Well, after quite an abscence, here I am again! 2020 is certainly stacking up to be a most memorable one in all respects.
A year when Coronavirus came into our daily lives and caused disruptions and a year of 40th celebrations. (Or what should have been celebrations.)
Our Ruby Wedding came first, and we were so lucky to be able to go on holiday for a week to Tenerife. The sun shone from morning until night, the sun and warmth were just what we needed after a gloomy winter. It was a time for total relaxation & to this end we had a daily routine of walking along the seafront, stopping for a coffee, then lunch before heading back for a relax by the hotel pool. We hired a Mobility scooter for two on the last two days. What fun this proved to be - we could go further afield and had a great rapport with local business owners who would shout, wave and joke with us as we passed by! I got quite adept at "giving the Royal wave"!
The next celebration was a family gathering that we could enjoy with our family, cousins and friends. We had a pleasant afternoon and little did we know at that time, that this would be our last visit to Lancashire for the remainder of the year.
Our final Ruby Wedding celebration came in March, when we stayed overnight in a nearby five star hotel with an evening meal. A fantastic experience, but little did we know what was coming! Two days after our return the country went into Lockdown. So, it was from luxury to supermarket shopping to prepare for any impending closures or any restrictions that may be being imposed.
Lockdown came on March 23rd and how strange and surreal it all felt. School closures, noone passing by, peope were advised to work from home. All of this meant no traffic and it seemed eerily quiet. Everyone seemed to start off by painting garden fences before swapping to garden and DIY projects. Thankfully, the weather was really good, probably unusually so for the time of year.
Our town quickly had a good support network up and running. Local shops delivered their produce, found inventive ways to market their businesses, and two new organisatons have been born out of this. We stayed around home for the first three or four weeks until we felt comfortable with the new situation that we had found ourseves in. We would buy take away coffees and sit in one of the town gardens and while away a couple of hours each morning. The weather was perfect, it was a very quiet place to do all kinds of relecting. My stamina was good at this point and we ventured out for walks where we knew that it would be quiet. Eventually, we had an occasional drive out to local quiet places -trying all the time to support as many local independent businesses as posible.
We "moved" into the conservatory and watched the flowers come and go and also watched fledglings grow and fly the nest. Nature at its best. We got to know our closeby neighbours more, so the beginning of Lockdown, although a diffrent way of living, proved beneficial in many ways. It was as though everything had temporarily stopped and made us look at things in a different way.
One of the downsides to this is that we haven't been able to see or celebrate our eldest son's 40th birthday or that of a neice and nephew. We only take comfort in that everyone remains fit and healthy.
All of this has meant that my support network had to tempoarily cease; No acupuncture, massages or seeing my MSK person from March until the end of August/September. My stamina became less and as much as I have tried to do small walks it became very difficult. This was very disappointing after my good run of health.
Our family from London came to visit at the end of August, before the schools were allowed to reopen for the Autumn term. This is the first time that we had seen any family members since February and it is whilst they were here that I had a fall. I awoke one night needing the bathroom and fell on the way back. I must have gone down with some force as I have probably broken a toe on my right foot, displaced some joints and am bruised. It is far from ideal, but tell myself that it is a "sideways move". Not a backwards one. All of this means that walking and puting my right foot down can be quite painful.
Thankfully, the people who treat me have been allowed to restart practicing and I am now once again having acupuncture and being able to receive MSK treatment. The Lockdown has had an adverse affect on my stamina and muscle tone. I have quite a stiff back and my affected arm requires continual stretching and exercising. The unfortunate fall means that I now walk in a way to compensate for my walking difficulties, which in turn can affect my muscles and posture.
I have now found a new person to do my body massage, which will greatly assist with relaxing my muscle tissue and relieve tension. A couple of times I have had the additional Daoyin Tao treatment, which restores body balance and uses Accupressure treatment for the face, scalp and ears. This treatment is remarkable, so gentle and I could feel the immeadiate difference.
Quite a mixed year of fortunes so far this year. However, my mantra has always been to:
Look forwards and not backwards.
"What If" or "Why Me" will never solve anything, and just wastes too much precious energy.
