Corona Virus - Covid 19 - Now is the winter of my discontent

This is the winter of my life as well as my discontent.

 

Discontent because my life is not as it was 5 months ago. It is far emptier, far less rich & interesting. Time does drag in a way that I am completely unused to. Discontent because I am not at all optimistic that things will get better. In fact I believe they will get worse. Much worse.

So I feel quite guilty that I am discontented. I haven't got a family to feed & a mortgage to pay. I am retired so I don't have to worry about losing my job & having no liklihood of getting another. I don't have children who have lost the best part of a year's education - Many at a crucial time for their future. 

My small family are well & in secure jobs. The grandsons are priveleged & go to independent schools, so they have continued to be well educated.

Yesterday N..... came to collect an old cool box for Oxford Mutual Aid. They need them to deliver free meals to people. OMA & co-operatives like them, run by volunteers, are making sure that people have the basics. A lot of people. Last week they delivered 70 food parcels & over 750 meals. They have drivers, delivery co-ordinators, a small army of people who help others who are struggling.

I can't imagine the logistics of that, but they have been doing it since lockdown began. Without organisations like OMA & foodbanks there would be a lot of people in Britain in 2020 who do not eat properly!

I wish I could say that I think this has been handled well by our government. I am sympathetic to the unique difficulty of the situation. But the list of cock ups is too long. The National Risk Register first warned that a flu Pandemic was coming in 2008. Then 5 more warnings were issued untill 2017. The last time a strategy to deal with such a pandemic was published was in 2011. The last Pandemic Influenza Communications Strategy was written in 2012. They knew. They ignored all the warnings.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-government-preparation-boris-johnson-pandemic_uk

They were so besotted with Brexit they took their eye completely off the ball. To date the total number of Covid 19 cases in the UK is 318,000. The total number of deaths is 41,366. In the first 16 weeks of 2020 20,045 more people died than the same period in 2018.

 

I think the coming "winter of discontent" is going to be far worse. Be prepared.

Corona Virus / Covid 19 - Old Ladies & Young Minds

Covid has brought home to me that I am an old lady. Despite the obvious daily reinforcement of that fact when I look in the mirror. Despite the creaking joints & the memory lapses, I had persisted in hoping that it wasn't true. I laboured under the delusion that the fact that I am still capable of managing my own life meant that I'm not really old.

https://jokesoftheday.com/old-lady-flatulence-problem-goes-doctor/

But, dear reader, even I have to admit the truth. The face has wrinkles - a lot of wrinkles. The brain does not retain information in the way that it did. Getting up & down stairs is increasingly difficult. There is a distict tendency to drop off to sleep when reading or watching TV - however interesting the book or the programme is. The body is getting flabby.

There is hope though. I can enjoy the company of others. I can listen, support, console & offer advice. (Hopefully reasonably sparingly). I can be a part of the lives of others, if they will have me.

I can also enjoy doing things which give me pleasure. Joy of joys, I can also say no - I would prefer not to do that. Having always been a "good girl". Having always done what I was told & put others first, I can now, to a certain extent, please myself.

Although I can't remember, I can continue learning & expanding my mind. So long as I know how to access the information, when, rather than if, I forget it. I'm on a roll, because I'm learning what interests me. What matters to me. I have time, especially now that Covid has taken away almost all the things that I did B.C.

You have to be positive. You have to find the good in a situation, however difficult that might be. You have to keep an young, open, mind.