My First Post

My Isolation Blog

Hi I am John Rolfe, until yesterday I was bobbling along quite happy, working reasonable hard running a taxi and trying various other ideas to make money online, I have to mention my taxi boss Andy who I have been working with nearly 15 years and is a quite amazing bubbly person.

I have been looking forward to my next trip to the Philippines, meeting my best mate Sandy and my friends there on some of the best islands in the world. Here I try to swim every day at Virgin Active and having a coffee in the club with my friends Peter, Andy and Vince, and the staff at the club who are all so friendly and make going there such a lovely experience. Of course, I have my family here my daughter Vicky and her husband Everol with my grandson Moses who is two and half years old, such a bundle of energy and fun.

My age is 75 years I am 6” 2” tall and had a shock this morning and found I am now 114.8 kilos and 29 BMI. So I am always thinking I should lose some weight and that will help my blood pressure which is under control with medication.

All that is just a quick introduction to my life, that was until yesterday, being in the at-risk group the government has issued guidelines that say people my age have to isolate for 14 weeks. So yesterday I gave my taxi back (which incidentally is my personal transport as well ), and retired to my flat I have paid my rent for the next three weeks, so have a roof over my head until then. I went to my regular shops yesterday to try and get a loaf of bread and some eggs but no luck, oh I did manage to buy 4 scotch eggs, very cheap £1.00 for two in Marks, and a cauliflower cheese ( my supper last night ), so now my fridge is looking a bit empty I have enough veg for a few days of homemade soup, and some packs of rice and pasta courtesy of my daughter. So I am probably ok for a week, and when you look at the refugees in the middle east, I am very lucky.

Until yesterday I was doing a government school contract bringing in £475 a week, that sounds pretty good I can hear you say, but bear in mind I have to pay £200 rent on my car a week, 20% commission on this contract to my company 848 cars which is £95 a week and probably my weekly diesel comes in at roughly £130 so for 20 hours a week I am making £50, £2.50 an hour. So until the last two weeks, I have been making my money up working on our taxi circuit, doing airport runs and general taxi work around the town, but for the last two weeks I have been increasingly dropping this work because of the virus and my concern about catching it especially regarding my age and my family.

So here am I today quite a bit of debt, no income apart from £140 a week pension, and my rent of £150 plus all the usual expenses council tax, water, electricity, insurance, not much food in my fridge, well I will be alright for a few days,. Not getting my exercise the gym is now closed, not seeing my family, no trip on the horizon. All the Government websites the FSB website not working and no idea how I am going to survive the next 14 weeks.