{"id":4556,"date":"2020-03-24T11:23:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T11:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/?p=4556"},"modified":"2026-01-13T00:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:02:26","slug":"first-day-of-national-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/2020\/03\/24\/first-day-of-national-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"First day of National Lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

So here we are, first day of national lockdown here in the UK. How are things in your part of the world? Round here (South East Hampshire) things seem eerily quiet this morning. Our street is a sleepy little cul-de-sac and pretty quiet even at busy times. But we are 300 metres from the main Brighton line, 400m from the London Waterloo line and 600m from the main A\/M27 Southampton-Brighton trunk road. Standing in the garden during working hours we can normally hear the rumble of trains and the woosh of distant traffic. Seems today there’s hardly anything out there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholderUsually this time of day we might expect to see some high level aircraft, usually on their way between London Gatwick Airport and various holiday destinations in Spain. We also expect the occasional Chinook helicopter, as we are located between several military installations. But today the skies are quiet. According to ADSB Flight Tracker, there’s nothing flying within 50km of here.<\/p>\n

Not affected my working life much. I work from home 99% time anyway. Did quite a fairly major upgrade to our IT infrastructure last year so my wife could work from home too – rather glad I did now. I hate going shopping and I’m too mean to go to the pub\/movies etc. So nothing to miss there. Rather concerned about my elderly mother though. Fortunately my brother lives 600 about metres down the road from her and we’re all regularly in touch electronically.<\/p>\n

Biggest change here probably is having to axe the model photography. Closed the studio two weeks ago and won’t reopen for at least another 3 months. Temporarily repurposed the space for other things. I will miss that part of my life a lot. But as my wife pointed out, “No one is going to die because you hang your camera up for a few weeks.<\/em>”<\/p>\n