This morning there was a lovely blue sky and sunshine, although it wasn’t particularly hot, but still great to be outside. The forecast was rain in the afternoon, which was hard to believe when it was so nice in the morning. I spent the morning outside with Honey to enjoy the sunshine, sure enough it was raining by the afternoon!
We went to Kate’s Park, seeing Kate briefly and through Montgomery Street Park, before dropping into the Ear Shop.
In Montgomery Street Park, I bumped into Katie, who I used to work with many years ago in mental health. I actually saw her a couple of days ago in the park, sitting with a large group of people. She said it was for a Birthday Gathering and how great it was that there was no dishes to do afterwards. Obviously, if outwith lock-down, the party would have been in a flat.
I really do hope that people continue to use parks once we are allowed to gather in each other’s flats, 
etc…it’s lovely to connect with others in the park, rather than hidden in flats/homes.
The same with people going to the gym, I hope that some people continue to use the park as their local gym, rather than being inside.
Tomorrow, in Scotland, it becomes mandatory that we must all wear face-coverings in shops.
I have been talking to a few shop-keepers, etc…about this over the last few days and they have said they would not refuse customers into their shop if they don’t have a face-covering, because they are struggling so much to financially survive, they would be stupid to turn away a customer.
Most people I talk to say that it is not law to wear face-coverings in shops from tomorrow, so it won’t be enforced. But, today I was watching Nicola Sturgeon in the Scottish Parliament talking about how Scotland is now moving into Phase 3 and from tomorrow it is the LAW to wear face-coverings in shops.
So, I am still left confused. If I am confused, I am sure many other people are too!
Does ‘mandatory’ mean it’s illegal to not wear a face-covering in a shop? I think using the words “legal” and “illegal” is a lot more clearer!
I was also talking to Katie and her friends today about wearing face-coverings (the guys put their face-coverings on for the photo!).
They were saying that things are going to change a lot, because wearing a face-covering means you can only see people’s eyes.
Katie and I both acknowledged that we find it hard to recognise people at the best of times – now we will have to recognise each other from the eyes!
I went into a card shop a few days ago with Honey. We have been in before and dogs are allowed, but this was my first time going into the shop since lock-down, so I was not totally sure if dogs were allowed.
I asked as we went in and the lady seemed a little offended, replying “you know me, of course dogs are allowed. Honey is very welcome”.
I thought after, why had that happened and then I realised I didn’t recognise the lady running the shop because she had a face-covering on. I did not recognise her at all by just her eyes!
The other thing, is its going to be really hard to read someone. You can’t tell if people are smiling, grumpy, sad, nothing…there’s very little facial expression from the eyes.
Can you tell if someone is smiling from just their eyes? Only if you really know them well and know their “look” – otherwise, no!
Will people interact less, as face-coverings will create a kind of private world for us?
It’s going to be an interesting time.
If you don’t have a face-covering will you be refused to enter a shop?
Today is my sister, Anna’s birthday. I was invited to join them to go to a virtual escape room on Zoom. Me, my mum, Anna, Duncan, Marcus and Ben (my nephews). It was super fun, although very complicated.
I don’t know if you have ever been to a real-life escape room, but it was very similar – with lots of challenging puzzles to move onto the next room.
But we managed it in 1 hour, 13 minutes, 22 seconds. Check out the Congratulations message.
There was this really annoying horn [
] in the top right corner, which you could press. Me and my nephews had great fun winding up Anna, by pressing it multiple times together! In fact the ‘Congratulations’ message says we ‘Celebrated 160 times’ – that was pressing the horn.
We pressed the horn 160 times !!
It sounded like this (see YouTube video below)
Check out the photos below of the room and some of the puzzles we were doing.
Plus a group photo at the end.
If you are interested in trying out the Virtual Escape Room yourself you can find it here – https://escape-room-online.myshopify.com
There’s two different rooms, can have up to 6 people and costs £15 in total. They recommend allowing up to 90 minutes for the Escape Room.
Poetry Corner
Another poem from myself which I wrote in the period of training to be a mental health nurse.
This poem I wrote at the end of my 2nd meditation retreat at Samye Ling Tibetan Community in Eskdalemuir, near Lockerbie.
I had been mediating all day since Thursday and this was the Sunday morning. I had not spoken to anyone since the Thursday.
I had no thought… I was just being… and so all my senses were really acute and all my experiences were so present, they were amazing.
I stood on a rock on the Sunday morning, before the first mediation of the day and afterwards I wrote this poem to try and capture the pure harmony of essence I was in.
Being
Here I am – on the rock,
Being.
Just being.
Crows – Crowing, Birds – Singing.
Sheep – Barring, Gravel – Crunching.
The sound of the distant river flowing.
Nothing,
Doing nothing.
Nothing at all.
The mosquitoes collecting, around the trees.
The birds flying, so magical and free.
The sheep and lambs on the distant hillside.
Silence,
Harmony.
Peace with the world.
A rabbit hops, past the rock.
Looking, sniffing, no worries at all.
The universe if love, beautiful and free.
Here I am – on the rock,
Being.
Just being.
Nothing.
Doing nothing.
Nothing at all.
Silence,
Harmony.
Peace with the world.
Watching.
Watching.
Just watching.
And being.
Jennie’s Mini-Blog Corner
This has been a really fun challenge to do and has added a lot of much needed silliness to my life since Rebekka and I started doing together (laughing while pushing up is difficult y’all). Hope our silliness brings some joy to your day too!
Doing 50 push ups again today (go watch the previous push up video for a bit of freaky Friday push up magic) because we went for a biiiig 3.5 hours cycle in the rain yesterday and were exhausted in the evening. We did however cook a very exciting post-cycle meal of lemony chips, cauliflower wings and tofu nuggets. And we ate every last drop. Tasty yum.
Today we basically did nothing except watch some Netflix and cook more food but I also talked my buddy Hannan for a bit today!
Readers Corner
Helen left a comment on yesterdays blog, she said:
“Wow, Fi’s poetry vid gave me goosebumps! And the photo of those pigeons made me smile I’m not sure if I agree with the sentiment, but what do pigeons know?? I guess pigeons have more statue expertise than me, or maybe statues of famous people are just a good for sitting on and crapping on as statues of infamous people?
Do the pigeons in Glasgow still have gnarly, acid-deformed feet?
There’s so many things about lockdown that I hope we’ll keep doing, but alas, I think we’ll end up falling back into our old habits. Maybe, every now and then, we’ll say to each other, “Remember in lockdown when we did X? Let’s do that again!”
I think I’ll write down all my X things so I don’t forget:
X = exercising outdoors
X = meeting up with friends outdoors or online
X = avoiding crowds and traffic
X = stopping to notice the birds singing and the oatterns in the clouds
X = …..”
Thanks Helen for taking the time to write all that! I also hope that we can take somethings we have enjoyed doing in lock-down into our regular lives out with lock-down.
It Made Me Smile
???
As I come to the end of today, I am feeling tired! Although, today being a day off work, I seemed to have spent most of it on my computer, with much the same tomorrow.
That is one thing that is not so good about habits created from lock-down, is how there is more time on computers / virtual platforms. I must make an effort over the weekend to avoid my computer!
This afternoon and evening it has either rained or been nearly raining.
It will be interesting to see how things change tomorrow with face-coverings in shops. I remember, writing something similar a few weeks ago when we were all having to wear face-coverings on public transport, when in fact nothing really changed. Lets see what happens.
Time for bed, I’m exhausted!
Good Night.
Jim xx