Isolation.

"If we can't come out of this terrifying and unprecedented, in our lifetime, situation with more humanity and more love for each other then love and humanity no longer exist and we'll deserve every single thing that happens to us. The planet will be better off without us" - me, Wednesday night.

I'd not been planning a super busy week as it was. A possible trip to the cinema, a couple of art galleries, and a long overdue return to the wonderful Lexington pop quiz on Monday night had been the key diary entries up until this coming Saturday. For Saturday I'd arranged, curated, written, and planned my first London by Foot walk of 2020. It was due to be a stroll from Fulwell to Hammersmith crossing the river twice, taking in the parks of Bushy and Richmond as well as Barnes Common and a couple of pubs (of course) before ending up with south Indian veggie food in Sagar in Hammersmith.

I'd really really been looking forward to it. These walks have become one of the most important things in my life in recent years and the fact that a selection of good friends always turn up has made them one of the key social events in my diary. But - coronavirus doesn't care about that. It doesn't care about anything at all. So I've postponed the walk and though it was with a heavy heart that I did so, do you know what? It really doesn't matter. Social life, exercise, and culture are all important but staying alive, and keeping other people alive, are much more important.

You'd think it would go without saying but for, a small minority, that's not proving the case. In the last week alone I've had a theatre visit cancelled, a gig cancelled, Greenwich Skeptics and London Fortean Society have announced cancellations, most of the art exhibitions and galleries I'd been meaning to visit (Tate Modern, V&A for example) are closed for a month at least, and, beyond my own personal interests and activities things are shutting down left, right, and centre.

Correctly. Euro 2020 is now Euro 2021, the Premier League football season has been suspended, various GPs are off, and Glastonbury is off. There's a lad who works in my local Co-Op who's quite upset that he won't be able to make his annual trip to Wrestlemania in America of all things. It sounds daft but often people live for their holidays. This guy does a boring job working seemingly endless hours stacking shelves and I bet every day, probably every hour, he thinks about that trip to Wrestlemania.

This is bad for business, this is bad for our souls, and this is bad for our health - both mentally and physically. It's crept up on us in a way that it really shouldn't have. We all heard what was happening in Wuhan and we all read warnings about how it could, and probably would, spread. But it seemed so far away. Most of us have never been to Wuhan and, anyway, they do things differently in China, all that selling live animals in wet markets. The same thing couldn't happen here. Not in Britain. Not in exceptional Britain that has won two world wars and one world cup.

Turns out it very much can. Turns out a virus isn't really bothered about military history, sporting history, or even borders created and policed by man alone (no goose or sparrow worries what country it's in and fish don't care whose water they're swimming in, just fishermen).

I'm no fan of British (always meaning English) exceptionalism but even I thought there was an element of the scare story to it all. But the 10 UK deaths that had been announced by Saturday morning have risen to over 100 on Thursday. That's a fairly exponential growth. That's a very worrying curve. 767 deaths in Spain, 1,284 in Iran, and 2,978 in Italy to go with the 3,245 in China. Over sixty countries in total have reported a death and the confirmed current global toll stands at 9,276.

I've seen people sharing links about how more people die, annually, from the flu or the common cold. But the common cold has not had a 500% mortality rate increase in the last three weeks. Imagine you're standing in front of a car that is speeding towards you at 100mph and somebody advises you it might be a good idea to get out of its way. Would you refuse to move while citing the statistic that far more people die of flu than get run over by speeding cars?

Point being that while there's no vaccine it's probably best to try not to catch coronavirus (or, more accurately, COVID-19 - coronaviruses are a group of viruses, COVID-19 is the one that's doing all the damage right now). People sharing this stuff are often well meaning, sometimes they're a little thick and that can't always be helped. But there are one or two sharing it with malicious intent, trying to stir up a hornet's nest or to serve their own vested interests.

It's not the time for fighting past, and lost, battles. It's not the time for denial, denialism, hoaxes, or outlandish, and often racist, conspiracy theories. It's not the time to play Trump's game of blaming the media for reporting the news as it happens. It's not the time to be trying to score points. It's not the time for oneupmanship. It's not the time for overt party politicking.

It's the time for unity and if we can't agree on a course of action we can, you'd hope, at least debate it rationally. That means genuine political concerns can be, and should be, aired. Did our government leave it too long before taking drastic and serious measures? Did they leave it too long before they started following the science? Has Boris Johnson thrown small businesses like pubs, clubs, and theatres under one of his beloved buses by advising people not to go to them but refusing to close them down - ensuring insurance companies dodge a hefty bullet?

