Day 125 – Reflections on Lock-Down

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Today I’ve had a pretty lazy day hanging out with Henry in his house and garden.  After a bit of rain earlier on, it brightened up to be a lovely sunny and hot day!

Last week Henry was at a bush craft training course (or something to that name) down in Derby, where he learnt lots of new things.  One of which was how to make string from stinging nettle stem!  So part of this morning, he taught me how to do this.  It was super fun and a really lovely way to spend the morning.

We also spent a while unwrapping the cargo net he had bought for his tree house.

Whilst Henry mowed the lawn, I listened to ‘Lost Connections: Uncovering the real causes of depression – and the unexpected solutions’, by Johann Hari, on Amazon Audible.  Miles recommended this book on Day 112 and although I’ve only listened to the first two chapters, it is a great book – really interesting.

Then we packed up and caught the train back to Edinburgh.

I got some lovely photos on the train.  This first one of Edinburgh / Arthur’s Seat across the Firth of Forth and the others as we crossed over on the Forth Rain Bridge.

The train journey was very different to going to Ladybank.  It was packed!  There were hardly no seats and so impossible to social distance 1 metre, let alone 2 metres!  But luckily, I sat on one of those seats next to the door and Honey sat on her bed next to me – not on the platform side.  So we were socially distanced from anyone else by over 2 metres 🙂

For some bizarre reason, the train times have been reduced for this journey.  Normally they run every 90 minutes on a Sunday – but today, they were running every 4.5 hours!  No wonder it was so busy.  You would think that they would increase the train times, to ensure the train was not really busy and that everyone can safely and comfortably socially distance!

Although, the seats are paired with two seats next to each other – whether at a table seat or not.  If you are travelling alone, you can’t sit on a paired seat if someone is already sitting on one of them.  So actually, the train capacity is reduced by nearly half!

I think there needs to be some more thinking about this if we are all going to travel safely and comfortably.

I remember back in March, when I travelled to Glasgow for my final magic gig before lock-down.  This was on Saturday 14th March.  Back then, the advice was not to me close to anyone for more than 15 minutes.  So I spent my whole journey getting up and moving seats, every 15 minutes, as people would come and sit close to me.

Back then I also washed my hands in the toilets with soap and water, when I arrived on the train and before I left.  I also had alcohol gel.  Most of the journey I sat near to the toilet.  There was only one toilet on the train and no one else used it.  So no one else washed their hands.  I learnt the art of knocking the toilet seat down with my foot, so I could get to the flush button with my knee.  And also use my knew to push the button to open and close the door!

I remember, that day in Glasgow.  Buchanan Street – the main shopping street in Glasgow city centre, which is also pedestrianised was totally packed.  Busier than I had ever seen it!!  It was only 10 days later that we went into full lock-down.  Clearly back then on 14th March, no one in Glasgow was taking any notice of the imminent threat of the virus!  Within 2 months, a deer was spotted there (see Day 61) !!!

Yesterday when I got off the bus in Edinburgh to go to the train station, I saw my FIRST two tourists in Edinburgh for 2020, well that I knew were tourists.

They had big rucksacks on and were doing the classic tourist behaviour of looking at their phones and then looking up at the street names – they were obviously trying to work out where to go / where they were staying!



 

 

Poetry / Art Corner

Here is the ninth in the series of drawings I did many years ago at my first and only Life Drawing Class.  The first drawing is on Day 115, the second drawing is on Day 116, the third on Day 117, the fourth Day 118, the firth on Day 119 the sixth on Day 120, the seventh on Day 121, the eighth on Day 123 and the ninth today on Day 125.

 



Readers Corner

Nothing here to share 🙁

 

It Made Me Smile

This lock-down song made me smile

 



Day 14 of the Post-25 Day Push-Up Challenge

Nothing in here again! That means I’ve got 75 push-ups to do tomorrow 🙁

 



As I come to the end of today’s blog, I am feeling relaxed and rested.  My weekend away was just what I needed.  Time to relax, hanging out with a great friend, have lots of fun and get out of the city.  Just hearing the wind in the trees, the silence in the air and the pitch black darkness at night was so magical!

When I came out of of the train station, a car sounded it horn loudly, with slight road rage, it made me jump – the silence had gone.  It makes me realise my continuous hatred for living in the city, full of cars, noise and pollution.  If I am going to continue living in the city, I need to have regular and frequent trips out of the city – or move away completely.

One thing that lock-down has reminded me is that I don’t really like living in the city.

The weather today has been great – sunshine, hot and blue skies!  Plus a lovely sunset!

Hope you’ve had a great weekend.

Lots of love

Jim xx