Don't get me wrong but...
I’m writing this on the 8th May
So by the time you see it there is a good chance that things will be different, though I doubt that street parties will be the order of the day.
‘Lockdown?’ the cry went up, ‘Oh no, how will we manage?’
It seems to me that we’ve managed very well! We’ve formed Whatsapp groups, discovered how to use Skype and Zoom, wandered the labyrinth of YouTube and the Web in all its infinity, resigned ourselves to wearing masks and queuing outside shops, but most of all we’ve coped!
On this day 75 years ago the war in Europe was declared over. In those days our parents and grandparents had their own form of a lockdown equivalent; they had to deal with the Blackout, and yet despite that there were nights when the siren would summon the whole family to take refuge in the Anderson shelter, or failing that then in the Underground. They did not get the luxury of a good nights’ sleep in their own beds.
Families were split up, as some have been during this crisis. However, this time none of us have had to see loved ones depart to war, knowing full well that there was a real chance that we would never see them again.
And the only communication we would have had with them 75 years ago would have been a letter home – no Skype, no Facetime.
The pall of Covid 19 has fallen over all of us, in the same way as the cloud of War rolled over the entire country in 1939. Then as now every man, woman and child was affected. In those dark war days those who could, whether man or woman, pledged themselves directly to the protection of their country in whatever way they could, while the children were uprooted from home, kith and kin to live in an environment which must have seemed as alien to them as living in an alternative universe.
And through all this we kept in touch using the humble pen and paper.
What we don’t have this time around is rationing – food rationing. Yes, I remember the Toilet Roll Famine, but throughout our Lockdown food has been available, as much as we want.
Out of interest I’ve found a typical weekly food ration for an adult:
- Bacon & Ham - 4 oz
- Other meat - value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops)
- Butter - 2 oz
- Cheese - 2 oz
- Margarine - 4 oz
- Cooking fat - 4 oz
- Milk - 3 pints
- Sugar - 8 oz
- Preserves - 1lb every 2 months
- Tea - 2 oz
- Eggs - 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg)
- Sweets - 12 oz every 4 weeks
Plus anything we could scrounge or grow and clothing was rationed!
Don't get me wrong but...
We are all in this together... We can’t go out.
And if we do only one of us can go, and then only to shop for essentials.
We can’t call in for a coffee and a tapa, or go round to see our friends. The diversions with which we filled our days are now no longer. We are stuck inside our houses, like it or not.
We’ve arrived at a junction along our Road of Life. We have a choice: Doom and gloom. Isolation and boredom.
Or you could … Get on with all those jobs that you were going to do, but haven’t.
Go through the house and garden as if you have just moved in, and enjoy the opportunity of seeing your surroundings in a fresh light. Move that picture, re-position the furniture, swap the ornaments around, render a whole multitude of spiders homeless. Relish the feeling of satisfaction from your labours – look around and congratulate yourself before you sit down to wonder what the heck to do with the assorted objects that you have unearthed; objects that you didn’t know you had or forgotten about, and now that you’ve found them, wonder why you had them in the first place.
And while you are on a roll, decide to Do Something. Something you’ve always had an inclination to try your hand at, but have never got round to actually doing. Here the world is your oyster, through the medium of the World Wide Web. Study for a degree in nuclear physics? Learn Medieval English? Take up potholing – no, maybe not potholing!
Perhaps instead try out new recipes, or variations of recipes, using only the things you’ve got in your cupboards. Do all the crosswords and puzzles, not just the easy ones! And of course there is always the trusty jigsaw. And don’t forget Skype, Whatsapp, Facebook and any others that you may fancy.
Since I haven’t met a fellow human face-to-face since last week’s Mercadona outing, I have spoken to more people via the above than in a normal week! Whether you decide to be an opti or a pessi mist there is the radio or the telly, and an unceasing stream of Youtube to distract you from the here and now. It really is up to you. Sit and watch the clock go round, or Get On With whatever you’ve decided to get on with!
A word of warning; If you decide the latter, plan your day, otherwise it will run away with you! You will find that you are deeply immersed in 4 down, 6 across only to look up and see that it is 5 o’clock, and you’ve forgotten to take supper out of the deep freeze!
It’s up to you what you make of it. Personally I am finding it an opportunity for all of us to make new friendships, learn new things, and above all, to draw together in our time of trial.
My wish for the future? That the drawing together that many of us have experienced, the reassessment of values, the appreciation of Life in all its many forms, will stay with us once we are allowed out again. You get out of Life what you put in.
And come on! We can communicate with each other, we can show friendship and fellowship to others, we can fill our days meaningfully. Having to plan our shopping and wear a mask and gloves is not the end of the world, is it? Make a resolution for today to do something that you enjoy, and speak to someone who would like to hear from you.
You will find that what you have put into Life will come back to you better and stronger. Carpe Diem – Seize the day!
Remember Monsters Inc? The monsters harvest the screams of frightened children to provide a life force for them, until the big blue monster, Sully, discovers that the most powerful force in the world is laughter! (James P ‘Sully’ Sullivan)
Don't get me wrong but...
I love living here, and by and large am completely content.
However, nothing is perfect – even the Garden of Eden had a snake! Today’s snake in my own personal Garden is indicators on cars. In particular their use – or lack of use.
The roads are, in the vast majority of cases, good. Roundabouts abound, and are to be encountered at every available spot where it is possible to insert one. Many eons ago, when I was learning to drive, I was instructed in the use of the indicator. The indicator, I was told, was to indicate to other road users or pedestrians which direction you planned to go. Thus others would know what you were going to do – turn left, turn right, pull over, whatever.
As far as I know, all cars are manufactured with indicators. It is a little stick on the side of the steering column, the manipulation of which will result in an orange flashing light on both the front and rear end of the car. Yet there seems to be an anomaly affecting a large proportion of Spanish cars. Or maybe Spanish drivers, I’m not sure.
This anomaly is: Either a certain number of Spanish cars are manufactured without this little stick, or a certain number of Spanish drivers have no idea what it is for. There is, I suppose, a third possibility – Spanish drivers are psychic, and therefore know which way everyone is going, so have no need of indicators.
But I am not psychic. It annoys the hell out of me to be holding my car at a roundabout, trying to second-guess whether the approaching car is going to turn off or carry on round. In fact it destroys the whole point of a roundabout, which is to keep traffic moving. The same applies at junctions. Do I pull out, or is the approaching car going to turn off?
And then there’s the ‘Have you just stopped for a chat with your friend, has your car broken down, or are you simply double-parked?’ Do I pull out and overtake, or wait patiently until you move on, or Hell freezes over, whichever comes first? It’s bottom dollar that whichever choice I make, there is a more then evens chance that it will be the wrong one!
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