I can with a much happier heart close the front gate of my house and stay indoors for a few weeks. I have ensured that my mom has everything she needs, from medication to a reasonably full fridge and grocery cupboard. I have stocked up on I what normally would, given that it is end of the month and everything is pretty much finished anyway.
I am having mixed feelings about the ease with which I managed to pack a trolley full of essentials, pay for them and get back home in a little more than an hour. I am so glad I didn't have to stand in eternal queues to get in to the shop and then to be rung up. The quicker the better is always key when shopping, but I had honestly thought there would have been quite a few more people about, all wanting to do what I was doing. Happily, the shelves were all stocked as usual except for anything that resembles a disinfectant. Bars of soap and soap powder aplenty, no liquid soap, no disinfectants or sanitisers, but if I am in my own home for 3 weeks I don't see the need for a pocket size of any of these and I do still have various soaps on hand.
Why are people not shopping? Is it because they already have? Have they decided to wait until the last minute like they do at Christmas? Or do they simply not care; About their own health or anyone elses and will shop willy-nilly since the grocery stores are to remain open.
This is not about stockpiling, it is about being prepared. It is about knowing that at the very least, you need food. Take-away culture will be hard to maintain during this time, as will your daily pop to the shop. Even if you could, why would you.
I like to think that I have done all I can to keep myself and all my loved ones safe. I am still going to the bookshop as a last errand, as sanity is also important.
My trip to the bookshop aside, I have turned my whiteboard into a timetable for the period of isolation. I have given myself something to do for every single day bar weekends, these I have highlighted because then I will really do nothing except relax and have a few glasses of wine.
My daily exercise walks have had to come to halt. Which is such a pity, because I am 8 kilograms lighter than I was six weeks ago. I have now substituted my walks for an app with the voice of a stern woman issuing instructions and little videos of how to a specific excercise.
Abs in 30 days it is called. Ha-ha, I don't see that happening but I am finally getting it right to plank for more than 5 seconds, and the correct way too. So here's hoping.
My roster includes things I would normally do anyway, such as laundry on a Monday and Dallas on a Tuesday, but if I don't put them in there I may slip into holiday mode and end up living in a pigsty.
Other than the mundane, I have allocated time for the things I never have time to do, like create a vegetable patch. And when the all the physical and mundane start to wear on me I might just do an online course.
When all this is over, I want to carry on from here. Day 1 of freedom is not going to be my new beginning. Day 1 of lockdown is where my new life starts. I am not going to come out on the other side still the same or worse off.
This is an unfortunate event, but it is not a curse and it is not a holiday, it is an opportunity.
