It's the sixth; Wales has no national travel restrictions anymore! Does that mean lockdown is over? Unfortunately, far from it. I'm still working from home. I can't go to the pub or the cinema or any of that. But I can travel any distance now, within the UK. And it's been 15 weeks now; seemed as good a time as any to take stock. So how has it been?
Working at home: I am quite used to that by now, as I'm sure everyone already guessed. I am SO happy I got me an office chair. I do miss popping into other people's offices though, to just talk through things, or ask if they have come across some annoying technical blip you're struggling with, o any such stuff. And the meetings are a bit annoying. People often end up pixellated and sounding like Daleks. And conversations just don't flow as well as when you're all in the same room. The technicalities otherwise work out, in general, although I recently had a bad Sway day when it seemed that both my computer and my internet were extra slow. And I want to pop into the office to do my dissertation allocation as I want to have bigger screens with more excel sheets than I can have at home. And I am starting to feel the not-quite-ergonomicness of my home setup.
Home growing: in 15 weeks I have not managed much vegetable growing! I know some of my courgette plants are now quite big and growing courgettes, but these are still small and I haven't eaten any yet. (Some small creature has! A mouse?) I have harvested modest amounts of spinach, peas, cabbage and chard; I once managed to have a meal with the greens (except for the tomatoes) all from own ground, but I was in a hurry and didn't take a picture. I hope I can do it again soon, but then better! That meal had less veg than I am used to. The butternut squash and aubergine plants haven't even flowered yet. But I'm learning! There is a lot of summer left. And next year I'll be back with better skills.
Lockdown weight: Although there is some noise in the signal, I quite steadily dropped in weight until I reached a minimum on June 5, to 5 kg below starting weight; then I went back up a kg in two weeks. Since then I have been stable. And I happened to see a second-hand pair of my favourite hiking trousers in a size smaller advertised, and I bought them. They fit like a glove!
Exercise: I still don't bike much and run quite a lot. I had to buy new running shoes as the old ones had worn out! And in my 10k project I seem to have hit a plateau too; the last three times I ran it it took me 65 minutes. I'm sure I can bring that down to 64 but that hasn't happened yet!
My flashy new running shoes
Social life: I have spoken with quite a lot of people who have been struggling a bit with the lack of social contact. And I was glad when we could go for a walk with people again, or receive them in the garden, but it's clear I'm such a grumpy loner these days that even when I can't I'm fine. And that even in lockdown I can enjoy being on my own for a weekend. Who would have thought that in the nineties or noughties! One does change over time.
Altogether I am very glad this epidemic didn't hit years earlier. I now live in a great house with a great garden in great surroundings, and I am in excellent mental health and have learned to be very happy with my own company. And technology means I can do my job at home and have video calls with friends and family. So yes it is likely restrictions won't be entirely lifted for several more months or even years, but I think I'll be fine!
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