This is a collaborative post. Read the rest of my Corona Lockdown diaries here.
So, predictably, lockdown stretches on for a further week.
As noted last week (or was it the week before? Who knows, time means nothing these days…), whether it is advisable or not, the world around us is starting to shift ever so slowly back towards some kind of normality.
Heading towards a new normal.
We are allowed to chat to our friends and relatives in person, as long as it’s outdoors (which is probably why it’s been pissing rain all week). Many are being un-furloughed and heading back to work, some children are back to school (although others won’t be until at least September). Outside attractions have started to reopen, shops and zoos are next, and then pub gardens will open just in time for us to while away the summer months in a drunken haze should we so wish.
Maybe you’ll be the first in line at Primark or perhaps you’ll be happy to live in your socially distance bubble for the foreseeable; as for me, here are some of the things I’ll be reluctant to ditch once lockdown is over:
1) Working from home
It strikes me as very strange that the moment lockdown was announced, loads of people discovered that they were actually completely able to work from home; almost as if employers just wanted bums on seats for no real reason.
Yes of course there are plenty of jobs that can’t be done from a desk in your front room but for many office-based staff this working from home thing has been a total gamechanger.
Less time stuck in traffic mourning the passing of your youth, more time spent in bed/with the family (priorities permitting) and you don’t have to wear trousers if you don’t want to – what’s not to love?
2) Online shopping
OK, slots with Ocado might be rarer than rocking horse poop but there really is nothing you can’t order to your door these days.
Whether it’s ordering wine online (#ad – use FRAN5 for an extra 5% off a case) which we have done a few times now, or getting your medication via an online pharmacy there are so many websites out there that mean you don’t have to leave your house and deal with the potentially COVID-ridden populace/people in general.
The best bit is that thanks to Coronavirus, you don’t even need to come up with some small talk as by the time you answer the door to the delivery person they’re halfway down the street.
3) Chatting to friends
Hands up who actually used to chat to their friends regularly? Ones that live too far away to visit? For an actual live chat, not just messages via Whatsapp.
I’ve already sung the praises of Zoom and how, in lieu of being able to go to the pub, my weekly quiz nights and video calls with friends are keeping me sane. Some of the friends I’ve chatted to and played games with I’ve seen more frequently, albeit virtually, than I have for years.
I’m socialising more often and I’m spending time with a bigger range of people. Hopefully we can keep this up well after lockdown has ended.
4) Drinking in parks
No longer just for teenagers and n’er do wells, it is now a totally socially acceptable pursuit to meet up with friends in a local park and open a can or two of premixed cocktails.
This is one that could save me a tonne of money in the future (although what I wouldn’t give for some overpriced cocktails in some wanky bar).
5) Walking the dog
Dear reader, I admit that I never really used to take the dog out that much on my own. Since we had kids, that became my husband’s remit and off he went, twice a day, armed with poo bags and a podcast while I stayed at home.
Since lockdown, however, we have both embraced the ‘me time’ that walking the dog can bring and I’ve got really into My Dad Wrote a Porno.
6) Being less busy all of the time
We used to do a LOT of stuff; rarely would a weekend approach without some kind of plans in the diary and when we had none, we’d go to the cinema, or over to Bluewater shopping, visit some kind of attraction, maybe pop to Ikea, and definitely go out for dinner.
I told myself that it was the kids who I was doing all this for; that if we didn’t get out and spend money and stay busy then they would get bored but actually they’ve been doing bugger all for twelve weeks and they are JUST FINE. They have been playing with Lego pretty much solidly for the past 4 days and if I ask whether they’d like to go out it is met by wailing protests.
So in future, I will try to save myself the money and the hassle and I won’t bother unless it’s something I want to do anyway. Sounds fair to me.
7) Being angry with the Tory government
To be fair I was definitely NOT a fan before lockdown but this 40,000 people dead shit is a whole new level of incompetence so now I’m committed for life.