Malaise Spreads

It isn't yet 4 weeks since we returned from Cyprus and yet it seems decades ago. Who would have imagined that life could change so much in such a small space of time nor that our personal world would shrink to such an extent.

Since retiring, I have tried to avoid routine but am becoming conscious that a new regime may be required in this more limited environment.  It's too early for depression to have caught up with me, but I am aware that over the weekend there seems to have been less to get out of bed for; either that or tiredness has caught up with me because, and despite the dawn chorus creeping ever earlier, we have been sleeping in.

Naively I have heard many indicate that surely the advice to isolate and socially distance makes less change to our lives than if we were working. On one level that is obviously very true when home is, of course, our permanent base and we are no longer accustomed to the daily contact with work colleagues. However, retirement is a totally liberating state of life, and we have become accustomed to doing whatever or going wherever, whenever we fancy. Indeed had our plans for 2020 been allowed to come to fruition we would have been in Malta as I type.

Instead, as for everybody else, confinement has encroached and that simple life I have been seeking is being enforced upon us. But it is not an effortless existence. Anxieties for ourselves and those we love and care for are proliferating. Will social animals deprived of society flourish or flounder?

Thank goodness for the telephone and social media. I confess I don't think I have ever video-called as often as the past 24 hours, and friends invariably find something witty to say about our current situation, spreading the humour through WhatsApp groups or by posting online  to lift everyone's spirits.

Of course, I don't want to spend this period staring mindlessly at a screen and, if possible, need to use it as an opportunity to enhance and not reduce the quality of life. As one neighbour said in an e-mail (we are now emailing rather than chatting on doorsteps), her house has never been so spick and span. Sadly I responded to confess that this whole lockdown thing will have to continue for a couple of years if our home is ever going to merit that description.

I have however made a start. I think I must be spurred on by knowledge of unseen germs lurking, for rather than the usual lick and spit (neither of which are appropriate in the current climate) I have been down on my hands and knees scrubbing away the dirt in hidden corners. I've even made a start on the ironing, which shortly might actually subside to the level of the basket. Whether I shall ever see the bottom of that basket is another question.

Cleaning houses whilst coronavirus spreads, however, seems as futile as Nero fiddling whilst Rome burned. No, retired life is meant for bigger things and with the assistance of technology I have now signed up for a year long photography course and am even hoping to join an art workshop, both online.

A lingering headache which I am attributing to tension, blighted the end of last week. My knees too were not only stiffening but causing me so much pain that I had to resort to anti-inflammatories, something I try to avoid. On Saturday afternoon, however, I donned my gym kit, got out a yoga mat and took over our lounge with its large picture windows opening onto the greenery of the garden and countryside beyond. I found some Nature music on Amazon Prime and indulged myself with an hour of Pilates, stretching and moving joints and muscles. It was absolute bliss and both headache and pain have been consigned to the past for the time being.

We are trying to eat well and ignore the temptation for comfort food. I'm still conscious of the risk of emerging from this spell in captivity as a much weakened and yet oversized slob. Yesterday, therefore, it was gym kit again and that time a 40 minute session with the dumbbells. It made me feel so good, that I have now created a space in my empty diary for daily exercise.

What with online classes, daily exercise, household chores and the garden to nurture into life, I'll shortly be wondering how I ever found the time to go out, socialise in person, and travel.