Life Under Lockdown

Life as we know it has been turned upside down, passed to the left then rattled around for a while. Life has changed for all of us because of COVID-19. It has taken far too many lives and had huge impact upon all of us.

Here in the Uk we have done 6 weeks of lockdown and await the news of what is to come. Will we stay in lockdown or will restriction begin to be lifted?

Will coming out of lockdown now be a good idea?

Will it cost more lives?

Will life go back to how it was?

Nobody can answer these questions.

we will just have to wait and see what happens over the next weeks, months and possibly years.

Lockdown has affected us all in different ways and personally it has been a roller coaster of emotions from not only day to day but hour by hour. I have got to the stage now that I can’t watch the news. I have gone from a person who watched the news with breakfast, the the lunchtime news, early evening news and the late night news. I don’t watch any. If I’m honest I can’t watch it. It’s a mix of emotions from fear, bewilderment, upset to anger.

I am fully aware I am not the only one who feels like this. It’s been and still is, a very scary time. Sadly a few people are not seeing the seriousness of this and are carrying on with their daily lives ignoring the lockdown. Too many people have died and continue t die and people should in my opinion take a step back and ask themselves why they feel the need to ignore he lockdown guidelines and endanger not only their lives but the life of every person they come in contact with.

I had some many plans for between March and September and only one of those has come to fruition; moving house. Back in December I had an offer accepted on what is to be my forever home and 2 days later I sold my house. I was going for a quick completion, perhaps the middle February but it wasn’t to be. Instead I moved a week before lockdown. The first 10 days were hectic and it seemed like I was living in another world.

My new cottage is over half the size of my last house. Hardly any of my furniture would fit. I moved 120 miles with just a double mattress, a chair, a two seater sofa, washing machine, tumble drier and 2 sideboards (one of them got damaged in the move).

The first week I discovered the seals on the shower were broken in three places and the wastepipe was leaking. Not what I wanted. A quick emergency repair was undertaken. I knew the house needed work or as the estate agent called them ‘finishing touches’ but if I’m honest it requires way more than ‘finishing touches’ and the shower was not on the list of things needing to be done. That week there was a strange birthday with limited celebrations and a lt of emotional ups and downs.

Exactly 1 week after I moved lockdown happened. I had ordered some furniture with I was going to unpack my many cardboard boxes in to but with the lockdown that wasn’t to be. I managed to get by new bed frame delivered and but not the mattress so I am sleeping on a kingsize bed with a double mattress! The dining table, chairs and benches were delivered along with the fridge freezer (I had separate ones before but there is only room for a combined one here).

It was a very strange week!

I had arranged to have a decorator come and start on my office and two of the bedrooms but obviously this is having to wait but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get the paint out and start on the lounge. I’ve started on the chimney breast as this is the only wall I can do at the moment as there are some ‘finishing touches’ required around the top of the room. Apart from the chimney breast I have visible pipes and these need to be covered with coving. The coving needs to be fitted before the painting and wallpaper can be put on those walls.

There is also half the skirting to finish in the lounge. For some reason the sitting boards have been started in every room and have not been finished in any room . I’m fining it very strange how every room has something, in most rooms more than one thing, half finished and I now have the trouble of trying to match skirting boards, bathroom floor and wall tiles and kitchen cupboards. I’ve lost count of how many cream kitchen’s I’ve looked at online and I still haven’t found the doors I have. Fingers crosse I can fin a match as I don’t want to have to replace them!

Though out all of this boring stuff; tiles, skirting boards, worktops etc, I have been picking up a few pretty things. My daughters room is still going to be coral and grey and I’ve picked up these prints as well as soon inspirational quotes for her bedroom.

I’ve also been busy try to develop some recipes for my foodie blog. Knowing I was moving house, I begn t the beginning of the year to eat everything we hd in the freezer and to get through as much of the store cupboard items I had. Then I ended up in hospital for 8 days the end of February. during this time the panic buying begn and by the time I came out of hospital, the supermarket shelves had been stripped clean.

I had booked a supermarket slot for the day after I moved but like everyone else the middle of March hardly anything I had ordered was available. I’ve spent the last 7 weeks trying to stock my cupboards back up.

With the help of a local butchers, greengrocers and milkman I have been able to get basic supplies and have mangled to cook a few recipes using basic ingredients that I will be sharing over on Candace’s Kitchen in the next few weeks.

Fear not, I have still been having afternoon tea during lockdown. Whilst being in quarantine I have also been enjoying the delivery service of a local cafe who have put together an afternoon tea delivery service. It was delicious and very much appreciated. With everything being up in the air at home I was in need of. little bit of my ‘normal’ life back and afternoon tea fitted the bill perfectly. It’s lovely seeing all the self employed people coming up with new ides to keep their businesses trading during this difficult time. I am really looking forward to trying all the local cafes and restaurants in the reawaken lockdown is lifted s well s walk along the sea front with an ice cream in my hand!

My life may be still packed in cardboard boxes but there are little areas of tranquility around the house and if I sit down and come my eyes I can easily imagine all my planned renovations coming together.

I had a very detailed plan of how I was going to finish renovating my house over the first six months of being here. It looks like things are going to be done in a very illogical order and most likely take far longer than I had planned. Here’s hoping I can get it all done by Christmas.

You can follow the progress of the renovations here. I have purchased a website which is currently under construction and will link from my instagram account when it is live.

How is life treating you under lockdown?