Day 42 - Attempted kettlebell purchase
April 23, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
Kettlebells, weights and other home fitness equipment is like gold dust these days. Single 10kg kettlebells are selling for €100 to €300 euro online! As a result, I’ve been stuck using a 9kg rock from our back garden for Pete’s classes twice a week and I’ve been desperate to get my hands on a proper weight. Fiona and Lisa Banahan have been, helpfully, keeping an eye out for weights online, and Fiona spotted that Lidl we’re going to be selling them from 8am today!
So, I’d an early start this morning. I headed 5 minutes up the road to Lidl, arrived there at about 7.55am, but was very disappointed to find about eighty people in the queue ahead of me! I decided to stick with it, and had a nice chat with the people on either side of me in the queue (both of whom were over 70 and therefore not meant to be out)! After half an hour of queuing, I got into the shop but, of course, all of their weights were gone. I’m suspicious that the staff took them before they even put them out on the shelf.
Anyway, I consoled myself with a garden hose and some compost and headed home. I spent most of the day on Zoom then, teaching chemistry and doing individual meetings with students. One student “stayed back” after class for over half an hour, basically looking for therapy from me because of how stressful the situation in Kuwait is. It sounds very strict there, but that’s probably a good thing. She has to wear a bracelet that the police scan every day, and it tells them where she’s been for the day. She has to self-isolate for two weeks because she’s recently returned to Kuwait from Ireland, so if she comes within 2m of someone else’s bracelet an alert is triggered! I told her to focus on what she can control, which is how much study she does for her upcoming exams.
In the breaks between classes, I pottered around the garden and sat out in the sun. I’m going to admit now that I bought a massive box of squashies on Amazon last week. I somewhat regret it, but it was great! I was inspired by having seen Anna get the same box off Julian for her birthday a few weeks ago. It had ten big bags of sweets in it!
There’s a new thing doing the rounds on Facebook where you have to post one of your favourite running photos, to remind us of positive things during this time. I posted a photo from the National Road Relays last year. I loved that team event and I can’t wait to get back to training with the gang again in the not too distant future!
In the evening, we had a Sheehan family quiz on Zoom. Conor was the quizmaster this time, with a little help from Barry. It’s funny that John never remembers to mute his phone when he’s discussing his answers with Vincent! I came second in the quiz, again, with Anna being the winner for the second week in a row! Quizzes are a lovely way to catch up with family and friends at this time.Read more
Day 41 - Lots of fitness!
April 22, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
I did three separate exercise sessions today! I went out for my usual running session by the river in the morning, followed by the usual hike back up Strawberry Hill afterwards. Then, in the afternoon, I did an online boxing fitness class, organised by Fiona’s work. I did this one outside in the sun and it was great to be able to do it in the fresh air. Peter was also outside at the time, though, and giving me some very strange looks! Finally, in the evening, I went for a walk and chatted to Fiona on the phone while she went for her run. I have to say, this was my least enjoyable walk so far. There were way too many people out and about and I just found it all a bit stressful. At one point, people were standing on opposite sides of the road talking, so I walked down the middle of the road, while another walker came down the middle of the road towards me and a jogger came close to me from behind! I did get to see lots of nice things new the windows of houses on Blarney Street again though, including some balloon animals in a box that said “please take home!” I would have taken one if there was no risk of catching covid-19 from it!
For lunch today I made a halloumi salad and I sat outside in the sun for a while afterwards chatting to Mum on the phone. I put some seeds in the post to Mum today too. I can’t wait until garden shops are open again. My favourite one, Griffins, is operating an honesty box sale from their gate, but unfortunately, at about 20km distance from my house, they’re much too far past my 2km radius.
In the evening, Peter had a Zoom call with his family. I could hear him saying “Lisa’s doing fitness classes every day here!” He probably thinks I’ve gone mad! I would have chatted on the Zoom call too but I’m feeling a bit “Zoomed out,” so instead I watched a trashy television programme on my own called “Too Hot to Handle!” Sometimes, even in a lockdown, we all need a break!Read more
Day 40 - Quiz host
April 21, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
It’s day 40 of our lockdown and I can’t believe we’ve gotten to this point already. What have I don’t with the last forty days?! Good thing I have this diary to tell me! It’s been like some sort of weird lent, where instead of giving up chocolate, we have to give up leaving our houses!
Today started, as it usually does, with an easy run down by the river. I passed two Garda checkpoints within the first kilometre or so of my run. It’s funny that just one month ago, a Garda checkpoint to ask you why you’re leaving your house would have been unthinkable, and now it’s almost completely normal! Things have changed so quickly. The new way of life has become normal so quickly. I was just thinking that it was just over a month ago that they announced the school closures, and Peter and I headed to a jammed Wilton Tesco to stand in queues of people all stockpiling food. These days, meeting one person on the opposite side of the road is close enough contact for me! Thankfully, the Gardaí at the checkpoints are never really interested in pedestrians and are pretty much only stopping cars, so I was able to continue my run unhindered.
I ordered some seeds online last week and they arrived from Mr Middleton’s a few days ago. Having planted lots of them in my garden, I put some in envelopes today to post up to Mum and Fiona.
I’m really fully embracing lockdown mode in recent days now, or “living my best quarantine life,” as they’d say on social media! I’ve no doubt that it’ll probably only last briefly, and that I’m only days away from another meltdown and another frustrated outburst at the restrictions, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts. I think the best way to sum it up is that I am now ok with being unproductive, for the first time in a long time!
I prepared homemade chickpea burgers with chips for lunch, and me and Peter sat at the dining room table to eat them. How civilised!
Then, at 6pm, we had our weights training class with Pete. I think it was our hardest one yet! It was also a funny situation because Peter was jamming on his guitar in the same room as me doing the class. I’m still also using a massive rock, instead of a proper weight, but I hope to rectify this on Thursday when Lidl have a sale of fitness equipment.
