A Day Out in the New Normal

[diffrentcolours]

tl;dr: It's both worth it and pretty easy to take basic precautions against COVID-19. The more you do, the safer you and those around you will be. Please feel free to share this post - either link to it, screencap it, copy and paste it, whatever - to help spread this message, rather than a potentially fatal, likely disabling illness.

On Friday, I went into Manchester City Centre with cosmolinguist to meet a friend for lunch. We already know the places that we can go with outside seating, and also cover in case the weather's unpleasant. For old time's sake, we met up at Nudo just off Piccadilly Gardens, and sat outside. It was sunny when we arrived, but a passing spring shower made us glad we were sitting under cover. After lunch, we went shopping in the Arndale. I wore my FFP2 mask; E wore his FFP3. We went into a few shops, and E got asked about his striking-looking mask as he often does. Then we went out into Exchange Square and sat outside Salvi's for coffee and cocktails, before popping masks back on for a mooch round Manchester Cathedral. I found a flyer there for the Manchester Jewish Museum, which has just completed an extension and refurbishment.

Our friend parted ways; E and I walked up Cheetham Hill (which is both shorter and steeper than I recall) to the museum. We went in masks on but it was pretty quiet and felt well ventilated; I used our portable CO2 monitor to confirm that the air was reasonably fresh, and we enjoyed the museum and synagogue without masks on. So much so that we lost track of time and got kicked out at 5pm as they were closing! We headed back down Red Bank and spotted Base Bar, a baseball-themed bar with some batting cages in back. Again, it was pretty quiet and the CO2 monitor confirmed we were OK to drink inside; as it got busier we moved out front. After a couple of drinks we were pretty peckish, so headed back towards the city centre and found Cali's Cafe which was good value and unpretentious. Again, it was pretty quiet and well ventilated and the CO2 monitor said we were fine to sit down and enjoy our burgers.

After that we headed practically next door to Bar Fringe, an old haunt from my student days. We sat outside in the beer garden and chatted to some people who were going to a comedy show nearby. It started raining so we finished our drinks and started to make our way back towards our bus home, stopping briefly at The Molly House which has a covered smoking area on the first floor where we could sit unmasked. Again we got talking to somebody there, about the value of the good deeds of evil people, which was a delightfully philosophical way to finish off a night out. Masks on again for the bus home to mother_bones.

---

I'm posting this not just because it was a lovely day, which it was, but because it was a lovely day that wasn't stopped by the precautions we continue to take, during this ongoing pandemic, to manage the risk to our own health and our immunocompromised friends and family. In a way I'm posting it to demonstrate that it is possible to have a life and still care about Covid. Certainly, having a portable CO2 monitor helps, and that's not something everyone can afford; it would help if the venues themselves were monitoring, publicising and managing their ventilation levels, as they're required to in some other countries. I'm still hoping some venues / promoters can be convinced to do this.

But the way the pandemic has shaken out (in the UK at least) means that people don't know they still need to take precautions, and they don't really know what's possible and what's useful. Doing the research is a big investment of time and energy, and if you don't have a strong reason to do so, then it can be too much work. Not many people know the current WHO guidance for COVID-19 recommends wearing masks indoors:

Masks are recommended following a recent exposure to COVID-19, when someone has or suspects they have COVID-19, when someone is at high-risk of severe COVID-19, and for anyone in a crowded, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space.

I'm hoping that stories like this can be positive examples for people.

Comments

[apiphile]

Where did you source your CO2 monitor from?

[diffrentcolours]

https://duomo.co.uk/product/aranet4-sensor-home/