11 Things That Have Happened Since We Last Spoke | 10.05.20
Cards from Thortful.com illustrated by Becka Griffin
Ey up, it’s been a while.
Apart from one redesign and one half arsed attempt at lockdown ~ content ~ , I haven’t really given this space any time since I finished my month of wedding posts back in March. And boy oh boy a lot has happened since then.
I’m going to talk about Covid and lockdown and how I am in another post but for now, let’s act like we’re having a big ol catch up and I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to since we last spoke.
1 The UK Entered Lockdown.
Rainbows have become a symbol of hope in the UK in the last 6 weeks.
No escaping the big news is there? If you’re reading this outside of the UK or at some point in the future, the United Kingdom went into lockdown on March 23rd due to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world. It was initially for three weeks which was extended by another three and as I type this, Wales where I live has announced a further three week extension with the government in London likely to announce the same later today.
Like I say, I’m going to go into this a bit more in depth in another post hopefully later this week but there’s no denying my life has entirely changed in every aspect since I last uploaded a post on here. I thought 2020 would be a life changing year because I got married but nobody expected a virus to shut the world down and change the planet in a matter of weeks - it’s affects looking likely to go on for the next few years and no doubt it’s memory be prevalent in the minds of those who lived through it for a whole lifetime.
2 Furloughed.
Back when the pandemic was unfurling quicker than news can report it, it was immediately clear my job was at threat and I have now been furloughed since April 1st. I work for a small training company in my local town in a tiny office with a handful of colleagues and we organise training for the engineering and construction sector so when the word lockdown started being banded about and social distancing measures were introduced, our work fell off the face of a cliff.
In mid March I was told my job was up for redundancy at the end of the month and on the 20th the government announced the job retention scheme which my employer has been able to take advantage of. It has meant me and my colleagues have been able to comply with lockdown restrictions and are not working, but are kept on as employees and paid 80% of our salaries by the government.
The furloughing scheme currently only extends until the end of June and as lockdown measures have been extended until the 1st, my job is still very much up in the air.
3 We All Discovered Zoom.
Yes, the video conferencing platform we’d never heard of before March has become one of the biggest fads of the pandemic, along with middle aged people discovering TikTok, the phrase ‘the new normal’ and all of us learning exactly what two metres looks like.
Lockdown has been reasonably sociable thanks to platforms like Hangout and Zoom and I have had to resort to scheduling things into my calendar like I would with face to face engagements. I’ve done bingo and a quiz with the works girls as well as a couples quiz with them too, I have a Big Fat Quiz of the Year style quiz planned for a few weeks time with school friends, my Dad sends me and my brother daily general knowledge quizzes via email, me and my Mum have made my niece gardening and craft packs for doorstep deliveries, we Skype Jos’ grandmothers weekly and I Facetime both my nieces as and when they want to speak to me. We’ve even managed virtual games of Jenga and hide and seek and done some stickers, stamps and colouring together.
4 I Became Mildly Obsessive With Click and Collect.
My immediate family and Jos’ immediate family are all isolating for a variety of reasons and Jos works with his Dad and has lots of contact with his Mum (we live next door to them) so everyone is staying home except me. I am in charge of 4 household’s groceries on a good day and up to 7 on a busy day and I have become somewhat obsessive in the last few weeks with obtaining click and collect slots in our local supermarkets.
The first three or so weeks of lockdown I managed physically going to shops for all our bits and bobs but as the weeks have rolled on and the more people’s cupboard stock has depleted, the bigger my shopping lists are getting and the less able I am to get everything everyone wants. There are still some restrictions on products here in terms of things like eggs, milk, flour etc etc so when all 5 households want the same thing - it’s just impossible to do.
These days I am trying to get one or two click and collects per week depending on the volume of what each household needs and it seems to be working for the moment. Other than that I’m only really venturing out to pick up prescriptions for family members and to deliver the groceries and my fuel bill has never been so low!
5 Missed Celebrations.
Undoubtedly the hardest part of lockdown is not being able to see family I don’t live with and whilst I see my parents and my brother on their doorsteps once a week, I haven’t seen my nieces in the flesh for nearly 8 weeks and counting and we have a million missed celebrations to make up for.
My nieces were in lockdown before the rest of us so we missed Mother’s Day all together (the last day I was with my folks and brother) so their presents to my Mum are all still packed up waiting to go. My sister in laws Dad and sister had their birthdays at the end of March and my sister in law herself at the beginning of April - all their gifts still wrapped in goody bags in the bottom of my wardrobe. Hardest of all was probably missing my baby niece’s 1st birthday in March and knowing we are going to miss my big niece’s 5th at the end of this month, celebrating them is what brings our family the most joy and it’s so hard not to see them in person - let alone the slide I have sat in my hallway that I stupidly bought before lockdown thinking all systems go for their birthdays!
We have missed other celebrations together too. We have seen 3 bank holidays pass us by now with the 4th in a month at the end of May and Easter is one of my favourite weekends to spend with my family and instead we spent it on our own. The treasure hunt I had already planned for the kids and the easter eggs I had already bought and the decor I always put up will have to wait until we can all safely be together again but I did cook my traditional Easter biscuits and sent them to the doorsteps of the people I love. Aside from big celebrations missed there has also been countless events and days out planned cancelled - a weekend with my uni bestie, tickets to see Les Mis in Bristol, Judgement Day rugby with the fam back in April and normal week to week Sunday’s at my Mum’s and bank holidays seen in with a chippy on the seafront.
