Corona Update: a post of two halves

Monday 29^th June 2020

In this post I will cover two areas.  First, the changes and adaptions I am considering for future events, both here, at venues where I am the host, and at venues when I am the guest teacher, such as at a yarn shop.

Second, some wider ramblings on the impact of Corona which will stray into the political, so just leave now, or half way, if that bothers you. 

When Kath and I feel* it is legal*, safe, and more importantly, when we feel comfortable with it, teaching will resume here

*Why would a matter of legality need to be assessed by how we feel about it?  Surely it is a straight forward task to read and interpret the legal framework in place at the time? No, it is far from easy, given the obfuscation, opacity, and overall ‘heavy on the fudge sauce’ approach of our UK – I mean English – Government. There are obviously areas where we can make personal judgments about how we comply with the law, based on what feels ‘right’ and our instincts (murmurs *Barnard Castle*),  and so that is what I will do. 

At the moment I do not know when that will be.  Once it is possible, I will be dealing with the small back-log (2 events) that were postponed early in the lock down.  I also cancelled one autumn event.  I then have to decide where to place the 2 postponed events – and then see if anyone who was booked, and is waiting for a new date, can even do that date.  Then I will need to see how we feel about the rest of the autumn and winter ‘offer’ here.

Once we do go ahead, I will be introducing the following COVID-19 measures, here:

• If you do not want to come because you do not feel safe, or you want to protect someone who lives with you, even if I have not changed the date, you can cancel and have a refund.  This is outwith my usual cancellation policy, but this is not a ‘usual’ time.  There will be a ‘cut-off’ time for this which will be 4 weeks before the event goes ahead. So you will have to decide then, and let me know. This will remain in place for the whole of 2020.
• If I have to cancel at short (or any) notice for whatever reason, I will give full refunds.  For example, if I was unwell or there was a local lock down.
• I will be restricting the numbers.  Events here are not viable with under 5 or 6 guests.  So I will accept 6 or 7, but guests will be split between 2 rooms, the teaching room, and the sitting room.  Thus we will be able to teach a very small number in each space (3 + 3 or 3 + 4), and distancing will be easier.
• Guests will, as ever, be asked not to attend if they feel in any way unwell. I know from personal experience that the symptoms of possible Corona virus may not correspond with, or at least extend well beyond those that the Government appears to believe.  So if anyone coming here feels in any way ‘different’ from normal, please do not attend, just let me know but stay at home. Even if you just think you only have a slight head cold, or unexplained hay fever. I would, in my experience, extend this list of symptoms to include unusual and bad headaches, mild to extreme fatigue that is unusual for you, needing a lot more sleep than usual, having sinusitis, loss of hearing, taste, and smell, loss of appetite, weakness, and an upset tummy, on top of the tiny list of symptoms the Government acknowledges. 
• I will be monitoring the body temperatures of myself, Kath, Mark, and all guests with a hand-held temperature ‘gun’.  This does not involve touching you, or you touching the thermometer.  I simply point it at your forehead.  Anyone with a temperature over the accepted maximum ‘norm’ will, I am afraid, have to go home.
• My house is always thoroughly cleaned before events but I will be ‘deep cleaning’ all areas where you will go along with a daily deep-clean of the kitchen.  During an event, I will additionally clean the cloakroom, and all surfaces, door handles etc, over 3 separate times – mid-morning, before lunch, and mid-afternoon.
• In the cloakroom, there will be no-touch bins for flannels, for used paper towels, and for cleaning wipes which I will provide and ask you please to just wipe down the loo pull, the handle and the taps etc before you wash you hands. There will of course be hand-wash and high alcohol content gel for you to use. 
• I will offer you the use of single use flannels which are laundered at 90 degrees (no shared hand towels); OR you can opt for single use paper hand towels.
• I will offer single use paper napkins.
• Please feel free to wear a face mask.  I am not going to make this compulsory.  Kath and I both go out to work and are very used to PPE.  I wear it at all times when I am work, mask, sometimes a visor, gloves, and apron.  So it doesn’t bother me, but I know it is hard to wear for extended periods.  I will certainly not be offended if you opt for a face mask or even a visor/mask combo. Kath and I are comfortable with daily ‘going out’ not least for work, and this makes us relaxed – but not complacent – about going out and about as long as we observe reasonable precautions.  But I know this can be a difficult process especially if you have been at home for a long time.  You must do what you feel is best. I will have single use masks here should you decide you want one but didn’t bring it, though I ask you please to bring your own if you can.
• Kath and I may wear masks and visors. 
• There will be a drinks station in the hall.  Water and glasses. And a kettle, coffee, tea, milk and sugar, mugs and spoons.  You will make your own hot and cold drinks whenever you want and I will keep this clean and refreshed.
• I will serve food on spaced platters for cakes, cookies, etc.
• Lunch will be announced, details given and we will plate these up in the kitchen, and serve you one by one, rather than sharing as we usually do.  You can tell me what you wish me to include or leave off.  Butter will be served individually. Should food be an area of concern, please do feel free to bring your own packed lunch and eat that.  I will not be at all offended but I do need to know in advance, please, so I don’t waste food. 
• Teaching anything, but especially knitting, is difficult from 1 meter+.  But it is possible.  What I won’t be able to do is teach you ‘hand over hand’ as we sometimes do, nor will I be able to lean in to look at your work.  You can pass it to me though.  There will be hand sanitisers on the tables. I may – I have not decided – also record some YouTube tutorials of specific parts of the techniques used on the day, which will be ‘live’ only for the duration of the event.  Thus, you can log into my WiFi, and watch these after watching Kath or I demonstrate it from a short distance away.  There will be more group teaching to help you, and less one-to-one. But then you can watch the tutorial (if I do them) as much as you want on the day and even down load it, as I will be taking it off line at the end of the day. Kath has ruthlessly exploited this national emergency to suspend her customary if unwanted role as the counter of stitches, and she has asked me to pass that on.  