At 8pm today, I took on the role of Crusaders quiz host, having accidentally volunteered for it last week! It was a great success, even if I did end up pretty tired afterwards from talking to myself for over and hour. I really enjoyed making the quiz this week too - it was a lovely diversion. The best round, I think, was one where people had to guess the missing word from James Cottle’s race reports. People seemed to like to novelty of it, and I’m sure there were some funny answers! I got great feedback afterwards in our WhatsApp group amyway. The winning score was 37 out of 50, and a good few people seem to have gotten about 25 right, so that sounds like I pitched the standard appropriately.
I don’t know how another nighttime has rolled around again so quickly, but I will be fully embracing my sleep tonight, as I’m tired from my run and strength class. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but I hope it brings nice weather at least. There are rumours of some very sunny weather in the next few weeks!Read more
Day 39 - Back to work (at home)
April 20, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
The Easter holidays are over, so it was back to work today. Peter was up at 7.30am working away, and I surfaced about two hours later! I’d a Zoom conference call to check in with the rest of the staff, and then I spent most of the day preparing and recording my lectures for the week. It takes a good bit of time to make the PowerPoint and to then record it, so I got a bit frustrated at how slow it all took, especially with the weather being so nice outside!
As I’ve mentioned previously, the weekly Tesco shop has become one of the big highlights of the lockdown for me, and today was the big day again! To make it even more exciting, we weren’t able to book a delivery slot, so we got to drive down to Wilton Tesco to do click and collect instead. Both me and Peter went, and it was exciting to be out on the road again. I think I’ve only been out in the car about three or four times in the past five weeks. At Tesco, we parked at the Cick and Collect door, Peter gave our name and a guy came out with our stuff in boxes and left them beside our car. Then, Peter put the shopping into the car (because only he had gloves), we left the plastic boxes back beside the door and headed home. We didn’t encounter any police on our journey, but I was a little bit nervous when driving as I’m not entirely sure if we’re allowed to be out driving with two people in a car together.
I the evening I went for a lovely walk in the sunshine. What absolutely brightened my day, and made my walk so enjoyable was noticing, for the first time, that lots of houses on Blarney Street have things in their window for passers by to have a look at. I’d heard of this happening in lots of places around the country, but only noticed it here today. I also passed a climber practicing on the wall of Cork City Gaol! This is one of the best things I’ve seen yet. I called over to him and told him that it was a great idea and how it’s brilliant to see how creative people are being during the lockdown. He replied that he “just had to climb something,” and that he was only climbing sideways as he thought it might be illegal to climb to the top! I told him to enjoy, he told me the same, and I continued on my walk with a smile!
It was nice to see so many lovely things on my walk. The six o clock news was very sad this evening, and I had watched it just before I went out. They announced seventy seven deaths today, the highest daily total yet. Then, at the end of the news, they put up a few pictures of people that have died so far, and I started crying. I think I have a lot of pent up emotion, that I don’t realise, at the moment. The one image that struck me the most was a picture of quite a young man from Cabinteely in Dublin. Seeing these people’s faces is really upsetting, but it’s a nice tribute to them too.
I’m going to make a prediction for what I think will happen next, in terms of the lockdown, if only so that I can laugh at how wrong I was in two weeks time! I think that at the end of this period of the lockdown, on May 5th, they’ll announce that some people can go back to work, and that the rest of us can start going more than 2km from home. People are starting to get a tiny bit complacent now, they’re also starting to get itchy feet, and the government will be coming under pressure to ease the restrictions soon. Word is also coming through of other European countries that are already relaxing restrictions. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I don’t think things will change as much as people want them to!Read more
Day 38 - Meringue
April 19, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
I made a meringue today! It didn’t turn out exactly as it should have, but that was because I only realised afterwards that we had a mixer in the house. I had used a hand blender, which overheated way too much before I had mixed the meringue for long enough. The finished meringue tasted great, but the texture was just a bit off. Ah well, at least now I can feel happy that I’ve baked something, like everyone else in the country at the moment, it seems. I’m finally in the club!
Also today, I went for a long run in the morning, while chatting to Fiona on the phone. I crossed the river and went into Fitzgerald Park for the first time since lockdown started. It felt lovely to be in a park, and to feel so much greenery around me. And, thankfully, as it was early and quite misty, there weren’t too many people around. One interesting thing that I came across, on my way home from my run, was a church that was broadcasting mass through a speaker outside the door. Obviously people are not allowed to gather at mass these days, but priests are still celebrating mass on their own in the church. I hope this priest had people watching on a webcam, because there was nobody standing outside the door listening. Although maybe priests don’t mind celebrating mass with nobody watching!
I didn’t do too much else today. I mostly pottered and did a few bits and pieces like finished my Crusaders table quiz questions and worked on a few things for our lockdown quartet. At one point, me and Peter had a video call with his family too. His mum has been finding things a bit tough going in the past little while. I think lots of people are starting to struggle a bit with this lockdown, particularly in recent days.
Thankfully the trend in the number of new cases in Ireland is looking more promising with each passing day. Today we still had almost 500 new cases, but those in authority are now saying, more often, that we’ve begun to “flatten the curve.” Fingers crossed! Although, I also heard mention today of schools potentially being opened before the Summer, and I suddenly felt a yearning for the lowdown to continue!
