I still haven't learned a new language

Dear Reader

How are you feeling? Worried, stressed, sad, tearful, angry, resigned, horny, outraged, tired, productive - are you feeling productive? Have you done something with seed beds in your lovely big back garden?  Have you learned how to say - 'A sparkling mineral water for me, if it's not too much trouble, please?' in Mandarin? Have you cleared out your whole wardrobe and colour coded everything that remains?

I haven't done any of those things, I haven't even managed to clean the bathroom yet, although I've been talking about it for days. To be honest, all my energy has gone into staying sane - something which is very important in these surreal and unsettling times, I feel.

Things that are keeping me sane

COOKING

Yeah, still cooking, I'm afraid, it's the only thing that is giving me a sense of accomplishment these days. I was so proud of my tortilla, I really didn't want to make it, had already made a paella and was starting to lose interest, as I'm wont to do but no, I made the frigging tortilla and it came out of the pan, nearly whole:

OK, so it ain't pretty, it looks like some kind of igneous rock (whatever the Hell that might be) but I was ludicrously proud of it. I thought it was delicious, my younger daughter seemed offended that it didn't taste like the (ready made) one we'd had on holiday - when we were in Cornwall.... She liked the paella but hated the tortilla, her sister liked the tortilla but hated the paella (I think she said it had baked bean sauce in it which was outrageous as I'd made that dish from scratch!) Anyway, I'd still cooked something, using the ingredients we had to hand and...and I liked the paella and the tortilla.

'JUST DANCE'

Oh. My. God. I love it! I wake up with the songs in my head. Today, a Saturday, a Joe Wicks-less day, I said to him indoors - 'Lets' dance to Illusion and then to that weird jumping song.' Today I danced for about an hour and a half and racked up the old digits on my Fitbit. Now, will I be brave enough to share a picture of me with the 'Just Dance' controller. Even though it was a heavily staged picture and I'd rejected many, many others that I'd got my daughter to take, where I was actually dancing but looked like a de-shelled mollusc, I'm still not happy with this one, but are we ever? I mean, you might be, reader - happy with your picture, but then you're gorgeous. ;)

I am the eggman, I am the walrus...

Thing is, as the Body Positivity community are always keen to stress, and I know I'm repeating myself here, it's not about how you look it's about how you feel! 

I woke up feeling tired and irritable and with a cough that worried me but after an hour and a half of 'Just Dance' followed by a shower, I felt much, much better, and as if being a de-shelled mollusc might not even be such a bad thing.

REWATCHING and REREADING

F off, spellcheck, Rewatching is a word - if rereading can be a word then why not rewatching?

Rereading comfort read books where there are no nasty surprises, rewatching favourite shows where you came to love the characters but there are still enough clever details in there to give you a (pleasant) surprise. 

APPRECIATION OF NATURE

We don't have a proper garden, we have a tiny bit of wooden decking, about the size of a Persian rug. And yes, I do realise that we're lucky to even have that, thank you very much. We are also very lucky to live near a big park and try to get there every day. We've worked out an off-the-path way of trying to avoid people and tend to walk a very similar route every time we go. Instead of resenting this I've realised that we can try and use this to notice the natural changes that happen over the course of time. So the big tree that had little, spiky dark bobbles on it's branches, is now resplendent with lush green leaves. (humour me with the pretentious language, OK.)

Is it even the same tree?

I'll be honest with you, Reader, when they first announced the lockdown, I legit thought that it would feel like being buried alive, but you get into a bit of a routine, don't you?

I'm sorry if you don't have any of the resources I've detailed available to you (although I believe that 'Just Dance' is available on Youtube). Give me a shout if you need to talk. Oh, sorry, your face just froze for a minute there - bloody Skype/Zoom/WhatsApp/Houseparty etc!

Oh, and I realise that you probably won't read this because you're too busy having fun in your massive garden! :P