Lockdown, Carpe Diem!
I am totally incapable of putting pen on paper during this stressful coronavirus lockdown. I wish I had 0,0001 % of the imagination of the Bard who supposedly wrote some of his best works in quarantine. In the early 17th century, the bubonic plague was raging in London, and the theaters were in lockdown. During his self-isolation, William Shakespeare had time on his hands to write the dark drama King Lear, and for good measure Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra.
Twenty years later, Flemish painter Antoon Van Dyke was marooned in plague-stricken Palermo, Sicily and painted the allegoric Saint Rosalie interceding for the disease.
Do you recall any other pandemic-linked works of art?
Being part of the categorized “vulnerable population”, ten days ago, I started a self-imposed confinement in my small flat in Rio. Covid-19 has drained my senior citizen energy, and instead of writing a blog, I would like to know what you are doing to fight the lockdown boredom, anxiety and monotony?
At the end of the day, I noted that I have done nothing really meaningful. To alleviate my cabin fever, I go the third-floor fitness room and I work-out alone. After spending time thoroughly cleaning the treadmill and weight machines with alcohol, I sweat it out for 55 minutes. The rest of my day is occupied by emails, WhatsApp and watching news, operas and ballets on line. I am so glum that I can’t even concentrate on a book. Every day, I make a point of dressing nicely to parade on my balcony. I do a little cooking, nothing challenging because failure will add to my glum and sense of uselessness.
Life is made worse by the crazy and ludicrous messages of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (rightly nicknamed BolsoNero by the Economist!). In order to mitigate the damaging economic shutdown of the country, the president wants to implement vertical isolation. He advocates a three-month isolation of all citizens over 60 and people with pre-existing health conditions, roughly 50% of the population. The old folks and crippled out of the way, Brazil can go safely back to work! According to Bolsonaro, Brazilians are exceptionally healthy, he claimed that “they can swim in sewage without getting sick”! Bolsonaro is 65, and pretends to be an athlete. Since he survived a stabbing, a mild flu like coronavirus will not make him freak out.
Let’s cheer up to fight the coronablues, seize the day Carpe diem! How do you spend your days in lockdown? Can you share (anonymously or not) advices, tips, things you never have done before, funny stories with love ones and pets, etc.… Tips in French, English, Portuguese Spanish are welcome.
I will post them on the blog for everyone to enjoy and share.
First comment from my cousin in Auvergne: Cherche velo appartement pour aller a mon teletravail!😀!"
ReplyDeleteFrom a barrister in Australia:"I have my first Supreme Court hearing to be done completely via videolink coming up soon with the judge, barristers, solicitors and witnesses all in different locations trying not to talk over the top of each other in the absence of visual cues as to what it is happening and who should be speaking next. I guess after the pandemic has settled down in six months (or perhaps more), it might end up having permanently transformed the way in which much of the first world works in future."
ReplyDeleteFrom Europe: "We try to have a structure to our days - we get up early for a walk on the quai when there are very few people out. We wear masks and gloves and are super careful opening doors and touching anything. We return home and then each do an online exercise class - on after the other. We read a lot, follow the news-too much- and speak to people. My husband has some remote work. I plan groceries lists and meals. No more running out when I need something. No food deliveries-system overwhelmed, so I have to go out once a week . I don't like to go out, but no choice. We are lucky to have a comfortable apartment, good technology to keep us in touch with friends and family. The Swiss makes me angry - the government tells us to stay home but no special measures to help seniors."
ReplyDeleteFrom Latin America:" I have been going crazy trying to learn how to teach English to teenagers online. This has been occupying me most of the time! Just as you, I am hating this confinement. Miss going to the gym and leading a normal life again. Who knows when that will be?"
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ReplyDeleteThanks for your witty CoronaBlog. My days are not so different from yours, except that I can t parade on the balcony - I don t have one. On the contrary, instead of parading I put on my post-menopausal clothes and try to put some order in the various black holes that, over time, have somehow appeared in my apartment. And I made surprising discoveries, among others I found a 40-year old diary which I had thought was lost in one of my many moves. I travelled back in time, wondering how I could attach so much importance to things that today are completely irrelevant. I also found my daughter s baptismal dress: how tiny she was! Had I found it earlier my little granddaughter could have used it.
ReplyDeleteNo, I am not bored: today I did some watercolours (the pandemic is inspiring), reading (, by E.E. Schmitt), some TV (Deutsche Well, less corona-focussed than TV5 and BBC) where I heard that as of next Wednesday my Austrian compatriots will have to use face masks in public (the common mask that surgeons use, because the others are in short supply). I do think they protect to some degree, otherwise - why would surgeons use them? I would be happy if Austria were the first country to defeat this nasty virus, who knows?
