It’s Sunday night and I’m knackered again, but in a much better way than last week. We chose to participate in the Great British Camp Out for NHS Staff last night. Being in possession of neither a tent for the garden nor campervan on the drive, we made a living room den. There are no pictures, as it was rather pitiful to look upon!
I had visions of a blow up bed, because I have one. I rummaged in the wardrobes and proudly carried down the box and rolled out the very flat bed. Could I find the air pump though? Not in a month of Sundays. We left it rolled out on the floor anyway, added bedrolls (seriously what is the fucking point of those things?) and topped it with our slippery summer weight sleeping bags.
We stayed up late watching Iron Man 2, then snuggled into sleeping bags and tried to sleep. Tils was asleep before me – her insistence that we needed to leave some lights on in other rooms meant that I couldn’t quite fully switch off. I then woke up at about 0425 this morning, cold, disorientated and everything hurt. Just like real camping, but you don’t have to get your pyjamas wet around the ankles as you pick through wet grass to the toilet block!
Missy loved it and thinks we should camp every weekend. I am not so keen on sleeping on the floor, but I am delighted to have been part of a legendary fundraising effort that saw an idea to raise £100 turn into around £100,000 in a little over a week.
So yes, tired, but in a good way.
This week we have both being doing more of the things that make us happy. She has discovered the joy of video calls with her friends as well as her grandparents. I have discovered the joy of her being on video calls freeing me up to get on with stuff. It’s completely liberating, and I know she’s happy because I hear the giggles from whichever room she’s decided to sit in.
I have made progress tidying my study – and whilst there is a good way to go yet, I can see the differences and that is making doing the next bit each time easier. Sadly I have had to accept that I cannot justify buying any more notebooks for the foreseeable future. Shock, horror. I have also found numerous lovely ones that I have previously bought as gifts for specific friends and then stowed in a “somewhere safe” to be forgotten about for a year or so!
In the last couple of days, with the sunshine being bright, I have also made a huge impact on the ground floor windows and even washed the car. This is uncharted territory for me. What the actual?
Part of me wonders if it’s procrastination, because I really don’t want to do the next round of tidying up or attempt my book edits. Another part of me says this is a glorious way of me finding a form of mindfulness that suits my personality. I like to achieve things, I like being left alone, I enjoy a blank mind, I like silence.
This new normal that we are creating, those of us with the privilege to stay at home that is, can be whatever we want it to be. If we want to connect with people, we can spend all day on social media and video chat. If we want to unplug, we can. I am looking forward to unplugging. It is part of choosing to step off the hamster wheel. It is part of choosing to be grounded, choosing to allow our minds to be still.
What have you been up to this week? Xx
Leave a Reply