Friday 19th March 2021 Day 360
Today is Red Nose Day and also marks one year since I started this diary on 19th March 2020, who’d have thought!!
So I decided I would mark Red Nose day by showing you my red nose cupboards! Yes I think I probably am bonkers, hope so anyway!
Also to recreate my first entry in the diary to give an idea of how things were at the beginning compared to now. I think the biggest difference between the first lockdown and now, is that it was a sort of ‘novelty’ at the beginning something most people willingly knuckled down to, expecting it all to be over soon and get back to normality. Now after a year of it and an uncertain year to follow, this has become our way of life and we are a little
nervous of getting back to what we had.
Anyway here it is and Happy Red Nose Day
We are all in this boat together, we don’t know how long it will last or how the world will be after the next few months. This is my diary from day one of finally getting to know myself
Thursday 19th March must get to bed early. Get up early, be positive and plan my days from day one
20th March 2020 my first day of self- isolation for how long? Well no point in being down about it, better to be optimistic and get organised.
At least knowing that all the over 70’s and the vulnerable will be doing the same helps a little I’m going to plan my days from day one, get moving early, so much to do now I have the time to do it as I have heard so many people say. Decorate the whole house, spring clean the whole house, clean the carpet, select photos and make albums. Sort my knicker drawer. I have a fair size garden which is a little neglected these days. Lots and lots to do there, fill it with flowers that I’ll have the time to enjoy. And write write write
So, Friday 20th March. Wake earlier than I would have expected having gone to bed so very late. It’s
7.15 No point in getting up this early, after all I have all the time in the world to get things done. Idly pick up my phone and start looking at the run of news items.
‘Why Simon Cowell is feeling sad’
‘How elderly woman tackled burglar in her bedroom’
‘How to become a billionaire in just three days by investing in Bitcoin’
‘Beat the panic buying, try this recipe for porridge oats made from your hedgerow’
You know the sort of thing. By the time I’ve waded through the protracted news stories, stopping every few lines for another advert, the time has leapt to
8.10 I go downstairs and say hello to Audrey, three year old black Labra-doodle and make a cup of tea, take it back to bed and start doing a Sudoko puzzle joined by Worry my black slightly feral cat who has lived upstairs since the advent of Audrey, pretending she is terrified of the friendly dog. I’m hopeless at Sudoko and find it very frustrating, finally realise I’ve done it all wrong as usual and get out of bed again at
9.15 feeling guilty now, I shower, get dressed make the bed, apply a little face paint incase I should catch sight of myself in the mirror at any time and arrive downstairs at
10.00 when I feed Audrey and take Worry’s breakfast up to the bathroom and open the window for her. Both my animals have ten gallon tanks for bladders and regard me as if I am mad to even suggest they go outside while it is still so cold. Annoyed with myself because I wanted to start writing at 9.30. Never mind, make some porridge, I decide against the hedgerow stuff, I might try that if I’m desperate and having read the recipe, which surely was a joke? I’d have to be very desperate. Hoover up the black cat and dog hairs from my pale carpet, empty the dishwasher, hang out the washing in the utility room and put washing in the machine. Clean the kitchen sides, dust the lounge surfaces and squeeze urine coloured loo duck around the toilets. Note – get blue toilet duck next time. Stare out of the window for a while, coffee cup in hand. All finished by
11.20 Almost break into a gallop to get to my computer and start writing, after all it’s still morning and I’m not running all that late. Sit down, open the lid and…. The house phone starts ringing in unison with a text notification on my mobile. Leap up and run to nearest phone; note – must change phone to more than three rings before answer phone chimes in and I have to phone back. It’s a kind friend who is popping to the shops so thought she would give me a very ‘quick call to see if there was anything I wanted. I’d hate to think how long her ‘long calls’ must be as I finally come off the phone at
12.05 and glance at my text messages which have now become three. They are from more friends asking how I am and whether I would like them to get anything from the shops. I know it’s very kind but they are all younger than me and I don’t feel charitable about it because it makes me feel very old when normally I feel pretty young for my age. Not helped by every newspaper, television radio and podcast news constantly referring to the over 70’s and the vulnerable as if we are all incapable of looking after ourselves. I have a theory that the idea of opening supermarkets for the over 70’s in the mornings for an hour is to try and get us all to mingle and catch The Virus. It’s ok I know it’s not true really. Nevertheless I’m ordering my food online. I reply nicely to the texts and return to my computer which has actually gone to sleep and strangely I am beginning to feel both sleepy and lethargic as well. I decide to look quickly through my emails before I start writing in earnest and the phone rings. One of my oldest friends, so this is going to be another long one. We talk over every aspect of Corona Virus, we talk of nothing else as if nothing else exists. It is as if we have been visited by aliens who have taken any other form of intelligence from us
13.20 I come off the phone. I’ve heard text notifications but I’m not even going to look, I feel hungry and go to heat up some baked beans which I eat with a couple of corn crackers. I’ve been dieting with a class and have reached my target weight. I intend to stay in target even though the classes have been suspended. I get back to the computer at
13.50 Nearly two o clock and I still have not written one word. Audrey comes in to remind me that I didn’t take her for her walk this morning. She sits and whimpers and holds her head on one side which she knows will pierce my heart, so I ask her rhetorically if she would like to go for a walk and she gets very excited and I don’t, (get very excited that is) We go to walk the mud slurries through the woods, which used to be paths and when we get back I have to hose her down before she walks all over my kitchen floor shedding damp and the residue of mud that I didn’t see . It is now
15.10 and I find myself staring out of the window again wondering what I’ve been doing with my day. I stand there for a good ten minutes before I remember there is washing to come out of the machine and be hung up. I go and hang it up and as I walk back through the kitchen I feel the need for a biscuit and tell myself it’s only being fanciful and not to have one… so I have two
15.32 I sit at my computer once more and open a blank page but the muse has left me entirely and I find myself thinking that another cup of tea would be nice while watching Tipping Point at four. After all it’s all got a bit late now to do anything else.
16.00 I watch Tipping Point with a cup of tea and at
17.00 I watch the Chase during which I doze off in the chair. I promise myself I won’t do that again when I wake.
18.00 Richard Osman’s House of Games is a must but by now I am wracked with guilt. I still watch it promising myself I’ll get some dinner afterwards…….Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow I will achieve.