Welcome back Aberdeen… nice to see the Granite City opening up now the local lockdown is easing.
I know, that’s easy for me to say. While everyone in the city limits has been grounded without a pub or restaurant to lift their spirits, us chaps in the Shire have been free to grab a half-price meal on the government, quaff a pint or two as the mood takes us and drive off into the sunset if we feel like it.
But I didn’t like Aberdeen being out of bounds, not for one minute. I am painfully aware of the huge hit this delivered to businesses already hurting because of the pandemic.
It is screamingly obvious that any hurdles on the road to normality are painful and damaging for Aberdeen and its people. Aberdeenshire depends so heavily on all of you for both work and play.
However, let’s be crystal clear, the local lockdown was necessary to stop the virus from spreading further and putting more people’s lives and health at risk.
For a while, at the start of the Aberdeen lockdown, a lot of us around Stonehaven were conjecturing that we weren’t too far behind in joining our urban pals, given the outbreaks being reported nearby.
We didn’t like the idea, but we were prepared to accept a lockdown if it came.
And we also knew it had to be in place until the Scottish Government’s expert advisers said it was safe to be lifted. It was disappointing, to say the least, to see city council leaders railing against lockdown continuing because it was bad for business.
We need a united front and a strong, consistent, unequivocal message about the need to stand together to fight Covid-19 and save lives.
Anyone in an elected position who muddies that water and puts doubt in the minds of the public over following the rules needs to take a long look at themselves in the mirror.
Or in this case, take a look at the pelters they got on social media, where it was clear the people of Aberdeen knew exactly what they were being asked to do, why they were doing it and then just got on and did it.
It was a big ask, but Aberdeen came up trumps. Thanks.
As the city comes out of this, there is little doubt people will remember why it happened in the first place. Yes, we’re looking at you lot who decided to cram together for the sake of getting into bars.
Hopefully that lesson is now well and truly taken on board and we can all work together to beat this pandemic and safely begin to get our lives back.
PM even mismanaged his Scottish holiday
What did we all learn from Boris Johnson cutting short his Scottish holiday after a national tabloid outed his whereabouts?
Well, he isn’t any respecter of boundaries – given he climbed a farmer’s fence to pitch a tent in a field next to his holiday cottage. Nor does he know how to tidy up after himself, given reports his minders had to clear campfire detritus.
My takeaway? The UK is being run by a man who can’t even organise a camping trip.
I gained a lot from loss of broadband
My world was switched off last Thursday.
Alexa said “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble understanding”, my news feeds were hourglassing and Twitter and Facebook stalled.
Welcome to the reality of losing your internet connection. Not just me, but most of the area. Which is helpful when you are working from home.
OpenReach needed to shoogle a wire somewhere nearby, but while I waited, I went to find somewhere that was still connected.
Fortunately, to my delight, the Old Pier Coffee House in Stoney was. I was also delighted to discover they do an excellent Croque Madame and fine Americano. And where have Portuguese tarts been all my life?
I had a fine feed, was able to work and was almost reluctant to leave. But there’s a limit to how long you can steal broadband.
Which just goes to show you may lose your connection to the world, but it frees you up to discover brilliant things on your doorstep. Hmm, can you unshoogle fibre wires?
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.