Well it’s a funny old time for Probus members, and for all the rest of the population. We’re not just talking about the weather now, or Brexit – the main topic of conversation has become the Coronavirus

It seems a bit of a ‘false dawn’ at the moment, with nothing concrete happening on the local health front, but nothing else apart from the virus featuring on the TV and the Web. 

I gather that before WW2 ( and perhaps before WW1 as well) actually kicked off there was a lot of speculation about whether there was going to be a war. Later this moved to ‘it’ll all be over by Christmas’, and then people dug in for the long haul that it turned out to be.

Hopefully this virus will be on the milder end of predictions, won’t last too long, or recur in subsequent years – but it does seem to have been accepted that if it doesn’t kill a lot of people in the UK it will still cause a lot of misery and disruption for quite a time.

Probus has already had to cancel one of our meetings, and our AGM, due next week, has now been deferred until further notice. The committee is discussing what actions to take about future activities – meetings, walks and events like our planned trip to Tennants on April 29th, as well as the intended follow up monthly visits to The Coach and Horses for agreeable lunches. It’s difficult to sit far enough apart in a Pub for virus safety and still carry on a good conversation!

With Probus forming an important part of many of our lives, the loss of regular activities with fellow members would badly diminish our social lives – though the last thing that we’d want is to put any of our friends in any danger.

It’s tough to realise that we are the main ‘at risk’ group – likely to get a dangerous dose if we do get exposed to the little ******* er.

Ironically it’s our own family and friends that are the big risk to our health – so that makes taking care of the grandchildren a bit tricky! If this goes on for more than a few months we’ll be in the holiday season, and may have to cancel / defer any trips that we’ve got booked.

One of my friends at a Health Club I go to regularly (ironically that’ll now be a likely source of infection rather than of health if the virus gets established!) refers jokingly to the weekly schedule of retired people as being a ’seven day weekend’.

What are we going to do if we’re cut off from others for the sake of our health? Even the football and cricket are being cancelled! Whoa is me/us!

I suppose we should be grateful that this hasn’t had a serious impact on us so far – there are so many individuals and families already affected badly. However I feel a bit better having got that off my chest. Hope you’re OK!