Lockdown begins

Well things certainly change quickly in these crazy days, hard to believe how quickly some times. Yesterday I was writing about the fact that we were heavily restricted compared to our normal way of life but that we were thankfully not on lockdown.

At 8.30 last night, an announcement from the PM changed that. We are now on lockdown. The rules now are:

Stay at home

  • Only go outside for food, health reasons or essential work
  • Stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people
  • Wash your hands as soon as you get home

We are allowed out once a day for exercise, which for me is a huge relief as I need time outside. I’ve heard the lockdown in Spain includes not going further than 50m from your house and the thought of that concerned me.

Otherwise, this does’t really affect our life that much, not compared to the changes we’ve already made. I am working from home so I can look after the kids and home educate them as much as possible. We have been going for a walk once a day and can still do that. Nic is going to work but otherwise we are’t seeing anyone in person. We are just seeing people on video.

It is a weird time though. Some people are scared of getting ill so don’t want to leave their homes. Some people are scared of the loss of freedoms and so are chafing to be out and living their normal life. I guess I am somewhere in between. I’m not in the at risk group so in theory shouldn’t be affected too badly by the virus, but you never know and there are young healthy people who survive it, but are hospitalised first.

If I allow myself to think about it, I’m scared of Nic and I both being hospitalised as I don’t know what would happen to the children in that scenario. It’s very unlikely but it is possible. I’m scared that one of family members or friends will get it and become seriously ill or worse. Everyone who is vulnerable is self isolating so we have to hope that is enough to prevent that.

I try not to spend time thinking about what I am scared of though, because they are largely out of my control. I am focusing instead on the things I do have control over. I’m focusing on following the rules. I’m focusing on the children, trying to keep them busy, vaguely educated, healthy and happy. I am focusing on staying in touch with our friends and family and supporting them from a distance. In my role at work I am focusing on supporting my colleagues, trying to make sure they are healthy and happy whether working from home or still in the office and making sure they have what they need.

I’m also focusing on me and Nic keeping us healthy. Hence I am so relieved we can still get out and about every day! Even though I really want to eat loads of crisps and chocolate, I am trying to carry on eating healthily. I’m trying to make sure I keep exercising, even if I can’t do the normal hikes I do with my friend (the kids would never manage one of those with me) and even though my yoga class is cancelled. Last night Nic and I found a great Pilates class on Youtube so Monday evenings we doing Pilates after the kids go to bed. I did a fab Yoga video that a friend recommended and Thursday evening is our Yoga evening (my abs need a few days to recover from these workouts lol).

At the moment we have enough food to keep us going. We have a delivery booked in for next week, but there are restrictions on the amount of certain things that you can buy, which will force us to go to the shops too. We eat a lot of eggs and because of all the panic buying of them, are only allowed to buy 3 packs of 6 at a time. On a normal day we eat 7 eggs every morning because we have scrambled eggs for breakfast. We obviously don’t have to do that so if we have to have toast or cereal for brekkie we can, but would like to keep things as normal as possible for the children and for the sake of our health. Nic’s IBS means he can’t eat bread and cereals so his breakfasts rely heavily on protein to keep him going through the day.

It’s hard to balance everything. There are restrictions on what you are allowed to buy when you go to the shops, but also restrictions on how many times you are allowed to go to the shops. It’s to make sure there is enough for everyone and I know that everyone is facing the same challenges. I guess my point is that we are trying to keep things feeling normal, but something simple like trying to buy food reminds you that things aren’t normal. At all.

Anyway that’s enough ramblings for me for today. Let’s see what the rest of today/tomorrow brings.

Thanks for taking the time to write something. I love comments and read every one xx

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