Today is the last day of the Easter holidays from work anyway. It’s funny not having the usual Sunday night fear! Tomorrow is shaping up to be a reasonably busy day at home though. Thankfully the new laptop battery that I ordered arrived today, so I’ll be able to move my laptop, if I have to, without the hassle that I’ve been putting up with up to now! Tomorrow is also the day of my weekly Tesco shop, which is a real highlight these days. This one is a “click and collect” too, so I’ll get to go out in my car, for the first time in about two weeks. I’m very excited!Read more
Day 37 - 5km time trial
April 18, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 8 °C
How is it day 37 already?! I thought the days were blending into one another before, but they really are now! Thankfully, I’m over the slump that I hit in the middle of last week. I had really started feeling overwhelmed by the length of this lockdown and by feelings of loneliness and missing my family and friends. What most people are saying is that these feelings come in waves, and thankfully I’m out the other side now, enjoying myself and getting creative again now! What helps is to think outside of yourself by remembering that no matter how awful it makes you feel, what you are doing to stay at home is saving lots of lives.
Myself and Fiona started the day with a 5km time trial. We’re both still following Emmett Dunleavey’s training plan, and a time trial to gauge where we’re at was on the cards for today. It was drizzling when I went out, and I couldn’t have been more delighted, as this usually means there are less walkers to have to dodge. It’s funny how, in one way, I love waking up to bad weather these days! I did my 5km in 26:13. I’m happy with this, as my training has been quite interrupted in recent weeks. It’s a good benchmark to improve on.
I didn’t get up to too much for the rest of the day. I did some more work on mixing our lockdown quartet piece together. I donated to the Mater Hospital’s “Miles that Mater” campaign, and I nominated five more friends on social media to also “run 5 and donate 5.”
In the evening, me and Peter sat down properly at the dinner table (for the first time in a while) and ate our Indian takeaway that we were too tired to eat last night! I had even made homemade tzatziki to have with my dinner. After dinner, the film “Song for a Raggy Boy” was on TV, so we watched that. I don’t think I’ve watched a film on RTÉ in a while and it felt nice watching a film picked by someone else! It wasn’t the most uplifting thing to watch, especially in the context of all the negative news around us, but it’s a good film and we enjoyed watching it. I went to bed straight after the film as I was wrecked after the morning time trial!Read more
Day 36 - Online paint class
April 17, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 10 °C
Today was Friday, so the day started with our usual routine of an 8am strength class with Pete. We have now all openly admitted that it is these classes that are most helping us to get through the lockdown. We now have two classes a week. We have our own semi-private class on a Monday, and a group class on a Friday. Who would have thought that it strength training classes would be our saviour?!
I’ve been on “Easter holidays” from work now for almost a week. I guess holidays aren’t really as much of a big deal now, but I’ve really settled into aimless mooching at this stage and it’s wonderful! I usually always try to be as productive as I can, even when I’m on holidays, so I’m loving this change of pace! It’s good for the mind.
After my morning Pete session today, I went for a 30 minute virtual run “with” Fiona, along the river again. We now do our runs at the same time as each other when we can, and we have great chats on the phone while doing so! This is another great activity that is getting me through the lockdown. I don’t know how those that are over 70 and cocooning are surviving without being able to go outside! It’s also funny how many activities I am “living for” these days. Off the top of my head, I would say that it’s Pete sessions, runs “with” Fiona and the weekly Tesco shop!
The afternoon was spent, as has been the case for a few days now, working on our lockdown quartet piece. Then, in the evening I did a virtual Paintclub session, while chatting to Mum, Anna, Fiona and Mia on Zoom, who were all doing it too! The instructor went quite fast, but I think our paintings turned out to be lovely. They’ll be nice momentos to have of this time. My living room was a bit of a painty mess by the end of it but I didn’t have the energy to tidy, so I headed off to bed, deciding that it could wait until the morning!Read more
Day 35 - Editing music
April 16, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
The sun is shining and it is making me feel one hundred times better! Who could be upset about lockdown when you’re sunbathing in your garden, feeling the lovely warmth of the sun on your face?! I went for a gorgeous walk along the river again, on my newly found flat, quite road. It was a little bit busier because the weather was nice, but this new route is mostly quite empty, with lots of space to pass each other. I listened to the radio foe an hour of the walk and then phoned mum for the last ten minutes or so. One of the things we chatted about was how things would have been if Granny and Grandad were around for this pandemic. It would have been so stressful trying to keep them safe and well. Mum may have had to cancel their carers, that used to call in to them, and move in to Crannagh to care for them herself. I also think it’s strange that they never knew about the pandemic that was coming. I’m sure Grandad would have come up with all sorts of plans to help end the crisis. A key part of his plans would, no doubt, have somehow involved me, Peter and a science laboratory! I’d love to have heard his thoughts on it all!
I spent most of today editing the music and the music video for our lockdown quartet. The project is really coming together. I listened to the tune, in its current state, and I was in tears by the end of it! It’s quite an emotive piece and it got me thinking of the day when I’ll finally be able to hug my family again, and how that will feel. I’m so proud of what we’ve created so far and I can’t wait to show off the finished product!
It’s Peters niece, Sarah’s, 19th birthday tomorrow so, at Margo’s suggestion, I have put together a little video of the family singing happy birthday to her, while each in their own home. I’ll send it to her in the morning. Again, I have a feeling that it may invoke some emotions in people! So many occasions have passed already where we would normally be with our families.Read more
Day 34 - New running route!
April 15, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
Next up on our running plan today was a 40-50 minute easy jog, and me and Fiona headed out together, so that we could chat on the phone while running. I really wasn’t sure where to go for this run, as I’m getting sick of the routes I’ve been doing so far, and the flat path on the south side of the river Lee is always quite busy with people. Really wanting to avoid the hills, I headed off to the river. However, this time, I started running along the road on the north side of the river. I haven’t run along here before as I had never known whether there was a path. I’ve driven it a few times and I had it in my head that it would be a bad place to run. How wrong was I?!