6 Our 10 Year Anniversary.
The first week of May was due to be a whole lot different to how we ended up spending it as we were due to go on honeymoon for the first 10 days - we should have been coming home as I type this.
I am of course incredibly grateful for the fact we got our wedding this year as planned, as I see countless brides and grooms cancel theirs and wedding venues and suppliers, including our own, suffer at the lack of a ‘wedding season’ this year at all. But of course, I am also gutted our first year of marriage looks a little different to how we planned it and I was heartbroken we had to cancel our honeymoon - although we were fortunate enough to get every penny back from Airbnb. Our honeymoon was special not only for the obvious reasons, but also because it was all planned around our 10 year anniversary of being together and I felt really down about seeing that pass with no real way to celebrate.
In the end I planned a surprise Scottish themed evening for Jos as we couldn’t be on the Isle of Skye as planned. I decked the table in all it’s finery, I made us a 'vaguely’ Scottish meal and Scotch pancakes to finish and had a few themed gifts wrapped in tartan with Mary Queen of Scots to watch and a tartan blanket to curl up in and it ended up being a really lovely way to see the day in.
7 I Finally Completed My Wedding Blog Series.
I started a month worth of wedding related blog content in March but with the imminent lockdown and worry over my job I took a week long social media break and lost my groove. However when I was furloughed and had a load more time on my hands I finally finished my series and I’m so glad I did because it’s a lovely record for us and hopefully some help for other people!
I wrote something like 15 posts in two days to finish the series and I redesigned my blog at the same time and it gave me so much motivation to get back into creating. You can read my wedding series here!
8 We Started Couch to 5K (again).
We did the couch to 5K app last year and we were one run off completing it when we were in about November, running in the dark and Jos fell in a hole and broke his toe so the weather beat us. We kept saying we’d start again when the clocks changed so it would be lighter before and after I finished work and in the end lockdown coincided so we could go at any time of day.
We’ve just completed week 5 which is an absolute killer where you jump from running five minutes at the beginning of the week to twenty at the end but we did it and actually I found it surprisingly easy. I am really loving being back out again and moving and I am excited to finish it - just need a 5k to 10k plan next plz.
9 I Rediscovered TV.
Ok fine so I did watch TV before lockdown yes, in fact I’d say I watched it most days but it was normally a stolen hour eating my tea in front of the screen before bed. When the UK went into lockdown I had 144 recorded programmes on by TV and only 18% free space……..six weeks on and I have 42% free.
We have of course binged Tiger King and now we’re working our way through all the comedies we said we wanted to binge on honeymoon including Gavin & Stacey, Detectorists, This Country and I’ve suggested Car Share too. Jos is working full time still so I wake with his alarm but then when he goes out on the farm I have a nice new slow morning routine of watching something trashy or some property porn with my breakfast and I have to say it’s one of the positives of the whole situation for sure - some quiet time for myself.
10 I Switched To Starling Bank.
I have had my business banking intertwined with my personal banking for a few years now and having time in lockdown finally gave me the time to sort my accounts out. I had 10 bank accounts and 6 bank cards and I finally sorted them out, split them all up and closed two and I switched my business banking to a whole new provider so I can finally divide the two halves of my life. Business banking can be difficult for small businesses as lots require a minimum amount put in and most charge a monthly fee - which for times like now when I can’t work is not sustainable.
After considerable research, I switched to Starling business and have heard really good things from reviews but also personal recommendations from friends. I have only used it for about 6 weeks and have had limited use for it as my business is temporarily closed but so far so good for what I have used. It was super easy to set up and the app is incredibly user friendly and I am looking forward to having more control at a glance of my business finances.
11 Embraced The Outdoors.
I have never been more grateful to live in a rural area on a large farm than now, when our movements are restricted. Aside from running and the odd dog walk and generally being about the farm, I wouldn’t really get much time for getting out and about where we live simply due to time and the hours I keep in my office job, but lockdown has changed all that.
We are going for our runs every other day or every two days depending on Jos’ work schedule and the days in between we are taking our government allowed daily walks. We are lucky where we live that we are incredibly isolated and whilst we have definitely seen an increase in the number of people in the forest where we live, you can largely not meet a soul and be out hours. The other week we went on a 2 hour 7 mile walk and we met 2 cars and one cyclist the whole time.
Not only am I enjoying exploring where we live again and traipsing those old familiar routes, I am also loving being in our house more, in our garden and on the farm and orchards. The blossom is incredible, the flowers have been blooming, the hedgerows were full of bluebells a few weeks ago and are full of cowslip now. The weather has no doubt helped my mood and my ability to remain positive in lockdown and I have been spending lots of time in our garden working both on the garden itself and on my own work, sat with a brew and a snack on the patio in the sunshine.
So now we’ve caught up and hopefully there’ll be plenty more content around here - and if not, well I’m always active on Instagram!