There's camaraderie in the supermarket shopping queues | Zella Compton

None of the machines were working and what you had was a whole load of disgruntled customers standing around waiting for someone – anyone – to magically appear and solve the problem.

That was pretty much the same way everyone in the supermarket felt on Sunday morning when we were all standing around waiting for the queues to get smaller. Disgruntled.

Apparently none of us in there were panic buying, though I think someone somewhere must have been as there weren’t any eggs, pasta, tomato puree or loo rolls.

Tomato puree people? Come on – I had a soup on the stove in desperate need of some thickening – what are you all doing?

There was, though, a sense of camaraderie among the disgruntled shoppers.

We were all at pains to explain to one another that we weren’t panic buyers, we were sensible buyers, stocking up on what we needed for the week for our family of X (insert number of people in the family home) and our number of Y (being elderly relatives).

There’s a coronavirus GCSE maths question in the making there.

In my basket was an extra packet of flour in case I need to cook my way out of the apocalypse, and two cans of kidney beans which I strictly didn’t need, but then got overwhelmed with the need to buy something extra.

Oh, and I lucked out with a packet of four loo rolls which are extra special and come with coconut oil.

Can’t wait to try that out, and savour the wipe as I think about how much extra it cost me.

If this had been an Amazon store we’d have walked out without queuing as a phone app will track what you add to your basket.

But really, where’s the camaraderie in that? Unless you’re in a long queue you can never really settle down and feel smug about how un-panicked you are.

Bad hair, stupidity and dodgy car horns are still brilliant

I remember watching the Dukes of Hazzard when I was a child as a notion rather than an actuality.

You know, something that you knew you did every week without fail but can recall very little about it except the colour orange and a dodgy car horn.

I came across it on TV the other day – a new channel among the millions which has sprung up called ForcesTV, and wow, did I enjoy it? Yes I did.

It was so ridiculous and full of bizarre pastiche – how can Roscoe be that incredibly stupid and still have a job, and how is it that Boss Hogg’s white suit never gets dirty, or that Bo and Luke got away with such bad hair for so long? It’s a fabulous Hazzard to good taste.

There’s blossom on the trees and it fills me with hope

This is one of my favourite times of the year when the magnolias start to show, and all the other blossoms fill me with joy.

I even go different routes through town to look at some glorious specimens. My gran always used to go on about blossom and I’d think, what on earth is she so excited about?

Maybe it’s an appreciation that you develop later in life, like for mushrooms and olives, a refined taste.

But now, when the sun comes out alongside the spring buds it fills me with hope and joy. Much like the Italian singers on their balconies.

Whatever the next few weeks and months bring, we have to believe we’ll be okay.