Andy Richardson: Covid-19 has given us opportunity to reflect on things that are important
We have turned into a nation of bakers.
While once our idea of a good bake was a Sunblest medium white sliced, now the nation can’t move for home bakers dribbling about their own starter culture. The French and Italians were once considered the world’s best bakers – but not anymore. Twitter is awash with perfectly aerated British loaves. When Covid-19 ends, we won’t be returning to factories and offices, we’ll all be opening our own deliver-to-your-door bakery businesses.
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Easter is upon us and the churches will be even emptier than usual this weekend. The church suffers from increasingly small numbers of attendees; at the last count about 10 per cent of the public regularly went, though among those aged 18-to-24 the figure was just one per cent. Easter is the Church of England’s Glastonbury; the opportunity to draw a big crowd. But while shoppers rush to buy non-essential chocolate Easter eggs, dust and cobwebs fill pulpits and pews.
We don’t know what we have until what we have has gone and Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to reflect on the things that are important. Many have realised the gaps left in their lives by the things about which they once moaned. Like going work, putting the bins out, visiting the shops, taking a walk and spending time with friends and family. When Covid-19 has gone, we’ll be able to do all of those things. We’ll also be able to cough in public without 50 people turning round to judge.
We have always been a nation of queue-ers. From Christmas to the weekly food shop, from the butcher to the queues for FA Cup tickets. Now we have perfected the art. We stand sentry-straight, 2m apart, stretching the length of the supermarket car park as we wait to buy our eggs and flour.
Chefs, sportsmen and entertainers are going to be flummoxed when all of this is over. Many have taken to social media to share their genius with legions of adoring fans. Chefs cook perfect poached eggs in dinky videos, sportsmen offer try-this-at-home routines while entertainers record scratchy-at-best versions of songs that sound much better in the studio or live arena. When they once more have a discerning audience, they’ll have to raise their game. And chefs will perhaps wonder what happened to their audience of adoring Twitter fans when their head waiter is telling them to get the order out now for table 13.
