Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do.

Two stories of people playing games.

I took a walk to the end of the street earlier and saw a group of lads playing frisbee on a quiet stretch of the road. What an ideal game for these times - it's fun, competitive, if you want it to be, and can be played from twenty feet apart. I'm surprised I haven't seen more of it. I hope I will.

I went back to work in the afternoon, and as dusk approached the peaceful quiet outside was punctured by a bunch of five lads walking near the house in a pack. They were about 19 or 20, I suppose, and couldn't have been more glued together if they tried. Tracksuits, same haircuts, a couple of themwith their hands down the front of their jocks - you know who I'm talking about. Then, bizarrely, they stopped a couple of doors down and started playing, wait for this, Scissors, Paper, Stone. Now, ask yourself when the last time you saw a group of marauding youths playing Scissors, Paper Stone was? I'm guessing you've seen people playing frisbee more recently than you've seen adults playing Scissors, Paper, Stone on the street. I couldn't work out if they were genuinely doing it for kicks or if they'd put their heads together to think of a game they could play that would infuriate people who are staying at home, avoiding contact and, you know, trying to avoid dying or killing anyone else in the process. It was, and I really can't put it any plainer utterly moronic.

But what do you do when you see something like that? Earlier I'd seen two dads with four kids on the street, all standing on top of each other. Presumably off work, or working from home, taking a break from all this isolation to stand on top of each other. Are we supposed to challenge these people? I mean, if we're to believe what the experts are telling us (which, of course, we are) they're putting lives at risk. But we just walk past or, in the case of the five lads on the street, we shake our heads and try to ignore them.

Last week, when I was queuing to pay for parking at the 3 Arena, a girl directly behind me was coughing without covering her mouth. That was the night before the ban on public gatherings, the message about bet practice about coughing was out a while, but there she was coughing away. A few people looked at her, and I heard her say to her friend something along the lines of "you can't even cough anymore in public" despite doing precisely that. When we were leaving, in a heroic act of public confrontation – something I usually reserve for very special cases of people talking at concerts – I told her that she should step away from all the other people if she needed to cough. It will not come as a surprise to you to hear that her response went very much along the lines of "Would you ever fuck off and leave me a-fucking-lone?"

So what are we to do when confronted by blatant instances of the very things we've been told will lead to death? If we were outside a pub and saw lots of drunk people getting in cars and driving away, would we try to stop them?

Question: "Excuse me, should you be driving?"
Answer: "Would you ever fuck off and leave me a-fucking-lone?"

Are we supposed to report it to the guards? The Government has introduced legislation that gives the guards the right to detain people who aren't social distancing.

Ring, Ring: "Hello, come quickly - I've seen five people walking less than six feet apart."
Guard: "Would you ever...."

Look, everyone feels hopeless. That's why I'm doing this. Because I don't know what else to do. And it's not just us that are worrying. The celebrities are getting involved too. You know, it always amazes me that big-time actors and musicians don't know that they can very easily edit out that bit at the end of their video where they reach down for the stop button. But, no, we get to see that too at the end of their solemn requests that we stay inside. If you don't listen to the Government or the experts, perhaps you might listen to Michael Buble or Zooey Deschanel. Or maybe you’d consider listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose posts this week on Twitter have been genuinely charming. I'm not having a go - their hearts are in the right place. The same is probably true for the Hollywood stars who made the much laughed at – and rightly so 'Imagine' video during the week. It's only normal - they're starved of attention and need to get some kind of attention. And, in fairness, didn't it give us all something to think about and laugh at for five minutes? Job done, Hollywood.

Elsewhere, Bono's written a song, inspired by an empty Dublin and by Italians singing on their balconies, which has not been welcomed fondly, but I confess to finding it quite touching. One wag on Twitter observed that, as a pox, Bono is the right person to write a song about a virus. Ba-doom-Tish! Anyway, I thought it was very heartfelt and genuinely has genuine relevance to the moment.

Yes, I don't know you
No, I didn't think I didn't care
You live so very far away
Just across the square
You can't touch, but you can sing across rooftops
Sing on the phone
Sing and promise me you won't stop
Sing, let your love be known.

Look it's better than anything on Songs of Experience - can we give him that much? I look forward to the day when U2 is playing a packed Croke Park and he’s singing that song and people hear about it and roll their eyes and mutter something about Tax and Holland. Till then, this is fine with me.

Who else is at it? Well, Michael Stipe has popped up in the last few days, firstly to sing a bit of It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) before, yes, asking us to wash our hands. Then he reappeared today, singing part of 'Underneath the Bunker' from REM's Lifes Rich Pageant, and encouraging us to tell us that we'll get through all this together, separate, together, separate. He's getting lots of love on Twitter for his messages, which s fair enough - although you must wonder what Bono thinks. In fairness, Bono's video came from, presumably, his house in Killiney with a blue sky and the glimmering sea behind him. Stipe's has, apparently, also been filmed in his house but it kinda looks like he's doing it in one of those instant Passport Photobooths. Never doubt the importance of set design.

I read today that John Prine's wife has been diagnosed with coronavirus. She's not a celebrity but, if you're a fan of John Prine, as I am, you probably know of her importance in keeping him going over the last few years. Perhaps he has it too. He's survived a couple of cancers, and I think he had a mini-stroke recently, so I guess he'll have all sorts of those underlying conditions that put people – particularly, but not only - the elderly at greater risk. I hope she recovers quickly and I hope she's ok.

Today is Saturday. So after working from home all week, we get to play from home today. Staying in is the new going out. I’ve been posting content online for a client about social distancing and staying at home, so of course, that's what I'll be doing. The Minister for Health was on Twitter earlier, encouraging us to ring our friends and parents this weekend to keep in touch. I was thinking about John Prine's song 'Hello in There' when I heard about his wife. I'm thinking about it now when imagining a phone conversation with a friend while we're social distancing.

Someday I'll go and call up Rudy
We worked together at the factory
But what could I say if he asks "What's new?"
"Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do"

Have a great weekend.