Lockdown rules were eased a little at the start of the week.
Here are 20 things I've noticed since, on my walks from home.
1) The sun's disappeared, dammit. 2) Bow Roundabout is busier than it used to be. Traffic levels had been nudging up gradually throughout May, but only this week has it felt almost busy again. Shame, as I'd been getting used to crossing the A12 slip roads without the need to pick up my pace. Yesterday I spotted a) a queue of traffic stretching all the way up from the dual carriageway, b) rush hour cyclists jockeying for position at the lights c) a couple of policemen keeping an eye on circulation. Unfamiliar sights, familiar rhythms. 3) The McDonald's restaurant at the Bow Roundabout reopened on Tuesday (the deep clean started last week). It has reduced hours, a reduced menu and a maximum payment of £25. It's also drive-through only, so I can't use it. A labyrinth made from cones and chains snakes across the car park in an attempt to keep as many hungry vehicles off the main road as possible.
4) Pudding Mill Lane DLR station is no longer a ghost town. It nearly is, but yesterday I was staggered to see two people coming down one staircase after a train arrived, and simultaneously another passenger coming down the other. It could still be a very long time before the daily pile of Metro newspapers disappears, though. 5) There are more cyclists on the Greenway this week, and they look like they're aiming somewhere specific rather than simply heading out for a ride. Simultaneously there are fewer joggers, as if those that used to be out panting now have somewhere else to be. 6) The gates of Bobby Moore Academy (Primary) are open again. First thing in the morning a senior teacher stands to one side, ready to do some welcoming, while another member of staff in mask and disposable gloves awaits behind a table stocked with hand sanitiser. Yesterday all was quiet until a mother and her small child arrived on bikes and a convoluted handover took place. Sanitiser was squirted. Teacher and pupil rubbed their hands for several seconds, one modelling good practice for the benefit of the other. The child then picked up her bag and ran inside, ready for the abnormalities of the day ahead. 7) Normally the swingbench in the Great British Garden is empty. Yesterday a young couple in full-on face masks were rocking gently and giggling, like a creepy scene from Black Mirror. 8) This week several lawns around the Olympic Park have tipped over into expanses of arid yellow. Other lawns in the park have the benefit of under-turf irrigation, as you can see sometimes when sprinklers poke up through the grass and let rip, but areas without this perk are really suffering.
9) People are paying to board buses again. Not many bus routes, and still not many people, but front door boarding is again a thing. Most buses I've walked past are only a little busier, in many cases still almost empty, but route 25 continues to nudge the limits of maximal social distancing. I saw one bus that looked like it might have been over the 20 passenger limit but I couldn't count them properly (and I suspect neither could the driver). 10) The flood of people pouring out of Stratford station at rush hour is the biggest crowd I've walked through for some time, although that's not saying much. Most are masked. All are easily dodged. A one-way system is in operation, forcing anyone seeking entry to undertake a long schlep above the tracks to the Westfield side. 11) Building sites are not noticeably busier this week. Those around the Olympic Park have been operating for weeks. Some never closed. 12) Now that lockdown rules have changed, Hackney council have attached a brand new notice to the bridge leading onto the East Marsh. Picnics are welcome in the park. BBQs are not permitted. Picnic weather has alas been and gone. 13) Ruckholt Road is getting harder to negotiate. I've got used to ambling across its six lanes without immediate fear of peril, but this week the stream of vans and trucks and cars and yet more vans requires a lot more waiting around.
14) In Victoria Park a sign saying "Walk your litter home" has appeared on some of the litter bins. Over the weekend these were full-to-seriously-overflowing after lazy picnickers abandoned their takeaway feasts, but the return to work and less clement weather seems to have solved that. 15) For those who've been missing better coffee than they can make at home, various establishments around Here East have opened up again. The busiest is The Breakfast Club, whose takeaway customers are taking away their drinks and brunch no further than a few metres. The barista at Saint Espresso, by contrast, has virtually no footfall but waits patiently just in case. 16) At Mossbourne Riverside Academy all the gates have been numbered and labelled, some as entry, some as exit. Yellow and black tape divides the upper playground in two, the lower playground ditto. Just before 10am a member of staff checks the hand sanitiser stations are ready, then teachers lead out their pupils in very small groups (more the size you'd expect at a prep school than the state sector) for a socially distanced playtime. 17) The builders of New Hackney Wick, of whom there are increasingly many, can often be seen heading out in search of refreshment. Some cluster round the van at the end of Wallis Road, awaiting hot or cold fillings. Some sit in a van with their mouth round a Ginsters. None frequent the hipster joint by the station, so the pavement there is quieter. 18) This week the wall nearest to Hackney Wick station has had Black Lives Matter graffiti sprayed across it, as you'd expect (and indeed hope).
19) Roman Road Market has not returned, despite legislation saying it now can. This leaves the roadway clear for walking, rather than the usual squeeze between bowls of fruit and five quid blouses, which is reassuring. Maybe a quarter of the shops are open, the remainder shuttered awaiting the dawn of Non Essential Monday. 20) By far the longest queue in Roman Road is for the cashpoint - a dozen spaced-out souls for whom the contactless revolution has not yet arrived. In second place is the Iceland supermarket, and in third place Percy Ingle - dispensing welcome bakery snacks. Most of those out shopping are carrying unbranded bags of provisions, lightly filled, for immediate consumption. None will be popping to a garden centre or car showroom any time soon.