The road has a completely flat path that continues for 2km. There is almost nobody on it, and the road is very quiet of cars too! I think the reason that there are very few people on this road is because there are very few houses within 2km of it. There are almost no houses on the road itself, and I was in the countryside quite quickly. I cheated a bit, because I jogged down the hill from my house, and then started running for 2km our to the end of the path and back. At the furthest point, I could have been 2.5km from home. A Garda car passed me on the way back though and didn’t stop. As Leo said, they’re not in the business of trying to catch people who stray slightly beyond their 2km radius.
I’m so overjoyed to have found a new running route, especially one that is flat and reasonably empty of people. It will make a change from all of the hills I’ve been running on recently. Poor Fiona had to listen to me on the phone for half the run talking about how excited I was to find this new route! I finished my run with an extended walk, to prolong my time out in the sunshine. On the walk, I spotted a bag outside someone’s house offering free homegrown herbs, and also a windowsill offering free Italian pasta and tinned food. I love seeing nice gestures from people! I’ve also started saying hello to anyone I pass on my walk. It’s a nice little way to brighten up my, and their, day! I’ve noticed a few elderly people on Blarney Road standing in their doorways recently. It seems that they like the company of seeing people, even strangers passing by, so I’m going to smile and say hello any time I can.
I spent most of the afternoon working on the Crusaders table quiz that I’m hosting next week. Then, in the evening, Mum was quizmaster for our Sheehan family quiz. It was great, and also lovely to see all the family again. I particularly liked the picture round that Mum had made, where we had to name each member of the family from about sixteen baby photos! Someone thought Mia was Peter, and a few confused Vincent and Grandad. What I couldn’t get over was how like Fiona Granny was when she was a child!Read more
Day 33 - First isolation running session
April 14, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
Today I finally got to do my first running speed session since the lockdown started. I’ve had two chest infections this year, and the most recent one only ended about two weeks ago. So I’ve had a good bit of time since January where I wasn’t able to run at all because of being sick. Then, I spent the past two weeks doing easy running only, to build up my fitness again. So it felt lovely to get the legs turning over and to give my lungs a bit of a workout this morning! Emmett Dunleavy (a running coach) is putting training sessions up online, that you would normally have to pay for, so I’ve started following his training plan.
Despite it being a reasonably popular spot for runners, I went down to the river to do this session, as it’s flat there. I pretty much had the stretch of path to myself for most of the session thankfully though. I couldn’t remember where exactly along this road my 2km radius reaches to, so I did each 5 minute rep as a 2:30 minutes out and back again rep, just in case! Then, at the end, I found an empty outdoor carpark to do my 60 second race pace reps in. It was perfect because I knew there’d definitely be no pedestrians to dodge in there. I found a bag of sand, or something, in there too, which had the name “Crusader” written on it. This is the name of my running club, so it was like a sign or something. I’m not sure what exactly it was a sign of, but my mind likes wandering these days!
In the afternoon, I learned Oti Mabuse’s Beyoncé-themed dance class, while wearing my Summer sarong as a costume! Fiona did this dance yesterday and sent us a video of her doing it. It looked really fun, so she inspired me to get to it today! Mia is thoroughly unimpressed by the dance videos that we keep sending at regular intervals!
After this, I went for a walk in the sun and chatted to Fiona in the phone while she did the running session that I did this morning. Phone chats with family are so lovely these days - they really lift my spirits! Although, the chat had to be done mostly by me when Fiona was doing the speedy bits of the session!
In the evening, we had our second Crusaders lockdown quiz. It was a tougher one this week, with the questions set by James Cottle. At the end he asked “who wants to do the quiz next week?” And, thinking that he was asking who wanted to participate, I enthusiastically said “yes!” So, having unwittingly volunteered for it, I will be next weeks quizmaster. It must have seemed so weird to everybody else when I volunteered with such gusto to be quizmaster. Fiona said that she had to leave her camera, she was laughing so much. She also told me that this moment was the highlight of her week! I’m glad to be of service. Haha! But, to be honest, it was quite the highlight for me too. It’s always lovely seeing all the familiar Crusaders faces, even if I am making a fool of myself in front of them!Read more
Day 32 - Bank Holiday Monday
April 13, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
This morning, I was working away again on our “lockdown quartet” piece, re-recording notes that sounded slightly off or out of time. However, by the afternoon it had become clear that we’re going to have to start the whole recording from scratch again. It’s a pity, because I had laid down five or six violin parts already, but sure what else would we be doing! It must have been hard for Margo to record the violin one part on her own, but the tempo of it is quite variable throughout the piece and we’re struggling to play along with it, especially Anna on the piano, as she has a lot of notes to fit in!
We also had our “private” Zoom Pete class at 1.15pm today, as is usual now on a Monday. Me, Fiona, Mum, Lisa and Garrett did it. I’m really loving these online classes. It’s good to feel like you’re doing some good for your body during the lockdown. I still don’t have a kettlebell, so I had to do some of the exercises with my 9kg rock again. For kettlebell swings, I put the rock in a bag. It definitely felt a bit dodgy, and I was hoping that it wouldn’t fly out of the bag and smash the window while I was swinging it around!
I’m not really sure what I did with the rest of the day, to be honest. But again, that’s a good thing I think. This past weekend has felt nice and lazy, which seems to have been what I needed. I had a 2.5 hour Zoom chat with Mum, Fiona and Anna. Then, Peter left the house for his first bit of exercise in four weeks, to come with me for a 4km walk in the evening sunshine.
I found this evening tough. Missing my family just hit me like an absolute wall and I’m absolutely aching to see them again, all of a sudden. I had been doing fine in the lockdown so far, and the days had actually been flying along. However, the three more weeks of lockdown now seem to be stretching ahead, almost infinitely, and I have this feeling of not being able to cope, that I haven’t had so far. I think it was triggered by the fact that I decided today to extend my career break from Muckross and stay in Cork for another year. It’s weird that this decision changed nothing about my current situation today, but changed everything about my mindset! Hopefully it’s just a temporary blip in my emotions.
