I thought it might be nice to have a weekend. That is time off , do nice things, watch a good film , eat nice food. Not that in my old life I did all these things. Mostly I just worked because it passed the time.

In the “good old days” I would go to the market on a saturday morning in Marconia , getting the bus there and back .Going on the bus was half the fun. Then that got a bit expensive and I went to the burger restaurant with friends where you could share a litre of wine and have various combinations of burgers ( made on the premises I think) or other homemade dishes plus share a big plate of chips and it cost around €5. On Sundays in the very distant past I often used to go to the beach for a walk with James and then to the restaurant at the Esso garage. I never had even one bad time there.The food was always good and the staff were lovely. I miss that a lot.

However it’s been a pretty good Saturday. I even spoke to someone on my way back from shopping . Now I am back to enough food for 2 weeks. That feels safer. And a walk carrying a very heavy rucksack equals today’s exercise.

Yesterday it was announced online that there was someone in Pisticci with the virus. If I understood correctly they are already in hospital in Potenza and their contacts have been traced and isolated. That was a little scary. That is the first case in town. Today I saw an interview with someone saying how the danger was not over and it was important to still stay home. It was comforting to see the queue of women outside the supermarket all keeping a distance and wearing masks. Though some of the men unloading a lorry nearby didn’t have masks. And a man joining the queue also wasn’t wearing one.

There is definitely a different feeling about now.

I had two good chats with my sisters this morning. That has been one of the benefits of this time. It would be good to keep it up.

My painted flowers are all varnished now so should be safe from the rain forecast next week. And I can start my portrait.

I think my white paint nearly got delivered last night. I had a phone call from the delivery man who said he would be round straight away. 3 hours later he still had not arrived. I messaged him ( less confusing) but no answer. Will try again on Monday.

I considered painting my floor this afternoon as it looks pretty awful. It was meant to be a temporary surface a year ago. I have pot of terracotta floor paint in the cupboard but it’s always seemed like a big job so I haven’t got round to it yet.

I thought I might paint a little corner and see what it looked like and how well it covered . I wasn’t particularly impressed by the coverage but it certainly dried quickly. I think I might do it next weekend or…. sometime.So I used the dregs of my remaining white paint and mixed up a similar colour and painted over the worst bits. So now it looks merely badly painted but not so much dirty.

I am looking forward to the summer. Even if life is still restricted the warmth and sunshine makes a difference. And a kind friend sent me a payment in advance for a portrait today so I have at least one commission to do.

On days like this it’s very hard to believe that there is a pandemic killing people all over the world.

And now its wine time and I bought olives. Hurray! And I might treat myself to an episode of the Durrells or Vera tonight.

And as I haven’t painted the floor properly I don’t have creep downstairs in the middle of the night and hop , skip and jump to avoid standing on wet paint on the way to collect my midnight feast.