Feest Isolation Days –16 June
Today the shops open once more! It would seem that many people – okay from the photos mostly but not exclusively all women – were desperate to go shopping! The queues at places like Primark, TK Maxx and Foot Locker began at seven for their opening at eight. These are notably shops that sell goods at very low prices. No news yet on the queues at the more upmarket shops. John Lewis isn’t opening all of its shops for ages, but the two that have opened haven’t reported on numbers.
We converted to online shopping ages ago. There isn’t much we can’t buy online and the deliveries have continued throughout the lockdown. Shopping in the High Street is not something we will be doing again for a very long time I suspect. Thankf18ully, I don’t miss going out to clothes shops, although I do miss the garden centres with their odd assortment of goods amongst the plants.
Our plant babies bought online are thriving and are probably better than the larger and more expensive specimens we’ve had in the past. It is such a delight watching them grow! The tubers are especially fun to see poke through the earth. A marvel for certain, and perhaps something we will keep up when we return to something approaching normal.
What a change in our routines this lockdown has provided! Thinking about the changes that we may keep in our gardening plans also prompts a thought on what else we might incorporate into our lives when we no longer have to stay locked down. We have saved so much money on not going out for food! Eating every meal at home is fine – after all I’m grateful that we have plenty of food – but I do long to head to a restaurant and let somebody else cook my breakfast or lunch. Dinners in are probably better than most of those we’ve had in restaurants so I suspect our evening meals out will decrease in the future. Massive financial savings there as well.
We’ve become excellent at not over providing food and there is very little that we throw away. We will no doubt continue to organise our food buying on a weekly basis. I know what we plan to make each day throughout the week! That is quite helpful for ordering the deliveries but also stops the endless what shall we have for dinner tonight daily questions we used to ask each other. We can be flexible with our planning and do make changes occasionally but not often.
The other routine that will remain is washing all the food and salads and fruit as they come in the door. It will be good to stop worrying about washing all the other goods, but whereas I used to wash food before I cooked it, now it gets into the soap and hot water before its put away. It makes cooking easier! Who knew?
We will carry on our morning coffee and afternoon tea routines sitting on the swing until it becomes blisteringly cold. When the weather turns to winter we may have to begin some new routines.
This is the longest in many years we haven’t travelled and here’s hoping that part of our new routine doesn’t last too much longer. There are limits.
Enjoy your own new routines and if you are going into a shop don’t forget to socially distance…two metres…wear your masks…and keep your sense of humour!
With love
Kathy x