At least Tesco are delivering stuff from their newsagents and I have a treat of a nougat bar for myself this evening!Read more
Day 31 - Easter Sunday
April 12, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 7 °C
Apparently it’s Easter Sunday but, to be honest, it could really be any day of the week at this stage! I think it’s good to try to keep some sort of routine, and some sort of way of marking occasions, because otherwise all the days and weeks blend together. So, I made sure that I had ordered an Easter egg for me and Peter in our last online shop. It felt weird eating them on our own here, without much sense of occasion, but it was nice too!
It was raining quite heavily this morning, which I was delighted about because it meant that there wouldn’t be as many people out walking and getting in my way while doing my long run! So, hoping that there wouldn’t be too many people around, I ventured down to the river, for the first time since lockdown. It was lovely to be by the river again, but there were a lot of joggers around, so I’m not sure if I’ll go down that way again any time soon. It seems to be a popular enough spot, even in the rain!
I spent most of the rest of the day recording my part for the “lockdown quartet” that me, Fiona, Anna, Mum and Peter’s Mum, Margo are doing. The tune that we’ve picked to do is “A Thousand Years” and Margo was the first to record the violin one part. I added violin two to the recording, along with lots of other violin bits - I got a bit carried away! It was lovely, though, to lose all sense of time and get completely caught up in the creativity of putting the song together. In other circumstances you’d, no doubt, be fitting such an activity in before heading out to something else, and you’d be watching the clock. We’ve so much time now!Read more
Day 30 - Shine your light
April 11, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
I feel lucky that I’m able to jog to the edge of the city and still stay within my 2km radius. There’s something lovely and soothing about staring out across endless fields and knowing that you’re looking at an area that is almost completely empty of people, and almost certainly free of coronavirus! So, I started today with a lovely run in the sunshine, and I sat out in the garden for a while afterwards to soak up some rays.
Then, Fiona sent us a text later in the day to say that she tried to cut Paul’s hair, but that it went a bit wrong and he now has a completely shaved head. It was the best thing that I read all day and it gave me a laugh that, I think, will keep me smiling for the rest of the week! I sent the photo of Peter below on, saying that I messed up his hair and that they’ll both look the same now. Obviously Peter’s hair is always like this, which is handy in a lockdown situation!
Maura, from the running club, asked if I have my swimming cap ready for the Crusaders quiz this week. So I put on the cap that I won at a table quiz in La Santa last year and sent it on to her, saying that I was definitely ready!
Finally, this evening, RTÉ led a campaign asking people to put a light in their window at 9pm, to remember all of those that have died from Covid-19. I wasn’t sure if people on our road would do it, but at 9pm, suddenly, lots of our neighbours started lighting up their windows. I quickly ran upstairs, disturbing Damo’s online chat with his friends, to put two electric candles in the window. Then, me and Peter put our phone torches in the downstairs window. I went for a quick stroll outside, and every second house had something in the window. When I came back inside, Sinead O’Connor was singing on RTÉ as they showed images from around the country. This is when I started crying. It doesn’t take much these days!Read more
Day 29 - Lockdown extended
April 10, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Today started with an 8am weights class with Pete and, by the end of the class, I was in tears of laughter, because one of the guys in the class didn’t mute himself on Zoom during the cool down, and all we could hear during the stretching was his heavy panting! It was a really warm day out today too. The temperature got up to 18 degrees. So I spent a lot of the rest of the day sitting outside reading. Then I went for an evening walk. Part of my usual walking route, the trail through St Mary’s Health Campus, has now been turned into a Covid community assessment hub, although it doesn’t seem to Beo pen to patients yet. We finished the day with a Zoom quiz hosted by the Byrne family.
My day was interrupted at 4pm, with Peter calling me in from the sun, saying that Leo Varadkar was giving another address to the nation. We expected this, as the current lockdown restrictions were due to expire in two days time, on Easter Sunday. Leo said that the restrictions would be continued for another three weeks until 5th May. I had been expecting him to extend for two weeks, so my jaw actually dropped. I’m not sure why one week made such a difference in my mind, but I suddenly started really missing my family as soon as he declared an extension of the lockdown. May sounds very far away, and three weeks sounds like a much longer time than two weeks. All the increments so far have been two weeks long. The schools were initially shut for two weeks, then the more restrictive measures were initially put in place for two weeks. I’ve actually been doing quite well recently, especially in the past two weeks, with my chest infection behind me. I’ve been really enjoying the extra time I have each day. However, this evening knocked me a bit and I started thinking “when am I going to be allowed to see and hug my family again?”
There are constant reminders on TV, however, about the importance of staying at home. We are also constantly praised for continuing the important work of social distancing, as it is saving lives every day. These messages picked me up again this evening. What I want to do isn’t important right now. What is important is that we each make the sacrifice to stay at home, for the national good.Read more
Day 28 - Start of the Easter holidays
April 9, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
I had almost forgotten that the Easter bank holiday weekend is this coming weekend, and that this marks the start of a week off classes for us. To be honest, it won’t make too much of a difference to me. The bank holiday could be today, for all I know! I can’t believe I live in a world where I am ambivalent about bank holiday weekends. Not that long ago, I lived for them!
Today, as my students had their last Zoom classes before the Easter break, I decided to survey them to see how they had been finding the online learning experience so far. Thankfully the feedback was very positive and all of them have asked me to continue doing the online classes as I have been.
