Yay, I have finally gotten away from where I live.

I woke up this morning feeling a little nervous. Why I hear you ask? Silly, I know but I would be driving for the first time in around 8 or 9 weeks and heading outside to the local town. I wasn’t sure what to expect ‘out there’.

The morning was warm, sunny and beautiful as we prepared to head out. It felt like my first driving lesson as I put the key into the ignition and reversed out of my garage. As I drove to our destination I joking said to my hubby “Nothing has changed out here.”

What was I expecting? Being in lockdown felt, for me like I had been away on an island in the ocean, with very few people to see and talk to. To be just going through the motions every day, as if it was like that film ‘Groundhog Day’.

We went into a few shops and I don’t think I have ever used so much hand sanitiser as I did today. Only 1 shop had a roll call that we needed to enter our details onto, for contact tracing, if needed. Other shops just let in so many people at a time.

Overall, for me it was a very alien experience. Avoiding people in the stores and out and about, although I was doing that when I was walking around the block, here there were many, many more people to avoid. Some people did the social distancing, as we did, whilst others just walked past you, almost brushing you as they did.

There were a lot of cars on the road, but considering this is the first weekend since the lockdown, it is not surprising.

This is a memory I will remember for a while. It will be interesting to here other peoples experiences. Please let me know how you are all going out there.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

So, with Covid 19 still paralysing the world, our trip back home at the end of the year will have to be put on hold until, whenever.

Tourism has taken a huge hit at the moment and so hubby and I were talking today about our re-arranged holiday. We have both decided to take a couple of longer weekends in our own country. We do go away a few times a year to different places, but obviously due to this virus we have not been able to visit anywhere at all.

The money we were going to use to fly home will be used here instead. We have a couple of places so far, and we will price up the costs this evening. We know that air fares will be very expensive as the flights will not be flown at full capacity at the moment. These trips will not be until later in the year, but am looking forward to seeing a different part of the country.

I hope you are all staying safe and healthy.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

On Tuesday I made a decision to go on-line and buy myself some knitting wool. For those of you who have read my previous blogs, I knit clothes and blankets for premature babies. Once I have knitted enough, I send them out to 4 hospitals around where I live. This is something I really enjoy and it is good to give back.

The delivery advised it would take about 2 – 5 working days, which is okay with me. As we are now on level 2 and not under lockdown, the shops are open. It maybe that I will venture out for the first time next week to go to the shops. Maybe I will buy some there as well. It will be about 8 weeks since I was out and about, other than my daily walks around the block, so it will feel a little strange for me.

I was given a tracking number and have had a look to see what the status is. I am happy to say that it is on the way, but it will be delayed due to the over demand of courier drivers. Everyone has been ordering on line and so they are stretched to the maximum.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

The first day of freedom, out of our lockdown. I was going to go out, but I have decided that I think I will wait until it all quietens down out there.

I continued with my walk around the block today, I think my body has now been programmed after doing it for so many weeks! As I wondered around, there were not so many walkers, but quite a lot more vehicles on the roads. Everyone has been so keen to get out and about.

Considering it is the middle of May, our weather is still glorious and extremely hot in the sun. We are only a day or so away from our water restrictions and I haven’t heard of any rains on the way yet. I love the smell of the first rains as it hits the pavements, there is something about that smell, which is hard to describe.

I am glad I decided not to go out and about today as the malls were busy and carparks packed. It is good to see people out spending and enjoying the freedom. Let’s hope we all do it safely as do as we have been asked to do.

Would love to know how all of you in other countries are coping and have been coping through all of this. Please let me know.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

I have a Fitbit, well a Garmin fitness tracker actually, which I use all the time. It is great to monitor how many steps I take on a daily basis. It also lets me know how much sleep I have had, measures my stress levels, my calories, my heart rate, oxygen saturation levels and also my body battery level.

The one thing I am frustrated with, and it happens quite often and that is that it doesn’t sync all the time with my phone. I have cleared data, taken the app off and re-installed it and still not synching, so I don’t know why. The times that this happens is very random and as I write this, it has not been able to sync with my phone for the last 3 days. It will sort itself out, but at these times I cannot count on the data as none is actually recorded.

Sometimes though, I think using these fitness trackers can make you worry about the lack of sleep or your heart rate, purely because you spend time keep looking at the data.

I use it purely for my steps and my stress levels as I used to be a really bad over thinker. Now, I am more for living in the moment than worrying about things and so my stress levels are not so high.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

I have noticed over the last few days whilst walking around the block, the lovely bird noises. It is strange , but, whilst we were all in total lockdown, we walked around but there was no noise. It was totally and eerily quiet. It is almost as if the birds that were around before lockdown, now know it is safer to come back. Animals, like cats and dogs and I am assuming birds too, know that something was wrong with the world.

