It’s my friend’s birthday today. He’s with his parents in their house on the the side of a hill in the Peak District. He’s quite content up there I imagine: he has his girlfriend, their dog, his vegetable patch (don’t we all). My birthday is at the end of July, and I think I’d sulk a bit if the current restrictions are still in place. I’d like to see some friends. I’d like to go to dinner.

Some places are discussing their ‘exit strategies’, how they’ll emerge from their hunkered-down positions. Much is made of the fact we’ll never go back to ‘normal’, but I wonder what will be different. Probably the ramifications of an economic collapse more than anything. Some places loosening their lockdowns are making masks compulsory in public. I’ve held onto one; I imagine they’re as scarce as ever. I don’t know if I can picture much of the British public in masks for long. They’d simply feel they look too ridiculous.

I spend most of my time cooking and eating and exercising, a simple mammal. I’m also spending a lot of time learning Spanish, and we’re watching a lot of French films, so hopefully I’ll have that to show for this time. I doubt I’ll come out having read a great stack of books — I keep choosing quite long tomes and there’s honestly not much time between all the cooking and eating and exercising.

Sometimes I think about being in a pub on a mid-summer afternoon.