I know for ALL the keyworkers, these past few months have been a pretty tiring and stressful time whilst at work, but in the world outside work, the streets, roads and open spaces have been much quieter. Gone for most has been the stress of the school run followed by the commute to work and working from home seems to be coming the new “norm”.

Am I alone or has anyone else been enjoying the slower pace of life? It’s strange, but personally I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I think everyone tends to carry a rucksack of life on their backs, full of the burden of day to day living, work and kids, worry about others, weighing us down with stress and anxiety. Having always been a bit of a worrier, I try to be organised in an effort to keep worry and stress at a minimum. Feeling a bit liberated, I’ve been trying to work out what it is I’ve been carrying, that this new world has enabled me to discard.

Constant jobs to do around the house list

We will always have things that need mending, painting, changing around the house, but having made huge headway whilst housebound, we no longer have a bottomless list of tasks. I’m hoping that going forward, we can tackle things as they arise avoiding the need for future long lists.

Old photos fading in cupboard

We have lots of these, together with digital photos scattered across various computers, discs and cassettes. It seemed such a daunting task to reorganise them, that I’ve been putting it off. However I have been slowly putting the photos on my phone into albums, which is simple, and have taken a deep breath and started scanning old printed photos to my iPad. It will take some time, but the process isn’t difficult so I’m just plodding my way through, and it is bringing back so many memories, previously buried deep in the old brain.

Stuff, stuff & more stuff cluttering our house

When something sits around for too long, making the house look untidy, it usually gets shoved in the loft or a cupboard. The loft became so cluttered that we couldn’t move up there or find anything. We spent a couple of wet, windy days having a good old sort out. The old boxes, everyone keeps in case your purchase develops a fault, have been discarded. Most of what we’ve decided to keep is now in plastic boxes and there is now a “their” side and “our” side. It’s not perfect, still needing a bit of work, but it’s way better and a bit easier to find the things that we occasionally need.

The offending cupboards have also been cleared and tidied, making it a whole lot easier to get to things we regularly use.

Feeling unkempt 

I know I’m not alone in feeling a bit dishevelled and with nowhere to go during lockdown, pampering was not important. Our husbands got to realise why we spend so much of their money on grooming every month.

I normally get a haircut every 3 weeks, and thinking I should get a new hairstyle, this felt like the ideal opportunity. But 17 weeks later I had started to morph into Bigfoot.

My Granddaughter has kindly been tackling my eyebrows, when I can pin her down between her shifts and vegetating in bed! On one occasion, when that failed, I gave it a go myself. I can’t really see what I’m doing without my glasses on, ending up with more wax on my specs and my ever growing fringe stuck to them!!

After years of “shellacked” nails I thought the enforced break would do them good. They have received more tlc than ever before. They are a bit stronger, but still prone to splitting lengthways. They are currently filed very short, are a bit mis shapen and often hidden when in the company of others 😢 I’m hoping to persevere, but can feel the call of the salon ever increasing.

As we ease our way back to life, outside our own four walls, I am beginning to feel the pressure of trying to look my best starting to build again.

Ive had one haircut but I’m still uncertain about the style. With another one booked for the end of the month together with a manicure and (if guidelines have relaxed a bit more by then) an eyebrow tidy, (if not I’ll be at the mercy of the Granddaughter a bit longer) I’m hoping I’ll be able to go out & about without scaring anyone.

Pressure of things outside of my control

We all love and care for our families and would do anything to help them out. Three months of not being able to see them has made me realise, I maybe care too much, possibly to the point of interfering. As they’ve all proved they are capable of standing on their own two feet, they know how much I love them and am always there if they need me, I understand I can take a step back and just enjoy their company. We must now make more of an effort to just socialise.

We have been under a bit of pressure, with the cancellation of three trips, we had planned in the first half of the year. Claiming the return of monies has been a long winded process. Two have thankfully finally been fully refunded. The third has been more difficult, as we were on the cusp of Europe opening up again. In our favour, Portugal wasn’t on the travel corridor list, so it has been an anxious wait. We were of the mindset that we may lose a fair amount of money, however stressing over it wouldn’t make the slightest difference. The funds have been long gone from our account, getting them back would be a bonus. What would be would be. Thankfully last week 6 days before flying Villa Plus confirmed on their website that we would be refunded and on Tuesday, just 2 days before, I received a phone call to check I realised the holiday was cancelled and I would be refunded in 7-10 days  😅. Now just waiting for EasyJet, who are not responding to emails. 😡

Trying to please others 

Everyone has a family member or friend that they don’t always see eye to eye with. I have always let disagreements play on my mind. Should I have handled it differently, should I have kept shtum? which is difficult, as I’m not one to hold back on voicing my opinion. However I also listen to and respect the opinions of others. In return, sometimes naively, I expect others to offer me the same respect. I am no longer going to allow these differences of opinion or those that try to foist their opinions on others bother me, I will just be taking a step back and putting a bit of distance between myself and the negativity.

All in all, lockdown has, for me personally, had a positive effect on life. I have off loaded a lot of things weighing my rucksack down, and made decisions on how to reduce the burden of other things.

We are at a point in our lives, having left behind the stresses of work, that we should maybe, become a little more selfish by starting to think about ourselves and our dreams rather than the needs and opinions of others.