Life on Lockdown - MARCH
I am that person who during lockdown gets dressed every day puts on makeup and works through her to do list. My list started at one page of to-dos and somehow gone up to two pages. Right now I'm at 56 things to do before this lockdown ends. 56! I don't know if thats good or bad. I might be overdoing it. But you know what, since none of us knows how long this lockdown is going to last, let me keep myself busy...
The whole country is banged up behind their front doors isolating themselves from Covid-19 AKA Coronovirus. I know one person who has it and she knows two people who have it. Today I think I have it. My breathing is shallow, I have a warm forehead and I have developed a dry ticklish cough. I was up at 6.15 am and got straight down to tidying up. I mopped the floors, did the vacuuming, folded the heap of clothes that has been in the corner for the last week. Packed away all my makeup kit into the suitcase and basically was done housekeeping stuff by 9.30 am.
I went over to Icelands to get some eggs, some mince and some crisps but the doors were locked - although I could see customers lined up inside at the tills. I stood outside the store with some other people, a few of us knocking on the doors to be let in. The security guard came up to the door and slid it open a crack. He says they are only letting in people 'one in one out'. Well, I didn't have time for that. I turned on my heels and walked over to Sainsburys, which really was no better. That shop was crazy busy. It felt like 6 pm on a Christmas Eve.
Sainsbury's food shelves are empty. No pasta, no flour, no eggs and definitely no loo paper. I don’t know what the obsession with grabbing as much toilet paper as you can is about. But while people are out here grabbing loo roll I'm stocking up on Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Sainsbury's got them on sale. I want to see how many tubs I can load into my basket without being stopped (four as it turns out).
Everybody's basket / trolly was packed full of food and people were racing around like the store was about to close. It wasn't. The queues at the tils were long and winding and even though we've been instructed by the government to keep our distance when out in public, the people in Sainsbury's are all up in each others grill.
Ahead of me, at the self checkout, I noticed a woman in a heavy black coat sweating like there was no tomorrow. Her face was all sheen. I looked around me to see if anyone one else had noticed. I guess not, only me being vigilant then. She had redness around her nose and she looked to me like someone who was suffering from something. Immediately I felt uncomfortable. I tried all the tactics I could to stall myself so I didn't have to go to her til, but the shop assistant waved me forward as she left and I should have stood my ground but I didn't. I got to her til and held my breath like my life depended on it, which lets face it, it does, and I pressed the touch screen checkout with my knuckles. Since then I've been feeling unwell.
Is this our life now? Avoiding people and panicking? I guess so.
At home I broke into a sweat, which could have just been a regular hot flash, but I am convinced it is the early stages of the Coronavirus (it's not). But that's the thing about all this TV coverage and panic buying. You may not have the virus but you can easily convince yourself like me that you have it. I will give it 24 hours and see if this ticklish cough is because my asthma is flaring up because I was dusting and cleaning like a maniac this morning. Or if my damp forehead is because I am in the throws of the meno.
For effs sake.
GOVERNMENT ORDER - WASH YOUR HANDS
So the government is going on about hand-washing. I am not sure why we need virus or a government sanctioned PSA to tell us to wash our hands. I was raised on hand washing. I was taught if you go outside when you come back inside you wash your hands. If you go to the bathroom same. If you’ve spent time in a line shaking hands like the queen, same thing, wash your hands after. Cough sneeze and have your hands anywhere near your mouth. Wash them. I thought hand washing was standard etiquette, so it is a little bewildering we have a whole news presentation on it every evening.
