Tuesday February 16

Maja:

Today I am going to take the corona test for travel. In this time of Corona, travel is hard and there’s a lot of things that just need to be done correctly in the right order to avoid breaking any of the new corona laws. These laws have just appeared in several countries and are subject to change without any given notice, so it is really hard to know if you will be able to actually go through with any of your plans. So right now I have to take several new things into consideration. For one, it is the new demand to have a travel certificate that shows that you’re fit for travel with no sign of Covid. To travel from Sweden to the UK, you need something called a RT-PCR test which must be taken less than 72 hours from arrival in the UK. My flight will arrive at 5 PM UK time on friday. So that means that I need to take it later than 6 PM Swedish time today. I book a time for 6:50 PM just before that centre closes for the day and hope I’ll get the certificate in time before takeoff. These tests are surprisingly expensive. A trip to London isn’t that cheap, but if you account for these tests as well, any trip abroad suddenly becomes noticeably more expensive. The price is around 1300 SEK, which is about 130 euro. 

I arrive at the centre in time, after getting lost all over the mall it is in. It’s a little hole in the wall kind of store, with no visible personnel. It’s really hard to see that the place really exists, but after walking past it about 4 times I finally notice it. I have to call a button and then a man in a labcoat comes out. He greets me and say that today’s delivery to the lab have already gone, do you want to take the test anyway? This means that I won’t get the results until the next night, but the taken test time will remain the same. I’m OK with that, I don’t want to come back here and it’ll be in time for my flight anyway so I go in to take the test. He checks my passport and we walk into the inner room which looks like a mix between a laboratory and an examination room. There are steel countertops with lab-like objects on them. He brings the testing kit which contains a test tube and a little object that looks like a small pipe cleaner. It’s made of steel and has a small brush at the end of the stick. I’m asked to tilt my head slightly backwards and he slowly sticks that horrifying object into my nose. It hurts so bad that I jolt and he drags it out. Ouch! Are you done, I ask. No, I didn’t get in quite far enough, he answers. Oh no. This really hurts. I tilt my head backwards once again and he goes in the other nostril. And he just continues. Deeper and deeper. Until he reaches what feels like the place where the nostril connects to the mouth. There he stops, turns the object around and takes it out. Finally. My nose runs, and it hurts in both nostrils. I take a tissue and blow it out. This really wasn’t very pleasant at all but it is done now. I walk back to my car, and I can feel that that object has been in my nose for at least an hour afterwards.

Mark:

Damn. I’ve just realised I really really want Maja to come. What prompted this? She takes the corona test today and if it comes out positive, no trip. OK. I hear you, and I’m telling myself the same thing: This is all purely about helping someone out and offering a friend a safe space in a difficult time. But the test thing and the prospect of a positive result and a consequent cancellation has suddenly made me feel very different about the situation. I really really want this to happen much more than I thought I did. I have no idea what to make of that. And results won’t be known until sometime Thursday. Of course a negative result is totally expected but you really just never know. It doesn’t help when Maja writes things like, ‘I don’t think I have corona.’ That’s like saying I’m sure I did, in an attempt to persuade someone you really did do that important thing. But I know she has already had corona so it won’t come back again will it? These are the kinds of things that are swirling in my mind all the time right now. I’m sure she’s thinking the same.

We also start checking official travel guidance and the like and Maja comes up with the line that Sweden is advising against travel to the UK right now. Oh dear. The elements really are quite against this.

Me and Sarah manage a rehearsal today, and we really make good progress on putting together our little show. It looks like it will be something of a five song medley with me coming in and out on bass with backing tracks used for one of the songs, and also a little a capella going on. There’s a nice little moment she’s given me where I take a solo in between one of the pieces. When I finish my solo today she loves it so much that she says, ‘That is no interlude. We’re starting the whole thing with that.’ Wow. 

It’s a seriously fun project to be working on and great to have a real musical focus especially now while my focus is being pulled all over the place, but mainly in the direction of Sweden. The goal for rehearsal right now is to have a tight 15 minute show to take out on this London road when it finally reopens for business. We’re also planning to record it for Sarah to send off to some of her contacts. Apparently she can get some funding that way if it all works out. I have no idea what funding means and I’m not asking, but Sarah’s contacts go deep into the A list of society and entertainment so whatever she shakes out of this could be quite interesting. Today we manage a full run through of what it could look like which is really cool. Still quite rough in parts, but we have something that feels like one complete piece. On Thursday we’re going to tighten up a few more details and then start trying to get this thing recorded.

It also helps take my mind off how slowly the minutes have been ticking by since Friday. This isn’t at all being helped by waiting for the results of the corona test. Thursday feels a hell of a long time away right now.

Well, it almost takes my mind off things. When we come to a close and settle down for our post rehearsal hang, Sarah says that as well as things have gone today, she can’t help notice that I seem a little bit distracted and maybe a touch hyper. She says she can see a light in my eyes shining even brighter than usual. This is unfortunate because I’m not supposed to be feeling anything, let alone showing it. I decide to open up, although it feels really strange to be actually articulating things. OK, I say. There is a girl thing going on. ‘I knew it,’ she half shrieks. ‘No no no. It’s not like that,’ I’m very quick to point out. I tell her about the helping out thing and the Maja coming thing, and the online chats and how they’ve led her to confide in me, which has led me to offer a way out, which has led us to getting really deep into, well, just about everything really. And feelings come out of that and I have no idea what to do with them. I don’t know if she feels the same way and I don’t know if I really feel anything anyway. And even if I do, I really don’t want to. I tell her that this is not an excited boy is going to meet girl thing. This is a serious situation that I’m supposed to be helping out in, not getting all, you know. Sarah just looks all coy and gigglish. Excited even. But I can think of few less appropriate words or emotions right now than excited. I just want to be calm about all this, welcome Maja in and hope that whatever I think I’m feeling just dies down. There really is no place for it here.

Sarah suggests bringing her along to the next rehearsal and maybe even letting her jam with us, possibly even becoming a part of what we’re doing. I drop cold water all over that idea saying, ‘For a start, her playing is just nowhere up to any kind of level ready for us.’ With that Sarah seems to let go of the thought, but is still keen for me to bring her to rehearsal for a hang out. Me and Sarah are clearly in social mode now so I check my phone for a few messages that I saw come in during rehearsal, and yep, there are one or two from Maja. I tell her we’ve just finished, and she says a hi to Sarah which Sarah just absolutely loves, saying she now feels connected to the story. Whatever that could mean. Sarah, there’s no story. I’m meeting this girl at the airport in a few days. We may hug, we may not. Then she’s going to come to my house and have a chill and a safe space and I’m going to carry on with my things while doing some shopping for her and maybe listen to and share a few thoughts. That’s it. There is no story.

Later when I get to message/chat to Maja a little more, she says she’s thrilled at the idea of coming along to a rehearsal or two and having an opportunity to listen and see how the pros do it. Yeah, that will be kinda cool. I really have a thing about people not directly involved being at rehearsals. If it’s ever in my control this is something I just do not allow. But I get the feeling Maja will be just fine and if Sarah’s cool with having her around then so am I.