It’ll be a bit strange not having any classes to give next week, as it gives a bit of structure to my day and week. However I’m going to make a conscious effort to stay off the computer for the week, as much as I can. It’ll be good to potter around without too much of a focus for a while, I think!Read more
Day 24 - An upbeat dance class
April 5, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌧 10 °C
It’s Sunday again, and it’s funny how weekends still, somehow, have some sort of meaning these days. I find myself looking forward to Friday evenings, and then the weekend is quieter than mid-week. You don’t have to be keeping an eye out for work-related emails either. One of the things we do miss about weekends, however, is that both the six and nine o clock news are shorter, and more pared back. They often have different presenters too, instead of the regular ones that we’ve gotten to know!
Today I decided to try another Oti Mabuse dance class and, given that I didn’t have anything else to be doing, I decided to do it in costume this time! The tune was from the musical, Hairspray. It was upbeat and fun, and I really enjoyed this one!
This afternoon I decided to pump up my exercise ball, for the first time ever. It has been sitting, uninflated, on my shelf for years, because I mistakenly thought that you had to bring it to a petrol station to be inflated. The others that come to the Pete strength classes told me that you can pump it up with a bicycle pump however, and I was delighted to finally have it ready for action!
In the evening, I sorted through my wallet. It is full of all sorts of cards, some of which I have never used, or haven’t used in years, and it was great to have the time to organise it. I even had time to clean each card individually with an antibacterial wipe! This time, so far, has been a good reset button on life. I’d never have done something like this normally!Read more
Day 23 - Things that are weird
April 4, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
Inspired by the below photo that my friend Aoife sent me, I thought I’d do a list of things that would have been weird a few short weeks/months ago, but that have become normal now! In the photo below, social distancing is being enforced on the Dart by making sure that only one person sits in each group of seats.
Things that are weird:
Children aren’t allowed into shops. In fact people must enter the supermarket alone, as groups of two or more are not allowed.
All deliveries, including takeaways, are left on our doorstep and the doorbell is rung to let us know the something is there.
When out for a walk, you have to be constantly on the lookout for other people, and most people will cross the road, or move in some way to avoid crossing paths with anyone.
People are wearing face masks when out and about, even when out exercising.
The top right hand corner of all of the Irish television channels says “STAY AT HOME.”
The Late Late Show, and other shows that would normally have a studio audience, are recorded in empty studios and most guests are interviewed by Skype.
There are no children out playing on the green in our estate, even on days when the weather is nice.
Everybody now talks about the Zoom video conferencing app as if it has always been a part of our lives, and as if we always meet our friends on a Friday night through Zoom.
Any time I leave the house for exercise, I have to think about where I’m going to go, so that I don’t accidentally stray more than 2km from home.
Running has become a little bit taboo, and some people think that nobody should be out running, as the heavy breathing of runners may spread the virus more easily.
The majority of people who run classes and courses seem to be offering them for free now online.
We feel like we’re best friends with the chief medical officer, the CEO of the HSE and others that are in charge of managing this crisis, and we know them all by name now.
We feel like we’re best friends with all of the RTÉ news presenters and journalists, and we notice when any are missing on any given day.
The one constant in our day is the six o clock news on television, which we never miss. We especially like the voice of the RTÉ Washington correspondent, who is now reporting daily from his living room!
The Sports section of the news has been cancelled on most TV and radio stations, as they have nothing to talk about. The ones that are continuing are mostly doing biographies of various sports people’s lives.
The Grand National horse race was shown yesterday as a computer-generated version on the television. That has to have been the weirdest one of all of these!Read more
Day 22 - I’ve been robbed!
April 3, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C
Today started with an 8am live core training session with Pete on Zoom. Pete is the trainer that I usually went to in Dublin, so I was delighted to be able to do his session. Lisa and John also tuned in from London! However, about five minutes into the class, I spotted Damo outside the front window, heading off to work. He was staring at my car door, which appeared to be slightly ajar!
I ran out to close the door and, on further inspection after the fitness class, I discovered that I had left my car unlocked the previous night and that someone had come along in the middle of the night and taken the electronic gate openers for both Mum’s and Crannagh’s gates from the car!
I was lucky that nothing of value had been in the car, and I hope they got a fright seeing the face mask and covid testing instructions etc that I had left on my front car seat after getting tested last week! It was probably a good reminder that crime is still happening, even during this global pandemic.
After discovering all of this, I went for a walk to the local postbox to post the free postcard that we got from An Post this week. Every household in the country has been given a few of these, and I sent my first one to Mum and Anna at home. On my way home, I found the gate openers that had been stolen from my car, in the middle of the road, about 50m from the house, in the direction of Knocknaheeny. They had been prized open, but nothing had been removed from them. I wonder what they were looking for?
When I got home, I did an Oti Mabuse dance class to the Tina Turner song, Proud Mary. It was impossible to dance to this without a smile on my face! Then I did a little bit of work, napped for a while, chatted to Peter’s family via Zoom and watched the Late Late Show, in which the crew of the Aer Lingus plane that flew to Beijing this week, to collect personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, were interviewed.
I’m not sleeping overly well these days. I’m usually waking up very early in the morning and not getting back to sleep. Damo said he’s been experiencing the same. I think my subconscious must be going into overdrive at night, trying to process everything about this new world that we’re living in. There’s a lot of news to take in every day, so this probably isn’t surprising!Read more
Day 21 - Lots of Zoom classes
April 2, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
Thursdays are my busy day, in terms of work, these days. I had a chemistry lesson at 10am, a staff meeting at 11.40am, another chemistry lesson at 12.30pm and three individual student meetings from 2.45pm. I enjoy teaching on the Zoom video conferencing app. However, it involves a lot more teacher talk than classroom teaching does, so my voice was quite tired by the end of today!
