Lockdown Diaries 2020/21

The second week of lockdown has been harder than the first. Living in a world dominated by COVID-19 can be overwhelming. And there are so many things to worry about that it’s difficult not to feel stressed. Dying obviously comes close to the top of the list. Then we’re also concerned about those friends and relations of ours with “underlying health conditions” whose deaths would nonetheless be pretty tragic. Then there’s the global economy, our personal finances, the inactivity, the uncertainty……I could go on. But why would I depress you? Personally, I’m worried about all of the above. And I’m also worried about Auntie Jean. She’s 102 years old and lives in a care home 20 miles away. I usually visit her every Wednesday but am no longer allowed to do so. Luckily she still has all her faculties, but when you’re 102 and have little access to the news or the outside world, a regular visitor’s failure to turn up at the appointed time will still seem like a bit of a be...

We had a Tesco delivery this week. It doesn’t sound much to blog about, I know. But a supermarket delivery day has become something of a Red Letter Day in COVID-19 Land. I ordered my shopping some time ago when running short of essentials, but was horrified to discover there were no slots available for more than two weeks. How do I know what I’ll even feel like eating in a fortnight’s time? But I went ahead with the order anyway, shaking my head in disbelief at the fact that many everyday items were no longer available. I also felt pretty disgruntled at having to pay full price for the products I usually snap up on special offer. Little did I know how lucky I was to get anything at all – but that was Then. Soon after clicking Place Your Order, supermarkets started firing out emails asking me to avoid booking deliveries and to save these slots for the more vulnerable. I began to feel rather guilty, and also pretty convinced that my order would never be processed, but ...

You know what they say. You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your lockdown buddies. This is where we found ourselves when the music stopped. And we remain petrified in position as though stopped in our tracks by lava from a virtual volcano. Lockdown will no doubt be a big test for relationships. Courting couples had to choose whether to self-isolate together or separately - and then stick with that decision. I know of one young couple who have chosen not to co-habit, which means they’re no longer allowed within two metres of each other.  The man can only speak to his fiancee online or by calling up to her on her balcony Romeo-style. Their wedding is set for July, but they are understandably nervous. Personally I am happy with my lockdown housemates. Brian and Robbie are good-humoured, funny and upbeat and I love them both very much. But I do sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have had a female lockdown companion. I’m pretty sure tha...

  Well, I didn’t actually take my own advice in the end. Apathy set in pretty soon after writing yesterday’s blog post. The idea of cleaning the house or making stuff out of scraps of wool suddenly seemed like much too much effort. And there’s a limit to the amount of fun you can have gazing at the pots of weedy soil on your window sill. But the games and puzzles helped pass the time, and I also did some rudimentary “cooking” which involved cobbling together a few store-cupboard ingredients to make a marinade for olives to go with Saturday night drinks. The aforesaid drinks were quaffed in our new lounge bar (aka the living room) to help make Saturday night feel different to Friday night, which was spent in the Quarant Inn as usual. So all in all, a pretty uneventful weekend. Much like everyone else’s weekends up and down the country come to think of it. But what really did help us through our first weekend in lockdown was other people. On Friday night we joi...

Weekends are traditionally a time for outings. We usually fill our two precious days of leisure with trips to the shops, lunches with friends, visits to relations – or perhaps even a drive out to a beauty spot. But apart from our one permitted walk, it’s innings for everyone this weekend. So, how do we get through these two long, empty days? I have a few suggestions. Grow things I’m growing things as we speak – and not just toenails and chin hair, either. I found some old seeds in the kitchen drawer and planted them in pots on the window sill. If your kitchen drawer doesn’t happen to contain old seeds, you can also plant bits of ginger, garlic cloves, dried tomato seeds and plenty of other things. Just google “growing plants from vegetable scraps”. Personally I’m not expecting much success from my own pots of weedy soil. I’ll probably end up nurturing nettles and dandelions and thinning out the few stray tomato plants that happen to emerge. But who cares – it’s that ...

I did another of those Joe Wicks’ PE workouts yesterday morning. The world is going to hell in a handcart, and there’s me doing bunny-hops in the living room in my nightie. Joe Wicks is a young personal trainer who landed himself a job touring the UK’s schools offering PE lessons. But the lockdown scuppered his plans, so he’s decided to live-stream his PE classes for free instead.  This engaging young man wants to enhance the lives of children of all ages by encouraging them to exercise while the schools are closed. So, I hear you ask, why was this particular middle-aged woman leaping about in her living room on her own, catching imaginary stars and pretending to be a kangaroo hopping around a creek?  It turns out the classes have been attracting a much wider audience than Joe ever expected with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide tuning in every day. I even bonded about it with another middle-aged lady in the Waitrose queue yesterday when she told me ...

I bumped into my “reader” yesterday when Brian and I were out for our walk. You know who you are. Well, when I say “bumped”, I actually mean “spotted” and then stood the statutory two metres away for a chat. There were other little pockets of people doing the same thing, keeping their distance as they attempted to carry on conversations. On one occasion we had to step into the road to avoid coming too close to some oncoming strangers, which meant playing chicken with the few cars in the road. That would have been embarrassing - to have been knocked down by a car while practising “safe” social distancing. This is just another element of our strange new world. Crossing the road to avoid someone else used to be considered an insult, but it has now become a sign of respect. No, actually it’s the rules. I just wish our British embarrassment wouldn’t make us avoid each other’s eyes as we do so. Surely at a time like this when hugs and handshakes are off the table, a nice big smile w...