The start of this year has officially been wild.
We recovered like a rubber band snapping back from Ry's issues: losing the old job - well, the business going under -wasn't a great start, but it didn't affect our mortgage, it didn't affect our flat purchase, and he ended up in a new job that's much better, with higher pay and more security (in the sense that the business is steady and not about to go under any time soon). I would call it a 'scale up' business rather than the start-up that he used to work for (which, come to think of it, had been starting up for the last ten years so what does that tell you).
However. How. Ever.
COVID-19 - Coronavirus - for the first two months of the year, seemed to be a rumour going around. We knew other countries had it, we knew that China was dealing with it and I'm pretty sure everyone in the UK laughed and said that people needed to stop fear-mongering; "it's just the flu", we said, "we don't need to worry". I was definitely guilty of laughing off the potential threat, and was urging people to calm down and not worry...
Hindsight is 2020, and I can't believe how idiotic and naive I was. I didn't read anything, I don't even know where that opinion was formed apart from maybe through social media and shared 'posts'. Not that I'm currently (touch wood) in any danger, but C-19 has changed all our lives.
We have been in lockdown since the 23rd March 2020 - it's five weeks later, and though there might be some light at the end of the tunnel, we don't know how the world is going to change when restrictions start slowly lifting. When I say "lockdown", I mean I have been working from home for the last 6 weeks (one week before lockdown was called), and haven't left the house apart from to go to the local, 5-minute-away shop, or to run around the local park.
I haven't seen anyone in the flesh, apart from my housemates (Westerly, Ry, Pitard) and random strangers at the park. I haven't touched anyone, given any hugs, apart from to Ry and Westerly. All my MA sessions have now gone online. I communicate with work people through email. It's all very strange, and sometimes constricting. The Easter bank holiday weekend was spent in the back garden; weekends are now more boring than week days... and weirdly, I've done more exercise than I've ever done in my adult life.
May was supposed to be the month we handed in our rent-notice, with completion on the flat happening at the end of the month/early June. But now... everything is halted. Paused. Sitting idle, not going away as such, not falling apart, just... waiting. I guess, kind of like taking a breather. It's not bad... I actually quite like the work-from-home life, I like how much time I have in the morning and how I'm now getting more sleep.
I like that I can do more yoga and stretching, exercise at home and go for runs. I like that I've found an online group - an eCoven, if you will - of likeminded spiritual ladies that I chat with on Discord. I never would have found them if things were 'normal'. I like that things are slowing down, that there's not that many planes and I can hear the birds. I like sitting outside in the garden at 3pm, instead of being in the office (though I am worried about my office plants).
I like that everyone I know is still healthy, still safe. I like that I now have a letter from the Prime Minister (what a piece of history). I like that I'm saving money by not commuting - by not really doing anything, because all leisure is cancelled. No restaurants, pubs, clubs, gyms, theatres... anything "un-essential" to our basic needs has been closed.
It's for good reason, I know that. I'm not about to go breaking the rules. But when I wrote that last post, hoping that everything would work out with Ry's work situation and we'd still be able to move and do everything we wanted to for the next step of our lives, it never even occurred to me that we might be walking straight into the fire.
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