The only one delighted about this confinement is my tomcat Fredi. He doesn t think much of social distancing and likes to cuddle up with his slave, me.
Of course I miss my friends, especially my movie and caipirinha friends. I hope these dark times will be over soon. Otherwise, at best, we will all end up fat, or pregnant. And, at worst, depressive, aggressive and/or alcoholic. Still, I follow the Queen Mother s example and have my little gin and tonic in the evening, just to disinfect myself from the inside. The Queen Mother lived until over 100, so she surely knew?
Well where to start? Routine? That word puzzles my mind st this moment...
ReplyDeleteNormality leven more so would like a definition
Thought was being normal the first three days ago today bring the 19th day of isolation
Surely market delivery has become so important can you believe it?
If it were not for my precious dachshund..would not be aware if days are flowing into nights!
I echo all of your comments
Was energetic the first few days
Around 20 kilos of obsolete docs archives of life went to the cecycling bin...finally thought order order..how very germanic, instead stillness..no further order has been accomplished.
Miss my kids and grandchildren, strewna around continents.
Yet...here we are connecting sharing our feelings..situations we have never encountered...probably never will again at this stage..not knowing what when where the future will take us..
Yes do get dressed yes lipstick eye shadow all in ..place a semblance of normality.2x a day a walk mask gloves
Empty streets sunshine, yet feel absurdly vulnerable..
Cant concentrate on reading..though there is so much to absorb and learn and enjoy...
Work...yes research at the moment that is keeping the adrenslin pumping.
And a challenge
Oops excersize on a chair..with music makes a difference.
Cooking hmmm used to love it at the moment royal prestige I call it my magic pan gets lunch ready in 18 minutes..
Am lucky also..friends..
Chats...
News...
Chocolate lots..at the moment ok am slim....
A dear friend on the otherside of the Atlantic.......no chance for him to visit Corona has certainly dampened distorted days thoughts for all of us what's next?
Next is us sharing
Next is keeping ones sense of humor
Next is a huge...learning curve
Next is being grateful for simply being and sharing...listening with empathy
Next is wondering what is News, when out of our isolation
When can we laugh and enjoy
And be grateful
Cant believe am writing this.
Beatrice dear friend you it seems galvanized us all into action.
Thank you stay safe..be.well
Sunny days are around the corner..
Hope I bathe meantime need to get the laundry ecxiting right?
From Europe:" Me and my cat, or my cat and I. As the cartoon indicates social distancing is in cats' DNA. Mine is becoming aggressive: growling, hissing and spitting. My understanding of feline language? he dislikes sharing the apartment with me all day long. To ease the tension, I am retreating to the bedroom to read and go online. He is not pleased, because he wants attention and treats. Now, he has taken a dislike for a type of cat food he used to enjoy. Cats are hard to please!"
ReplyDeleteFrom Spain:". Andalusia is doing pretty well with the virus. The worst are Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque region. Within Andalusia, our region, ALMERIA, is the second best, the worst is Malaga.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I went shopping to the Mercadona supermarket alone, since only one person is allowed both to drive on the road or enter the shop. No queuing at the entrance. A Guardia Civil car with two idling policemen parked at the car park entrance.
The supermarket is at Campohermoso, about 15 minutes drive from Las Negras. I carried my own mask and, at the entrance, was asked to disinfect my hands and use the plastic gloves they supply. Just a few clients without masks, which are difficult to find. To my surprise, the shelves were fully stocked, even more than usual. More than usual as well the number of personnel filling shelves or cleaning the floor with their driven machines.
The atmosphere was cheerful and relaxed with the employees joking through their masks. At the cashier, you are most welcome if you pay with a credit card. Obviously, payment with bank notes can be dangerous. I had to keep the distance marked with a green line on the floor from the previous customer. Very kindly, the cashier helped me to refill the chariot after payment. Back home, practically zero cars on the road. Threw my clothes into the washing machine and disinfected my shoes with chlorine.
So, after seeing on the television all those nervous comments and reports about so many people dying, I must say that it has been a very relaxing experience. "
From Canada: "Comment vis-je le confinement? Bien somme toute. Je suis dans ma maison depuis le 12 mars, date a laquelle notre premier ministre Legault a demandé à toutes les personnes de 70 ans et plus de rester à la maison. Pour ne pas tomber malade et parce que nous sommes plus à risque d'avoir la forme grave de la maladie, de ne pas encombrer les soins intensifs et déborder notre système de santé (qui est à flux tendu et ne suffit jamais à la demande en situation normale).
