I’m here in the UK, stuck at an unsociable distance from everyone apart from my fiance. This is week two of social distancing for us.

We are worried about the ones we love. All of us, I think. I’m no exception.

Every time I clear my throat, I worry I might have brought the deadly virus into the flat. Should I be wearing a face mask? Should I be washing plastic food wrappers as they enter the house? Are walks outside still safe?

How annoying is it if I shout at you to wash your hands for the 20th time today?

…

WASH YOUR HANDS!

As the madness continues, I will give you some of my deeply non-profound and entirely useless thoughts occurring during this crisis.

1. My home should contain some basic books in it

Paper copies. None of that kindle cheating nonsense. What if the electricity went down…

When I left for university, I knew this. I made sure I could not set myself up properly until I had Terry Pratchett’s Thud on my bookshelf.  All of that wisdom has been forgotten, and as social distancing in the UK began, I found myself with heaps of  books that I don’t really feel like reading right now, and without the absolute essentials, aka:

• J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
• George Eliot’s Middlemarch
• Charles Dickens’s Bleak House
• Jane Austen’s Persuasion or Mansfield Park

Thank goodness, I at least have Pride and Prejudice.  And a copy of Middlemarch is now in the post. I’m still tempted to order the others… Watch this space…

2.The internet is awesome

We all talked and talked about needing to disconnect, but at the moment technology is keeping us connected to each other. Hurray for the internets!

 

3.Bulk buying ain’t all bad…

Before you hate me, I didn’t stockpile for the coronavirus. In February of 2019, I bought frozen spinach to make sure we still have vegetables to eat after Brexit. Guess what? We’re eating it now…

I am incapable of saying no to a good multi-buy deal. I used to feel guilty about the kitchen cupboards stuffed with tinned tomatoes and packs and packs of 3 for 2 toothpaste. Marie Kondo told me that I should not buy lots of things even though supermarkets give me lots of special offers.

Well, she was wrong!

I’ve hardly ever been as happy as this morning when I discovered that I did buy lots of dishwashing liquid in December.  It sparked so much JOY.

4. Self-sufficiency is far more tempting than it used to be. 

My little crop of cucamelons has given up the ghost last week.

Cuca-what? I hear you ask.

The cucamelon, if you must know, is a Mexican plant, which refuses to grow in my flat.

But maybe if I had bought some salad seeds thing would have been different. Apparently, you can buy salad varieties that are quite hardy and grow on window sills.

I have been eyeing-up pasta-makers. They don’t seem terribly useful at the moment, given that my local shops are out of flour, but they do look tempting? Am I going mad?

5. Pets are amazing.

And if you don’t have your own, you live vicariously through other people’s pets.

I know – if you have pets, you’re no doubt stressing about their food, their access to the vet, all of the things! But you also have someone lovely sharing their time with you – in their own unique, bossy little way. If only my landlord would let us keep a pet, I would be setting off to adopt one, right now. I can’t even tell you the number of times this idea has gone through my head.

And I speak from experience. I keep sitting and thinking of what my Winnie-cat would do if she could still keep me or my Mum company.  (Sniff)

So this is a callout: Be kind! Post cute pet photos and videos! The world needs them!

6. Being fabulously rich would be nice.

I have a job, I have a roof over my head, I’m not worried about food and stuff, so that’s what makes this kind of thinking absurd.

 

 

I don’t tend to think of myself as money-driven. I have quietly resigned myself that if I earn enough to keep me and my family going – that’s fantastic.  But as COVID-19 struck, I did begin to think to myself that perhaps I might care more about it in the future.  I found myself stuck with intrusive thoughts of what I would do with my ludicrous amounts of hypothetical cash.

Things I would also like to do with lots of money that are not much use to anyone:

• A big house or a big flat with a garden. So that I could go outside without
  • worrying about catching anything
  • worrying  I am spreading anything.
• This house or flat could include a gym? or at least like a TV, so that I don’t get a backache if I binge-watch silly TV
• A standing desk – coming back to the backache thing…

But then, if I had a big house, I  would be stuck cleaning my big house. Which would take ages. So perhaps the rented flat is a blessing in disguise!

7. I have been so incredibly lucky and spoilt so far in all of this.

Yeah, don’t think I don’t realize .. I really do. These are like the textbook definition of champagne problems… Let’s hope they stay that way! And I hope you stay lucky and spoilt too!

 

I bet these thoughts are going to get sillier and sillier as the self-isolation goes on. I just hope they don’t get too gloomy…

Have you had any silly self-isolation thoughts? Any day-dreams?  Any cute pet photos you want to share with me?