So, with all the Coronavirus recommendations (including the new ones that came out this afternoon) it looks like we're practising social isolation and distancing. For introverts like us three (five if you count the cats) I'm hoping it won't be too tough. In fact the only social extroverts around here are the chickens 😁
MIL is 86 with many health issues, so could be badly affected by catching the flu. She's a bit of a homebody anyway, doesn't socialise and doesn't seem unduly upset with the prospect of isolation, although she isn't happy that she wasn't able to see her niece last weekend for a planned (but cancelled) lunch because the young lady had just come back from a holiday in Slovenia with a cold. We basically had to be very firm with MIL about not going and she's now quite thankful that we did. She understands the dangers.
Martin is a concern; as a postman he is still going to be going out and delivering mail. Royal Mail has issued guidelines to its posties over the weekend on how to deliver packages that require the homeowner to sign - basically they will not be expected to sign and Martin must put the packages on the floor, knock/ring the bell and then step back a safe distance until the person picks up the parcel and closes the door. We have been considering everything he does from during the day, from when he pulls into the car park at the Royal Mail warehouse until he gets home. He is equipped with wipes to clean his van, gloves for handling parcels and hand sanitiser to use frequently throughout the day.
As for me, I work from home, rarely go into the office and only go out to the shops now and then for groceries. My gym membership has run out as well so I won't be renewing. I'll look at that again in the autumn. At the end of January I decided to reduce my visits to charity shops and went cold turkey on them for almost all of February. I had been experiencing odd withdrawal reactions when I didn't go that surprised me; I was quite unhappy and had a Fear Of Missing Out on bargains. I realised I needed to tackle it. Thankfully I'm past that now but it took nearly four weeks to get there. It seems a bit prophetic now and I'm glad I'm not dealing with those feelings while trying to get my head round COVID 19 restrictions. So, I'll be ok with the isolation I think.
I took the photo above in my local supermarket 10 days ago as I went past the toilet paper aisle to get some peas. Personally, I put food above toilet paper. Let's face it, there's no shortage of things you could use instead of the toilet tissue in an emergency. I'm saving MIL's daily newspaper and am delighted to see that modern inks don't come off on your skin. I'll say no more! 😂
Thankfully, I started building up a groceries stockpile a while ago in response to Brexit so I haven't had to do much shopping, just plugging a few apparent gaps, such as cat food, sugar, bits for Martin's lunches, stock cubes, cider and frozen veg. I was concerned about the possible higher cost of food, aiming for my stockpile to smooth any Brexit transition rather than going to the shops and finding my weekly shopping jumping by 10-20% in one go. As it stands, it now seems that it will help us over the next few months as we socially distance ourselves. I'll still pop out for a few bits of fresh now and then but otherwise I'm here working, reading, gardening and painting.
Interestingly, I never even considered hand sanitiser for my stockpile (why would I for Brexit?) so only had a little bottle for travel purposes, but I did have isopropyl alcohol and aloe vera gel for various reasons. I have mixed these together in a 75% alcohol minimum solution and we use that.
We'll get by.
No comments