ReplyDeleteNotre gouvernement a rapidement fermé les écoles, demandé aux personnes âgées de se confiner, puis fermé les frontières (incluant celle avec les USA), puis tous les commerces et l'industrie de la construction. Le Québec s'est mis sur pause, comme le dit M. Legault. Les gens sont assez coopératifs et disciplinés. La grande majorité respecte les consignes. Les gens restent chez eux, télé-travaillent, ne sortent pour faire leur course que rarement, juste quand c'est nécessaire. Les rues sont vides, les trottoirs aussi... Un matin de la semaine dernière j'étais allée faire une marche autour de chez moi, question de prendre l'air et de bouger un peu. C'était mort. ON aurait dit que tout le monde était parti, en vacances ou pour un monde meilleur... Aucun bruit. Sinon le chant des oiseaux qui ont l'air de se réjouir de ce calme et de la pureté de l'air. La pollution est tombée presqu'à zéro. Au moins un effet positif de cette fichue crise.
Comment je m'occupe? Tu me connais. J'ai des tas d'intérêts, très utiles dans des cas comme celui-ci. J'aime les travaux manuels et récemment je me suis remise au tricot. Je lis - en ce moment un livre passionnant "la Cité des Djinns" de William Dalrymple, sur Dehli. Des tas de livres attendent dans ma bibliothèque. Des livres que je me promets de lire depuis longtemps, et qui attendent sagement. C'est le moment. Je m'occupe aussi beaucoup de mes amies. Je leur téléphone, écris. On passe plus de temps à s'occuper les uns des autres en ces temps difficiles. C'est une autre des conséquences positives de cette crise. Et pour me tenir en forme physique, je fais du yoga presque tous les matins. Et quand il fait beau je fais une marche, pour entretenir mes jambes.
Courage. On va s'en sortir. Il faut être patient, créatif, introspectif, et faire beaucoup de méditation...
Une de mes amies a qualifié cette crise de "reset" de la société. Je trouve que ça résume tout à fait ce qui arrive. Profitons en pour se remettre à zéro et reprendre notre vie sur de meilleures bases, comme société et comme individus. Ca pourrait permettre que la vie soit meilleure après."
From Brazil: "We’re extremely lucky as we have loads of space, and J. is working from home "home office". I keep myself busy with exercise, gardening, pottery etc… Here’s my kiln opening y’day. Also got loads of fruit. Our Prefeitura (townhall) in Niterói is being extremely active. They have buried political differences and are all working together. We’ve already been in lockdown for a couple of weeks. The streets are extremely quiet. Feels very strange – like a ghost town. Vans go round with loud hailers telling everyone to stay at home and there’s even a number to phone to report people who are disobeying the decree. Townhall has already released $$ for small businesses and is already distributing a basic ‘basket’ of food, toiletries etc to families of children in public schools. A new hospital is being opened to deal with corona and two hotels have been taken over in the Centre to house the homeless, plus another one for health and other key workers who cannot go home. The mayor has a broadcast every night, updating us on the figures and what’s happening. Quite impressive, I think."
ReplyDeleteFrom the south of France:" Ici, nous ne ressentons pas, en cette période dramatique, le côté opprimant du confinement.... Nos presque deux hectares, notre très grande maison, nous donnent la possibilité de profiter de ce printemps qui commence avec les chants d’oiseaux, les odeurs de clématites, les jonquilles, tulipes de plusieurs couleurs sur notre rocaille, le paysage autour de nous sans aucune présence humaine.. c’est étrange.
ReplyDeleteNous faisons un concours de pétanque a deux, et en sommes à 9/7 avantage Alain et une compétition-approche de golf: c’est moi qui gagne pour l’instant.. de plus, il fallait absolument ranger les armoires, placards, classer les papiers, les photos. C’est une aubaine. Heureusement pour faire passer la pilule on nous offre de bonnes comédies relativement récentes ou classiques. "
From my friend Caryl in Manhattan:" Between reading, doing Darwin research for my volunteer job at the American Museum of Natural History, watching TV, and wasting time I seem to not have much time!"
ReplyDeleteFrom England:"It’s a war out there in the shops so I’m trying to only go fortnightly and you have to be there at 8 am queueing in the cold. I’m eating less than half of what I normally do.
ReplyDeleteThe same message is coming from all over the world that there is no personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers which is a shameful disgrace. I’m glad I’m not working in it any longer. They never were any good at looking after their staff.
The good news is that small researchers have made Covid-19 testing machines, antibody testing machines, masks, scrubs, visors etc while our government sits on its hands. We have another 8pm round of community clapping for all the health and social care workers which I will be doing noisily! The weekly Zoom yoga class inspires me to do some yoga more than once a week, making a ‘date’ to walk with a friend (at more than 2m apart) across the open fields daily, and almost daily 2 hours of online bridge with friends, we are also having a 4 way WhatsApp phone conversation with, keeps me focused. I also love slobbing out with a box set TV!!’"
