Surviving Lockdown: Week 1
We’re now a week into lockdown in the UK.
Last Monday (23 March) we were told that we are only allowed outside once a day, only allowed to see people from our own household and only to shop for essentials.
It was pretty inevitable. Considering the weekend before people were ignoring the advice to stay inside and treating it like a holiday weekend. A lot of national parks reported record numbers of visitors.
Although we’re officially one week into lockdown, Mark and I are the end of two weeks social distancing (although in some ways it feels longer than two weeks!). We normally work from home, so there hasn’t been too much change in our routine in that respect. I’ve not been able to have my usual Wednesday with clients and meetings have been moved to Zoom. But apart from that, it’s been pretty much BAU.
But not having the freedom to go out and see people whenever we want is taking its toll on me. It’s been over two weeks since we’ve seen Mark’s family. The same for one of my sets of parents and the others have been over a month now.
It’s really strange the small things you miss that you’d normally take for granted.
Like getting to nip out to the shops or for a coffee. But my first week of lockdown has been far from boring!
I was busier with work than usual. I’m working on a project that is centred around the current situation and it was great to be able to get stuck into something. My blog on my business website needed some fresh content so I wrote a post sharing tips on working from home. You can read it here.
In between work, I spent time binge-watching The Mindy Project and Escape to the Chateau. By the end of all this, I might be trying to convince Mark to move to France and renovate a house that looks like a small castle!
I haven’t spent too much time reading but earlier this year I discovered I love audiobooks. I’m currently listening to Grown Ups by Marian Keyes and getting a couple of chapters in each morning while having my morning coffee.
Each week I write ‘good things that happened’ in my Passion Planner. I’m pleased to say that I still had plenty to write at the end of last week! So here are the things I’m grateful for from last week:
- We managed to move our wedding date to later in the year. I’m being super optimistic (and keeping everything crossed) that the new date will be ok!
- Chats with siblings who I’m missing.
- Video calls with friends I’ve not seen in weeks.
- Working on a project that is really interesting and keeping me busy so nicely distracting!
- Having the best person to be going through lockdown with, and that both of us are still feeling symptom-free.
- Technology that allows us to keep in contact with people we can’t see in person.
- WE GOT Disney+ AT THE WEEKEND!!!
I asked Mark what his thoughts on the first week were and this is what he had to say: “Imagine we were still stuck with pre-2000 tech? No Spotify, no Sky Go or Netflix, no YouTube on your Smart TV, no Whatsapp, no Kindle, no iPad. Stuck playing Snake on your Nokia while you wait on your internet news pages to load line by line. Trying to describe over the phone to folk how to fix their giant, room-sized pc and connect / install a webcam! I’d still have my Sega Dreamcast though so it wouldn’t be too bad“
How was your first week of lockdown? Comment and tell me what you’ve been up to, or recommend a good binge-worthy programme to watch.
