Becca Jane St Clair

My March 2020 calendar

On 14th March 2020, Tim and I travelled to Harrogate for AireCon. Little did we know that this would be our last trip anywhere for many months, and my last time out of the house interacting with the public for at least the next six months.

COVID was on the horizon. The UK shut down on the 23rd. The NHS advised me to stay away from the public for 12 weeks (how long they thought the pandemic would last). Tim’s job was “essential”. He would go to work and remove his uniform in the hall or bathroom changing into other clothing before entering the living room and seeing me because no one knew if COVID could be transmitted via clothing. People were dying. Shelves were bare.

Meat was scarce

Asda started offering free regular delivery slots to those of us on the NHS shielding list and other grocery stores started following. This was a relief for us, as Tim had been going shopping after he got off a 12 hour shift armed with my list organised by aisle of Tesco and having to ring me when they didn’t have something on my list. It was contactfree delivery, so the driver would leave your groceries on your doorstep. I almost wish they still did that!

We watched the world burn. Friends in the medical field were overworked. Stadiums and concert venues were being converted into mass hospital wards. You know things are rough when the fast food restaurants have to close!

Lockdown did something to my brain. I’m not going to lie or sugar coat it. Things that I once enjoyed I had no desire to do. I stopped writing and even stopped watching TNG for almost an entire year and watched probably every single Disney Channel tween series on Disney+. I stopped reading books, and delved into reading Harry Potter fanfic instead. Not TNG, surprisingly. I stopped cooking real meals and doing kitchen experiments and relied on making frozen “things” – our word for anything that was coated in breadcrumbs and frozen or making simple pasta or rice one-skillet meals. If it was served in a bowl or could be dipped it ketchup, it was my thing.

Slowly, the world recovered. We tentatively opened places up with precautions in place. Travel became possible again as long as you were vaccinated and wore a mask.

We went through a lot of hand sanitizer.

During lockdown, it felt as though everyone was in it to help others. Now? Not so much. All of the togetherness and community we experienced is gone, replaced with hatred. We’ve learned nothing.

But me?

I’m getting better. Slowly. We deep cleaned the kitchen after a burst pipe and I’ve started cooking and baking again. I started blogging again. Maybe, I’ll even start writing again….

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