Just over a week into self-isolating, I’m feeling a lot better. My already-mild COVID-19 symptoms are thankfully easing.
I’m having what I call slight “chesty-relapses” with the occasional half-day of tight chest and struggling to breathe, but even these are decreasing.
AND IT ALREADY FEELS LIKE I’VE BEEN OFF FOR A MONTH!!
With all the stress and trying to find new routines – and the relentlessly depressing news coverage – every hour has sometimes felt like a day.
Yesterday was Mother’s Day and – I’m sure like many people – for the first time in my life I didn’t get to give my Mum a big hug. We FaceTimed, but it didn’t feel quite right.
In the evening Paul downloaded Zoom and we used it with his family for the first time. It looked a bit like the Brady Bunch but it was a great, if strange, experience…welcome to the future of family get-togethers! But hey, we got to see his mum and I guess it’s all for the greater good right now.
…which leads me into my next rant…
Why are so many people (particularly over-70s) carrying on as though everything’s ok and none of this applies to them??
They should be self-isolating!
Perhaps it’s generationally worse in other areas so I don’t really want to pick on any one generation.
But I could recount a huge number of friends and family tales of people “of a certain age” who are still “having friends round for knitting club”, “going to mow the green at the bowls club” and “having coffee with friends at the garden centre”!
Don’t be like this!
What is wrong with these people?! Some of them have even claimed to be self-isolating, “but only popped to the charity shop in town” or “…just went to get my hair cut.”
NO!
NO! These people just aren’t getting it! This does apply to them, and probably even more so! We get angry because we care – and because we’re self-isolating to try and keep these people (with an inability to be told what to do and an incessant wanderlust) safe! It’s no longer considered cute, eccentric or honourable to carry on – it’s just bloody idiotic and it’s putting everyone at risk! There’s a huge irony, which I fear we might end up paying for. And if that’s not the case then after all this is over we’ll still have our friends and loved ones: it’s potentially win-win.
These are very weird times. New systems and technologies will be introduced, there are new ways of working and contacting others; the whole framework and routine of the life we knew is on pause. In some cases probably forever.
