It’s been almost 5 years since I last posted a blog post. 5 years ago we were about to enter a scenario which I don’t think anyone would have dreamed possible in real life. 6 weeks of near-complete ‘lockdown’. Where we couldn’t leave our houses other than for groceries, to exercise pets or to attend medical facilities. There were stories circulating that people would borrow their neighbour’s pets just to be able to get some fresh air.
Looking back at ‘lockdown’, it definitely wasn’t all bad. We heard more birdsong than we’d ever heard before. And less traffic. We hardly drove our cars so saved a lot of money on fuel. There was less rushing around because we had nowhere else to be.
It’s crazy to think of the schedule we kept then though – I started work at 7. Mr H was ‘Profe Barry’, homeschooling our children from 9-11. We then both had a short meeting and I would finish up to hang out with the children. We’d make lunch, do some exercise and most days some arts or crafts. I’d have another hour of work whilst they watched some TV or played Khan Academy Kids on the tablet. Then it was dinner, the evening clapping for the essential workers and half an hour of boogying to the requests played by a local DJ.
Wait, what? Evening clapping and a half hour boogy? Tell me more.
I don’t know the origin of the evening clapping. But I do remember Mr H playing November Rain on the piano, and all of a sudden I could hear applause. I knew things were quieter now that normal life had come to an almost complete stop, but I didn’t think noise would travel that easily. Turns out the clapping had nothing to do with Axl Rose’s composition – it was to thank all the essential workers who had to keep going during this very uncertain time.
And the boogying? In an apartment a few streets up from us, a guy had some big speakers and a microphone. He’d do shout-outs for people and shared his number so that everyone in the area could send him song requests over WhatsApp. We have a roof terrace so we’d hang out there and have a pre-bedtime boogy with the girls every night.
A song called Resistiré – I will resist – was played every single night. It was first a hit in Spain 30 years previously, but was re-recorded by various artists and became the covid anthem, aiming to inspire people to keep going through hard times.
I have been thinking about starting to blog again for a while. But then life takes over and I don’t do it. I am more determined than ever, and now just need to think of topics. I have various bouncing around in my head, so I will grab onto some of them and see where they take me.
