It's the second week of lockdown and I have settled in to some sort of routine. I have been supporting isolated elderly friends on the phone, chatting to friends all round the world from Japan to Sweden to Korea. I still miss my friends greatly, not being able to see them has been challenging but we have been keeping in contact regularly which has helped. I am looking forward to Easter, a nice meal maybe.
Sadly in the last couple of days we have been told the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday, now in intensive care which is worrying; on the other hand Chris Whitty recovered from the Coronavirus, some good news. The speech by the Queen cheered me up. I met her several times and she was always great, friendly, professional. She gave a really good speech, it inspired me especially with Boris being ill and the country edgy. I was worried when Boris said he was still shaking people's hands; I was thinking don't do that, you will catch it. Sadly I was right.
At times I have been feeling very tired, the big change in routine and the unfolding news, but meditation has helped with this, it changes from day to day. I think it is important also to recognise self care when one is tired, to put boundaries with people who are overly negative and just drain your energy normally and even more so now. It's ok to say no if you are not feeling 100%. The pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in people. There is a lady who is amazing, she leaves things to pick up outside of her house (obviously you have to pick them up with gloves) I got a couple of really new good classical CD's and she writes inspiring messages for people to pick up, or leaves flowers out. People like her are an asset. Then you get some unfriendly joggers who run all over the place with no sense of social distancing or saying hello, no smile, just miserable, I just ignore them back.
I seem to be more sensitive to things around me. The bees buzzing around, the birds flying, with very few people about, one notices every little thing. The eagle again was flying high in the sky. One good thing about the current situation is fewer cars on the road, the air is a lot cleaner, rabbits running around which you have never seen before, also I am enjoying the quiet.
The media this weekend have been obsessing about sunbathers due to the sudden warm weather, I feel they are a minority, I have never seen any around. Obviously in higher populated areas where people have no access to gardens and share a flat, people will tend to go out more to the park to cope mentally, maybe more so than those who live in smaller towns or rural areas where they are hardly near anybody and have access to plenty of space. What the Government should be focusing on is testing more like in Germany where they have had so far a low mortality rate because they have been testing so much. Also I find the advice by the Government that people with fever should self isolate a bit narrow. Some coronavirus patients have not had any fever, some of them experienced just a cold with no fever at the beginning or aches in the body and extreme tiredness with no fever, pain in their eyes or heavy chest.
In the supermarket it's difficult to find everything you need in one session, some things have completely sold out or there is very little left or you can't carry everything without a car which complicates trips meaning you will have to go more often.
Online all the slots have been taken and there are no slots available to book so I was not able to order anything online. I have not been able to find any tinned tomatoes so I made tomato sauce to use on pasta from fresh tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes are still available luckily. The supermarket and the pharmacy have put up plastic screens at the tills which is good news for people working there to keep them and us safe, I have been worrying about them. They enforced an In & Out going through for people and they only allow a certain number of people inside, which has been very helpful.
I didn't feel as anxious going to the supermarket and the pharmacy since last week there were very few people inside both of them and I didn't have to queue which was great.
Obviously I am following Government guidelines generally and I stay 2 metres away from people but there was hardly anybody inside the supermarket, literally three people... Maybe because it is a small supermarket (but there aren't any queues to get in); it is the large ones where there have been rather long queues. Some of the things the small supermarket has are the more expensive staff like organic fruit and organic vegetables but they also have low priced non organic vegetables, just not a wide range. I am just happy I can still find fresh fruit & vegetable, yoghurt and nice coffee. During the panic buying I bought some cheap coffee because I could not find the one I usually take and it tasted really awful.
Pasta has suddenly shot up to one pound extra and there wasn't much left but I still managed to get a bag of it, it will last a while. Same with meat & fish only the expensive staff was left so I didn't take any, I bought tofu instead, chicken is still available at an average price though. One of my friends is ordering everything on Amazon Prime so they are having everything delivered that way, but some other friends told me that only people who have been with them for a while get deliveries quickly, if you sign up now you might not get a delivery with them and with other supermarkets, one elderly friend of mine found out there were no slots available online which was a bit of a problem as they live in the middle of nowhere!
The week has gone quickly; it's amazing how we adapt to changes so quickly, I am sticking to a routine and I find what helps me the most at the moment is working out and keeping in touch with my friends online. I am trying to avoid the news but is not easy, I slipped yesterday and watched the news.
Copyright Mirta Imperatori 2020
Thank you for your blog entry ... I found it helpful because it sounds like you have been making do with whatever is currently available. I am reminded of The Police song "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around"! I can relate to the fact that routine helps ... it's really inspiring that you have been supporting isolated elderly friends on the phone. I also like the idea that, despite the lockdown that physically distances all of us, you have been connecting with people from around the globe.
ReplyDeleteA strength you have is that that you turn negatives into positives, e.g. the Chief Medical Officer having recovered or noticing nature all around you on a simple once-a-day walk. I also like that you found the speech given by the Queen inspiring ... and that you have had personal experience of meeting her!!
On a practical level, it's great that you are finding supermarket shopping more manageable than a few weeks ago; it is not so anxiety-making. It's also helpful that you share some of the practical difficulties of ordering food online and how "it's amazing how we adapt to changes so quickly".
You are quite right that the country is on edge, but I reckon that, collectively, on the whole we are doing pretty well. Self-care does help, this is important as you say, and I like it when you say, "It's ok to say no if you are not feeling 100%". I particularly liked your account of the lady who leaves gifts outside people's houses, with messages and flowers. Hearing this inspires me and gives me joy!
Overall, I find your blog entry encouraging. It gives me a different perspective on the crisis and reminds me that I am not alone in experiencing it. Please keep writing!!
Thanks for another update and pleased you are managing ok, helped by meditation and keeping in contact with your friends around the world. (We are certainly all aware of this as a global crisis and I hope this will help us to be more aware of each other across the planet as we move on to tackle climate change). I do hope you manage to continue with your art projects at this difficult time as we now need artists more than ever!
ReplyDelete