That’s correct, there is no catchy title to this second blog about working from home in Guernsey’s second lockdown. Instead, now we are in Stage 3 of another exit, I’ve decided to look back and share how I’ve found it and how I’ve coped.
I wish I could say I picked up where I left off before returning to the office, but that’s not true. I was naïvely completely unprepared for another lockdown, as I’m sure a lot of islanders were. We had returned to normal life, and we’d been able to do that because we listened, we did what we were told, followed the rules and we stayed safe at home. For months we’d almost forgotten what a dangerous, contagious, fast moving virus could do to our blissful island lives. Sure, we couldn’t travel, but look around you, there are worse places to be stuck!
Then it happened, we woke up on that Saturday morning to a text from The States of Guernsey and we all knew exactly what was coming next. Chaos descended.
Our conservatory was again converted to an office, thankfully as it was the second time we’d done this, everything fell into place easily. In the first lockdown the conservatory housed multiple fans, this lockdown it’s a range of portable heaters. We had one extremely cold week when I actually envied my pets for their fur coats! But I knew what I needed to do, I had to get in the right frame of mind and ace Lockdown 2.0 like I did the first.
My morning routine has been wake up and shower, get dressed (comfy clothes but not pyjamas), a little makeup and breakfast. I’ve made sure different bottles and mugs are used for working hours, I’ve continued to make tea when I would in the office and have continued with my lunchtime routine. I’ve made sure when I’m working it’s in the conservatory and when I’m not working I stay away from the computer.
However, I was initially still finding myself lacking in energy and having two dogs who are complete couch potatoes and afraid of the rain and wind was not helping. I needed to do something more productive, I needed to get stuck into something, motivate myself.
So, what’s the craziest and weirdest things I’ve done during lockdown (that I may or may not be a little bit proud of)?
I purchased an organizing unit for under my sink and got stuck into the task of organizing the unorganizable! I won’t lie, I felt ridiculously proud and satisfied at the way it turned out. I’ve also started making macrame rainbows. I’m quite a particular person so this totally feeds my obsession for perfection as well as testing my patience. Who knew something so simple would require so much personal mental strength?! I’ve bleached my hair. I’m growing out the buzz cut I’ve had since May 2019 when I shaved my hair off for charity (Guernsey Mind) and thought a pick me up was in order to congratulate myself for the 1.5 inch growth (do not try home bleaching, it can go horrendously wrong, I have photographic proof). Thankfully the bleaching went well this time around and I’ve been experimenting with lots of colours 🙂
This lockdown was very different to the first lockdown. Last time I knew it would be challenging and I made sure I did everything I could to get my mind and body working together. Lots of walks, daily yoga and eating well. This lockdown was hugely frustrating. I needed an outlet for my irritability (which the weather hasn’t helped with) so I chose to take my aggression out on different art forms.
The biggest change this lockdown was face masks. Those people you usually see when out walking and you usually smile at? We now wave and greet each other. We are so much more aware of our body language because half of our faces are covered. We are more respecting of personal space as wearing a mask is a reminder to not get too close.
We are so close to this being over. We have a vaccine, we have the infection under control in our community and we are constantly being updated and reassured by the CCA.
We need to listen. We need to learn from this that we cannot become complacent. We need to be supportive of those around us. We need to encourage everyone to stay well and if they do get ill to take the time they need to recover fully and assist with that if we can. We need to take everything in our lives one day at a time.
If we learn anything from ‘Lockdown 2.0’ it should be this… we need to be considerate, understanding and non-judgemental.