On the latter, I think he has. Managing to be utterly shameless and utterly shameful at the same time has long been Johnson's trademark but when it comes to how long it's taken to close down schools, tube lines, and to advise people to stay at home, I'm torn. I think the right decision has been reached and I'm no fan of the Tories (something I have been on record about for at least four decades now) but I do think there was a fear that they were damned if they did, damned if they didn't. A very real fear about this right wing government is that it will develop an overly, if not overtly, authoritarian streak and I think they were wary of that. A good way out of it would have been to not vote in a fairly extreme right wing government but, as I said earlier, I'm not here to rake over past battles. Well, not much!

As regards following the science, I'm pleased that during Johnson's press conferences he's being flanked by epidemiologist Chris Whitty and the physician, and government's Chief Scientific Officer, Patrick Vallance. Between them they've got more letters after their names than at least three bad hands of Scrabble which, of course, means they're qualified. They're experts and that's a welcome, if long overdue, u-turn by this government. One that prided itself on not trusting experts and encouraged, successfully, much of the general public to follow them in that dangerous way of thinking.

It's also good that some of the government's more cruel and more dense ministers are either taking a back seat or being, essentially, hidden from view. The likes of Priti Patel, Michael Gove, and Jacob Rees-Mogg can stay hidden long after the coronavirus crisis is over and it will be better for every single person in the country. None of them, though, can be as egregious as former Tory and now proud Brexit Party member Ann Widdecombe who has claimed that the pandemic will be no more dangerous than AIDS.

Which has so far killed an estimated thirty-five million people. It's a point of debate if Ann Widdecombe is vile, stupid, or homophobic but the smart money says that she's all three. Ann Widdecombe is seventy-two years old and is, therefore, more at risk of succumbing to the disease than most. Every cloud, it seems, has a silver lining.

I'm fifty-one, hardly the first flush of youth but I should be okay if I contract it. I've got no serious underlying health issues which is lucky because, despite all the walking, running, and swimming I've done over the last decade - and even the vegetarian diet, I've not always led the healthiest lifestyle. I had a bit of gout earlier this year which was painful, I had sinusitis (I think) for the first time back in January, I had a tickly cough and conjunctivitis (for the first time since being a kid) a couple of weeks back, and, quite weirdly, I had a sore and swollen right foot following Saturday's walk that then moved to the left foot and then my left hand (luckily not the right hand, eh? One for the fellow home workers there), suggesting it wasn't anything to do with walking at all.

So I worried about all that and the possible onset of early arthritis too. On top of all the everyday worries about health, money, the state of global politics, loneliness, and growing old. But I've not, so far, worried as much as I thought I might. I've not gone as stir crazy as I feared. Admittedly I've barely changed out of my pajamas (except for the daily jaunt to the shop - the only time I've been leaving the flat) but I've kept myself busy with reading, catching up on television, and, to be honest, sleeping more than normal.

Best of all, by far, I've kept in touch with friends and family. Mum and Dad always ring at least once a week as it is - but Mum's upped the regularity and Dad's promised too as well. It's good to hear from them. They're both over seventy. They're both worried - about themselves and about their family and friends too. Like all of us. As things go they're in pretty good nick, it seems, and their spirits aren't too down. Unlike many of my friends parents, it appears, they're also taking advice to stay in. My dad even mentioned online shopping and looking into signing up for Netflix. A word I never imagined him saying. I still hope he never adds an n'chill to the end of it. That'd be too much.

Friends have been great. Jack, Valia, and Ian all sent messages to see how I'm doing, aware of the fact that I'm on my own and I'm prone to feeling low as it is. Adam, Ben, and Neil all rang for long chats that took in the seriousness of the times but also involved lots of laughter, and Michelle has been WhatsApping me photos of her daughter Evie doing funny things and being completely adorable which have not failed to consistently bring a smile to my face. Darren said if I was feeling alone or bored or just wanted a change of scenery I could go and stay with them.

I'm sure there have been other kind gestures too. I'm very appreciative of all of them, touched even, but, for now, I'm okay at home watching TV, doing sudokus, writing blogs (again, now my left hand has improved), and looking at social media and the news more than most people would suggest is healthy.

I've always been a news junkie (World News Today/Beyond 100 Days and Newsnight every weekday, I've not even given up on Question Time yet) and that's only increasing in isolation. Like anything it's all about getting the balance right but for for different people there are different balances, our mileages may vary, horses for courses etc; etc; Personally, I like a lot of news but I want it from trusted sources and I still trust the BBC and The Guardian far more than I do clickbait websites and people who share stories without verifying them first.

The news has been very worrying, very concerning, the last couple of weeks but that's, surely, the way it should be? I don't want a press or a television news that tells us everything's fine and to keep calm and carry on. I want some honest advice on what's best to do so that people dear to me don't get ill and die. I feel much more able to make decisions based on rational advice than I would be able to do if I put my head in the sand and pretended none of this was happening.

