So after a few months of lockdown, we are beginning to see things starting to happen again. Shops are slowly opening. I can now get my Costa Coffee again (albeit as a drive through) and I’m seeing busier roads.
Apart from my current annoyance, which is people who are clearly out for recreational journeys driving everywhere incredibly slowly (usually 15mph below the speed limit) I am still enjoying the quieter roads; but they aren’t as quiet as they were when it first started.
My job is considered key – unappreciated, sure, but the government along with my industry representative body agreed that fire alarm maintenance and service is a priority job and must continue, and thus it was deemed correct for me to work through.
I socially distanced, and still do. I now have masks and hand sanitiser (although at first the selfish bastards hoarded it thus meaning I had to use other means to keep clean) and I have the sore face and ridiculously dry cracked hands to prove it.
My skin is pasty and white because I’ve been working through whilst my friends are all beautifully tanned; but I’ve not put weight on – which is a bonus!
The things I’ve learned to appreciate though:
Food. Basics such as flour, which we have always used as a family – we are very whole living, making many things from scratch and not buying pre-packaged. We use herbs, spices, flour, eggs, milk. These became in short supply. From what a friend tells me, not because of people copying our lifestyle, but because people who have never cooked before thought that if you added water to flour you got bread. Seriously! People would buy “herbs” and add them to tomatoes to make “pasta sauce”. That’s not quite how it works… perhaps I need to explain to them what a roux is.
Toilet paper. The legendary toilet paper shortage was beyond a joke. To be perfectly honest I actually blame the supermarkets a lot for this. We saw it coming. The rumours started spreading. Supermarkets could have immediately implimented a one-per-customer policy and stopped the grabbers. What they haven’t realised, of course, is now the hoarders have hoarded; their sales in the long run will fall. This will be better for us who didn’t hoard as it will drive the offers to clear the overstock. Fucking fools.
Cleaning Products. I was shocked by this one. I often wonder how filthy some people live. Rushing out and buying hand soap. Don’t they have a spare bottle ready to go? I buy it for the business, so I tend to buy by the 5 litre container anyway. Same for shower gel. I have to clean myself after a mucky day and I can really hammer the stuff. Buying it at supermarket prices wouldn’t save me any money, but by buying in bulk I cut down on single use plastics. We’re currently on a nice Scottish sea kelp shower gel. I had it in a hotel last year and rather liked it.
As we come out of lockdown though, I see the queues at the shops. I wonder just how desperate some people are to buy products. I’m not sure I want to return to the previous normal. It’s too fast moving for me now I’ve experienced a slower pace.