Lockdown week 29: the winter of my discontent

A week or so ago when I started writing this post, I would have said aside from the odd wobble here and there and I think I’ve coped pretty well over the summer. But that’s just it isn’t it? It’s been summer, which means we’ve been able to make the most of the nice weather instantly rather than rushing home from an office. I even put a dress and flip flops on one weekend in July! This past week though, I’ve well and truly hit the wall and my lockdown mood has plummeted once again as a winter of discontent lies ahead of us.

Summer is well and truly over now though, my t-shirt drawer has officially been swapped over with my jumper drawer, the heating has been switched on for the first time since March, and red wine is again being purchased regularly. Needless to say, much as I have adapted well to our little lockdown bubble, and even go so far as to say I’ve enjoyed elements of it, I’m not looking forward to winter in the slightest. And of course now we’re back in local lockdown it also means we can’t have friends and family over to drink red wine with us either. Ugh

So, turning that frown upside down and counting my blessings and all that, we’ve been planning things to try and boost our spirits, get our hygge on and keep moving forward. One of the smallest things i did the other weekend, which may seem daft to some, but really cheered me up, was to recreate one of the many fond memories I have with my dad. Years ago, I had a random day off work while I still lived at home and he treated me to lunch from Greggs. I went for a chicken mayo sandwich, a grab bag of cheese & onion crisps, a chocolate éclair and a can of coke. And we sat and watched old episodes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks on UK Play. So simple, but so lovely. So I did it again, and it genuinely gave me something to look forward to all week, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Then, Dave really pulled through and thought of some other things we can do to have to look forward to. We’ve been spreading out our annual leave and rather than having one or two weeks off when there’s nowhere really to go, having a long weekend on average once a month. Last weekend there was a good chance we may have found ourselves in Munich, as I’ve always wanted to go to the Munich Beer Festival to celebrate Oktoberfest, had COVID-19 not reared it’s ugly head. So we brought Munich to our kitchen, on what would have been the last night of the festival.

Because we’ve been spreading out our annual leave, we’ve been planning the long weekends around stuff to do. So our Oktoberfest weekend was the first, then at the end of October we have a Halloween movie night where we’re going to watch old horror films we’ve never seen (like Child’s Play and Nightmare on Elm Street) with haribo and toffee popcorn. And the week after going to have our own mini bonfire for Guy Fawkes night and drink red wine and toast marshmallows in the garden.

We’re still thinking of something to do first weekend in December to bridge that gap between Halloween and Christmas but I’m sure we’ll think of something fun, that will most likely revolve around drinking wine <insert shrugging girl emoji>

Of course there are things I’m still missing loads, which don’t look like things we’re going to be able to resume anytime soon. And as I mentioned the other week, we are fully expecting to be spending Christmas just us along with Chris, who is our little bubble buddy.

Hugging people

My mum and dad, my friends, my work colleagues. The first time we’re allowed social contact, I’m going to bearhug every single person I haven’t seen for 2 months. Because I’m one of life’s huggers and I’m not sorry about that.

Going to Eastbourne

In December last year I had been up and down to Eastbourne every 2 weeks and it really started to wear me down. Didn’t help that it was winter of course, leaving home in the dark, arriving on the sunshine coast in the dark, late trains home in the dark. Not fun. I would give almost anything to be sipping on my Destination coffee, eating sushi and replying to work emails  from my favourite seat (my secret, not telling!) on LNER.

Meeting Ang for lunch

I often used to work from our Newcastle city centre office, and one of the biggest perks of that was being able to meet Ang for lunch. It was on one of our lunch dates that we decided to create the Lightning Light Lunch guide, something we’re both keen to start up again once this is all over.

Travel

We were due to fly to Portugal for two weeks on 9th June. We all miss our holidays, especially as the weather gets nicer and work becomes more groundhog day like. Annoyingly holiday prices are going to go through the roof once we’re able to travel again, so to have everything cancelled has been upsetting. For a couple who is used to 3 holidays a year, we’re really feeling it. The next time I’m in the Aspire lounge at Newcastle airport, I’m going to be the happiest bunny on earth.

Concerts

It’s going to be a long time before thousands of people are allowed together in one space. I’m lucky (I’ve said that a lot in this post!) that I saw my two favourite bands in the space of the last year. But the problem with concerts is the more you go to, the more you want to go to. We had tickets for Aerosmith in Manchester at the end of July, and Alanis Morissette in Dublin in October and both have been rescheduled for next year. Whether they actually go ahead or not though remains to be seen.