Whilst I was doing my Tai Chi this morning, I glanced out of my window and saw a couple of Tuis in the big magnolia tree over the back fence in the garden. Now a tui is a native bird here and have a lovely blue, green and bronze shine on them when the sunlight hits them. They look amazing as they also have two small white balls on their throats. The noise they make can annoy some people, but I love listening to them and also some of our other birds.

The one bird I do find can be a little noisy are our Mynah birds and there are many of them around. They make a din especially when there are groups of them and are probably a pest bird. You can notice them because they have a yellow beak and a yellow stripe around the eyes.

We have a variety of small birds, blackbirds, song thrush etc visiting the garden, but I am always on the lookout as we also have other peoples cats that come visit.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

Yay, so our Prime Minister has announced today that as of Thursday morning we will be going down to Level 2. That means more people will be back to work. That will be malls, cafes, restaurants and cinemas. Social distancing must be applied, so malls will be monitored as to the number of people going in and out. Any get togethers must not exceed 10 people. We will be reviewed in a couple of weeks.

For me, it will be great to get out and about a little more now. I don’t need to always just go for a walk around the block, although I think I will leave heading out and about for awhile at least. It is good news for businesses and to get the economy up and running again.

Let’s hope that people take care out there and we don’t have a relapse and send us back down into a lockdown.

I hope all of your out there, where ever you are, are staying safe and that your lockdown will soon be over, if it’s not already. This pandemic has been a testing time for every single one of us and our new normal lives will not be the same as they were before. I guess I will have to go with the flow, which should be fun.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

So, yesterday we heard that water restrictions will be in force as of next Saturday. That means no washing vehicles or watering the gardens. We have also been asked to conserve water indoors with making sure that washing machines are not run half empty and using half flushes where we can.

That being said, I thought that modern day washing machines adjusted the water levels according to the amount of washing that has been put in. Maybe that is for the more expensive machines and not the cheaper end of the market. It is alright though, as we always fill ours up in any event.

I don’t think we have washed the vehicles for a few weeks now, as they haven’t really been that far. They are really just rather dusty from sitting around.

There has been a lot of leaks around by us and, we have ourselves had one, which was fixed pretty quickly by the water board and then by a plumber after they advised us we had a small leak on our side. We decided to get that rectified before it got a lot worse. The leaks have been mostly due to the excessive hot weather we have been having and the ground being so dry. Even as we walk around the block we see more water leaks around, that probably hasn’t helped with the water levels. I assume other areas would have been suffering with similar problems.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

It has been a long time since I had my haircut at the hairdresser as I am sure it has been for all of you. Under lockdown, I asked my hubby to cut it for me. Now I hear you all gasping in horror, but I have really short hair and as I was not going to be seeing anyone any time soon, I thought why not?

The day of reckoning came and with his trimmers on the longest shave number, off he went. There was a lot of hair that fell to the floor, but I have to say it didn’t look to bad. The only thing we are missing was some hair thinners, as I have rather thick hair. The trim around my ears is not perfect, but I do actually quite like it, and it was only cut straight after I tried to give it some shape and failed, big time. I am now due another haircut and yes you guessed it, hubby is going to be cutting it again. Once the lockdown is eventually over, I will go back to the salon, but am not in a hurry.

I was going to grow it for a while, but as it has been so warm here and my hair thick, it feels really heavy on my head and on occasions does give me a headache.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂

Went out for my daily walk around the block and had just arrived home when my mobile phone buzzed in my hand. Having turned the alarm off I looked at the caller display, but didn’t recognise the number showing up. I answered the call anyway, just in case someone I knew had changed their number.

The first question I heard, after an initial introduction and pleasantries, was to ask me if I had been negatively affected by Covid 19? I wasn’t quite sure what that meant and asked if he could please explain. Were we suffering financially with not working. Hubby did not work throughout the Level 4 lockdown and has only really this week started back again with all the safety measures that are in place. He did a couple of days last week, but this will be as a ‘normal’ week as best as it can be.

Now, I don’t think that there is anyone out there who has honestly not been affected by this pandemic. We have all suffered, one way or another and some worse than others. It is fair to say that we are all in it together and there is no way of getting away from it.

We will hear on Monday if we can come down to Level 2, and so will await that decision. I have to say that I cannot wait to just go somewhere other than around the block, as I don’t even do the shopping at the moment.

Smile and have a happy day 🙂