Thankfully, today was another lovely, sunny day. The feeling of warm sun on my skin does wonders for my mood! Orlaith rang in the afternoon, for a chat, so that was a nice catch up. We’re all trying to take more breaks from working from home, as you can end up spending too much time on your laptop otherwise.
I cooked a lovely, healthy stir fry for my dinner today. I was feeling inspired as I was attending my first Slimming World meeting on Zoom this evening. Mum and Fiona attended too and it was hilarious! One woman had the meeting on her phone’s Zoom app while she was out and about delivering pizzas! She asked the group for directions at one point. And another time, we saw her opening and eating a sweet right in front of the camera!
Mum gave me an Oasis clothes voucher for Christmas, so I ordered some clothes online during in the week. The clothes arrived today, along with a new wallet. All these little treats are like little rays of sunshine in my day.
I went for a run in the evening. Me and Fiona have started coordinating our runs so that we can chat on the phone while running - almost as if we’re running together. I’m enjoying my new “within 2km” route. It takes me out along the Blarney Road, into the countryside, and there are very few people out that direction as there are no shops or anything out there. I had to stop and walk after about 2km today however. I think my body is tired from my return to running this week after a two week break, and my sleep has been a little bit disrupted recently too. So, I was happy to listen to my body and just to enjoy being out in the fresh Spring air! Being outside feels like such a luxury these days.Read more
Day 20 - Venturing out to the shops
April 1, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
We ran out of milk, so one of us had to go to the shops. I decided that I’d go, because I’d have to drive the car anyway, and we’re not sure if two people are really allowed to be out and about in their car together unnecessarily.
It’s really difficult to know what times will be quiet in the shops these days, and the early morning hours are usually dedicated to older and more vulnerable people. So I decided to head down at about 7.30pm, thinking that it might be quieter as people will be at home having dinner. I went for a thirty minute run, and then jumped in the car straight after, to head to Wilton Tesco.
I found the whole experience quite emotional, and a little bit scary. My adrenaline was pumping! On my way there, I could see people clearly adhering to social distancing rules. Anyone I saw was walking on their own, and usually crossing the road to move out of the way of other pedestrians.
When I got to the shop, I had to queue outside by standing on pieces of tape that were placed at 2m intervals from each other. Two girls in front of me in the queue were told that they could only enter the shop together if they did not talk to each other or enter the same aisles at the same time.
I was allowed in, without too much wait, and I dashed around the shop as quickly as I could, all the time wearing gloves and trying to keep my nose and mouth covered with my scarf. The shop was almost completely silent! There were no queues at the checkouts and, when loading my shopping onto the conveyor belt, I was instructed to stand behind the line at the end of the conveyor belt, rather than at the side of the conveyor belt as I normally would. I thanked the cashier for being in work and she, in return, wished me and my family safety at home. When I got home, I did the usual job of washing all the shopping before putting it away!
Later that night, Anna organised a Zoom quiz for me, mum, Fiona and Mia. The questions were brilliant and we had a great laugh! I lost a big lead in the very last round though, where Fiona and Mia overtook me to take the win. The last round was one where you had to listen to quotes and guess what film or television programme they were from. I only got one right!Read more
Day 19 - Social distancing while running
March 31, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C
Running has become a lot more stressful these days! I got out today for my second run since the schools and colleges were closed over two weeks ago, and I would have though that it would be a great stress reliever. However, you have to be constantly on your guard in case a person appears from somewhere onto your path. The goal is to keep all other humans at the greatest distance from you as you can, so there is no room for drifting off into my thoughts, as I usually do on my runs. I had to cross the road several times during my run, and I was constantly scanning driveways and roads in case somebody was about to emerge in front of me. Our housing estate is like a safe harbour when I get to the entrance. By reaching our estate, I feel like I’ve gotten away from dodging the general public!
Despite all this stress, I managed to complete 5km today. I wanted to get the full 5km done, as I could then submit my time to the online race results page. MyRunResults normally provide a results service for road races. These days, however, they collect times for various distances that people run in their own time, and they make an online leaderboard with all the times.
My hay fever was quite bad in my run. I guess nature ploughs on, virus or no virus! I was prompted to think about this today, actually, when I saw a bird sitting on the lamppost outside my bedroom window. I was thinking how weird it is that birds and other animals have no idea that we’re all on lockdown because of a virus. They don’t seem to be too worried about getting infected anyway! I also saw two doves, snuggling up together on top of our neighbours shed, and the sight of it really made me stop for a minute to appreciate that small, nice moment!
I spent most of today working away on leaving cert biology material. I used my soup maker to make a lovely leek and potato soup. I took part in a ten minute live glute class with a fitness instructor on Instagram. Then, in the evening, Anna, Niamh, Orlaith, Julian and I took part in a live, online quiz. We conferred on the answers in a Zoom video call and generally had a nice catch up. The quiz seems to have been made by a group of tour guides that have lost their jobs and are looking to make a bit of money. People are being so enterpreneuring these days!Read more
Day 18 - News from work
March 30, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
There seems to be something of note that happens every day these days. Today it came in the form of a phone call from the CEO of our college at about 5pm this evening. He has been ringing all the Cork staff to let us know of the current situation in the company. They expect their bank balance to be pretty much at zero in about three months time. They also expect their student numbers for next year to be 50% of this years numbers, at best. Therefore, he was letting us know that they most likely will not be able to justify having a college in Cork next year. This news doesn’t have a massive impact on me, but I know it will have a bigger impact on some of my colleagues. This makes me feel sad - they’re such a brilliant bunch here and they really care about the students.
Apart from making and recording my chemistry lectures, the other thing I did today was to sort out my drifit running tops. I cut the pile down from about fifty T-shirts to about twenty, and it feels great. I’ve been meaning to do this job for years! It’s just a pity that the local recycling facility is only open to necessary waste disposal, and not the usual clothes recycling.
