How do I make the most of the pre-lockdown freedoms from now until midnight Wednesday?
A bit like juggling priorities if you’d only got days to live I’ve plumped for putting family first. My regular Tuesday lunch with first born can continue unaffected.
After that I won’t be missing my serendipitous haircut appointment tomorrow afternoon as hairdressers will be shutdown again.
I’d already tentatively talked about seeing my Dad this week so I’ll schedule that for Wednesday and swing by last born on the way back home.
Mrs Jones is organising to see her side of the family so I’ll tag along for those get togethers if I can.
I’ll make the most of my final three days of gym membership before that closes down again. I do so feel for the people who work there who seemed genuinely saddened at the lockdown news in the Facebook post.
I know what I’m not going to do – rush out and buy toilet paper and pasta. No panic buying for me.
And then the door slams shut, can’t believe it’s happening again. Amidst all the restrictions, the thing I can’t get my head round is that in our supposedly free country the Government can rule that I can’t see my family for a month or more.
It makes me realise the extent life had returned to normal-ish even under the latest set of tier arrangements.
I could play tennis twice a week, I bet that will be stopped now.
We could go away for the weekend – have done that twice in just over a month.
I could take the train to London to view an exhibition as I did last week.
All the shops were open, you could go to the pub, eat out at restaurants, see whoever you wanted really.
You could even go on holiday as long as you quarantined when you got back. All of that cancelled again.
Then there’s all the other potentially life changing issues affecting the family, two of whom who work in leisure and hospitality, will be out of work again.
They’ll be furloughed, I know, but there’s no guarantee these jobs will survive this latest lockdown.
Last time this happened I planned all sorts of activities – started the garden’s transformation, jet washed everything that didn’t move and decorated three rooms of the house.
This time I just feel weary at the thought. One thing I’m not going to do is count the days until lockdown’s scheduled end on December 2nd.
The key lesson this year has taught me, is that the only thing you can be sure of is that there’s nothing you can be sure of.