Today I used my allocated daily exercise to cycle to Fraddon from my house and back and I was left pretty much speechless.
I recently wrote about how Coronavirus was a threat and how I had missed the Cornwall Business Show. That wasn’t even two weeks ago, yet back then we had absolutely no idea how the world was going to change in a matter of days.
I’ve been working from home for nearly three weeks now due to being an asthmatic and I’ve been out walking, running and cycling nearly every day. Keeping healthy is hugely important to me. Up until now, I haven’t been to the shops, I haven’t been anywhere that other people could be congregating. I’ve taken walks and runs from my front door up out onto Goss Moor. Exercising on Goss Moor is something I have done for years, it’s certainly been busier than normal the last few days, with many more runners, walkers and whole families out getting some fresh air but it’s still reasonably isolated and I love the peace and quiet .
Today I decided to cycle in the other direction and towards Fraddon and Kingsley Village. I was moved, shocked and speechless to the lack of people, the lack of traffic. It is eery. For anyone that doesn’t know Kingsley Village in Fraddon, it’s a small retail park with 5 national chain stores and it is usually rammed. There’s a fairly big car park that usually spills out onto the neighbouring roads and I cycled through today and saw barely 20 cars in total.
It was as if it was 5pm on a Sunday once the stores have closed for the weekend, there was barely anyone around.
I totally and utterly understand and respect the decision to stay at home and I have been for nearly three weeks, starting my own working from home to protect myself and my family before it became more enforced, I just haven’t been anywhere that public or busy since and it was a shock to see my local area deserted.
In some ways I am proud that everyone is respecting the severity of the situation and staying indoors but in other ways, I feel like I have been in my own little bubble with my head in the sand the past couple of weeks. I live in a really rural quiet area and it is still a really quiet rural area so nothing has really changed. Maybe I’m just trying to ignore what is really going on through fear of accepting these changes.
Today, seeing everywhere so quiet, it really has sunk in and hit home how serious this really is. I think living in Cornwall, you can become complacent and have a feeling that because you live in a rural location you are somehow safe and detached from what is going on.
Today the reality of Coronavirus it hit me like a spade in the face.