This morning I woke up to the sun streaming through the window……… “Oh beautiful” I thought…. and it’s Saturday….. I got out of bed and went into the bathroom still half asleep thinking about what we might do today…. a dog walk, a wander round the market, maybe one of our ‘spring bbqs’, wonder if our friends have plans…….? And then I began brushing my teeth and couldn’t taste the toothpaste and the whole boring misery of our current life swam back into my head. We aren’t going out for any dog walks or strolls round markets and we can’t see our friends.
I then felt really really angry. Not really aimed at anyone in particular just a boiling rage that made me stomp about and be generally foul tempered. I drank some coffee I couldn’t taste and ate some toast with about 5 cm of marmite on it just to give it the opportunity to tickle my suffocated taste buds.
Matt, having had his breakfast was exhausted and went back to bed…… I, on the other hand was feeling completely normal and raring to go. As a dog walk was just off limits ( all being well I will be allowed out on day release on Monday) I decided it was time Anna and I began our new yoga routine…..
So after a chat with my friend Jenny which is becoming a lovely habit in the mornings Anna and I found a free yoga app and rolled out our mats. Pretty soon there were three of us doing our yoga practice……..
Following the yoga I was determined Anna and I were going to make the most of the sunshine and get out into the garden. I had received a very kind package in the post this morning from my friend Anne-Marie with a packet of seeds….
Preparing the ground…..
I had some other seeds I was keeping for presents but I thought it would be as good a time as any to get them planted especially as I had an enthusiastic helper….
The sunshine felt so good, there was a constant flow of people walking in a social distancing way to and from town outside our house, many with armfuls of flowers for Mothers Day….. everything felt a bit more normal than it had done. Our opposite neighbour came and took the dogs out for a walk, even Daisy who won’t normally go with anyone now seems to realise she needs to take her chances when they come….
Several friends we are in a whats app group with mentioned they were going to Homebase and I thought, with envy, as I love Homebase…. What a typical British response to this crisis - DIY….. and my next thought was should that be encouraged as someone always ends up with an “DIY trip to A&E anecdote” and the NHS really doesn’t need that at the moment….
I was feeling so much better and looking forward to soon being able to walk my own dogs and get our own shopping. A friend dropped round a loaf of bread and said that all the shelves in Waitrose were empty. Another friend bought us milk and wine ( more on that later…) and said the same. It sounded horrific out there and I am still mystified as to why everyone is still panic buying? If you are unwell and isolating there is a very good chance you will have friends, family and neighbours who will get you food I’m sure and if you aren’t unwell you are allowed out to shops as normal. Whats the panic? To be honest once you lose your sense of taste your desire for much to eat evaporates pretty swiftly anyway.
My studio with it’s new exercise regime.
Determined that something positive was going to come out of this isolation and new surge of energy I asked Elliott to bring down my rebounder from upstairs which is now taking up half the studio defying me not to use it……. I bought it a few years ago during yet another “determined effort” to do some regular fitness…. and it has been doing a good job of being a clothes horse. Now it shall be a constant source of marching on the spot and stretches and lunges and I shall no doubt be permanently clad in lycra and sweat bands and leg warmers.
Bouncers.
It was quickly hijacked by some family members with way more energy than me. I will have to wait for Monday and virtual school to start up again before I try and have a go.
We had lunch. I slathered a super thick layer of mustard on a cheese roll in the hope it would tantalise the taste buds into working again. It sort of did although that much mustard under normal circumstances would have made my eyes water and my nose sting so not out of the woods yet……
Matt had been back and forward to bed and so had Elliott, I don’t think Elliott is unwell anymore just trying to sleep his way out of incarceration the way teenagers do. Matt is definitely not well yet, a friend of mine who is an anaesthetist explained that men do get affected with coronavirus worse than women due to their increased muscle mass……
Now, look away now if you are not ready for a overload of kindness….. I had already received the generous seeds this morning from Anne-Marie, a beautiful card with a silver house from Hannah , yesterday I received a book of dog poems from my friend Gaby and Anna received a lovely collection of crafting pieces from Kathy this morning……And then, this afternoon just when we were about to put the kettle on there was a knock on the door and in true coronavirus style we saw a girl running up the street leaving this cardboard box…….. ( I feel like I am living in a constant game of” knock down ginger” - Until this week it was only Amazon delivery drivers who knocked on the door and ran away now it’s everyone…)
Mystery box……
Lucky Lucky Lucky me - thank you Hannah xx
Delicious carrot cake from the lovely Jane.