From Rio:" Brazil; de repente pessoas acima de 60 anos se viram encarcerados, terminantemente nao convem sair. Moro sozinha e tenho uma vida diaria intensa e de repente acabou. Mas como existe jeitinho brasileiro, fui me adaptando. Na Primeira semana nao conseguia fazer nada, mas fui observando o que eu tinha em volta. Me achei tomando banho de sol ainda deitada na cama, uma delicia , muita vitamina D. Me levanto e faço exercicios de respiraçao na varanda.
ReplyDeleteElaboro um cafe com frutas e queijo lendo o jornal. Deixo tudo limpo e vou caminhar pela casa durante 30’, e mais uns exercicios. Tomo banho e cozinho algo para o almoço. Apos, coloco o WhatsApp, emails em dia e telefono para amigas, estamos vivas e quero falar, ser ouvida etc.etc. Mas tenho minhas preocupaçoes, mas cada dia sera um novo dia."
In Denver we are often confined this time of year by the weather but burst out whenever the temperature rises and the sun comes out. People are very cognizant of social distancing and move aside to let folks pass at a distance. We are the "old folks" in our neighborhood so have offers from the young folks to go shopping for us and to check in and see how we are doing. But, since we still see ourselves as reasonably fit, we do most things for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteDaily activities include reading the NYT - with the growing unemployment in the US I am no longer worried that our delivery person will disappear. But I do sanitize the bag and the front page before handling it. We stay in pajamas later in the morning than previously. We have become creative cooks and experiment more, sometimes because we have to work around what the grocery stores do or don't have available.
I am now making face masks, first as a lark and now for friends and family since the CDC is recommending their usage. I have gathered cloth in Brazil, Peru and Gabon and am now putting it to good use. My plans had been to be a creative quilter but that never quite happened. So now, I have quite colorful face masks!
I clean some but have been surprised that my energy, or spirit, are not oriented toward energetic cleaning or reading. Wish I could find inspiration for both.
We are enjoying the Met's opera offerings and the release of so many movies on Amazon and Netflix - I highly recommend The Good Liar.
This will go on for quite some time yet - wonder how different my response will be in 3-4 weeks.
Hi Beatrice, from Perth, Western Australia. As a community we have encouraged people to put teddy bears in their front windows or gardens and/or images of rainbows that families, certainly those with young children, when they go for their neighbor walks can see how many teddies and/or rainbows they find. This is assisted by a Beat Hunt/Rainbow Trail being made available on a community Facebook group page, using Google Maps, and allowing people to either place a symbol on the map of their location or wherever they have spotted bears or rainbows, or message me for me to add. Amazingly the map is rapidly filling up and it’s giving the community a positive discussion subject on social media. You may be able to find it on google “CoSP Bear Hunt / Rainbow Trail - Google My Maps”
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Will check it out. Do you have a teddy bear gracing your porch?
DeleteYes in the front garden😊
DeleteThe other matter worth mentioning is that our street has shared contact details - mobiles and emails - and we regularly send group emails to see if anyone needs a hand or just a chat, our community has come together so well and we anticipate a street party when we all get to the other side😉
From the south of France:" Ici, aussi le confinement commence a être pesant même si nous ne sommes pas aussi ouverts que toi sur le monde exterieur. Nous nous accordons deux sorties sanitaires par jour; MF pour faire du ravitaillement, moi pour marcher entre une demie heure et une heure par jour. Le club de gym, fermé depuis le 17 mars, ne me manque pas trop car enrhume.
ReplyDeleteLes medias sont insupportables tant ils vehiculent d’informations spéculatives et d’horreurs sur le virus au risque d’occulter ce qui se passe par ailleurs. Ca n’aide pas à améliorer le moral qui baigne naturellement en France dans le catastrophisme.
Pour compenser restent le series TV , les polars et qq’s lectures plus sérieuses comme l’excellent livre de Tom Holland ( aucun lien de parenté avec notre François, ex president) : “Les chrétiens ou comment ils ont changé le monde” que je te recommande d’autant qu’il est écrit par un historien anglais de la nouvelle generation. Même avis favorable pour “Le leopard de Kubilai” de Timothy Brook sur l’histoire de la Chine. Je suis sur que tu apprécieras ces deux “pavés” plus que moi car j’ai, vis à vis des écrivains ango-saxons , les mêmes reserves que tu peux avoir par rapport à leurs homologues de langue française.
Pour Sacha, notre jeune chat, je sais qu’il faudra en venir à des solutions radicales mais le confinement est une bonne raison pour lui donner un sursis et lui permettre de gôuter aux joies d de l’amour."