Today is our 56th day of social isolation and day 50 of Shielding/Quarantine (week 7/12). Over the past few days the UK and devolved administrations have announced the easing of the current lockdown status.
For us in Wales, that started today, however other than exercise restrictions being relaxed in terms of time outside, and garden centres being allowed to open, we are still in quite a significant lockdown; something I fully agree with. Boris Johnson’s administration have been chasitised numerous times over the past 24hrs for their incoherent, nonsensical messaging in relation to England, however Wales, Scotland and the Northern Ireland seem to have had quite a bit more resolve to keep their messaging clear and unambiguous.
As a family, we are fairing quite well so far. It is hard to believe that it has actually been 56 days since we last ventured outside further than our garden boundary. We have been very lucky though as our garden is sizeable, we live in a beautiful part of the country and the weather has been stunning.
Health wise we have all stayed as well as can be. Aside from normal ailments, as serious as they are; we have, thus far, been free of Covid-19 symptoms entirely. This has partly been due to our sterilisation routine when accepting anything into the house. Shopping, parcels and letters are disinfected one by one as they arrive. We are then using 80% isopropyl alchohol sanitiser to try and keep any possible remnants of the virus at bay as we handle the items. This is in addition to extra cleaning in our daily routines.
It has been extremely troubling to see the numbers of people suffering from CV-19 in the UK and around the world. Despite our precautions this has still instilled in us quite a fear that we may contract it. Reading news articles as plentiful on the subject as they are doesn’t help, however the disparity in the official numbers and the ones compiled by the ONS (Office for National Statistics) and the Financial Times is increasingly worrying,
Those things aside, we are still mainly surviving because of the help from other people. Our local village has turned into quite the community and it is lovely to see. Our local shop sorts our groceries out by phone so that I can ask someone to just call in and collect them. The local coordinator lady from the pub is still making food and helping to bring items from the local shop when we need them. She has also been organising donations of food (something we contributed to) and distributing them to vulnerable people in the village. We were extremely humbled to have had someone pull up at the house and drop one off for us.
The council have been supportive too. They were the ones who signposted us to our local support services and then by extension to specific support in the village. They have also arranged for a ‘food parcel’ to arrive at some point and I even had a call from the Adult Social Services just to see how I was coping. It was surprising, but very welcome.
I still have friends able to help when we need it and we have also had a delivery from Tesco. Overall these people and services are the main factors (friends and community), enabling me to stay isolated and by extension to then stay healthy enough to keep my family going. I can never overstate how much I am thankful for that help.
Since I last wrote about the pandemic, we have bought some cloth face coverings that Cerys then personalised with a small embroidered initial each and I have been recording her singing. Hopefully she will be featuring on a track in the near future.
Jacob has been venturing more into taking things apart and learning how they work. He has also started to show interest in how electronics are put together, something I have tried to encourage. Today he built his own FM radio and tuned it into his favourite radio station, Heart.
As we approach the time when shielding will end, we will be doing it with apprehension. My children will be keen to see their grandparents, and my daughter by then will be 20. We have some camping we’d like to try and get out to do (depends on my health), and we have a meeting with someone from my distant past to arrange. A lot to look forward to.
I do however worry about a second spike in the pandemic. Venturing out seems fraught with worry and so we are going to have to proceed with heightened vigilence and discretion.
Onwards
Emma