The social isolation diaries — week 5
Is it really week 5? It feels so much longer than that to be honest, and in reality it actually is. The last time I went out for anything other than the supermarket was on March 11th when I went to Westfield for the day with the girls. Even then we knew lockdown was coming, and debated whether we should have gone at all. Maybe we knew it would be our last hoorah for a few months. Now the idea of going to what is effectively a massive melting pot of germs fills me with dread.
I feel safe at home, whilst at the same time I am now feeling hemmed in. And whilst I am not a spontaneous person (always checking out a restaurant menu as soon as we have made the booking and scouring the internet for hidden gems in cities we have just booked to visit in a few months) I am missing being able to just get in the car and go out for the day. This week Marks and Spencers announced they have launched Percy Pig ice cream and I could have cried because our nearest M&S (walking distance) doesnt have a frozen section and the nearest one that does is huge, will have an enormous queue and is five miles away. And I not sure a desire for Percy Pig ice cream is deemed essential travel right now. It really does sound pathetic and I really didn’t realise until this all started, just how much I have taken for granted up until now. Coronavirus has been quite the eye opener.
A desire to cook and meal plan has continued to keep me sane this week, planning two weeks worth of food and then shopping for it is something I have never done before and it has taken some getting used to. We have never been a household that has said “don’t eat that, its for Thursday” but I have found myself wanting to put labels on things like halloumi to ensure they don’t get snaffled.
Easter has even come and gone. Does anybody else feel cheated out of two bank holidays? I look forward to Easter as soon as Christmas has ended, that long four day weekend is the light at the end of the winter tunnel and I love the idea we can get together as a family and shove our faces full of eggs. This year we should have been flying off to Germany for a spa stay as part of an charity auction prize I won back in November. All of course now cancelled.
It came as no surprise on Thursday that the lockdown extension has been extended by another three weeks. Nobody was really expecting it to be lifted, though people are now wanting to know just how it is going to be lifted, and some indication of when. Rumblings about schools maybe going back to school on May 11th but many saying that is just too soon. Over 800 people a day are still dying, a criminal amount. An amount that doesnt include those dying in the community or care homes. We are told the total is 15,500 but again, that doesnt include the latter categories and some reports suggest as many as 5000 may have died in care homes. It’s a scandal. One of several in fact as there is still a chronic shortage of PPE, tonnes of the stuff that should have arrived hasn’t, Boris didnt attend crucial COBRA meetings for over a month and well, I could go on. Shambles springs to mind and whilst I dont want this to be come a political rant what I am seeing is making me silently rage because people are dying needlessly and it is becoming harder and harder to stay silent.
I have to focus on the positive and leave those more educated and coherent than me to rant at those things, I have to focus on the things that have made me smile. For my own self preservation I have to keep this a mostly politics free space and so this week I have focused on finding more photos of rainbows, not just in windows but on pavements and even walls. My lovely friend Sarah shared this picture that her daughters had done on their back wall this week and it really made me smile. It must have taken hours!
And of course Captain Tom Moore who has captured everybody’s heart with his desire to walk 100 laps of his garden to raise £1000 for the NHS charities to say thank you for his care after his hip replacement. To say it snowballed would be an understatement. It’s currently pushing £26 million, he’s getting an RAF fly past for his birthday and there are calls for a Knighthood to follow. Rightly so
I spotted this on Facebook today and it perfectly sums up the current situation so forgive me for copying and pasting it here but Ashley sums it all up better than anything I could ever do:
Got that? Excellent, they’ll be a quiz next week
Until then, stay safe.
And if you want to read anything else I have written recently, do have a browse through The Corona Chronicles