Goodwood

Goodwood

Tuesday 21 April 2020

40 Days & 40 Nights in #Lockdown

I'm starting to feel as if I’ve been cut adrift. There is no definition to a month, no weekends or weeks as each day blurs one into the other, and I'm going to bed later and later as I stay up to watch late night films, not something I usually do.

While the weather is good I spend hours pottering in the garden and sitting in the sun but then the rain closed in around me I became more achy and less optimistic but this was a brief change, the weather's improving this week.

I need to find a different way to schedule my day so I'm going to make ideas cards with options to choose a more flexible timeline or timetable to suit my mood versus the weather.

Boring jobs and interesting activities with occasional treats for good measure and each card will have a time frame so that I can switch in / out my choices to find away to make each day a little different from the previous.

I haven’t left the house for 40 days and eventually I'll get braver and go out for a walk perhaps just to the post box and back because it’s strange that the highlight of my week is putting out the bin and joining in the clapping for the HNS.

The only visitors to my front door are delivery people, postman and food supplies for which I'm grateful.

I'm struggling to settle to read so for now I'll focus on listening to stories online until my focus returns.

Each day my aim is to be kinder to myself as I don’t have to be anywhere except in the moment.

If you had told me a year ago that I'd spend time alone at home without leaving the house for more than a month I'd have looked at you askance and said: 'don't be daft.' But here we are.

I'm not the most sociable creature under normal circumstances but I do miss visiting my grandchildren, my family and friends now. So staying in touch is vital for me, FaceTime is the new normal for my grandchildren and I've resorted to snail mail for all family birthdays.

#Coronavirus
#Lockdown
#Self-isolation
#Happiness
#Fun

Saturday 11 April 2020

One month of #Lockdown

The last time I ventured out was 11th March. I saw my grandchildren.

I've been indoors on #lockdown for one month now.

I'm coping okay and quite surprised that I'm not going stir-crazy yet, probably because I've accepted that I don't have any real choice in this matter other than to hunker down because I don't want to get Covid-19. There's no one to look after me if I get ill and that prospect is a tad scary.

I'm lucky that I have a garden and the weather has been good these past weeks so I'm keeping myself occupied by pottering in the garden. I'm no gardener but now I have planted seeds and the coming weeks are going be interesting. Watering these pots and fighting an imminent slug war might be my new hobby. I'm no gardener, I buy plants from the garden centre usually and plant them. If they survive all good and well. If they don't make it, hey ho, I put it down to experience. So growing from seed is going to be a new experience.

However, I'm going to miss seeing my grandchildren the most. Maya crawled for the first time this past week and I'm sure that by the time I get to see her in person, she will be walking and talking! Charlie and I are close and for now he understands that I can't visit him because of the Virus. My fear is that I may not be able to see either of them for possibly six months.

The way this epidemic is being handled here in the U.K. worries me that I'm going to have to remain in #lockdown for entire six months, and that means I will miss Maya's birthday and may not even make it to Charlie's!

As I post this note I can hear a Woodpecker drumming, it's still outside and calm.

#Coronavirus
#Lockdown
#Self-isolation
#Happiness
#Fun

Friday 3 April 2020

Finding happiness in these troubling times

I've decided to start writing again to try to make sense of how I feel during these worrying times. The Coronavirus has changed all of our lives in a heartbeat and few of us knew it was coming. My lockdown and self-isolation started a little over 20 days ago because I'm a Carer. I can't afford to become ill as there's no one to look after me if I catch this virus.

There are people I am going to miss during this period of isolation, namely my grandchildren. Usually we are close and I am lucky to see them frequently but that stopped abruptly on the 11th after making my decision to self-isolate.

The other night I read my grandson a bedtime story over the phone. It was a first for us and a lovely, fun experience. I read Bringing Down the Moon By Emmett and he had a copy in his room so that he could follow me reading the story, I told to him when to turn each page and then something unusual happened. I ended up helpless, and in fits of laughter. I announced 'the end,' and he hung up the phone! Just like that, no goodnight, no questions, nothing. He's only three but tech savvy which is a worry, they learn so fast and copy their parents.

This bedtime reading session is going to be a necessary connection for me over the coming weeks as the news grows ever more dark and frightening. An escape from reality just for a short period of time.

My granddaughter will be one this Spring and I doubt I will be allowed to meet her to to celebrate her first birthday. Thankfully she won't remember this non-event later in her life but maybe I can adopt the Queen's routine and elect to have an official and an unofficial / public birthday date when this pandemic is deemed to be in remission or finished.

During our last FaceTime call she was trying to climb into the screen, she could see me and wanted to reach out to touch. I wonder if she understands that I am not in the room with her despite her being able to see me and hear me. I will never know. But it struck me that her generation are going to be so tech able because of this need for physical connections via technologic devices during these unprecedented times.

And now while I've been writing this blog post this evening, a text message with an attached video popped onto my screen. My grandson has asked me to read him another bed time story, tonight, I am made up and I know I am very lucky.

My heart goes out to all those grandparents who can't see or contact their grandchildren now for whatever reason during this pandemic.

It's going to be tough to find fun activities away from my grandchildren unless I make a concerted effort to do this by doing something that gives me and them pleasure. And I am going to have to make an accommodation to find time for this new fun activity.

After reading this do one thing. Smile x


#Coronavirus
#Lockdown
#Self-isolation
#Happiness
#Fun