Month 1 – Social Distancing

As I write this, my husband and I have now been Social distancing – meaning we have been in the house pretty much for the last four weeks, since March 16th. If we are out, we never get within 2 or 3 metres of anyone else. In the UK, everyone who can is staying in. As a result, we can only view the world through the lens of a television reporter, or social media. We are unable to overlay our personal experience filter. If you’re not out and about, then you don’t know whether supermarkets are busy or empty, whether there really are no people on the streets etc.

It has been interesting watching how public pressure influences decision making at the very top. Some stores thought they were more important than they really were e.g. Sports Direct, who thought they should stay open to sell people fitness kit. After a few days, Mike Ashley did the right thing, closed his stores and offered all his trucks to transport urgent medical supplies. I smiled when I heard that off-licences (liquor stores) are now considered essential! The online wine retailers in the UK are under siege! Our wine rack is looking good!

The government is also coming under criticism of – too little, too late. Where are the millions of protective suits needed by police, nursers, carers etc, the ventilators urgently needed? Where are the test kits? Even though the government have assured us that tons of protective suits have been dispatched, there continue to be many reports of no supply. A few professional logistics people are needed, to force decisions, organise transport etc. I know of quite a few people who have, or have had the virus. 95% are health workers, they really are taking the brunt of it.

How is isolation going after a month?

Well my husband and I haven’t fallen out. We have a shared office, so we are often to be found sitting side by side quite peacefully! (It is also the warmest room as the heat from the PC’s keep it nice and toasty. )

I am still struggling to get my inspiration back. I have been doing some other things instead. I have just reviewed Fritz of TheRetirementManifesto‘s forthcoming book. You can read it here. However this last week, I have finally made something – a lovely cast pewter acorn.

I made face masks for some friends and ourselves a few days ago. I used a pattern from Freesewing . I used a very tight weave cotton on the outside, and a softer flannelette on the inside. It obviously isn’t a medical grade, but my friends were taking a flight, and I wanted to protect them as well as I could. As it turned out the airport was empty, and the plane only had about 20 people on it. So limited risk. Then I turned up one that can be made from kitchen towels. While it is never going to prevent coronavirus, (neither is it very flattering, it will reduce the chance of you spreading your germs around.

The shops are getting more back to normal – flour seems to be the main thing still missing. Pasta, kitchen roll and toilet paper now seem to be readily available. I have pretty much stopped going to the shops now, having discovered ‘Click and Collect’, but when I picked up my groceries last week, the social distancing queues were round the block. My son waited 55 minutes to get into Waitrose, and said that things were running out, so he could still get eggs, but they were from a specific farm, and breed, of hen!

I have read a couple of books, listened to a few podcasts and spent far too long on Social Media. My WhatsApp feed has been full of silly pictures, wee videos, poems etc. I find I can waste hours on Twitter, yet for years I hardly looked at it. I am keeping up with my Spanish, although it is a bit harder doing classes by Skype, but we are getting better at it. Our next series of lessons will be wholly online. Nothing like learning new skills!

My healthy eating seems to have gone to the wall. While my husband and I are being careful about how much we eat, I have been allowing some ‘bad carbs’ into our lives – comfort food – today it was toasted hot cross buns! An impulse buy and a delicious treat. We haven’t had any sweets /candies in our house in ages, yet they were in my shopping today!

We are making the most of our daily walks in the fields near our house. Each day brings different things. On Easter Sunday, someone had left these on an old tree stump.

Thoughts for the month

I am struck by how fragile our economy has proven to be. Within a few short weeks, it is on its knees. Widespread financial support is needed at all levels, employees and employers, self employed etc. There is a suggestion that it will bounce back really quickly, but if we have an extended outage, as I suspect we will have, (this is not a ‘3 month’ problem…), once everything opens up again, people are going to be a lot more cautious about spending. They will be building up their reserves for a while ‘just in case’. As pensioners, we count ourselves lucky, we have a guaranteed income. Financially, this will have had a huge hit on our investments (down about 20% last time I checked), but we are lucky, this is rainy day money, it doesnt affect our grocery shopping. I have seen some suggestions around why did the government not just give everyone £2k per month straight into their bank account, effectively a universal income. I think Spain may be considering this.

Over the years, we have become very dependent on imported food & drink. My food and drink come from all over the world. However, when we wake up out of this nightmare, will there still be the variety of airlines available to fulfill our needs, or rather wants? Should we be eating more home-grown, local seasonal produce? It certainly is better for the environment, but in winter our choices would be very limited in the UK…. In the UK, we are also reliant on cheap farm labour from Eastern Europe, for harvest work from May to October, but this year, with travel restrictions, this isn’t going to be a possibility, so there are urgent appeals to people to sign up for farm work.

For me, the one thing that I think may have changed for ever is Travel. We have suddenly become far more aware of how casually travellers can bring disease with them. In mid March, Norway reported that 40% of their Corona virus infection, came from skiers returning from a ski resort in the Austrian Tyrol. It really shows how easily disease can spread.

Travel is a luxury I really enjoy. I take a lot of Slow Travel trips, I cross the world to meet up with my son and his family in New Zealand. This year, by chance I hadn’t any trips booked. Just as well! However, I suspect that come this time next year, there will be a lot less choice about where to go, and it will cost a lot more. Countries may also expect their visitors to provide some form of guarantee of their health status. Hence, sadly, travel might become something I do less of. I’ll just have to look at my photos instead. It may be some time before I am back here..

The way forward

The sad thing is that I really can’t see an easy way out this situation. There won’t be a vaccine any time soon. We can’t stay locked up for ever, but we can’t all go out tomorrow or we will be back in the situation of thousands of people getting ill. A total no-win situation.

Quote from a radio program I heard today, the lifting of the lockdown is not the end, it is only the end of the beginning. How apt!

However, I am looking forward to the time when lockdown is lifted, if even for a short while and seeing my friends after a long time. I will be most interested how many will have returned to their natural hair colour and what that colour is. The hairdressers and dentists will be very busy, to say the least.

Thoughts for my life over the Next Few Months

• I will keep writing this blog, I have another book review coming up on a charming book on Aging by Stephanie Raffelock
• I will try and make one thing each week. Not an impossible task!
• I will keep up our daily walks, it is lovely to be able to get out for a while. I have a lovely home and garden, but I am not used to being in it 24/7
• I’m considering trying to enforce some sort of order on my day. I tend to read the news when I wake up. I am not sure that is a great way to start the day!

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