Well, here I am on my first evening - pretty surreal and not really sure how I feel.

I had a good chat to the others on the bus coming here, it was nice to feel less alone in what I was heading into, even though I guess I won’t ever see them again (we all have different get out dates). Two of them had tested negative after having close contact with the same person (one’s boyfriend, the other one a friend) who tested positive so they were feeling pretty ripped off about being sent here. The other woman owns a gym where a member was tested positive.

Overall my room is perfectly fine it’s really just the bed and chair that I am bothered about as they are the only furniture, so when not standing I have to be on one or the other and they are both super uncomfortable. I think though if this is my biggest problem I can count myself lucky. The view is quite nice, so I moved a table to the window and will do my work with a view. The ceiling is high enough to use my skipping rope which is an unexpected bonus! I have tried to make it feel as nice as possible, putting things away and in their right places. The dinner had some very weird looking meat that I didn’t eat but some perfectly acceptable spaghetti and vegetables so I ate those. I think I will be eating a lot of Pasta and Rice looking at the menu. I am glad I brought oats to make porridge (there IS a kettle in the room!) as the breakfasts are all kind of crazy. Some of them I ordered just to see what they are e.g. “Chicken Pizza in Cream Sauce”.

I chatted to the other half from his hospital bed, he is holding up ok so far, has barely left his bed (not that he can go anywhere), slept in, played video games, ate half a packet of chocolate biscuits, standard day really. He has been provided with comically short pajamas (these are the sort of things I assume we will talk about now, as “what did you get up to today” won’t really apply for a while). The guy he is sharing with is early 60s, retired textile dealer, speaks good English and is quite nice. Sadly his wife also tested positive and isn’t doing quite as well, and they aren’t even in the same hospital as each other which seems pretty rough.

So I head off to bed to attempt to sleep on this block of wood, feeling ok but glad they didn’t pick me up til late today, so I get to wake up to my countdown clock saying 12 days to go (not that I am counting or anything).