I think that’s about it for events here.   

I will be in touch with everyone who is booked onto, or was booked onto an event here, one by one.

As far as events at hotels (Knit Camp) and other places (Hurds Hill) go, these will be subject to decisions in July and October, respectively.  Knit Campers have already been fully consulted, as will Hurds Hill people, in due course, and Knit Campers already know of the 2021 date! No final decisions for 2020 have been made yet. 

Turning now to events that I teach for other people such as yarn shops, this is much less clear to me, partly because I do not run these events and I am only responsible for the teaching delivery/jokes, such as they are/general bant. As lock down progressed, obviously all my events, and their events were cancelled. As lock down eases, it will be up to each venue owner to decide if they feel they have the confidence, the personal comfort, and the reasonable measures in place, before they either go ahead with planned events and/or rearrange the ones that were lost.  If they do, I will need to know what the measures are and to be honest, they will have to be similar to the ones I have outlined for Court Cottage, for me to feel comfortable. Your decisions about attending classes in different locations are of course, none of my business but I will say this: I will expect similar measures to be in place.  No-one has crossed that bridge yet, it’s just too soon.  My levels of personal comfort about teaching away will definitely be different from, and at this stage, feel considerably lower than, how I feel about teaching here, as in other venues, I have no control of who attends, how well they are, or where they have travelled from. But I usually know these owners and I trust them to do the right things. 

I think I can sum up my current thinking as: I am *fairly* keen to get teaching again, and I am very keen for businesses including my own, to begin the long haul to post-COVID-19 recovery, if they can. But your support with this is a crucial factor, along with factors such as: is it viable for me? Is it reasonable?  Am I comfortable?  Because – and I hope those of you who have read all 7 of my Fuck Off Corona letters, or been in touch in any other way since March know, my business, whilst obviously 100% impacted, is far less important to me than our individual, local, and national response to dealing with Corona.  Not running events has been an easy decision of course as we had no choice.  But it will still be easy for me because if I think running an event, or teaching an event in the future, feels unsafe, I will gladly make that call and cancel it or pull out.  

Now, all of that may make it sound as if I am paranoid and afraid.  But I am not.  I am a rationalist.  Oh yes, I can hear the snorts of derision and almost see the eye-rolling from some of you who know me well.  And it is true that my emotionally driven nature does sometimes lead me to make emotional choices.  But even in the midst of that emotional response, I am always first and foremost, making rational choices based, as far as I can, on verifiable, logical and predictable data. So, I know that if I adopt a policy of never going out unless absolutely vital, and never going into an unpredictable environment such as a work setting; and further more, I never have contact with people who do all those things and may therefore pose an increased risk, I will greatly reduce my chances of catching Corona. 

