And so the world changes. All of a sudden Dot and I, together with all other over-70s, are supposed to self-isolate to avoid an upsurge of the coronavirus among those least able to survive it. Not quite sure how this is intended to work. Already we have had a guy round to fix the cooker, and Dot has gone off to Jarrolds to get her lip waxed (after checking first that it would go ahead). We have also had newspapers delivered. Does the coronavirus stick to newspapers?

Sporting and entertainment events have been widely cancelled. The Suffolk Poetry Festival, scheduled for May, has gone, and I’m not sure we’ll be able to go to church on Sunday. Yesterday we were the last people to visit Phyllis (91) at her care home before they banned visitors. In the afternoon (pre-announcement) Dot went to a school at Worstead to have a chat with the head teacher. When she returned she joined me at Morrisons to do some food shopping. The shelves were noticeably bare. No paracetamol or toilet rolls, of course, but also not much meat.

There was an item on Facebook suggesting that ibuprofen was particularly useless against coronavirus, but paracetamol was good. This is in line with my preference anyway – my stomach really doesn’t like ibuprofen – but I suspect it may be a scam.

Phil’s birthday last Thursday seems years away. We went round in the morning to take him his card and presents, and they seemed quite cheerful, though Joy didn’t look all that well. He had just done their monthly supermarket shop; so they will be all right for a while. One good thing about all this is that so many people are anxious to help those who are isolated. A number of groups have sprung up.

On Saturday Dot and I just managed to get to St Peter Mancroft in time for a concert for peace by St Gregory’s Orchestra (conductor Martin Wyatt). They played Tschaikovsky’s 4th symphony, and it was beautifully done. Vicki was on flute, and we spoke to her afterwards. We sat next to Caren Gazley and (accidentally) behind Phil Kerrison and – in the seat in front of him – Judy. Her climate change take at St Luke’s had been cancelled, which is strange, because according to computer modelling it was going ahead. Afterwards Dot and I had a drink with Caren and Phil at Starbuck’s on the Walk.

The Sunday church service was a bit prolonged because Carrie had a lot to say about the coronavirus and how we would keep an eye on each other, as well as other people. The usual suspects added their own ideas, of course. Phil was leading and did well to keep it all going on course. Howard did one of his almost impenetrable sermons, referring to the King James version and Leviticus. I think he was born a century or two too late, but he is such a nice guy that it doesn’t matter.

He did suggest that we should behave as if we all had coronavirus (though in a mild form), but his wife pointed out that if we did, no-one would be there. I fear this may indeed be the case next week.

Still, we are having frequent FaceTime sessions with David and Chrissy, who have just enjoyed a weekend away at a very upscale (as they would say) hotel. On the minus side, it’s extremely unlikely that Oliver and Amy will be travelling to Canada for Easter. How Dave and Julia will endure self-isolation doesn’t bear thinking about.