No end in sight.

No end in sight.

We are rapidly approaching the end of our tether. Just when it looked as if couldn't get any worse than it has - or so it would seem. The global pandemic is lingering like the most repulsive smell. It won't go away no matter how hard we wish it would. It isn't for the want of trying because we are endeavouring to do as much as we can to keep the coronavirus under control. We're really doing our utmost to clean our hands 50 times a day, sanitised to the point when our hands couldn't be cleaner and then keeping such a respectful distance from each other that we may just as well be in different countries.

But last night another bombshell struck with a vehement thud. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday that only six people would be allowed to share a room with each other.  It was rather like reprimanding a school sixth former for planting a whoopee cushion under the chair of the chemistry teacher in an otherwise respectable staff room. We thought we'd been on our best behaviour although we didn't think for a minute that we were doing anything wrong in the first place.

So yesterday we were told off by Boris for stepping out of line, converging on pubs in huge crowds, cluttering up all available space with vast groups of people holding ten trays of foaming lager in their hands. Then more friends and families turn up from nowhere and it all begins to get slightly out of hand because the noise levels are increasing and the jokes are getting louder and funnier. What on earth is going on here? If they haven't been told once they must have been told a million times.

Meanwhile, at the bar, hordes of men are pressed tightly against each other reaching out for another set of drinks. It is now that claustrophobia may well have set in because now the pub is heaving and ready to explode. Nobody can move and it's all very oppressive. It is hard to believe that a small cross section of Britain is just flagrantly flouting the laws of the land. We thought we might have just cracked this terrifying coronavirus pandemic but it's clear to see that it may be here for some time.

Now the point will come when the country may well be unwittingly forced to go back to square one, the same place where this all started back in March. We are going around in ever-increasing circles and achieving nothing of any consequence, a case of one step forward, a million steps back. The world is being held hostage for reasons that simply escape us. We were hoping that the world would just follow a logical pattern and just move forward in a very businesslike fashion. We woke up on New Year's Day and had no idea that the events that would follow would be truly historic.

Firstly there were those destructive forest fires that raged through Australia and that was only January. For a while we must have thought that this was just another isolated disaster that would simply pass and eventually the Australians, famous for their dogged resilience, would re-build, grieve for a while and then get back on their feet. Then things went downhill almost immediately as if the year had suddenly crashed into some impenetrable wall. February was in a forgiving mood but when March came along all bets were off. The world stopped, stunned and shocked into submission.

From that point civilisation seemed to be put onto hold. The whole world was stationary, broken down into a million jagged and disparate pieces. Humanity had nowhere to go and nothing to do but just remain where it was in the hope that sooner or later what seemed like a severe case of flu would just go away. But we were wholly mistaken. This would be much more serious, even grave. In fact it was simply catastrophic and it was all cloaked in mystery. We were heading toward spring and surely this virus would naturally disappear. It didn't though and we just had to muddle through.

 Here we are in September, frustrated, exasperated but optimistic that this damaging ailment, this chronic virus will just drift away into oblivion and never darken our shores again. The children may be back in school after a horribly truncated summer holiday, the shops are open with their tempting offers, the cafes are serving their traditional noshfests and the pubs are clinking to the tune of innumerable glasses. Still though things aren't right and the masks tell their very visible story.

Outside, the world is still queuing, still on tenterhooks, nervous of its own shadow and treading on eggshells. Recently a brief Accident and Emergency hospital visit proved the point. A very understanding nurse covered every part of her face with one of those visors that gave you the impression that a nuclear fall out was on its way. Oh dear, how did it come to this?

Still, the seaons have changed again and we can but hope that sooner or later that the world will once again find its comfortable place, that stability will be fully restored. We will wake up one morning and breathe the beautiful air of life and not worry for a single second that the person in front of us may have some unavoidable infection. That day will come and when we flick through history's turbulent books we may find that a salutary lesson has been learnt. There is no clear indication at the moment that there is indeed an end in sight of this disease  but we must keep believing and hoping. Keep going, everybody.