Going Underground In London

GETTING MY OLD LIFE BACK

Today I took a ride on London Underground for the first time in over 3 months! I’m expecting some international visitors this weekend so I’m going to be very busy, so I had to get out to town today handle all my business before the weekend. Not much has changed for many people since, of course, people have been using this transport normally throughout the pandemic. Since I work from home, I have not had the need to use public transport. I haven't been on a bus for even longer.

All the mandatory signs are now gone - replaced with "strong advice". There are a number of people here and there that still adhere to the mask wearing thing, but they represent a small minority now. Keep in mind that people who are Covid positive are now permitted to travel on the underground without masks. They are advised to "be considerate" to others and stay home, but there is no legal mandate to enforce that anymore. People wearing masks are thus either "being kind", because the have Covid, or are trying to avoid getting it. Everyone else either don't care, are fully vaccinated, or have had the bug.

I also finally got a haircut. My head feels so light now. The funny thing about my type of hair is, this more of it here is, the easier it actually is to cut. The whole thing took less than five minutes. The barber commented about how “healthy” my hair is. Well, I wouldn’t know - he’s the expert so I’ll take his word for it. I’m jus glad I still have hair at all :)

I did notice more grey/silver hairs though, since the last time I went for a cut. I put it down to the pretty stressful winter we’ve had. Perhaps some of them may decide to go back to being dark brown once I get some sunshine and joy back in my life. My hair isn’t actually black by the way. It’s very dark brown. I think only Asian people and some South American’s actually have black hair.

I’m also working from my favourite cafe today. It re-opened recently with new staff. I miss the old staff, but I introduced myself to the new baristas today since I’m going to be a regular. They could already tell I was a regular. ”Did you used to come here a lot?”, said the lady as she poured my coffee into the cup. We also already had the ”Stay in or takeaway” false dichotomy conversation. She got it immediately. I like her already and think we’re going to get along fine :)

It's been quite empty in the cafe today, compared to how busy it used to get even on a weekday. I suppose it's a combination of people still not being 100% confident in sitting indoors for too long, especially when there could be just one person in there spreading the germs :). I had a conversation about that with the staff and as it happens, both of the baristas have had the bug, more than once. Both had the Delta and Omicron variants. I thought that was interesting. That's probably quite common amongst people in service and hospitality type jobs. They are the ones that couldn't stay home like I could. It's times like this that I really see, and am grateful for, my privilege.

Peace & Love,

Adé