Although I do have to occasionally watch an episode of Brass Eye or a documentary about Picasso to distract myself. The news that's really hit home the hardest hasn't been the horror stories of people dying in hospitals in Bergamo while not being allowed visitors or even a funeral, tragic though they are. They are, as so often, the small acts of kindness enacted by people that throw the random nature of misery and destruction into such stark relief.

The few acts of cruelty and selfishness we're witnessing (step forward, again, Ann Widdecombe, Nigel Farage, Richard Branson, and that dick in the Co-Op I saw nicking a load of Ferrero Rocher) are hugely outweighed by the human capacity for kindness, altruism, and love. This is where the media, social media particularly, can be a problem. It amplifies idiocy more than it does kindness. It's fair enough to subject bands like The Stereophonics to a Twitter shaming for going ahead with gigs/mass gatherings at this time and it helps to change behaviour. But it can make us think that everyone else, except us and the ones closest to us, are idiots who are doing this all wrong.

They're not. A leaflet was delivered through mine and my neighbour's letterboxes asking if we needed help with shopping, some restaurants (at a ridiculously hard time) are handing out free food to those in need, even big supermarkets are opening an hour earlier just for older visitors. During my visit to the shops I've noticed that, bar the Ferrero Rocher guy, most people are going out of their way to both be civil and to thank the staff. Staff who don't have an option of working from home.

We're finding out what jobs and services are really needed and they are, for the most part, people in low paid work that was, until a fortnight ago, deemed low skilled. Business tycoons and people managers were never vital to running society. Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, shop staff, and carers always were. Everyone can see that now. How could there have once been people who could not?

Another wonderful example of human nature is that people are isolating and social distancing not so they don't get the virus, but so they don't spread it. They're putting others before themselves. It'd be a nice habit to stick to once this is all over. Like most people, I'm not particularly worried for myself. I'm far more worried for older people I know including my own parents. But I'm also worried for people who have that newly popular condition - 'underlying health problems' - as well as for those who have poor mental health and anxiety issues. Life's tough for them at the best of times and just because everyone else is coming in to line with them, it doesn't necessarily mean things will be feeling any easier.

I'm worried for people who need to explain to their frightened children what's happening. I'm worried for children growing up at such an abnormal time. We need to be honest with kids but at the same time try not to scare them. Being a parent looks fraught with angst at the best of times. It looks really tough now.

These are the things I think about when, already long hours into my pajama wearing part of the day, I go to bed at night. I worry what news the next morning will bring but I also wonder and hope if some of it may be positive. Everyone knows that this is going to get a lot worse and everyone knows that this is going to drag on but nobody knows for certain how much worse it will get or how long it will drag on for. We hope for a cure, a miracle of sorts even, but we know, deep down, that that's going to take time so we know we have to brace ourselves for a tough few weeks and months ahead at the very least.

As that goes on my concerns and thoughts may change. All of ours may. But now what I'm missing most isn't the talks, it's not the gigs, it's not the theatre, not the cinema, not even the walks, and not even the pubs. It's my friends and my family I go to those places with and do those things with. It's great, as I wrote earlier, to text, to WhatsApp, to call, and (earlier today) a really lovely video call. But none of them come close to quality face to face time with people you love and care about.

I knew that anyway but the absence of it right now makes it ever more poignant. How I look forward to it all being over and sitting with my friends in a beer garden, walking through country fields, telling jokes, laughing, hugging people, and spinning my friend's four year old daughter in the air.

I've spent almost my entire adult life getting over hang ups about physical intimacy, hugging, complimenting people and allowing myself to be close to them. Temporarily, and necessarily, I both accept and act upon the need to suspend that but when, and it could be a very long when, this is all over I don't want to return to a world of keyboard warriors attacking other strangers on the Internet, I don't wanna go back to division, hatred, and blame. I want to see more unity, I want to see more love, and I want to see green fields and blue seas. I want to hold somebody's hand and watch the sun go down together and think that in the most dangerous crisis that ever affected us we stuck together and we got through it. That may be beyond our control. We don't know. But I know we have to do what we can to make sure it's a real possibility. If that means cancelling a few gigs, walks, family visits, or even weddings, holidays, Euro 2020, and Wrestlefuckingmania then so be it.

I repeat:- if we can't come out of this terrifying and unprecedented, in our lifetimes, situation with more humanity and more love for each other then love and humanity no longer exist and we'll deserve every single thing that happens to us. The planet will be better off without us. We can't choose what happens to us but we can choose how we respond to it. We can respond with hate or we can respond with love. I choose love. Love and pajamas.