MARCH 24

Much of the latest talk has been about construction sites (Didn’t they used to be called “building sites”)? Builders are massing on the few remaining underground trains , pressing their fingertips to nifty modern biometric clocking-in machines, eating in packed canteens and phoning radio stations to complain that their bosses will not let them stop working. We can see a site out of our bedroom window and this morning we observe five or six men smoking and talking in a huddle, no more than a couple of inches apart, and then purposefully pushing inside a tiny hut, where we assume they are going to have a break and maybe even suggest a game of ‘Sardines’. We notice that they are not entirely without consideration of virus hygiene as, one after the other, they pause to wipe their feet meticulously and vigorously on the grubby mat outside the door.