Actually, I think I *might* have had it in March, but of course, in the face of our frankly shameful testing shambles, I will probably only know that if I develop symptoms again, and then test positive. But you know, the thing with me is this: I didn’t want to catch it/I do not want to catch it.  But far, far more than that, I do not want to be the person responsible for passing it on. So, in those early weeks, the absolutely crucial thing was to stay in.  Easy? Nope.  I did not find it easy, but I did it. Some people found it impossible (and here I am discounting the truly brave key workers) and some people just wanted their human rights.  Everyone who broke the laws, or the guidelines, without a really valid reason (of which of course, there were some, but not you, Dom), made the work of the rest of us harder and more likely to be undermined.  

I still feel that we have no real assurance of having this under control.  In fact, I think we are one of the least well placed nations in the world as far as future control and reactions are concerned, based on my observations of Government actions so far, and a quick and dirty self-analysis of the effectiveness of these measures.  Which is poor, using comparable nations as a benchmark.  

But in spite of that, and this may be partly because of my different life now, I do support the easing of lock down.  The key time was months ago and if we failed to get a grip then, it was because of a toxic mixture of delayed reactions, no testing, very poor resilience in some sectors, notably all areas of social care and support – and because a significant minority of people did not comply and were able to do so with impunity in most cases. So, we kind of lost that crucial early battle way back in the weeks between February and April. 

Now, frankly, I think I have sacrificed enough and I want my life back.  Would I take ‘chances’? No, that’s not my nature, but I am taking decisions I would never have contemplated a few weeks ago.  The only real factors that limit my actions (aside from compliance with the law and the spirit of the law), are the people I live with, those I love, and the people I care for and support. I try to keep myself and them safe. But, and yet, I cannot live in a cage.  The cages we have been (some of us) inhabiting are both real, physical places usually our homes; and they are also emotional, mentally-created constructs.  The latter is far harder to move from.

I have learned so much in the last few weeks about person-centered care and support.  With that, I have witnessed the real sacrifices that have been made. I will set aside the obvious and appalling loss of life, some of which was definitely avoidable. There are 100s of 1000s of people in care environments over and above those housing elderly residents, who have given up pretty much everything they had in what can anyway be already fairly limited life experiences. And it can be very hard to explain why things have happened, and why things have stopped happening, to people for whom routines, safe-feeling team work, and the absence of change, especially continuous, rolling change, are all as crucial to their well-being as are their basics rights of compassionate treatment, safety, dignity, shelter, food, and medical care. 

Maybe what I have gained is an entirely new perspective.  With this has come a much more relaxed approach to how I feel about going into Sainsbury’s for example.  It’s got to come, this social easing, we have to behave like the social creatures we are.  It has also hardened my already very robust responses to the moaning-Mandy brigade.  Apologies if you are a Mandy, it’s not you, it’s just my imaginary group name for that intensely inward-looking, ‘I’m alright, and I want my rights’, incredibly irritating cohort of privileged complainers, to whom the rules obviously ought not to have applied, because they have always been special.  I don’t need or like you. Get your coat, Mandy, and fuckety-bye. Witness the hoards of vile individuals on beaches in recent days. But, they have ‘rights’, and their needs are always more important and more ‘special’.

So there you have it. My current thinking about getting back to teaching. And my overall responses to Corona. As I have said in other posts and on social media, I began by not wanting to look back on my contribution and feeling in any way ashamed of or uncomfortable with it.  It’s moved on for me.  I now want to actively contribute, to reach out and help others to move on, but in a different way from in the past.  And I am.  If and when teaching is able to fit into that, I’ll be ready, but not at any cost.  It’s not worth it.  Let’s move forward together, as we always have in the past and rest assured, I will never take any known risks with your health or comfort levels. 

The Corona letters form a very interesting backdrop to my lock down, beginning as they did before full lock down, and continuing throughout until I drew the series to an end as lock down began to lift. I kept them largely free of political content, and to be candid, almost nothing happened in any of them.  They just described (entirely truthful) episodes at home, in the village, and sometimes extended beyond my home, to include some family members further afield.  But as each one was between 2 and 3 weeks apart, obviously the national and global scene was also moving very quickly behind them.  I hope I never live through a time like that again.  But if we have to, I hope we have learned how to do it.

As ever, do feel free to reach back to me and share your thoughts on how you’d feel about knitting events in future – or on any of the other matters I have touched upon.