Life in Lockdown

At the time of writing this blog post, it’s been more than a month since the UK government announced a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Schools, pubs, restaurants, gyms, and “non-essential” businesses are closed, and we have been told to stay at home and only leave the house if we can’t avoid it, for example, to go food shopping.

I spotted this post on Sam's blog Griffblog. It’s part of a “link up” (or “linky”) where bloggers answer the same questions and link up their posts. The idea is to share your thoughts, feelings, and ideas on how to get through the coming weeks.

I thought it was a really good idea, and I’m sure in a few years I’ll find it interesting to read this post back and reflect on this strange time. Since I’ve missed the first few weeks I’m going to base my answers on the past 30 days rather than the past 7.

1) How are you feeling/coping?

Pretty well most of the time.  I'm quite sociable and like the freedom and independence to get the things I need, go for a long walk and so on.  However, I've not found being stuck in the house nearly as hard as I thought it would.  I've been having plenty of contact with people through social media, on the phone etc. and I'm not lonely at all - given that I have Mr Build-it and Miss Busy imprisoned with me and Mr Fix-it comes home from key-working every evening (via the shower).  The thing that frustrates me is knowing that the government scientists aren't actually sure about who really is "extremely vulnerable" (I'm on that list and have to stay in for at least 12 weeks) and who isn't.  I don't feel any more vulnerable than the next person and it frustrates me that I can't go and help my colleagues at work, or that more than likely I'm going to have to continue to work from home even when the schools reopen (I'm a primary school teacher).  Mr Fix-it is encouraging me to go out and get a walk (for some space aawy from the kids) but I don't feel I can.  It's not fair to my boss or colleagues if on one hand I'm telling them I have to stay home and "shield" and yet on the other hand am out for a jolly.  So I'm just keeping extremely busy and biding my time, hoping that as many of us as possible get through this in one piece.

2) What are you doing to keep yourself occupied?

I'm working from home as a Primary School Teacher.  This involves making sure we have prepared work for the children to access from home, communicating with families, and also ensuring that all possible paperwork to do with school is up-to-date!

I'm also a volunteer with the Scouts and we are continuing as much as possible with virtual Scouting, so I'm supporting adults with their training, supporting Cubs and Beavers by posting lots of activities they can do and logging it as they work through their badges.

I've been writing more.  Quite a lot more.  I've also obviously been supporting my children with their at-home learning (and just coping - they are finding this really hard), keeping fit and setting myself challenges, reading and catching up on housework and gardening.  

3) How are you dealing with everything at the moment – are you self-isolated, going out for essentials etc?

Because I'm on immune suppressants and have chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure (caused by a form of vasculitis) I'm in the governments “extremely vulnerable” category (people they believe could become seriously ill if they contract COVID-19). I'm not supposed to go out AT ALL.  So I'm not.  Mr Fix-it has been doing all the dog-walking, grocery shopping etc. in addition to going to work every day.  Don't tell him, but I think he's a bit of a hero.

4) What advice do you have for others?

I personally think the best way is to keep busy.  Being productive and useful makes you feel good.  Having said that, if you are feeling down and need to have a day off to lie on the sofa and feel sorry for yourself, that's absolutely okay too.  Miss Busy is eternally busy (hence the name) but Thursday afternoon and Friday she just wasn't feeling herself so I totally gave her licence to have a sofa day yesterday and not do her school work.  Today, she's back on form.

5) What have you bought this week that others might like? Especially if from a small business.

I haven't bought anything this week.  I'm trying to manage with as little buying as possible since I'm worried about all these busy delivery peeps.  If I do buy something I'm going to try to source it from an independent if possible rather than "globecorp" aka Amazon.

6) How has your routine been this week? (Question by Don’t Cramp My Style)

Fortunately, because Mr Fix-It is going to work every morning, I am getting up at a sensible 7am.  The children are up by 8am and we are all settled down to work by 9am at the latest.  I tend to work through most of the day, with Wednesday off, apart from a break for an hour for lunch and an hour's break at about 3 in the afternoon to do my exercise DVD.  I stop at about 5pm and do a bit of housework before cooking the dinner. 

7) Have you planned anything for once lockdown is over? (Question by Don’t Cramp My Style)

No.  Mainly because I don't know when that will be.  It's difficult to plan anything really with no end point in sight.  We've cancelled one holiday this Easter and will almost certainly not go on the planned holiday for the Summer (waiting until lockdown extension is confirmed so we don't have to pay cancellation fees on the ferry!).  We'd like to go exploring in Cornwall again, would like to take a trip to Applecross, though this may not be until next Spring.  I've also got two training courses to run this Autumn and would definitely like to get a Scout and Cub camp and at least a couple of Scout Group Activity days in the diary in the autumn... plus we'll definitely want to go and visit both sets of parents, and sisters and sister-in-law.  It's going to be a busy Autumn!

Thank you to Sarah (lifeinabreakdown.com) and Bex for coming up with this linky. If you’re a blogger and you’d like to answer these questions yourself then I’ll share them again below so you can copy + paste.

1) How are you feeling/coping?
2) What are you doing to keep yourself occupied?
3) How are you dealing with everything at the moment – are you self-isolated, going out for essentials, etc? Has this changed?
4) What advice do you have for others?
5) What have you bought this week that others might like? Especially if from a small business.
6) How has your routine been this week? (Question by Don’t Cramp My Style)
7) Have you planned anything for once lockdown is over in the past 7 days? (Question by Don’t Cramp My Style)
8) Anything else?