Any noise annoys an oyster and a noisy noise annoys an oyster most. The stress of this coronavirus business is getting to us all, apparently. Around the world, those of us not on the front line of this battle are left stumbling around at home not quite knowing what to do with ourselves. Our amygdala […]
Postcards from Coronavirus
Coronavirus: Calling time on an unhealthy relationship
This time of pandemic was always going to be educational but this week, I’ve been surprised by what I learned. I have come to understand that I have a very unhealthy relationship with time – mine and other people’s. In the same way that the smoking ban revealed just what other nasty odours lurked beneath […]
Coronavirus: What are we going to talk about today?
“Mum, you’ve said that four times already today.” “I have?” “Yes. You telling people that the quality of the chat is going to get pretty skinny pretty quickly.” That was back at the start of the Time We Couldn’t Believe Was Happening when even our astonishment was worth commenting on. How quickly we’ve got used […]
Coronavirus: Beware the free-time fallacy
Stay at home, they said. Save lives, they said. It’ll only be for a while, they said. Look on the bright side, they said. Think of all that time to do the things you’ve been putting off for years. Shakespeare, they said, wrote some good material while social distancing from bubonic plague, and as for […]
Beating Stress in a Lockdown
We’re coming into the second, or third or, for some of us, even fourth week of lockdown due to coronavirus. It’s been a difficult time for many families and, even though acknowledging it can be difficult, it is sometimes half the battle, while other times we need to do something practical. This might be as […]
Coronavirus: We’re all in the same boat
Coronavirus: How does this make you feel?
Living in a time of contraditions Saturday morning and obviously, there’s no football, no yoga, no lovely long bike rides to cafes, no cinema, no supermarket shop, nothing doing out there except a brisk walk. Nope. And we know this. It sucks. We know this too. While I gaze out onto quiet, still and silent […]