When I started writing this series, we were in the midst of our first lockdown. Now, we’re teetering precariously on the edge of a second one, the threat of ‘further measures’ repeatedly blustered by our Prime Minister in occasional televised briefings. My point – we’re not currently in a lockdown. But I didn’t want to rename these writings as ‘The Pandemic Diaries’, and so, here we are. I hadn’t intended on not writing from July until September, but numerous shifts in circumstance over the last couple of months have left me feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Certainly so much so that typing a stream of consciousness and sharing it with the world…
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The Lockdown Diaries: What I’ve Learnt During Lockdown
I feel as though I should preface this by admitting that I don’t really know how we’re currently defining this strange stretch of time we’ve found ourselves living through. It almost feels like the annual wintry limbo between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, except warmer and considerably less festive. ‘Lockdown’ as it was is over (?) but the pandemic is still very much present, and with a sporadic and ever-changing tangle of difficult-to-decipher rules and regulations handed to us every now and then, it’s hard to keep up. It’s not quarantine as such, it’s not isolation, but it’s something. There’s still an air of fear, uncertainty, the ‘not quite normal’.…
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The Lockdown Diaries: If You Want To Cry, Cry
An important question to start with: how are you? Genuinely. I know it’s all too tempting to be entirely British and stiff-upper-lippy, brush it off with a ‘I’m fine thank you, and you?’ – but honestly… how are you? To be perfectly honest, I’m not really quite certain of my answer myself. I read recently that the strangest thing about living through a pandemic is the feeling of over and underreacting simultaneously. It’s absolutely true – I’ve found myself living with a perpetual case of doublethink. A wreck one minute, rolling with laughter the next. Again, there’s something inherently British about ‘not making a fuss’, dulling potential hysteria with false…
