Monday 21st September 2020.

I reckon masks are here to stay for the next few months AT LEAST. But I haven't got used to them yet. I forget that people can't see what I'm doing with my face, and having a smile go unnoticed or ignored does make me feel a bit sensitive, until I realise people can only see my eyes. 

So, you speak more, right? Say 'thanks' when someone holds the door open for you instead of just smiling at them? But then all that comes out beyond the mask is 'thmmmks' and you just get a very strange look, from their own eyes, poking out from above their own mask.

We're all going to end up with way better diction by the end of this. Trying to order a white Americano in a coffee shop is becoming a bit of a joke. I don't know what you skinny, decaf, mocha-latte-frappu-cino people do - go for a simpler order maybe? Or maybe there'll be a massive increase in little signs that you hold up for the barista to read? 

Also, there's a new fashion among the secondary school kids round me - it seems it's now cool not only to wear their trousers under their bum (HOW do they stay up??), their rucksack slung rakishly over one shoulder, and swagger around the pavement like a gangsta, but also to don a face mask, hook it over both ears, and then wear it under your chin. Like a new accessory.  Chin-masks are all the rage!