Day 183 – Reflections on Lockdown

When we reached Day 99 and Day 100, all the news headlines were 100 days of lockdown.  You may remember I got quite worked up that on Day 99 the media said it was 100 days of lockdown, when I would argue it was 99 days and 3.5 hours.  This blog counts Day 1, as when the full day began!  All the media (except The Guardian) counted the day Boris made the announcement as Day 1, when in fact it was 8.30pm when lockdown began and not a full day!

Today is 6 months (full days) since lockdown started and there is nothing in the news about it!  Why is that?  Is it because, we don’t want to be reminded how long this has been going on for because people are getting fatigued?  Is is because the media is focused on Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon’s announcements?  I do wonder whether these announcements today were aucustrated so the 6 months news would be deflected.  Who knows?

So today, both Boris and Nicola made announcements on tighter lockdown restrictions.  First broadcast in the Houses of Parliament and Scottish Parliament and then official separate broadcasts by them at 8pm and 8.10pm respectfully.

Interesting there was nothing by Wales or Northern Ireland.  If I lived in either of these countries I would be a bit disappointed.

The main things were:

• Pubs, restaurants and other hospitality to shut at 10pm – England & Scotland
• Face coverings to be worn by staff in retail – England (think this is already the case in Scotland)
• People cannot visit each other in their homes – Scotland
• Rule of Six continues both indoors and outdoors – England (as many households), Scotland (two households)
• Bigger fines of rules broken – England
• Army will be brought it to support police – England

Think that was it?  What have I missed?

I certainly waited most of the day, on tender hooks waiting to hear the new restrictions to see if I could go on holiday on Thursday.  I had come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be able to go and had come up with lots of fun things I could do in Edinburgh to curb the disappointment.

However, the travel restrictions that had been threatened didn’t come in, so I am going on holiday to Canna 🙂

This morning, to distract myself with the wait, I helped at Dalmeny Street Park Tuesday clean up.  This was the second Tuesday of the new idea of every Tuesday to tidy the park up.

I volunteered to collect rubbish from the play area of the park.  There is a basket ball area, a children’s play area and grass.  Honey came along too!

With my gloves and litter picker I collected a whole bin liner of rubbish and still it wasn’t cleared of rubbish.  I only collected the main big items, all the small pieces of paper I left.  There were lots of beer bottles, cans, cartons and even a slipper!!

Was lots of fun and the park is looking so much nicer now we are doing this.  It is also a great way for people who use the park to come together and help out, our wee community.

On one of my walks with Honey the Dog I bumped into Angus, a Royal Mile Tour Guide.  I originally met Angus at The Pitt Street Market, when I was the resident magician there and have since bumped into him on occasions around Edinburgh.  Today I was surprised to see him in my streetand asked what he was doing here, he said he likes looking at graveyards – me too 😉

As always, the conversation was all around Covid and the impact of lockdown.  You may remember that I have noted that when one has not seen someone for a while that is the first conversation one has for about 10 minutes.  Then it is put to one side.  But with the announcements today, it was all speculation of what will happen and how we will cope / survive!

Once the news came in and the holiday was on, there were many messages on planning.  Totally exhausting!

I plan to create a series of VLOG’s for the blog whilst I am away.  Canna has very little WiFi reception and no mobile reception.  So I will be posting the day after the day I write it, so you will be reading it a day in arrears.  Then I guess you will catch up when I get back!

Face-Mask Corner

Today we have Don, aka ‘The Ear Man’, who first appeared in my blog on Day 4!  He works in Capital Pets (aka ‘The Ear Shop’) on Easter Road where Honey gets a Pigs Ear.

When face-masks first started to be worn, Don said he wanted a skull and crossbones one, which I can see he now has!

He got the face-mask from a customer he bought it in a shop in Dalmeny.

Thanks Don! You will see the cat there too, who lives in the shop!!

Readers Corner

Today there are two posts.

Helen

Helen sent me a message this evening about yesterday’s blog (Day 182), saying:

“I enjoyed reading your reflections in today’s blog. Your daily observations often remind me to try to be in the moment and live mindfully. Today was an extra reminder to not take things for granted cos it can all get churned up without warning.”.

Thanks for that Helen, glad you enjoyed the blog.  Writing the blog keeps me in the moment as I am always on the look out for a photo of something about lockdown, or reflecting about something or even just a conversation I’ve had with someone about Covid and lockdown.

Henry

I’m not sure if Henry has appeared in Readers Corner before?

Henry posted a comment on yesterday’s blog (Day 182) about the blog cover photo, saying:

“Great photo Jim Campbell”

As I come to the end of today’s blog, I continue to feel soo tired!  I went to bed too late last night and have found that I fall asleep for 30 minutes, then wake up and can’t sleep.  It reminds me of the early days of lockdown and blog writing!  I didn’t get back to sleep until after 4am.  My body clock currently wakes me up between 6.45am and 7.15am, whatever time I go to bed!  So I really didn’t get much sleep last night.  Hopefully I will sleep well tonight, it’s midnight right now!

I was hoping on having a nap this afternoon, but it didn’t happen.

The weather has been coldish, no rain and cloud.

Thanks for reading!

Stay Safe!

Jim x