Jami's Project - Day 1

Day 1

We saw it coming. As soon as the Prime Minister announced the new level grading for Covid19 I think most people suspected it was a bit of clever psychology softening up the masses for further announcements, harsher restrictions.  That was on Saturday but it feels like so long ago and today is only Wednesday.  Time moves at a different pace now.  

I should tell you, right before I get started, that I don't like our PM but I do admit she is doing a good job during this crisis. She and her cohorts finally found some balls (yes, women can have them, too) when they realized a committee or a conversation about this was not going to cut it.  Action was required and thank heavens they acted a lot quicker than most of the rest of the world and have us going into a lockdown before the number of virus cases climbs too high.  There's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be living right now than this tiny island nation down here by itself at the bottom of the world.

Because I am an “aged” one I've been self-isolating for two weeks already and, to be honest, it's not much different from my daily life. I don't, as a rule, see many people each week anyway.

My daughter is returning home for the next month or as long as the lockdown lasts so, unexpectedly, I will have daily company. This will probably be more difficult for me than isolation. For the past 6 months or so Leone has been house-sitting in the Bream Bay area, close to where she works.  Her workplace has now closed down and she will be working from home for 2 weeks, then who knows what will happen next.

Yesterday I was feeling some anxiety. I was worrying about something I have no control over and I've spent a lifetime training myself not to do that. I've always believed that fear is often worse than that which we fear. I think fear of this virus can effect everyone but we won't all get it, so it is a wasted emotion. And fear causes stress which reduces our body's ability to deal with illness. I must try to remember that over the coming weeks.  No, not try to remember, just remember!!

The other thing I promise myself to remember is the power of breathing.  Stop when a negative thought creeps in and breath.  4 seconds in, 4 seconds out.  So easy.  So powerful.  I would never have lasted in industrial relations without that technique.

I have chatted with my son since yesterday's post.  He and his partner are well but it's a stressful time for him as his work dries up and his staff of around 50 depend on him for their living.  He's a thinker but not a worrier so he will cope.  What a strange world my little grandchild to be will be born into!

So tonight at midnight as we go to Level 4 and lockdown, our world will change for many in this country.  I don't expect my world to be much different.  Farming is an essential service, the cows will still be milked, the milk tanker will still come to collect the milk, the tractor and motorbikes will still move around the farm as the manager performs his daily tasks.  Just now I heard the farm dog barking and the manager calling an instruction to him.  Such comforting sounds.  The sights and sounds will be the same.  But nothing's the same, is it?

I don't expect my thoughts over the next month will always be coherent.  I sometimes find it extremely hard to put emotional thoughts into plain and simple words but I will try.

Go well.