5 years on from lockdown

Five years ago, on 19th March 2020 at about 08:10am I hung up my phone and burst into tears.  I had been listening to the Mayor of London no the radio pleading that people should not be travelling on the Underground unless it was absolutely necessary.  I had been listening to the spread of this disease through Europe (my husband’s company had its headquarters in Italy) and I made the difficult decision that I was done for the short ter.  I would not be travelling to Stanmore or Clerkenwell because of the emerging situation withCovid-19 and  what would shortly be called given the designation of Pandemic.  I didn’t know that the following Monday the nation with in Lockdown and that this situation would continue on and off for months.

Why was I in tears? I was absolutely distraught that I was letting my customers down, but I had been carefully listening to the news about what we knew about Covid at that time and thought I that would be putting my clients more at risk.  I was fortunate that I did not catch the virus until 2022 and that I didn’t have any family or friends hospitalised nor lose any family members or friends.  It was however a major shift in many of my working practices and how things are still impacted.

Many years ago, when I was at Bristol University part of my Geography degree was a semester of Epidemiology (the study of the spread of diseases) and the main example was the Spanish Flu spreading around the globe after World War I.  The fact it always spread along transport links made me realise quite quickly that in the aviation age things would get out of control fairly easily.  I also knew that it would takes months for the first wave to pass, there would be others and that it would take many years for the world to compeltely get over it.  So all of that information came back to me as I settled in for the Lockdowns, and hoping that I hadn’t been the victim of the Chinese curse of “May you live in interesting times” although I’m certain someone has cursed the world. So I settled in to see what would happen.  This blog is as much as me remeniscing about what I remember of that strange time.

Exercise

I had been going to the Walthamstow Wetlands since it opened to the public in 2017, but the Lockdown allowed me to go on a daily basis and it became my daily exercise regime and my way of coping with the Lockdown.  I would briskly walk to the wetlands, which I hadn’t realised I could actually do, and then walk roudn with camera in hand and I probably took 10,000 photos of the wildlife that summer (not many were any good) and there was also the gauntlet of being told to “keep moving” by one of the Thameswater employees that were making sure that we didn’t stop.

I also attempted to start running, which I managed for a bit and then managed to do something to my ankle and hip, which are still a bit of a mystery and it seems like my body really doesn’t like running.

I then did get the bike out and started cycling around to places like the Olympic Park in Stratford, and for some of the summer I rode into Clerkenwell when we were back working.  That was all fine when there was no one else around, but when the traffic levels increased it felt safer to travel in by train and walk.  Which is what I do to this day.

On

I am also grateful to Tracey Kiernan of Blend Therapy Training for her online community and the TMJ Therapy training that I did with her.

So much knowledged shared through the Bodywork community, so a big thank you.

My yoga teacher started an online yoga class after the second lockdown, which was lovely to see a different set of people.  I had done some training in teaching yoga online, but there was so many people out there teaching, and their houses all seemed to be immaculate (where as mine definitely wasn’t) I didn’t start teaching yoga online until I offered to stand in for my teacher to keep her regular class going when she had to take a break.  I then started, and continue, my Tuesday morning yoga class and have welcomed people from around the world.

However, I soon realised that online learning is just not for me as a participant.  It does offer me the opportunty to hear from amazing peope around the world, but unless it is live and I’m forced to listen.  I get distracted too easily, and my mind wanders and I will find myself looking at my phone.  This never happens when I’m listening to someone in person. I have soooooo many recordings of workshops and webinars that I should watch, but I would rather do pretty much anything else.  Also the whole social aspect of inperson training is missing, the coversations over coffee in the breaks where you meet new people and old friends and hear people’s stories without having to remind them that they’re on mute.

Social Distancing, PPE and safety measures

Oh, the joys of social distancing.  Suddenly realising that people had no idea how much space two metres was.  Being just short of that height my rule of thumb was “could I lie down in this space?”.  That weird feeling when someone came too close. Queuing to get into the supermarket or any other areas.

Oh, the fun and games of sticking a piece of plastic up the nose and across the back of the throat, swishing it in fluid and the anxious wait to see if there was one or two red lines.  The Covid tests were not a pleasant part of life, but they allowed things to understand what was going on with themselves.  And I  soon came to the realisation that this was a small price to pay to keep my clients safe.  Likewise, I never had the  issue that so many people did wearing a mask.  It was not an impingement of my civil rights to be mildly inconvenienced to protect the wider society.  I still wear a mask whilst treating.

After the first lockdown attending a socially distanced concert at the Barbican and realising that a space that could normally hold 1200 people had maybe 100 people, so whilst having tears of joy streaming down my face, clapping and a screaming (behind my face mask) and making as much noise as possible.

Washing my hands for 30 seconds was not far off what I was doing anyway, but having to do it after any touch was tough on my hands, as was the alchol hand gels.  I still have the bottle of alcohol gel from Mother’s Ruin (a by-product from gin distillation) which simply said “Mother says wash your hands”.  I just wish that others have learnt how to wash their hands (pub toilets gentlemen, please wash your hands)

Ventilating the room for 15 minutes between each client soon became a blessed pause in the day when I could write notes, care for myself and take things easier. This has continued to this day (and my colleagues also have kept this) as realising that I’m not as young as used to be.

And yes, I believe in the vaccination programme.  I continue to see the value in getting an annual top up as I want to give my immune system as much information about what it will face in the coming years.  Will it be perfect ?No, but I think I will stack the odds in my favour as much as I can when it comes to flu/covid vaccines.

Yes, I respect other people’s choices to not receive the vaccine.  However, I have met people who have been living with Long Covid in many different forms, and I would not wish that on anyone.  I will do whatever I can to not put anyone else through dealing with Covid/Flu/Common cold if I can do anything about it.

Other memories

Yes, there are so many possible things to discuss:

Queing to get into the supermarkets, to shuffle round past shelves emptied of toilet rolls, spaghetti, bread flour (as everyone was making sourdough) and other random itesm.  Again, in the grand scheme of things we were barely impacted and we grew quite good at making dinners from what was available, some of which are still in my retinue.

My hair grew!  Before the pandemic my hair was much shorter, and there many images still on this site from this time (head over to the exercise and movement pages for lots of examples) partly because I don’t have the time or inclination to retake them all.  I had wanted to change my hairstyle (which I’d had for a couple of decades) and my hairdresser had said you have to grow it out, well now I had the chance.  And in testiment to my hairdresser’s skill my hair looked pretty good for most of the four months between haircuts. I have finally accepted that my hair does what it does and the longer Lockdown Locks have stayed.

I finally had the time to catch up on all the TV shows and films that people had recommended I should watch, but couldn’t because I was getting home so late.  So I got to watch Schitt’s Creek (absolutely adore it), The Good Place, among many others.  And I have to say that the BBC’s Staged (with David Tennant & Michael Sheen) was an absolute joy that caught the mood of the whole thing.

I actually managed to lose weight during the first lockdown, merely because I wasn’t grabbing pastries with my coffee from Cafe Nero and not having sandwiches for every lunch.  The third lockdown was different as a friend gave me an absolutely delicious recipe for Bara Brith and I made more than I really should.  I don’t deny myself bread products but I realise how much they affect my weight.