I have had little motivation to do anything today, let alone write this blog.
But I finally managed to drag myself off my sofa about 10pm and take Honey the Dog for her bedtime walk and then switch on my computer.
Catching up on a few emails and my accounts. Plus setting up and sending out Zoom login details for Daily Morning Chi Gong for next week, which I forgot to do yesterday. I am now starting to write this blog at 11.15pm.
Despite, being totally exhausted last night, I couldn’t get to sleep until after 4am! Which meant I didn’t get up until about 11am.
The weather has been dreich, with mist and fog sitting over Edinburgh all day. The last time the weather was like this was on Day 4 (27th March). Surprisingly my energy was also pretty sluggish that day. I wonder whether the weather affects my mood? There certainly has been a lack of light today, with the fog blocking virtually everything!
My colleague at The Quaker Meeting House, shared these photos of his view from near the top of the Royal Mile that he took about lunchtime. Usually you would be able to see all the roof tops into the distance.
Honey the Dog and I went to Dalmeny Street Park this morning (well midday) for our morning walk.
I was surprised to see the tree that was planted in February has some leaves on it. Within days of it being planted, all the bark had been taken off it.
Some say a dog did it, some say it looks more like someone has taken a penknife to it. But we had assumed it was dead – nice to see that it is still alive! See photo.
We then headed to Word of Mouth cafe for a breakfast roll. Outwith lock-down at the weekend, this wee cafe is packed with people. You are very pushed to find a seat at the weekend. They definitely do one of the best All Day Breakfasts in Leith if not the whole of Edinburgh. Which is why it is so busy!
But today, I was the only one in the cafe. Obviously, now designed for take-away only.
It has an ingenious way of having tables in the middle of the room, with arrows pointing to queue round the edge of the room, each arrow 2 metres apart. Even with this, when I was leaving, people were preferring to queue outside!
I was speaking with the owner, who said he had opened his second shop recently in Morningside, with the same name – Word of Mouth Morningside. He said, he picked up the keys of the new premises in March 2020. Wow – that must have been hard to having a new business, just as lock-down started. That is also now open selling coffee, cakes, etc…
I was asking about how he was coping. He said it is really slow, with hardly any customers. His staff are on 3 week rotation furlough leave. But he worries for his staff, when the amount the government pays reduces next month, as he will not be able to pay the extra, so they will be getting less money.
It made me realise, just how in the next few months we are going to see many small local shops, etc…probably shutting as they will not be able to survive or pay their staff. Plus, I am sure an increase of unemployment.
I then spent most of the afternoon on the sofa watching Netflix and the series The Society. It has similar parallels to lock-down! Not that I realised that when I started to watching.
The story is about how a group of teenagers find that all adults have disappeared in the town they are living. All roads have become blocked off by forest. So they have to learn to run their own community, creating their own rules and learning to survive with limited resources.
It was premiered in 2019, so way before lock-down. But they made reference to a classic expression we have come to know “the new normal”. Also in the first 2 episodes they refer to “when things return back to normal“, as they try to make sense of their new life. Just like in lock-down, the change was very sudden without any notice. A kind of massive jerk, being forced into a new world, without any notice or preparation.
It made me realise, how the psychological impact of lock-down is probably a lot bigger than we (and me) have really acknowledged. I wonder how it will impact on us psychological in months and years to come!
When I was out this morning, I noticed a “new normal”, with friends sharing their alcohol gel with each other to wipe their hands. It’s become such a normal practice. Spotting the passing of the little pot to each other and then each rubbing their hands. Before lock-down would have looked a bit strange!
For our afternoon walk Honey and I headed along to Kate’s Park and then onto Mo Beans Coffee Shop. Honey and Nuno reunited 🙂
The streets seemed pretty quiet for a a Saturday afternoon. Mo said that the shop had been pretty quiet all day. I guess, with the weather, everyone decided to spend the day at home indoors. I mean, why would you go out, unless you had to or had a dog?!
Then back to more binge watching 🙂
Readers Corner
Like my mood, no motivation for anyone to write anything for Readers Corner.
It Made Me Smile
A couple of things in this section.
Firstly, I saw this brain-teaser puzzle online. Can You Spot The Cat? It’s the face of a cat – good luck
A hint and then the answer is in this article – https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/fabulous/5697447/brainteaser-puzzle-reddit-spot-cat/?utm_source=pushly
Anna
Anna also text me with something to include. She wrote:
“On Michael McIntyre’s big laughs, the best bits from his show they have just surprised an 80 year old woman and it Made Me Smile!
She had to say if the person on the conveyor belt was a soap star or not.
The last person was her pen pal who she has written to every few weeks for 71 years. She’s never met her pen pal as she lives in Australia.
The show had flown her over [from Australia] so they could finally meet.
The lady at first, thought the pen pal was a soap star. I guess she recognised her from photos but initially couldn’t place who she was”.
Anna went onto say:
“It made think pen pals were all the thing when we were children. But is not such a thing now. A bit like chain letters were”.
Thanks for that Anna. Yes, I had a pen pal when I was a teenager. She lived in Motherwell. Can’t remember her name now.
Wow – just realised that Fi is from Motherwell !! Will have to look through my old letters to see if I can find one and find out her name!
I have been forgetting to post about my blog on the radio. Next week Days 43-49 is on
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- Monday (15th June) at 4.00pm to 6.00pm,
- Thursday (18th June) at 11.30am to 1.30pm
- Saturday (20th June), at 9.00am to 11.00am.
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You can access via Deepness Dementia Media. Just scroll down the home page and you will see a link to listen live.
So as I come to the end of today’s blog, I am surprised that I have written over 1000 words! Definitely not my shortest blog.
I always seem to do too much at the start of the week, which I think has a knock-on effect for later in the week. My late nights on Thursday and Friday did not help.
I find getting the right balance through the week, so hard, during lock-down.
But certainly today, with the weather being so bleak it has affected my mood. The forecast for tomorrow is pretty much the same!
Tomorrow morning I have my fortnightly meditation group.
Now after midnight, I better head towards bed.
Good Night
Jim xxx