At the start of the first lockdown I vowed to write weekly about what was going on so I could look back at this crazy period in history and remember what was happening. As the summer progressed and lockdown was lifted I stopped. I genuinely thought in the summer that lockdowns would be behind it, that tiers would never be a thing, and that we would have consigned Covid-19 to 2020.
How wrong I was.
This is now the third lockdown, though I am really not sure what the lockdown in November was all about, it didn’t seem to achieve anything at all. This third lockdown now feels brutal. Harder for so many, for a whole list of reasons.
On Sunday Boris announced the lockdown and the following day there was a news conference telling us that there had been 60,000 new cases reported that day. Good news came in the shape of the vaccine and at the start of the week over a million people had received the vaccine, with a vow that by the middle of February every one in the top four priority groups will have received theirs. I truly hope this happens. I can’t see any other way out of this constant cycle of lockdowns.
We have fallen back into our usual daily routine but I am now finding each day is merging into the next. Lockdown last time was warm with long balmy evenings. Now it is raining and it’s cold and miserable. Every day we hear of hundreds of deaths, still over 500 and of businesses going under and people losing their jobs. It is alot to take in.
If you are interested in a post I wrote about managing anxiety then do click the highlighted text for some easy tips should you find things a bit much at the moment. You might also like to join in with my #10AmWithTea community on social media too. You dont need to join at 10am, if you want to post using the # you can do it any time, and if you search the # you might find some new people to follow who are feeling as you are.
I have to try and stay positive through all this, because that is my default position, I have to remember that even if I am being bombarded with the harder stuff on a daily basis.
Exams have been cancelled and there is no firm plan in place of what the alternative will be for students going forward. I dont know how teachers will assess students and give them a grade at the end of this year when students have missed out on so much schooling. Parents have an uphill struggle now to try and educate children at home whilst also juggling working and dealing with everything else that is going on. I genuinely dont know how families are doing it.
I was shocked to learn this week that mobile phone companies are charging extortinate amounts of money for data to families doing online learning. I heard some stories of being upwards of £100. This is an absolute scandal that needs to be further investigated.
There was also more to horrendous behaviour from Trump this week. The Capitol building was, for want of a better word, stormed following a rally by Trump where he said his supporters should walk down to the Capitol building. Not known for being reserved they then charged the place, resulting in four people dying before it was all over. It’s a shameful end to a Presidency. But end it must be.
As I said, I look for the positives and that has to be the positive for this week.