on your balconies for the NHS but there are others who are working to keep people safe and supplied, such as supermarket workers, food deliverymen, emergency services and of course sailors, without whom 95% of what you buy simply would not get there.

Dark days indeed for the planet but never forget what Eric Idle sang on the cross!