Day 5 of Lockdown. 28/03/2020

Today I ventured out to do a Sainsbury’s shop – my first supermarket trip since the lockdown. It’s quite a spectacle when you arrive – a long queue stretching right round to the back of the building because everyone is firmly positioned 2 meters apart. A member of staff stands at the front only allowing entry as a customer leaves – one in one out! So it took a little while to get in but once inside you can whizz round – (1) there’s hardly anyone else in there and (2) there’s not a great choice on the shelves.

Sad as it is, it was quite a treat to see a few different faces and make the odd exchange. Scrubbed up well when I got home.

Read today that over the next few days we are entering the absolute height of the crisis – the days when high numbers of people will get infected … so will definitely be lying low for a while.

Hit a pile of ironing in the afternoon and indulged in some old ‘Watercolour Challenge’ episodes on the TV …. am banking some tips to help me in my soon to start watercolour painting hobby. Have dabbled a little over the years – now feels a good time to get really stuck in.

Being the weekend, Steve and I enjoyed some nice wine while we battled it out over the Scrabble board. It’s going to seem so weird when we can all go out again or have friends/family round.

Day 6 of Lockdown. 29/03/2020

The clocks changed last night – had a sleepy Sunday lay in and stayed in my pyjamas till the afternoon.

Still managed to fit in some cleaning (sacrilege on a Sunday!), made some carrot and coriander soup, enjoyed a few phone calls and FaceTimes, continued the photo sorting and even had a bit of a TV fest.

News reports today are suggesting that this social-distancing may continue for 6 months – seems hard to face but what can we do … a day at a time!

Day 7 of Lockdown. 30/03/2020

Another day of our new routine – fruit, yoghurt and granola for breakfast followed by exercise. We haven’t walked for a few days – today the weather was a lot cooler so we thought we’d attempt it – probably wouldn’t be so many people around. And we were right – so much more manageable now – enjoyed 5 miles and it was fabulous to be out of the house for a while.

The rest of the day was spent indoors, keeping busy. Trying our best not to snack too much between meals – drinking so much more tea and coffee and, with the extra time for baking, it’s hard to resist a little treat each time.

Thought we’d be sensible (getting one ahead) and do an online shop for 2-3 weeks time – tried every supermarket, none of them have any slots for the foreseeable future – the country’s gone mad!

Day 8 of Lockdown. 31/03/2020

I woke up at 10.00am, having slept for 11 hours! It’s quite ridiculous how long I’m sleeping at the moment. Steve had been up and run 6 miles before waking me with a cup of tea. I still managed to fit in my hour of YouTube exercise once I dragged myself out of bed!

A couple of firsts today. (1) Alice introduced us to ‘Zoom’ and we had a great catch up. (2) I had my first online piano lesson – enjoyed learning some basic chords – now I need to keep up the practice.

This is how I’m mentally getting through this Lockdown – trying new things and filling each day with different activities. I’ve still not heard from the NHS in regard to my volunteering duties – maybe they consider me too old!!

Day 9 of Lockdown. 1/04/2020

April Fool’sDay – the only prank I came across was one my brother Phil posted on our family WhatsApp group – and naturally, me and my sisters fell for it big time!

Our spirits are being lifted and our sense of humour kept alive at the moment by the amount of funny videos flying around on WhatsApp and facebook – some of them are just brilliant. My favourite one so far has been the Peaky Blinders one – but then it does have Cillian Murphy in it after all.

Despite not surfacing till 10.00am (again), I managed to fit a lot into the day – a YouTube yoga session, made another batch of carrot and coriander soup, baked a fruit cake, another online piano lesson and went for a short walk around the neighbourhood.

But the best thing of all was at 5.00pm, myself and three of my friends, Tina, Anne and Gina, had a ‘Zoom’ virtual meet up … and it was fabulous. A little stressful at first until we all got the hang of it … but we didn’t do bad for a bunch of over 60s! We all had a drink together too – it all got quite giggly.

Sadly, more disturbing news today – UK daily Coronavirus death toll has doubled – 581 in the last 24 hours, and this is now expected to keep doubling over the next few days. Also, more than 1 million people have had to apply for Universal Credit to see them through this difficult time.

And news that this year’s Wimbledon has been cancelled – this is the first time in years that I had got tickets to go – so disappointing but fully expected.

Talking to family and friends, I think we’re all in agreement that this crisis is making us appreciate what we do have ….

I appreciate having a garden

I appreciate having lovely walks on our doorstep

I appreciate having each other for company …. but equally appreciate having a big enough house to get some ‘alone’ time 😘

And lots more. Really believe this is going to be a huge time of reflection for many people and hopefully help us all put things into perspective.