So, as expected we got locked for another three weeks last night, but looking at the rest of Europe it’s not going to be too much longer before things start to reduce down and some sort of outside contact and relaxation occurs.
As far as Dentistry's concerned there is still much to shake down, but make no mistake much has shaken down in the last three weeks and the world will look very different three weeks from now again.
And so, today I was able to take a little bit of head space just to reflect on what I will miss when (inevitably and in one form or another) my life goes back to 1,000 mph.
While I was doing that reflection I read an article about a survey provided by YouGov, of 4,000 people asking them what they would like to keep from the lockdown.
About the same amount of people did more exercise than those that did less exercise so that cancelled each other out but, many people were really happy that they were cooking from natural ingredients. Many more people thought the air quality was better and were happy to see less cars on the road.
For me these things are all important but I’d like it to be simpler than this.
Four times a week (and without missing a single slot) my friend Carl Dunstan and I, have done what we call ‘virtual insanity’ in the mornings during the lockdown.
This is an evolution from ‘insanity muscle’ which is our little circuit training that we were doing in my garage twice a week, even though we wanted to do it more than that.
We’ve got onto Facetime and done an hour session four times a week, all directed by Carl who is a super Physio.
We start with a cup of tea and have a chat for 10 minutes or so and then we do circuits and then finish with another cup of tea (I only use one tea bag though), I know that realistically when we get back to the madness, it will go back to twice a week and it will be more hurried than it is now and that will be sad.
Everyday around noon, I send my son Callum outside to the garden to do something called ‘11+’ which is structured for running and stretching. He never makes a particularly good job of It (because he’s 12) but while he does that I make cheese on toast and then we go into the living room and sit and watch two episodes of The Simpsons.
Make no mistake The Simpsons is an education and raises all sorted of issues that we get to talk about but it’s also utterly brilliant.
Every single night during lockdown the five of us have cooked together in the kitchen. I’m not going to lie and tell you that it’s all harmonious because Callum is so lazy and Rosie just wants to wind him up, but together the five of us have done this and cooked great stuff. Every single night Callum and I have washed the dishes and now that will be a thing we do forever.
Almost every night also we’ve sat down (at least me and the kids because my wife hates television) and watch several episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. That has been an utter joy and in years to come we will go back and talk about that and any time we see anything to do with Brooklyn Nine-Nine we will be reminded and taken back here.
Add to that the lazy dog walks and all the conversations and Zoom calls with people that I never have time to (particularly my mum and Dad every two-three days) and there is much to commend this lifestyle.
Of course it has been interspersed with anxiety and sometimes (only a couple of times) panic about what comes next but remember what I’ve talked about before in these paged ‘the peak-end rule’ your memory of an experience is an average of the best part (or worst) and end.
It will instinctively feel good when it’s finished and when we start to open back out again but the good bits were so good that the memory of this will always be good.
Worth remembering that when the panic sets in again.
Blog Post Number - 2340