There’s usually almost nobody out and about in our neighbourhood during the day. It was, therefore, very exciting to see one of our neighbours out on his bike, in full cycling gear today! He was going around and around the grassy green across from us, obviously taking the 2km rule seriously. The government rule says that you can exercise briefly, but only within 2km of your house. I watched this guy for ages doing small circles on the green - it was very entertaining!Read more
Day 17 - A little summary
March 29, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C
I’m making an effort not to do any work for college at weekends as, when you’re working from home, it would be so easy to end up working seven days a week. So I had a nice lazy Sunday. I cooked a healthy pasta lunch, finding a “birthday cake” flavoured running gel in my cupboard during in the process! I also had a look at the Flight Radar website at one point during the day. It’s crazy to see how few flights are over Ireland and Europe at any given time. Usually you can’t see the countries on the map because there are so many planes flying!
I thought I’d give a little summary of what has happened so far also, inspired by something similar that I saw on social media this morning. Time is moving at a weirdly slow pace for me right now, so it seems strange that everything listed below has happened in the space of the past three weeks. It feels like a lifetime ago that the schools and colleges were closed!
Schools and crèches closed on 12th March 2020.
All pubs and clubs closed on 15th March 2020.
All St Patricks Day parades were cancelled.
Lockdown began in Ireland at midnight on 27th March 2020.
Fuel prices dropped to a record amount (now €1.12/litre).
Social distancing measures were introduced.
Tape on the floors at supermarkets helps to keep shoppers 2m (6ft) from each other.
A limited number of people are allowed inside shops, causing queues outside shop doors.
Plexiglass screens are placed in front of shop cashiers.
Non-essential stores and businesses must close.
Parks and beaches are closed.
Entire sports seasons are cancelled.
Concerts, festivals and entertainment events are cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations and holidays are all cancelled.
Funerals are limited to the immediate family of the deceased only.
Churches are closed.
Socialising with anyone outside of your home is not permitted.
There is a shortage of masks, gowns and gloves for our front-line workers. Schools, colleges, hairdressers and others are donating these things to hospitals.
Panic buying happened and the shops ran out of toilet paper, disinfectants, soap, hand sanitizer and many tinned goods.
Lots of supermarket shelves are bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses have switched their production lines to make visors, masks and hand sanitiser.
The government has banned all non essential travel and makes it mandatory to self isolate for 14 days when returning from abroad.
Fines for breaking the rules have been brought into law.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open as Covid-19 testing centres.
There is a daily press conference from the Chief Medical Officer, where the numbers of new cases and deaths are announced.
The roads are almost completely empty of people and cars.
Many people are wearing masks and gloves outside.
Many people have lost their jobs, with the government paying them €350 per week.
Covid-19 was announced as a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Nobody knows when it will end!Read more
Day 16 - I can leave the house again!
March 28, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C
Today was day 14 post symptom onset for me. The current rule is that, I’d you have had any covid19 symptoms, you must self-isolate until it is fourteen days since your symptoms started and five days since you last had a fever. So, even though I’m still waiting for my test result, this now means that I can leave the house!
I was very nervous of my planned venture into the outside world, so I left the house before 8am. I walked a thirty minute loop from the house. Helpfully, someone has already made a website where you can see where the 2km from your house extends to. I saw a few more people than I expected. Most of them seemed to be walking to the local SuperValu. The panic buying seems to have started up again this morning, after this lockdown period was announced last night. It was so nice to get out of the house again, and the sun was shining, with clear blue skies! Why is it that it has rained pretty much every day since the start off the year, but as soon as we’re put on lockdown the sun comes out?!
In the evening, Anna, Mum, Fiona, Orlaith and I did online, live Bingo Loco. It’s something I’ve been meaning to go to in “real life” for ages, so I was curious to try it out. It was good but, at two hours, probably went on a bit too long! Plus, I’m not sure that the bits where the DJ bangs out tunes from the nineties, in between the numbers getting called out, really works in the online version. If you were at the venue, you’d love dancing to the tunes, but me and Anna just wanted him to get on with calling out the numbers! The guys who present it are a bit mad actually - it all got a bit surreal at times!
I do like how many of our usual leisure pursuits have moved online recently. I wonder will many of them keep up some sort of online presence once all of this is over. For example, I will be able to do my usual Dublin strength and conditioning class next Friday, from Cork. That’ll be great, as I’ve really missed that class since moving to Cork last Summer!Read more
Day 15 - Lockdown in Ireland
March 27, 2020 in Ireland ⋅ 🌙 6 °C
News came in this evening that Leo Varadkar was giving another public address on RTÉ1 at 8.30pm. What could it be? Personally, I thought that it was going to be just another update. It turned out, however, that from midnight tonight, the entire country is going to be locked down. Leo doesn’t like using the word “lockdown” but that’s essentially what it is.
It won’t change much for us, as we haven’t really left the house in two weeks. The main message was that we won’t be able to leave our house except for essential food and medicine supplies, or to exercise, and “brief exercise” is only allowed within a 2km radius of your house. I felt emotional hearing all of this on the television. While it won’t change much for me, the symbolism of it is quite upsetting.
RTÉ now even have a little note permanently in the corner of the screen that says “stay at home!” The Late Late Show was presented by Miriam O’Callaghan tonight as Ryan Tubridy has a “persistent cough.”
I spent a lot of the earlier part of the day on Zoom with my chemistry classes. The sun was shining down again though, so I also found some time to sit outside, until I heard my neighbour in his garden saying “mummy is sick!” Then I went indoors! I also fitted in a Zoom social catch up with my work colleagues in the early evening.
My brain can barely keep up with all these changes in the world. Most of the time I’m ok, but every so often, something bursts through in my mind where I go “what on earth is happening?!”Read more