Corona ISO Chronicles #1 – The new norm

It’s been a while since my last post!  I’ve been adjusting to a new norm. I don’t think there’d be a person in this world that wasn’t aware that we’re currently experiencing a global pandemic.  Coronavirus or Covid-19, started supposedly in a wet market in Wuhan China when a virus jumped from an animal (possibly a bat) to a human and has now spread across the world, the devastating consequences of which you’d know and are still ongoing.

It’s kind of consuming our lives at present as many adjustments have had to be made to how we live and it’s 24/7 in social media and general media, so I figured that since it’s so life consuming at present, I may as well document how it affects me in my little minuscule part of the whole global situation – hence the birth of the Corona ISO Chronicles!

So how have things changed for me?

1. The Tennis Player (hubby) and Twin 1 now work from home.  Twin 2 has no option but to continue going to work in the city each day. It worries me, but we’re thankful that everyone still has a job!  Having two of them home each day and set up working at the dining room table (along with all their … um … mess) has thrown my usual routine out the window (and just quietly, really tests my patience on occasion)!  I haven’t felt like blogging and it’s no wonder.  I’ve been overwhelmed with so much and I’ve needed time to readjust to this new norm and I’m not quite there yet.
2. Disinfection Time – has become a necessary additional daily chore which eats into my time.  I wipe over/disinfect doorknobs; cupboard handles; the handles/touch area of the dishwasher, microwave & fridge; phones; light switches, toilet flush buttons and seats, remote controls, keyboards, and any other surface area that is commonly touched by all. 
3. I had to stop going to Pilates so now I walk.  I used to go to Pilates three times a week and I really enjoyed it.  Obviously that had to stop and sadly they have had to close their doors anyway.  I’ve started going for daily walks with the dog instead (legal exercise) – mostly just around local streets but occasionally to the waterfront (bit too many people there over Easter though). The walking is in fact a good thing as the dog (Ava), in her older age, has gained some weight and needs more exercise to help shift it, and I can always use more exercise to shift weight too!
4. Emotions got the better of us and we adopted our two foster kittens.  I had no intention of ‘foster-failing’ (a term foster carers use for when they adopt a foster) but Corona made me do it!  In the early days of Corona reaching our shores (which coincided with when the kittens were due to be returned) I was terrified, highly anxious, and very emotional.  I still have my moments but I’ve got a better handle on it now (touch wood).  The day came to return the kittens for desex and I was truly an absolute emotional mess.  It was a mix of everything – Corona, & I’d cared for those babies since they were 2 weeks old and I loved them.  It was too much change and uncertainty all at once.  Additionally, the others (The Tennis Player and Twin 1 & 2) had bonded with them and didn’t want them to go either …  so the seed of doubt was planted on the drive to drop them off for desex, and the decision finally made the next morning. So steps were taken to ensure they’d be ours and not sent to adoptions and we picked them up a couple of days later.  I have a good system in place for fostering which is temporary care, but am not set up for permanent cats, so we’re still undergoing a gradual adjustment to this new situation but I’ll cover that more in the next Kitten Foster Files post.
5. Can’t go anywhere much, so – I’ve been getting little jobs done here and there around the house. Those kind of jobs that you usually NEVER get to usually but they weigh on you, always niggling away in your guilty conscience (like cleaning out the bathroom cupboards and drawers for example).  So this is a good side effect of this ISO situation!
6. Keeping in touch with family & friends – Like everyone, I really miss my lunch and coffee catch ups with friends and my sisters and I worry about my Mum.  However, I’ve mostly been keeping in touch with friends via social media & phone.  Family too but also we did a Zoom meeting for Easter Sunday afternoon tea which was different!  The whole point of it was so that Mum could see her kids (and grandkids) on Easter Sunday as per usual.  Until Corona – I hadn’t even heard of Zoom but now I’ve used it for a family catch up and also joined in on some meditations via Zoom as well.  

So as you can see, there are some challenging days ahead for me and of course for many, many others, but also some good things to come of this situation.  I’m thankful I don’t have a job or a business to worry about and that I’m free to do all the extra things around home to ‘try’ and keep everyone safe.  I’m grateful I don’t still have school aged children.  Good luck to all the parents home schooling and trying to work from home.  My goodness what a challenge!  Not only that, but much of our coping ability comes from having space and time away from those we live with (personal space!) and so we need to come up with new coping strategies.  We need to make a conscious effort to carve out some time and ways to get in some personal space (self care/time out/whatever you choose to call it).  Some examples might be to shut yourself in the bathroom and have a soak in a bath; or disappear to a quiet room ‘alone’ for an allotted amount of time to read a book or listen to a podcast.  

To wrap up, here’s a few words I threw together very quickly the other day for an Instagram post.  The words that accompanied this post were: 

“It’s time for a quote and I couldn’t think of an appropriate one for this time so within 5-10 minutes I threw a few rhyming words together myself. To prove my words on feeling ‘Topsy Turvy’ are true – today for the first time in many years, I stuffed up my Instagram pattern. Usually I post a quote after every ninth post. Oops! Today it’s after the tenth. So a new pattern is set and after every tenth it shall be. Be kind and gentle with yourselves during these very different days!”

It won’t win any awards but it simply reflects life as it feels right now.  I think I’m emerging from the fog and settling into a new norm.  I’m certainly trying, and along the way I’ve made a pact with myself that I’ll be kind to me and not be hard on myself as I usually am.  If I don’t feel like blogging, then I won’t.  I will write when I feel like it.  I will clean when I feel like it (it makes me feel like I have some control over things).  I’ll go off by myself somewhere when I feel like it.  These are challenging times and we need to be kind to ourselves as we navigate our way through them.

How has Corona ISO impacted you?  Tell me the good and the bad!  Are you being kind to yourself?

Until my next post, take care and stay safe.

Ciao for now,