These are just my experiences and the reader should never assume I’m an expert in anything.
You can read the first instalment of my holiday experiences in 2020 here.
There were a few reasons I was happy to fight to keep our holiday this year. Being bloody knackered and needing a break was probably top of the list. However, this is 2020, there is a global pandemic and the most overused word in the English dictionary is currently ‘unprecedented’!
We were among many people who chose to travel. The UK government had created travel corridors between us and other countries…
By 2019, my family and I had experienced three annual staycations in the UK. We were rained on and felt cold during each of them. My husband was exhausted from all the driving he had to do to try and outrun the weather for a fortnight taking us to places of interest. By the end of 2019’s holiday, we had had enough. I love living in the UK, I just don’t want to holiday here. You will find plenty of Brits feel the same.
On returning in 2019, I immediately booked a villa holiday in Tenerife for July 2020 with…
Just because it’s hidden, doesn’t mean it’s not a disability.
I’ve recently had to put in an application to renew my blue badge which gets me access to disabled parking bays where I live. They last for a maximum of three years and my first one is about to expire.
When I first applied, people who ‘knew’ me thought it was a long shot and that I wouldn’t qualify for one. The trouble is that not many people who think they know me actually do. They see a version of me that hides a lot of what Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder puts me through on a daily basis. They do not…
The slightly unhinged woman of a certain age perspective
This post wings its way to you after experiencing several nights where I had three hours of sleep. This is not normal for me. I can get by on four hours. But if I was a surgeon, you wouldn’t want me operating in those conditions. Not unless you wanted a surprise outcome. If that’s the case, pass the scalpel, I’m game if you ignore the fact I don’t have a medical license to practice anywhere on this planet or any other. Even my roast chicken carving skills are dubious. …
How has life changed during the pandemic?
The strange thing about this pandemic is for some of us, our lives haven’t changed that much. Bear with me. We may be the fortunate few. Those who work in health and social care will have seen huge changes. Those who work in retail and other sectors of the community like travel and many other industries will also have seen massive changes. Those who have either had this disease or lost friends and family to it will never be the same again. …
The world has become a more anxious place. Even under normal circumstances, some people deal with high levels of anxiety every day that others cannot begin to understand. They didn’t need a pandemic thrown into the equation. A friend of mine said he’d scream if he heard the word unprecedented one more time. He was joking. Although the word is overused, it’s not a particularly emotive one. I’ve spoken to people who have found their anxiety levels raised when faced with some of the language used in this pandemic.
The word isolate causes concern. We are supposed to self-isolate. I’ve…
I’ve been glued to the BBC News channel throughout this crisis. As a globally trusted platform, they bring in experts and fact check before broadcasting. So when I caught some myth-busting information recently, I was hooked. Some of it made me shake my head.
Eating garlic won’t cure the virus. Not eating ice-cream will only help your waistline, not your lungs. This one keeps cropping up on social media — drinking water every 15 minutes to flush the virus into your stomach acid to kill it — nope, no evidence to support that one either. Good for hydration though. And…
Schools, restaurants and an inability to use common sense.
No sooner had I said the schools in the UK would either close naturally as more and more staff members self-isolate or the government would call for them to close, the government called for them to close. Schools will be kept open to provide a safe space for the children of key workers like NHS staff, care workers, and people working in to keep food and other supplies moving onto the supermarket shelves.
My son in year 11 had his leavers’ assembly on Friday 20th March and said goodbye to his friends for what might be the last time if…
The question of schools
Last night, our government announced a £330bn package to help out businesses large and small. I understand most of this is in the form of loans that will need to be paid back. I believe other countries are handing out free money. I’m a suspicious person and always expect a catch. The insurance companies have been spoken to and will pay out on insurance policies. The trouble is, not every business has forced closure insurance built-in. No idea if my business insurance has that, but I am such a small concern now, I’m not at all bothered. I am also…
We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Sorry, that sentence was rubbish. I mean, how could you not know that? Today in the UK is the first day of our new social distancing measures. If we have a fever or a new persistent dry cough, our whole household needs to isolate itself for 14 days. People in London are being told to take extra care as London is considered to be ahead of the rest of the country in the cycle of the disease. …
DJ Cooper
Wife, mother, award winning author of fiction. Vaguely amusing. Owns a tortoise, two bunnies & a flying, fire breathing bearded dragon. Quite mad.
