Looking back on Covid 2021 to present

This is part 2 of my post looking back at the pandemic so far.

So where was I? January 2021. This was a bleak month for me. My father almost died from an abdominal aortic aneurysm and had emergency surgery for the same. A week later partly due to stress and lack of sleep I fell down the stairs at home and badly sprained my ankle. It took months and months to heal with physio, still not quite the same as the other side. While my father was in hospital we realised my mother was really struggling at home alone, she was becoming very forgetful. She later that year was diagnosed with dementia. My parents have been and continue to be very Covid anxious. They have cooped themselves up inside and I’m sure my mother’s lack of social interaction played a part in exacerbating her mental health and memory issues. My sister and I have still not been allowed inside their house due to Covid concerns in spite of everybody being fully vaccinated. As some of us move forward and get our lives back a bit, others are still limited by their anxiety and Covid safe habits.

Anyway, I digress.. 2021 was the year we got our vaccines, and most of us couldn’t wait to get them. I got mine earlier than most people my age as I work in healthcare. The first one I got at the end of January 2021 I could hardly walk with my ankle. I hobbled in to the vaccine centre. And hobbled out again. My chin and face went a bit numb 30 minutes afterwards but thankfully it didn’t last long and I was so happy to be protected in some way against this awful thing.

The vaccines gave me confidence, but we couldn’t afford to relax. This virus is not leaving us in a hurry. It has become apparent that many fully vaccinated friends and family have still got sick with Covid 19, some pretty poorly, some with only mild cold like symptoms. It is encouraging recently to see even very elderly people such as The Queen and my friend’s 99 year old Mum make a relatively speedy recovery.

April 2021 we were allowed out again, hospitality in the UK opened up outdoors. I took a week off for my birthday week and dined al fresco for lunch every day. It was a great week. I think the first day was the sweetest. It was cold but bright. David and I wrapped up warm and went to eat on the terrace at Oakley Court, a nice hotel near to us. The waiting staff were happy to be there. I remember we had a Russian waitress who was so grateful for the Covid furlough scheme in the UK and had been sending money home to help her family. I think this is the first photo of me with my post lockdown long hair. I’m so used to it now but this was quite a novelty at this stage.

Another day we went to Gogos in Windsor Marina. What a view! Holiday at home.

2021 continued with underlying worries about the Covid case numbers and deaths, related challenges at work and with my family. But we were OK. We cycled a lot instead of getting risky taxis. We wore our masks a lot. We worried about indoor activities such as going to the theatre or Wimbledon tennis, but we did it anyway, carefully. And we stayed safe and healthy, thank goodness.

Since Angela’s death in November 2020 I have a deep hatred/respect and fear for this virus and what it can do. It has taken young as well as old people. It has orphaned children. It has caused absolute heartbreak to those unable to visit sick family members or those in care homes. Our government seems to have moved on, wanting us all to get back to normal and the economy to recover, but most of us remain wary. We really truly want to put this pandemic behind us but it remains evident it is not over. Today’s variant is mild, who knows what tomorrow’s will be like. We are allowing it to run unchecked. It is a risky policy. I do hope we can keep up with the boosters and vaccines.

So David and I are having our first preliminary discussions about resuming overseas holidays. We used to have a couple a year. We have been nowhere since 2019, unless you count Wales. We are nervous of paperwork and pandemic bureaucracy, being cooped up on a plane with potentially infected people, the thought of being ill away from home. From that point of view I now worry about Ebola as well as Covid. You could catch something like deadly Ebola on a plane, you always could. It’s just that I think about it these days.

So we are going to go tentatively forward, not planning too far in advance and checking the holiday insurance policy carefully. In the mean time the conversation and worries become dominated not by Covid but by the situation in Ukraine. We may be in a Third World War already. It is super scary. There is the possibility of nuclear weapons. But for now we are the lucky ones. We are here and not there. We are together with our loved ones and live in peace. We go to bed not expecting bombs overnight. The cost of living is going up… energy, petrol, food, but not just for the UK.

Please keep safe from Covid and from war all my lovely blog followers and friends, you mean the world to me 😊 and I cannot imagine getting through a pandemic without you! Xx