Here we go again, it’s national lockdown time again. Stay at home, only exercise outside locally. Don’t mix unless it’s part of your legal support bubble…
I don’t know if I’m just becoming desensitised to all this but there doesn’t appear to be much difference in the things and places I could do and visit last week compared to what I can do tomorrow. The biggest, and main, difference being all but essential shops closing and kids being kept from school. People are still heading out to work (construction and factories being two big industries I can think of), but on the whole, with most shops, hospitality and leisure shutting for the foreseeable it ‘should’ prevent the majority of people mixing. It doesn’t stop all though – garden centres are allowed to stay open (a big day out for anyone who just wants to browse), and for those that just can’t do without – there is always the off licence to visit (are they still a thing?).
I hope more than anything that the rules now in place really prevent those people who feel their greatest freedoms are being lost and who feel the need to protest (in groups), without masks, pretending they are somehow making a statement. All I see is stupid.
Listening to yet another afternoon conference held by the PM and his scientific advisors it brought home that not only did we know so little last March, but the Government have been pretty much winging it this whole time. And instead of learning from the past nine months, it appears to be just a grab and go approach to this pandemic, where the Government are lurching from one crisis to another. And at this point in the proceeding’s it’s making me rather anxious because while I have half-joked in the past that we have to look after ourselves because no one else will do it, it’s actually turning out to be true. It also seems to me that the Government are taking one huge leap and pushing all their efforts into the vaccination programme, at lightspeed, and without (again) much planning involved. Hoping, I suspect, that the front line workers will just “do what needs to be done”.
Because they will of course. No one out there in the NHS ever says no. I can say this from experience. I’ve never worked with anyone who hasn’t given 110%, pushed forward, turned around, jumped up and given way, all in the name of doing the best for patients. Delivering 2 million vaccines a week is one of the biggest feats the NHS has ever had to complete and through trial and error, persistence and much dedication it will be achieved.
That is what I believe in and I’d ask you to do the same. Ignore the bumbling responses when journalists try and hold the Govt to account. Forget the press conferences and don’t bother reading any “opinions”.
Don’t waste your time.
I won’t be. Life is short enough as it is. Instead, I intend to use this lockdown time as a bit of a hibernation period. No, I won’t always be able to get outside – it might be too icy or too wet. And no, I don’t want to spend my time eating too much and drinking too much (been there, don’t that). Instead, it’s time to get some rest. Relax. Read, watch films. Make a list of all the things I’ll be doing in the second part of the year. Building my strength up for all that energy I’ll use up once we can once again meet up, go out, travel and hike.
This is the one and only time, given the time of year, that we can relax (when we can), without ever feeling guilty. Because we’ve got nowhere to be and nowhere to go. Now that is a great opportunity not to be missed.
Thank you for reading.
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