Covid-19 – Week sixteen: beginning 21/06/2020
“You’ve done well lass!”
I start Monday as normal with a half an hour jog. I still can’t do 5k like the challenge prescribed, but the jog is getting me up and out for 6:30am ish and with comments like, “You’ve done well lass!” From a fellow dog walker I see each day, I must be looking fitter. The lady’s comment has made me feel part of a morning community. We may not know each other’s names or anything else, but the fact we come to the cemetery each morning with our dogs at roughly the same time, makes us feel like we know each other. Jokingly taking it in turns to pretend to hide behind gravestones to let the other pass safely at 2 meters.
Then there is the lovely gentleman who weaves the narrower footpaths. It all started with a wave of acknowledgment nearly four months ago. And today as we pass, if on the main stretch we stay at opposite sides and he places a dog treat on the ground for Lady. So, this has become the ‘treat man’. Only that’s what I think Lady calls him as it doesn’t matter what direction he is approaching us, she becomes alert and tries to redirect us. As cute as this sounds it has also caught me by surprise with a jolt on a few mornings. But who would want their morning exercise to be boring?
My whole morning routine has changed for the better. Instead of rushing around and then jumping in the car for nearly an hour commute, I now spend this on foot walking, jogging, having a quick tidy round in the house. My morning just feels so much more leisurely and productive.
However, as Tuesday morning dawns I get into the car. I normally would walk to the post office. But this morning I am laden with homemade clothing for my beautiful niece and nephew thanks to the clever hands of my Mam and Great Aunt. So, I drive to the post office, it feels so strange to be back behind the wheel. Having let my partner get Adam (my car) out for a stretch of its legs to the shops or on errands. I hadn’t realised how long its been. But don’t worry I haven’t forgotten how to drive, and I even stop myself going into auto pilot to drive to work.
Yet, I really don’t think I will be driving to work for a long time. Talks are underway at my work through a self-evaluation of how effectively we work from home. Through the survey in my team, it seems clear I am not alone in my hope of a hybrid going forward, an opportunity to spend time working in the office and at home. The best of both worlds. I could keep some of the great morning routines I have built in, while also getting some much-needed social interaction I crave. I have said it before and will say it again Covid-19 has and will continue to change some things for the better.
Coronavirus has even altered time.
“What is the week-end?” I can feel myself asking. Blursday has stolen it! Time is moving so strangely that I cannot place where one day ends and another begins. I joke today, “I would make a rubbish witness statement,” but it’s TRUE. I really have lost touch with time, days, weeks.
And it’s not set to stop anytime soon, with no plans to return to the office for work, everything for me is done remotely. Similarly, Scouting, Slimming World, fitness classes and family and friend catch ups are all run virtually. Are we morphing into a virtual society, who live through video interactions?
Yet, the writing competition I am entering this week asks for posted submissions. So today as I queue in the sun outside of the post office I feel excitement, pride and how I imagine real writers used to have when they posted their writing off to an editor or publisher. So, the wait to get into the post office, the sweat on my face and hands from my protection doesn’t bother me, I feel like a writer.
A reoccurring glimmer of hope for me is that I have not been contacted by NHS Test and trace. So as weird as my day is, I’m not stuck in the house 24/7 for the quarantine period of the virus. The track and trace app version might not be running until winter, so a full team of people are keeping it going, and to them we thank them for keeping others safe. I guess even the best laid plans can take longer than expected. But at least some human contact has been kept.
Also in the news this week Medical detection dogs might be able to smell Covid-19. How exciting a breakthrough? I never realised that medical assistance dogs already work with a range of illnesses like type 1 diabetes, by alerting owners to tiny odour changes. It is amazing what research can achieve and it gives me hope we will come through coronavirus.
However, as talks of easing more lockdown restrictions continue, I can’t help but feel the motivation is the economy over health and wellbeing. I realise of course both are important, but as an individual I feel my health should come first.
So when I get an email to say my much needed relaxing massage is not going to happen on the week of the 4th July, I know at least I am safe even if I could give the tin man a run for his money. I am happy to wait and try my home remedies.
This week my hot bath solution is out of the window as a result of the welcomed warm weather. I am sitting outside to eat and switch off from work, its holiday weather and a very welcomed change from the rain of last week.
A day on and the weather stays lovely, making me adapt in ways I never expected in the UK. With sweat pouring off me on my jog today, I start re-routing to hunt out shade, missing my four pawed companion that is resting at home. On my dog walk, I prep the dog with sun cream on her paws and pack water ready to shower her with. While for work I am dressed in upperwear, shorts becoming my normal bottom half attire. Drinks have become glasses full of ice with water cooled from the fridge, while Lady enjoys ice cubes and ice toys (when I remember to put them in the freezer). The day ends with my partner, pointing out I am flaking, only I’m not! Its brilliantly applied sun cream. Now I’m not complaining, honest, but rather feel like I have moved abroad.
In fact, everywhere I look this week, colleagues, neighbours, friends and family everywhere are out in the sun on loungers, in paddling pools, on picnics, at the beach and all holidaying at home in the sun.
Yet by the weekend the wind is rushing through the trees and flapping Lady’s ears as we walk. The rain is intermittent and luckily only a few drops catch us on our outings. By Saturday evening we are watching approaching lightening and hearing the thunder.
Life just keeps changing and this time it’s the weather bringing about our new routines.
