Soooo..... we are four months old today. Isn't it mad? I remember back in March, one of the things I was horrified about was the prospect of summer in lockdown (so hot, in my little flat). Now the future worry is working from home in the grey, the cold, the hard-to-socialise-outside late autumn and beyond. Or maybe it'll all be over by Christmas, of course. Optimism is definitely the best anti-viral precaution.
Still, I have unlocked to the point of using public transport this week (for a grand total of 24 minutes, which is under a quarter of what I'd do in the circumstances previously known as a "normal working day"). Something of a test run, and also a moment to break out of boredom. I can no longer claim to have been no more than 3 miles from home since the start of lockdown. No, it's now 6 miles. Woop. Woop.
I did buy some cheerfully non-essential items to celebrate precisely four months since I set foot in my office. Not even cocktails, this time. I have gone for the old traditional pineapple-flamingo garland.
Adds both class and style
Will be on twitter at 7pm BST as ever if anyone fancies a confined cocktail. Am thinking of making it something fizzy for extra celebrationyness.*
I'm also hoping to chat about something I've realised this week. Not everything about lockdown has been terrible. Obviously it's been shit in a lot of ways. Even if
you've avoided illness or bereavement, unemployment or extreme shielding, you've had, *at the very least* a
series of unexpected worries gnawing away in your back brain for weeks and months. Now we're in a different phase where there are so, so many decisions and that's a whole other thing. More freedom, different worries.
But I was in a workshop on Wednesday (resilience, officially; more like 'keeping sane' in reality), and it made me realise several good things have resulted from lockdown. I'm hoping some of you have found the same.
By good things, let's be clear, I do not mean staggering productivity or creative joy. I mean, super if you've managed those, but most days a string of semi-coherent emails and the odd Zoom has been my limit during the aforementioned "shit in a lot of ways" time. Today, please don't tell me about your King Lear. Even if you've matched my mild facility with being able to talk about whether I like carrots in Welsh, not asking about that today.
It's the bits about living this smaller, quieter, less-occupied life that maaaaaybe haven't all been bad that have started to interest me. The balance in my life I'd lost pre-lockdown, really, as I pinballed around activities and work and ignored a lot of the basics.
I now:
- Wake up at 7.30am on weekdays and 8.30 at weekends. It used to be 6am and 9am respectively, with a lie in on Sundays that could stretch much longer. I was constantly short of sleep. I still don't sleep brilliantly, but it's so much less stressful when you've given yourself a decent chance of 8 hours or so.
- Keep a 1.5litre bottle of water filled each morning, and have some vague sense of whether I'm hydrated each day. Also stops me constantly using the drippy kitchen tap.
- Know umpteen side routes and roads in my local area that I've never tried to explore. Many of them not that riveting, but some are joyful. This unexpected alley-slash-community-garden, for example.
- Look out for plants. Mostly for the other hashtag #JacobinDay, but also more generally, I've been noticing so much more about my locality.
- Eat more vegetables (and some more fruit) because I'm having lunches made in a kitchen rather than bought on the run. Though my life contains less soup now. That'll need to change for the autumn,
How about you? Anything you really want to keep up, regardless of how fast/slow unlockdown proves to be? Let's talk about not-shit things.
Another good thing is this blog, and the people it's brought together. We're not posting so much now, but it's still here as an anchor, as and when we need it, want it, or have something to share.
*Negroni sbagliato with pink fizz, I reckon**. All the summer happy.
**Confirmed, for the record. Lor, it was nice. Lustau rose vermouth, campari, pink fizzy wine. LUSH:
Ah yes, Ye Olde Traditional Pineapple-flamingo Garland - always a firm family favourite. :)
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good thing to contemplate some of the good that has come out the last few months because it is so easy just to focus on the turmoil and the fear of what has happened and may yet happen.
Positives for me have included making myself keep in touch with people around the world that I kept meaning to contact, but there was always something else that seemed more important. Now I've got in touch with old colleagues and friends in the UK (including two former bosses). Also talking to my 80 year old uncle in New Zealand was brilliant, and also my brother back in Scotland who is a terrible correspondent, so it's always me who gets in touch. Instead of folding my arms and mentally thinking it's his turn to email, I've just accepted that is the way he is, and I get in touch, and he's always delighted.
Doing the book blog is another positive because it's really made me think about the books I'm reading.
Also getting to know neighbours. We moved out of the city into a new place up island land last autumn, and we've come to know our neighbours much more quickly than we probably would have done in normal times. The downside of shutdown has been that we've not really had the chance to participate in the community yet, and I do miss the city, but it's baby steps and just knowing who is over the fence and across the road from us is really positive.
It's been such a confluence of events - retiring, moving and then the virus that sometimes I've felt kind of disenfranchised. But at the same time, we're safe, our families and friends are safe and the island as a community has been hit very lightly so really that's all to be celebrated.
And of course this lovely blog has been a delight, and even if the posts are fewer these days, it's still a great place to connect, so thank you for putting it together in the first place.
Cheers my dear
S
It's a very classy garland, yes.
DeleteI was good at getting in touch with people at the start; maybe less so now, but there was definitely some re-connecting going on. It's great you've made contacts on your doorstep too - you've packed in a whole lot of stressful events in a few months, not surprised it was a bit bamboozling.
Four months are a long time. I’ve really appreciated that I could take care of me and my home. Along months I let myself go due to long days out, too much thoughs and ‘false’ worries. I came back to me and to loving my too little, too crowded but at least comfortable flat.
ReplyDeleteI could speak a lot with friends that are too busy with their families, jobs, workouts in normal life, and it’s like returning to when we were younger and free and had time. Now it’s hard to finding again much time but I really happy to have had those precious moments.
I’d have spent more time reading, studying, writing my King Lear. Instead, I watched tv! But God bless Netflix and Prime!
#ConfinedKitchen was a very active companion. And from Italy a way to travel elsewhere: you made me want to go in UK, Canada. Thanks!!!
Yes! I didn't spend much time at home in recent years and kind of lost the love for my flat. I'm so grateful to have had it to hide in for this strangest year.
DeleteIt's so good you've had a chance to reconnect with friends too - even if it's harder once normality returns. But it's also good to rest, while everything is so strange. TV has been such a welcome companion!