Day 68 - Garden centre

I decided to head out to the garden centre early today. The weather’s due to be nice this week, so it’d be great to have some flowers to plant while the sun is shining. I’ve literally done every other thing that’s possible to do in the garden at this stage. The place has been meticulously prepared - I’m pretty much picking weeds as they appear, these days!

I got to the garden centre just after 9am and I was the only person in the shop! It was a lovely experience. They had social distancing measures in place, including a one-way system in the shop, jut in case the crowds were big. It’s in quite a rural location though, so it’s still not possible for a lot of people in Cork city to get to this shop. The staff were lovely too, and they were all saying things like “welcome back!” Many of the staff seem to be close to or over seventy, but they had a teenager out on the floor, moving your trolley to the exit after you’d paid, while the older staff stayed behind a plexiglass screen.

When I got back from the garden centre, I had a Zoom meeting with my manager, Marian. I told her that I thought the chemistry online exam paper will be very tricky for the students, and that I had prepared a question to show them, that was almost identical to the question on the exam. It turns out that she’s done the same for her subject, which was funny, but also a relief. She said to me “Lisa, you’ve verbalised how I’ve been feeling - there is no rule book for this year!” We’re all just trying to do our best, in unchartered territory, I guess!

Before lunch, I prepared to do my running session at the same time that I knew Fiona, Olwyn and Mum were meeting in Kilboggat to do theirs. I was on the phone to Mum, and then every time Fiona and Olwyn passed her, we would shout and woop at each other! It was great fun! I was also stopped twice during my session by two separate women out walking in the field, who commented on how much energy I had. “No sooner have you passed me by, then I’m turning around and you’re passing again,” one of them said! One of them is called Mary, and we’ve seen each other a few times recently in this field. She told me that she’s over seventy but that she wasn’t able to stick with the full length of the cocoon, so she comes down to the field to walk up and down a few times every day. She was very keen to hear about my training! I know her name is Mary, because on my jog home, I spotted her driving from the field and then going in the gate of a house a few hundred metres further along on the Lee Road. She waved at me again, and I heard the man she was with saying “see you soon Mary!”

My Miles that Mater T-shirt and medal arrived in the post today. I got them as part of a virtual run that I did, and all proceeds go to the Mater Hospital Foundation. I’m not really sure what you’re meant to do with a medal that arrives in the post during a pandemic, so I decided to wear it around the house for the afternoon, much to Peter’a bemusement!

I spent the entire afternoon having a great time planting all of the flowers that I bought this morning. Then, as usual on a Tuesday, we had our Crusaders table quiz. James Cottle won this week, on his birthday, which was nice. Following the quiz, we watched the next two episodes of Normal People on TV. It’s such a great show, and it’a nice to look forward to every Tuesday!

There were only fifty five new cases of covid 19 reported today. This is good news. However, we’ve also been told today that this virus, and social distancing measures, are likely to be with us for years, rather than months. That’s the type of comment that I note briefly in my mind these days, and then quickly filter out, so that I can focus on the present. There’s a good bit of evidence online that shows that people are not sticking to groups of four, as per the current rules, when meeting up. Lots of people are meeting in much bigger groups. It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth to those of us who haven’t seen our families in months, and are patiently waiting and hoping that the phased relaxation of restrictions won’t be pushed back later than it’s already scheduled for.

Oh look, I’ve just spotted the photo we took of Peter blending into the blue chair!もっと詳しく