Chewing the Cud of Life in Lock Down

 Young Jeffrey at School

Chewing the Cud of Life in Lock Down

Not surprisingly, Steve and I were both a bit tired when we got up this morning after our quite heavy ten mile run day yesterday, though neither of us had any body parts that were achy or painful and that is pretty darned good I think. In fact the only sign showing of any effect from our second longest run this year was that when we started our hour of ballet work out today  the floor exercises were fractionally harder. The abdominal set was just a little bit more   uncomfortable but not painful but we could both just feel that we had tested ourselves slightly more yesterday. So all of that is good, most satisfying actually.

As a warm up, we had done a couple of 15 minute sets of Qigong with the lovely lady instructor who announces herself as simply Marissa. We had tried a lot of the beginner classes a few months ago of which there must be hundreds on You Tube. Finally we settled with this woman as the one who conducted the sessions in the best form to suit us. She tells you what every movement represents and what she said it resulted in. I can see that some people might find is a bit too spiritual but that is one of the main things that we like about it. She says at some point in almost every class that the hands are the most important healing tool and I have no idea why some folk would find that off putting since we have all been for a massage at some time and that is purely using the hands. Also I would say that without question mental attitude is equally powerful. So many of us have difficulty relaxing or letting go of tension don’t we? It is of no benefit at all to me to try to sell this form of movement to the world. All I can say it that it helps me stay cool, calm, collected and released and I know for sure that that alone is beneficial to me, mind and body. 

Yesterday afternoon we had another surprise visit that brightened our day considerably. My daughter rang to check that we were both at home before they came round. Jacqueline had a few more little salad plants for us to bring on in the wee garden. I had sent here a couple of photos to her of how well the previous gift of leaves were doing and also a picture of a bowl of salad on our dining table that we were about to eat, lots of pretty coloured leaves. This time she had not only brought more young plants but also a salad mix from her garden with a variety of leaves and tiny yellow and mauve flowers. We ate half of those last evening and will polish them off tonight.  They had arrived as a family, Jacqueline and her husband Martin (who has done some shopping for us during the LD but we let off this week because we had managed to get one of the precious supermarket deliveries in) J & M had also brought their darling puppy dog Jeffrey, along to see us which appeared to please him as much as it did us. Jeffrey has quickly become and Instagram star, some of which posts are absolutely priceless; DO take a look at his antic’s do we can all do with a good belly laugh and he certainly provides us with that. jeffs_jaunts, I think is where he can be seen.

 

Having done so much writing during this time, and having raised my game by posting my diary every day rather than twice a week, that had been my routine before the grim reaper came bowling in, I was starting to get nervous that our computer maintenance man Jason had not been able to come in to do his once monthly call to our home, to back up everything. Steve rang him and between them he managed to solve that little niggle of mine and last night he did the backup remotely. So all is well and that is one worry out of the window.

My needle work is still going great guns considering that it is one of the things that is on time ration. Sewing has only 30 minutes or so at a time because I do like to manage my time carefully. Every moment is precious and should not be wasted or used idly, well in my book anyway. In the last week I have finished another pair of light weight comfy trousers for me to Qigong in. The dress that actually was the first thing I cut out, but was not the most needed item, is now well on its way and the sleeves will go in tomorrow. Steve uses the time in which I either sew or write, as his radio fan time, listening to phone-in programmes, to hear what Billy Bloggs, Joe Public and those on the London Omnibus think about the state of the world.

 

When one is as old as me, there is normally time to reflect on this and that but there is not much unused time in my world. However one thing that I am not happy about right now is a bit girly, but then I am a girl even if a bit long in the tooth. I miss having my nails done. In the past that is something that I took a regular trip into the town centre for, a visit to the nail salon. It is also something that I have thought a lot about during this time. I am sure that I will not go back to the shop laughingly called Divine Nails. The reason is that during LD we have all become much more aware and careful about hygiene and the thought of sitting in a row of ladies with nail artists on the other side, no matter how good; and they are very artistic and did a great job. Here comes the BUT; they do not wash their hands between clients and they use the same big fluffy brush for one person after another as well an all the other implements. The thought of all that lack of care has been giving me the wiggle-woggles and even though I was very happy with the end result after each visit, I think the end has come to that. I really dislike having short nails. That is a bit of a shame because at my age there is not much of me left that I can make look pretty and I really enjoyed having impressively pretty nails.