Because of the current lockdown situation I can’t really be posing the cards anywhere cool this week. Unless you’d want them in the empty pasta shelves at Sainsburys but I’m sure there’s some sort of virussy issue with me doing that. So sorry for not being in a neon museum or a graveyard or outside the Houses of Parliament for these for the forseeable future, but I hope my bedlinen is classy enough.

I also really want to say thank you for the amount of you that reached out this week. I know I didn’t respond to many messages, I couldn’t find the right words to adequately express my gratitude and just needlessly stressed myself out. I don’t want anyone to think I have taken any kindness shown towards me for granted – in fact, in a time where isolation has become overbearingly pervasive, it meant so much more than you can imagine. I am improving and I am grateful that as soon as I sounded an alarm at the right people, help was quick to come – a charity has an online support group and, after a chat with a support worker, they’ve arranged a volunteer to assist me with any jobs I need doing that have become overwhelming in my current situation. My GPs surgery arranged a higher prescription very fast so I now have meds at a more effective, albeit more side-effecty dose, assistance if I need it, and a local charity keeping an eye on me. I’m not lost and invisible in the system anymore.

Whilst the disconnect making machines ‘speak’ to me has lessened, text based interaction is still a lot more difficult that visual, and so I want to say a proper cheers to all those RAoCers who participated in the video chat yesterday. I cannot describe how happy that made me. It was a lovely TWO AND A HALF HOURS of solidarity all the way from the USA and Chile, across Europe, to Japan. I felt like I was breathing again. I felt like I was feeling like me again.

Enough of the sappy stuff. My deliveries have been very sporadic – maybe once a week if that. But I am reassured that the mail I am sending out is reaching the intended recipient OK. Royal Mail likely has a backlog, especially for places like central London which are highly populated, with fewer staff and more safety restrictions making their jobs more lengthy and arduous than normal. I am grateful to the people risking their health and safety just to deliver us all pieces of sanity and comfort from the outside world.

u/libertyprogrammer celebrated RAoC’s birthday with a card of Monet’s Garden at Giverny. True story, I have a second cousin that had a dream that she should change her name to Giverny Monet and basically become an arty hippie. I think that may have been an excuse though because her original name was Gerda and, frankly, yeah I’d change that too. Happy Birthday RAoC! Sorry it fell in such a rough time.

A gorgeous handmade card from u/frogreads arrived and I particularly enjoy the little rips in the newsprint to reveal the picture behind. I had asked for a local true crime story and despite her claiming that there ain’t much crime going on in Singapore, she then proceeded to tell me about the local version of Sweeney Todd where a church janitor was supposedly murdered by his wife and accomplices and turned into curry. So for a country with not much crime, it seems that when it happens, they go big.

u/writeen sent me Adrien Vermont’s representation of a jaguar. I’ll admit, jaguars confuse me – the term seems to be used interchangeably with panther but why? Well, apparently, whilst a jaguar is a specific type of leopard-like South American cat, the term ‘panther’ just refers to a colour morph of any cat and therefore is also used to refer to pumas in North America or leopards in Asia – basically any cat that has a genetic variance making it almost black or even albino, that tends to go hand in hand with larger size. So there is no one cat that is a panther. Panthers are basically the edgelords of the big cat world, trying a bit too hard to be different and special.

u/dhwoth greets me from Indonesia with a postcard of the Tanah Lot Temple. Bizarrely the postcard also had a Mae West quote printed on the back – ‘Too much of a good thing can be taxing’ – and I am amused and delighted by this because I cannot for the life of me understand the link between a Holy Indonesian Temple and Mae West.

In another celebration of RAOC’s birthday, u/ninajyang sent an orchid birthday card and tells me her favourite cake is an almond one. Almond cakes seem to be an interestingly popular favourite here on RAoC (apart from those allergic I suppose). I guess we all prefer things that are a little nutty. Ninajyang also included two blank cards, a handful of stickers and then, my fave, a bespoke RAoC sticker which shall adorn the front of my card folder.

u/dirtytightsdelano sent a package, not technically a card, but the packaging was card so I’m counting it (count it pleeeeeeeease, she sends so many cards that have probably got lost). From her Mum’s company, I now have two craft projects to focus my thoughts and time on and possibly in the near future I will have a cactus keychain and a cactus banner. Or a keychain and banner that with a little explanation someone might see were intended to be cacti. As someone without outdoor space that kills all plants, I am so pleased to have unkillable plants I can keep inside.

Lastly, u/bananacreampie sent many wise and kind words my way, and I am incredibly grateful to her for sharing her kindness with me in a time that is taxing for absolutely everyone. You are a truly special soul to reach out in such a way to support a stranger. I hope you are also finding ways to find peace.

Wash your hands, stay safe, stay home and protect the NHS! (Or your equivalent medical body)