Welcome to autumn! Crunchy leaves scattering the paths, cooler, darker mornings with dew glistening in the rising sun. Well at least something is normal.

‘Coronanews’ has stepped up a gear with the alert level moved to 4 as transmission of the virus increases, it felt very Game of Thrones, with warnings ‘winter is coming’ and it is set to be a tough one. But joking aside we these last few weeks have concerned me, just when things were starting to open up and return to some normality, numbers are up with transmission high.

It comes as no surprise therefore, when further measures were announced today. Office workers are to work from home if possible, hospitality services must run table service only and close by 10pm, stricter face coverings now mandatory by retail and hospitality staff, tighter exceptions on the rule of six, 15 weddings, 30 for funerals and indoor sports no longer allowed. The measures supported by an increase in fines to help enforcement. It’s not a full lockdown though, schools will stay open as well as shops and businesses. A save livelihoods approach, I only hope it saves lives too.

 Six months on from the first lockdown, we are told these restrictions are to be lived with for perhaps another six months. It just seems mad that over the summer people were being encouraged back to work and to eat out to help out. All measures to encourage us back out into society and falsely reassure us everything was okay. All just another chapter in the Covid saga.

But the British public has not lost its freedom of speech or sense of humour, with social media going crazy with satire about the government’s response to the current pandemic. One of my favourite takes on Boris Johnson speech gives our current situation some much needed humour: ‘You keep your whole self in, you send your whole self out, eat out, help out and shake it all about, you do the hokey cokey while we u-turn around, and that’s what it’s all about!’