So I thought I’d write a blog post about what it’s like for me in the whole coronavirus lockdown, since I’m always nosy about other people’s experiences of it, and because it’ll be interesting to look back on in the future.

But, it might end up being quite boring, mainly because it’s very similar to “normal” life for me. What I didn’t realise before was quite how different my life had become compared to the average person living in the UK, and how much I was already isolating.

In many ways, we were accidentally prepared for lockdown.

Going to Chernobyl in 2016 (before it became popular) gave us preparation for dealing with a real-world invisible threat from professional guides and residents (although the residents are pretty reckless!).

Not having a car means we tend to bulk buy anyway (although we haven’t bulk bought since everyone else started bulk buying – other than a box of 48 creme eggs, all my bulk buying was done on Black Friday).

Our main hobbies, other than eating out, have been very home-focused for the past few years. We have literally hundreds of board games, luckily I’d recently stocked up on books and some mini craft kits from Etsy, I’m a Scribd addict, plus we have all the usual Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc., and we have the Switch, Steam, and a bunch of other things.

There are definitely things I would have liked to get done, for example sorting out our garden decking to have a usable outside space, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s still too cold to sit outside anyway, especially as our garden gets the sun in the morning and I prefer to sit out in the afternoon.

Before I became self-employed, I had a few years of doing a million things – events, going out, travelling, and to be honest, I’m an introvert. People being around a lot or in my personal space stresses me out, and it wasn’t until I stopped working in an office that I realised how stressful it was for me.

Running a business 18+ hours a day for the past two and a half years has given us plenty of experience staying home. This time last year we were actually in a more intensive lockdown, because of this fiasco, and it was only us in lockdown so it was much more lonely and abandon-y feeling. I’m not a huge fan of the phrase “we’re in this together,” but it does feel a lot less isolating than last year. And it’s a lot less stressful, firstly because someone else is in charge, and secondly because it doesn’t take five hours to get to the kitchen and get some food.

This time around, we had time to prepare. We went into our own lockdown earlier than the UK government advised, because we decided to follow the country with the strictest guidelines. We also live right near a hospital, so we didn’t want to get in anyone’s way or inadvertently spread the virus around local businesses that workers were likely to frequent. We’re also very used to staying in; in busy periods for the business, which is most of the time, it’s more stressful to go out than it is to stay in. As we don’t have kids or dogs, staying in is pretty easy for us.

I’m also surprised at how much of a relief its been to not feel endless pressure about doing normal things, like going to the dentist or having a haircut or telling people we can’t make things because of work. Suddenly life feels a whole lot simpler, which is huge to me as I’m a chronic overcomplicator.

It’s been interesting to see all the comments and memes around people suddenly working from home and their experiences of it. A lot of companies that previously ruled out home working now seem to be in favour of it, so hopefully that lasts because it’s way less stressful and time consuming than sitting in traffic. I think there will be a lot of things that change after this – and plenty that go back to normal – and it’ll be interesting to see what sticks.

For our business, in the run up to this, it was super crazy busy, and had been pretty much non-stop since the previous autumn. Normally it starts to slow down around Easter, but because of the pandemic, there was just a sudden stop. For several days, barely any tickets were raised at all. It was like the world had just stopped.

We’re beginning to see a surge in tickets again, which honestly is a relief because we worry about everyone and how people are doing. It’s a lot to take in and deal with, especially if you have the kind of lifestyle that’s been tipped upside down by this, or you’re worried about vulnerable loved ones.

I’ve stepped back from working quite a bit; I definitely don’t do the hours I used to, and I’ve been playing Animal Crossing. I’m not the biggest Animal Crossing fan; I typically buy it every few versions and play it for a while before I get bored, but I’ve found it very soothing this time around. It’s nice to escape to a world of no pressure, where the worst thing that can happen is someone steals your fruit or something.

One thing people are talking about a lot is citizen bailouts. It’s interesting to see what different countries are doing to help their people. We’ve been eligible for exactly nothing, but to be totally honest we don’t need it.

This is one of the things I’ve struggled with the most, because I feel a huge sense of guilt that our business is set to do its best month ever, and there are so many people struggling right now. It sounds like the biggest first world problem ever, so I feel guilty just typing this to be honest.

We’re doing some things to help people, both health workers and our customers, and we’re making a donation to a WHO-approved organization. Beyond that, we’re being a little cautious for now because we have staff to pay and our house deposit and gigantic tax bill next week, in addition to a bunch of other things we’re continuing to pay for but can’t use (to do our bit to keep some small businesses and sole traders going). But we definitely want to introduce some more things as time goes on and we get a feel for what’s going to happen. So much is an unknown at the moment.

I think this whole thing really hit home to me the first time I went to the supermarket. So much of it was just completely empty. It just suddenly all felt very real and made me think about how much I’ve taken for granted all my life. Just being able to nip out a grab a pizza is about ten different kinds of privilege on its own.
 

So, how are you doing in isolation?