Hard to decide whether our first purchase in the real world, last night, was a comedy or a tragedy.

Having recce’d the day before, we ordered fish and chips on line from our nearest and most savoury-looking chippie on the grounds that it would be quicker and therefore hotter, by the time we ate it, than the same meal brought by Deliveroo.

We discovered from the news that, despite a 5pm curfew, the streets were still awash with protesters claiming to be guarding Churchill’s statue and the Cenotaph, both of which were guarded already by having been comprehensively boarded up.

Fearful the protesters might have headed our way, we geared ourselves up in masks and gloves and ventured into the street.

We discover that Poppies, our local chippie, has a system whereby you pay for your meal in one part of what was the restaurant and collect it from another. There is a queue outside and several young men waiting for food inside, who don’t even think of moving to put a bit of space between us.

We decide to wait for our meal, freshly prepared in the fryers, out in the street.

And that’s when the rain starts – not gentle Summer rain but a tropical downpour that leaves us dripping before the manager even manages to roll out the blinds.

Our massive Haddock arrives with an equally massive portion of chips , two cartons of mushy peas and a gherkin and we set out for home, not quite running but definitely keeping up a good pace while the carrier bag holding our food gets more sodden by the minute.

“The writer” is carrying the bag, heavy with its huge cargo, when it succumbs to the rain and the sodden bottom falls out, scattering cardboard cartons of fish and chips in the road. We gather it frantically together, run home, wahs our hands, throw off our wet clothes, towel ourselves dry, sanitise the cardboard boxes , wash our hands again and put the food on plates.

It is delicious- and, miraculously, still hot!! So ends our first purchase in person since March 12th.