Not so solitary confinement.

Thursday, March 12 : ‘Schools will close as of Monday, business will stay open but take your precautions and elections on Sunday are maintained.’

That was my world 5 days ago; Friday I went to work, Friday night I had drinks with friends, Saturday brunch, Sunday I was supposed to have a friend come visit for a few days, we had restaurant reservations, plans to visit Paris’ main attractions, it was life almost as usual… 5 days… maybe I was not taking this seriously enough yet…

Today, March 18, we’re talking of a complete lockdown, curfews, forced to work from home for the next 4-5 weeks, we’re going to start needing a justification to leave the house, there’s talk of a full confinement… 5 days that’s how quickly one’s reality can change.

Of course, I am fully aware that this is nothing compared to those who are fighting the illness, or who have lost someone or who work in an over crowded healthcare facility and are trying to keep it together; but it’s just simply surreal how quickly all of our foundations can be shaken, how quickly our life is almost no longer our own.  5 days ago, I could fly to anywhere in the world, I could hop on a train and have a weekend by the sea overdosing on lobster and wine, or go to the opera in Budapest, champagne in Reims, or beer and fries in Brussels, and now I might need a permission slip to cross the street, not to mention something as trivial as just hugging someone has become ‘complicated’.  5 days ago, I thought I controlled every aspect of my life and now everything seems to be going towards chaos, and there’s really very little I can do.

I’m in no way complaining about the measures which are being taken, I think we’re all just trying to figure out the best thing to do, including those who have been elected to run our countries, who quite frankly probably have no clue either but, how do you prepare for something like this?  How do you fight an enemy you can’t reason or negotiate with? An enemy that you can’t even see, let alone control? And who is not actually doing any of this ‘maliciously’, it’s just being what it is, a virus… Surreal all just very surreal.

And then, suddenly the 6-hour flight separating me from home that I use to shrug off as 'nothing', not only seemed out of reach but virtually impossible, and it made me feel nothing more than completely isolated on a desolate island of 10 million people in one of the world's epicenters.

What to do?  With no time to really think of what’s right or wrong,  of that I should or shouldn’t do, I took the first available train and took refuge in more familiar ground and went to joint my knight in shinning armour in Belgium ; and it’s crazy how having just one person, one very special person albeit, with you can make everything so much better.   

Grateful not to be completely alone in  this forced isolation, thank you Jeroen!

Let’s keep those we love and ourselves safe!  

Good luck and good confinement!