I must get a newer phone. My current elderly iPhone will not take all sorts of apps including WhatsApp. I don't really want it but it seems to be the only way of keeping in touch with anyone under the age of 40 these days.
A friend of mine in his 70th year sent me a link to an app which collates information provided by the people who use it, to track the progression of that virus (I wish I had 0.0001 of a penny for every time I hear it spoken) across the country. You simply log on to it every day and tell them if you are feeling well or not, and the data is processed by academics from several different universities and organisations. I cannot download that one either.
Some of you know the origin of my referring to H.I. (real name, Jackie) as H.I. It comes from an old TV series starring an unreconstructed but loveable rogue who refers to his wife as 'Her Indoors'. She never appeared as a character in the series, meaning one less mouth to feed on the set.
Well now she really is Her Indoors. She is probably better prepared for a lock-down than many others, because - prior to the virus - her routine when not teaching was to get up, have breakfast, read a few emails, put on make-up, paint all day and then go out for an hour or so. It still is, with the exception that the once-weekly meeting with a friend has been put on hold.
My routine is also almost much the same as it was, apart from not going to the pub for an hour or so after work. We are very lucky really.
I worked right through last weekend because we seem to have been condemned to three months of Sundays, and there is no obvious difference between a week day and a weekend now.
Yesterday I decided that it would be good for my mental health to take the weekends off as I used to, so that is what I am doing from now on. Routines are sometimes important to maintain, now more than ever.
My life, also, has changed very little - if at all. I think having a 'weekend' routine is a good idea, especially as you are managing to work during the week.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy going off to work in the countryside more these days too!
DeleteI am retired, Tom, and while I always feel guilty about being lazy during the week, I never feel guilty about being lazy over the weekend! Doesn't make sense but I like having the weekend to relax (even if I can actually relax every day!). Shame on me!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young and briefly on the dole, I loved the weekends because I didn't have to feel guilty. I used to have a work ethic in those days.
DeleteI suppose so. Or they could be the most difficult thing to have to cope with. Who knows. I think being alone makes it all a bit easier. Just suit ones self.
ReplyDeleteRoutines take the edge off the feeling that you are just sitting around waiting for the worst to happen.
DeleteI have routines but what happens in between could be anything. I understand what you are saying .
DeleteSame here. I am not OCD about routine. I never have been.
DeleteNow that I have been retired so long Tom (37 years because I took early retirement at 5 0)I still feel guilty if I am not "making the best" of my weekends. Luckily, as I am self isolating I usually forget what day it is at present.
ReplyDelete'Making the best' does not have to mean that you should fill every minute of your waking life with activity, do they? I really enjoy doing and thinking absolutely nothing, but those moments are rare.
DeleteI mean 'does it?'
DeleteTotally agree Tom, I think sticking to your weekends off would be very wise.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I decided. I also have a limited amount of work to do, so I am moving even slower than I was before.
DeleteBeing retired definitely makes adapting to this slower life much easier. The only major difference we notice is not going out to shop when we feel like it and not going out to lunch occasionally. That's the only thing I really miss. We'll be straight round to our favourite hostelry the minute it reopens.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that my local pub will open its doors as soon as the government says they can. I will not be going into it for another few weeks beyond that.
DeleteBefore they can develop a vaccine (at least a year I am told), I think they need/want to see a second wave of infections for the 'Herd Immunity' that will have to take the place of it without crippling the NHS. It sounds cynical, but more people have to die to protect others as things stand.
I heard yesterday that a friend of ours was taken to intensive care in a bad way with Covid 19. Today I hear that he is now on a ventilator. The reality is beginning to become a little closer to home.
ReplyDeleteRoutine is important. We exercise most mornings, but the weekly highlight is 6.30am to 8am on Radio Scotland , the only time I don't feel guilty about staying in bed..."Out of Doors" is the programme name...worth finding on BBC Sounds or the podcast
ReplyDeleteI'll look out for it.
DeleteI forgot to add...on Saturday mornings!
ReplyDeleteI was so happy to get back to work last Wednesday night
ReplyDeleteThere are two others working near me and we have lunch (out of spitting distance) with each other. That is appreciated more now too. The spirit of comradeship at yours must be strong.
DeleteBought my phone in 2003. It still works so why replace it? I switch it on once a week and top it up with £10 about every 2 years.
ReplyDeleteIf all you need is a phone, then why not?
DeleteRoutine (I call them "rituals") is a good way to cope - in chaos it gives us the feeling that we are in control (haha) - yet I don't follow it slavishly. Strange that I still feel guilty about watching TV in the afternoon (so I don't do it) - when I am grown up I will.
ReplyDeleteI never reach the end of my To-Do-List in a day. What makes me nervous: I don't want to use the many bus/tram/undergrounds in Berlin these days - so I walk, which I love - but to go to some aims like The Botanical garden I would have to use a taxi back (first time I miss Knut, my little red Fiat 500). So I stay more or less in my "Kiez", indulge in the feeling of guilt when I walk early in the morning sunshine through the lonely streets (guilt because "they" stop economy to protect me, but they haven't asked and I don't want to be pampered - and walking around alone is still allowed in Berlin, and I wear a mask..) Come to think of it: if I have nothing else to moan about it is ok, isn't it?
My best wishes to H.I. and you - take care!
And to you Britta. I would not go on public transport. If I couldn't walk somewhere I wouldn't go there. Luckily I have a car. I never watch daytime TV. I would find it too depressing.
DeleteI make sure I know when it is Saturday, so I know it is the weekend, no matter what I do. Then I will know Monday, when I watch all the cars no longer going to work. Neighbors wave, but don't sit on other porches now.
ReplyDeleteYesterday in a London park, about 3000 people congregated in large groups. These must be the ones who just don't care about themselves or others.
DeleteBeing retired, I have a pad diary by my seat on the dining table, where I mark off the day gone each morning at breakfast. It's the only way I can keep tabs on the quickly passing weeks (and years - the older one gets the more time flies, or the faster we fly through it!)
ReplyDeleteI glimpsed a news magazine cover yesterday which had an illustration of the days being marked of in 5 strokes - cut into the turf of an English Down.
DeleteArthur Daly from Minders wasn't it who called his wife "her indoors"?
ReplyDeleteTom, have you seen the new book by a stone mason, Andrew Ziminski titled "The Stonemason"? I am thinking of getting it as it looks interesting. He lives down your way to, somewhere near Bradford on Avon.
ReplyDeleteNo, I have not even heard of him. I'll look out for it.
Delete