22nd – 28th June

Friday 26th June 

At last I have a feeling that the world is opening up. At least my world. It has been a strange time of many contradictory emotions. I have learnt so much about myself during lockdown and I hope some of the knowledge will carry forward. Just the thought of visiting family in July has lifted my spirits and preparing for the trip has filled my thoughts today.

I am proud of Scotland and the way the pandemic has been managed although there are many questions to answer now that we are moving forward. Hopefully lessons will be learned but that remains to be seen. U3A has given me a focus and I am grateful for the contact and friendship I have been offered. Life is good. I will move forward feeling grateful and lucky I have the ability to do so. 

Margaret, Scotland

Friday 26th June

In February I discovered how much Twitter was ahead of the mainstream media - you really could ‘read about it here’ first – and I became absorbed in the increasingly important and relevant Coronavirus story going on in China and then Italy. Twitter became very educational for me.

Being ‘ahead’ of the news isn’t entirely comfortable. Because you know what’s happening you know what should be being done and if it isn’t, which it wasn’t, it made me feel very anxious and frustrated. The bad news and reported illnesses and deaths made me feel sad of course, counterbalancing the pleasure I found in being confined to home and liberated from commitments, but I preferred to know as much as possible about the true situation than be ‘in the dark’ – I wanted to know everything.

I was far from being bored or not knowing what to do with myself in lockdown! In fact there was no time for the catching up on jobs around the house on my list that I’d thought would be an advantage of self-isolation.

On top of the above sources of regular daily news updates I also sought out tv and radio documentaries about life inside hospitals and intensive care units in particular. My training as a doctor probably triggered this particularly; being familiar with hospital practices (although very out of date) I was curious to know how staff were dealing with the crisis. I also felt a duty to understand what they were going through and feared that in spite of the weekly clapping ritual, people living in the world outside hospitals were oblivious to their working conditions and the reality of having Covid-19 and being in an ICU bed. Similarly I wanted to know what life was like for carers and residents in care homes and not just hear statistics for the number of deaths. I was fortunate that some excellent programmes were available – in particular The NHS Front Line on R4 and BBC’s  Hospital, Coronavirus special, from the Royal Free Hospital where I trained.

It’s now three months since lockdown began. I don’t listen so religiously to every news programme. However Twitter is still a daily pleasure. I turn to it to find out what’s going on politically, and medically re the virus, and to enjoy the humour. If ever I feel a bit bored or don’t know what to do I am guaranteed to find something interesting to read and feel as if I am communicating with people in the outside world who although they aren’t friends are like a new virtual community for me.  

Ros, Hertfordshire