Lockdown Diaries 2020/21

On Sunday came the big announcement. The lockdown was easing and we could finally take our first baby steps back into the world. So what did we hope the PM would say?   Turns out it entirely depended on who we were. My sister-in-law is desperately missing her grandchildren and was listening closely for the word “bubble”. Her daughter’s young family live a short walk away, and she would love the two households to join up. My friend Michelle was hoping to hear the word: “hairdresser” as she’s in dire need of a cut. And the presenter of a comedy programme we watched last night described the announcement as so much white noise without the inclusion of the word: “nursery”.  He wants to offload his very young kids as soon as he decently can. It made me wonder: what am I missing most about this lockdown? Technically it should be Auntie Jean. But love her as I do, my weekly visits are often pretty stressful. After my 40-minute drive to her care home she reels off a l...

Regular readers will be aware of a few facts about our little lockdown bubble. These are a) that I’m exercising online with Joe Wicks; b) Brian and Robbie are working out regularly with weights and c) I’m trying     - not altogether successfully - to grow vegetables. Turns out everyone else is doing pretty much the same thing. According to recent Google search data we’re a resourceful nation with great plans for using this lockdown time to good effect. The gyms may have closed, but not to be thwarted we’ll carry on exercising the best we can in the space we have available.  Not surprisingly, then, the search term “rent gym equipment” is going through the roof. In fact it has mushroomed by a whopping 3,600 per cent over the past 90 days while “yoga online classes” has risen by 800 per cent and "home workout” by 700 per cent. Google also reveals that we won’t be put off by food shortages in supermarkets: instead we’ll grow or bake our own. The sea...

Today is one of Brian and Robbie’s work-out days.   I can hear them upstairs, exhaling loudly, clunking down weights, urging one another on and congratulating each other when they successfully complete an exercise. “Workout days” were a genius idea of theirs. Robbie bought a set of weights as a teenager, but for the past seven years they’ve been lying neglected in his childhood room, getting in my way whenever I tidy up for a homecoming (I can’t move the flipping things). In his normal life, Brian spends much of his time working in Sweden and he used to frequent the hotel gym in the evenings. But he’s lost motivation in recent years and has been grumbling about how unfit he’s becoming. As it turns out, each of them needed a workout buddy. And now that they’re housebound, what better way to kill time and get fit than to revisit those old weights together? Robbie’s room becomes the Quarant Inn on a Friday night, as you know, but during the week it becomes the L...