I've always got time for a blether – lockdown or not!
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Lockdown, it seems to have gone on forever, but the proof is in the pudding, and up here in the far north we have contained good health very well and kept the virus at bay.
I still only know of one person who believes he had it early on in lockdown, and he self-isolated himself for the required period and now seems to be fine.
People are now getting their lockdown tasks completed as supplies start to become available again slowly but surely – end walls have now been painted where the original paint had ran out, and gardening projects have been tackled and transformed as seasonal plants become available.
What I have noticed is that people are getting their lawns mowed earlier in the day, because the weather has been mostly good, and that folk are at home now instead of going to work. This change in people’s circumstances is increasingly influencing my finishing times because we have to have a little blether here and there. When I get back to the post office and tell them that folk have wanted to talk, George always says that I would not have disappointed them!
I have two new sayings now as I go around, apart from commenting on the weather and topics in the news. I now say that school wasn’t the same in my day as I had to play truant to get this much time off! And on the subject of the good weather, I now say that we have never had lockdown weather like this before.
On the subject of opening everything up again, and the confusion which seems to follow every Westminster announcement, the local feeling is mainly one of caution. This is because we have contained the spread, but if Boris says everyone can do as they please then Scotland could be swamped with tourists and become vulnerable unnecessarily.
Is now the time to set up a border post to keep everyone out?
I got a call while on my postie round a couple of weeks ago and when I saw who was calling, I knew it was going to be bad news. It was, a good friend who had passed away in West Yorkshire, after a three-year cancer battle. Ian – whose daughter Francesca is well- known in this area – was a lovely, proud family man and as well as being robbed of seeing him by lockdown at a surprise birthday party at the beginning of April, I was now to be robbed of attending his funeral.
But, thanks to technology, I was invited to attend an online streaming of the service. So, as directed on the invitation, I practised logging in (so as not to have a problem on the day) and was set for Tuesday lunchtime last week.
I logged in to the crematorium at the allotted time and had a wee dram at hand for toasting purposes. It really was just like being there, apart from not being able to console and support the bereaved family.
The area was very sterile, with the eight or so attendees sitting at spaced out positions. There were some special recollections in the eulogies from the family and I was able to offer verbal encouragement to his wife Jacki when she struggled towards the end of her eulogy.
The family weren’t allowed to touch the coffin as they filed out, and that is where the stream should have been cut off, because what happened next brought home the “new normal” to everyday life – the cleaners, in masks, came in and sprayed everything in sight, something I would rather have not seen.