In the box which could be recycled so no confusing casserole dish dilemmas was a generous supply of carrot cake. Home made carrot cake no less from the lovely Jane who is a lady I have known on and off for a great many years and some one who once you have met you just aspire to be a bit more like. Creative, generous and funny and what a baker!! Her carrot cake is the stuff of dreams. Elliott ate two pieces at top speed and I haven’t seen him that happy in a long while. Matt had two pieces and declared it THE BEST CAKE HE HAD EVER EATEN EVER EVER EVER. and he loves cakes. I had a piece and was shocked, amazed and delighted to find I could taste it ( I am assuming from his response that Matt could too…) Janes carrot cake is a scientific miracle. It should be prescribed on the NHS for resurrecting the taste buds of the coronally afflicted……
What a day this was turning out to be!
Some serious crafting was in order with Anna who I had now kept entertained non stop since breakfast time and even though I was feeling a little tired I was enjoying her company and the living room was a riot of paper, glue, paints, cardboard and fabric and not a screen in sight as she constructed a “Moomin House.” inspired by a brilliant craft book that I had bought ages ago and hidden for her birthday ( not until August) but that I felt needed bringing out at this juncture.
We cut and painted and glued and sewed and suddenly realised four hours had passed! I was then allowed to check my phone ( all screens had been confiscated at the beginning of Crafting) and saw this “Breaking News” from Sky News sent to me by Jenny….
Clearly I am a scientific genius as had suspected this a few days ago after it happened to me last weekend ( I may have mentioned it several hundred times throughout this blog….) My friend Claire who is an anaesthetist called me Professor Banham in a text message which has a certain ring to it…….
From that point on I think I had used up every ounce of my new found energy and was drained. I thought since my taste had been so magically restored by Janes carrot cake a little glass of wine from my neighbour and a sit on the sofa was in order……. Unfortunately wine was the most stupid idea ever. I couldn’t taste it and made my mouth go completely claggy which is the only word for it. And I couldn’t taste it. BOOOOOO
Tea was sausages ( no taste ) and chip shop chips( unfortunately no taste either although I could mildly taste ketchup) from our opposite neighbours lovely son who kindly went to the fish and chip shop in our hour of need. Matt did nip out and drive past the chip shop which is in the next street to check the queuing situation out before we asked Oliver to go round there, he hasn’t left the house at all since Monday and found it quite disorientating.
Beginnings of Moomin land …..
Then we watched The Graduate while Anna was released into Face time land with her friends who she had plenty to catch up with having not spoken to them since breakfast.
All in all a much better day than yesterday, still a bit more tired than normal but no temperature, no cough, no aches and pains and I can taste but only Janes carrot cake. The fury I experienced this morning just turned out to be good old PMT as my period turned up this afternoon, sorry if thats more information than you needed ( told you I was an over sharer) but it was quite reassuring that that was all the feelings of rage was about , not some crazy new corona symptom…… but more heightened and apparent than usual probably due to living in such an intense environment which is what isolation becomes.
I am feeling a little more generous spirited to the sharing of ideas for isolation now the rage has subsided and I have had a burst of normal energy levels . I am a huge audiobook listener when working in the studio and so here is a list of some books I have enjoyed lately or am currently listening to:
1) Pour Me - A.A Gill
2) A Bit Of A Stretch- Chris Atkins
3) Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata
4) Big Girl, Small Town - Michelle Gallen
5) My Wild and Sleepless Nights - Clover Stroud
6) Motherwell - Deborah Orr
7) Jailbirds - Mim Skinner
8) Lost Dog - Kate Spicer
9) The Stopping Places - Damien Le Bas
10) Lady in Waiting - Anne Glenconner
