The message from my friendly robot was late today: only three days to go. My advice to those who are about to embark on Self-isolation, which is likely to include a huge number of people as Covid spikes, is as follows:-

Self-isolation is vastly much worse than lockdown because you are doing it on your own, whereas everyone else is going about their lives more or less as normal. I found it an unexpected hardship not being able to go out to buy a loaf of bread, go to the cash machine, let alone go for a walk or a bicycle ride. And two weeks is a surprisingly long time.

I discovered the best possible antidote yesterday in reading The Alternative Guide to London Boroughs and the new edition of Francis Russell’s Places in Italy: A Private Grand Tour. A day spent travelling in the mind was an incredibly beneficial compensation for physical imprisonment, and I strongly recommend it.