5 Things Tuesday: 17th August

Today Dr Tanya is asking us to tell her what

5 Life lessons you have learned during the lockdown.
The most important thing that has come out of all this is that my social awareness has rocketed.
My five is a mixed bag. Some readers may not agree with some of them, but here we go:

1. People are idiots, foolish and irresponsible.
In the beginning, some of the residents thought we were mad to don masks and gloves when we shopped, to always carry sanitizer, and to keep our distance, even from our friends.
When the first lockdown came into force, people finally took notice and reacted accordingly.
Now it is usually only residents you see taking precautions, and visitors to our town literally couldn’t care less. We drove through the High Street yesterday afternoon and it was packed. Not a mask on any of them. Selfish fools.

2. Our local GP surgery was not going to participate in the vaccine roll out, proving once again they are not a credible health service to the town.
Many residents here are elderly or rely on mobility scooters or public transport (now a diminished and impractical service) to go any distance. How could they be expected to travel 20-25 miles for a jab?  We contacted our MP, badgered her office actually, and the surgery was designated as a vaccine centre but not run by the surgery. Things went extremely smoothly in the majority of cases. I hope it will not be too long before we are offered a third jab.

3. Covid doesn’t care who it hits.
The numbers are going up again, this time affecting our younger population.
Our Government are more interested in making money for business than saving lives.
IMO they should have shut down the ports, stations, airports and restricted travel within the country more forcibly. The Left Hand doesn’t know what the Right Hand is doing, reports are conflicting and confusing, but lockdown restrictions are still being lifted thus defeating the object of containing the virus.

4. Who your friends are.
We know a lot of people, most of which are fellow dog walkers here. Friends from our boating years have kept in touch by snail mail or the occasional phone call.  I have been sending Hello cards every month to several of our more senior friends who are not on the internet. I also send emails to those who are on-line.

5. We still go for our walks.
Going back to point 1, we have been avoiding people wherever possible. We can chat to our walking friends from a distance, though more recently that has been relaxed. However, crowds or large groups of strangers are an unknown entity and all seen as a potential threat. We are lucky in that we have a variety of routes and can thus change direction.
We have changed our walking times though and keeping to our estate if necessary to keep away from the tourists.

 

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