Be careful what you wish for.......

One of our daily walks takes us across Chester Racecourse.  Plenty of space here. 

My life is usually busy. Although my teaching is officially 'part-time' I often find it fills many additional hours. And I have other regular commitments which I've chosen and enjoy - creative writing class, yoga, book club, Zumba, catching up with friends for lunch or coffee.   Then there's the stuff I don't really want to do - the washing of sheets, the sorting of the recycling, the unloading of the dishwasher... Sometimes I've wanted it all to stop, to have days when nothing is planned, nothing much happens, a bit like those lazy empty days between Christmas and New Year.

And now it has. Except, of course, for the stuff I don't want to do. I was quite looking forward to it in some ways.  I'd finally get the garden sorted.  I'd have the kind of neat and ordered house my sister-in-law has.  I'd change the beds regularly, and would vacuum every few days instead of ignoring the clumps of white dog hair which adorn our carpets.  The grout between the tiles would no longer be grubby. There'd be time for reading during the day; I'd walk the dog with Paul the permitted hour every day and get fitter; I'd watch all the Netflix series people had recommended; read the improving literature I'd never got round to....

But somehow it hasn't worked out that way.  Without a structure to the day I've found that time just melts away.  No need to set an alarm so I get up later, drifting about in my pjs until we take the dog out, the only thing I do regularly. Much time is wasted in reading all the coronavirus coverage from the BBC and the newspapers online.  And the attempt to create an neat and ordered house has failed.  I've wiped down kitchen worktops countless times every day, yet still mess persists. In this household with the addition of my daughter and her boyfriend who operate in a different time zone to us, there is always someone preparing food.

I've stopped the constant cleaning up now, and I've also stopped scrolling through news stories and watching the daily update at 5pm.  I watch one news broadcast a day - that's enough. I've also put back a bit of structure with new scheduled activities, discovering as many others have the joys of virtual meetings on Zoom.  So I am doing Zoom Zumba classes on Sunday and Thursday mornings and next week have Zoom book club.  We've been doing two weekly online pub quizzes, competing with family and friends.  Although I have cleaned out a few cupboards in the kitchen and disposed of items which were past their best several years ago,  I've given up any attempt at keeping the house neat and tidy. In general I've ditched the to do list. I do what I feel like doing and feel a bit better.

Next week I will be back 'at work', attempting online teaching.  It looks like Zoom is going to be used for that too. It will be interesting to see how that goes.