COMMENT

WE’RE BOXED INTO A CORNER

Back before the whole pandemic situation arose we decided we would move house. We had sold our place, found a lovely house in need of some work and were all set to move

Conveyancing was all done and the exchange and completion dates were all set. We had actually packed, literally, all our worldly possessions into boxes and were ready to go when our buyers pulled the plug because of ‘the virus’. We were any enthusiasm.” supposed to move on the Friday and they pulled out on the Thursday! It was all a bit of a nightmare. The reason I mention this is because we have had to pack almost everything into boxes again as, instead of moving house, we are having the whole of the back of our house and garden refurbished. I say refurbished but it is more like rebuilt from scratch. We cannot use any of the ground floor except the living room, which is packed to the gunwales with the previously mentioned boxes. It mightn’t be so bad if we could get out to visit people or go to a restaurant or café to eat but, because of the current lockdown rules, we are very restricted to what we can do. Feeding a family of four with a microwave, a kettle and a toaster is stretching even my culinary know how I tell you! We do have a slow cooker but everything starts to taste a bit samey after a while. There are only so many times you can serve up a version of stew/casserole with any enthusiasm. We have now borrowed a camping stove but that is obviously not an ideal situation.

We are a couple of weeks away yet from the finish line but it should be done and dusted well before Christmas (fingers crossed!) It is

“There are only so many times you can serve up a version of stew/casserole with though starting to take shape and it seems as though it might be worth the disarray and hassle… it’s looking like it might just be amazing. It doesn’t always feel like it’s worth it when you are ploughing through your third microwave meal of the week though! You also might think that being given a licence to eat takeaways would be nice. It is for the first three or four times, guilt free eating, after a bit though you just hanker for something healthy, something green. I may actually be a lot healthier once the disruption is all over as I’m not sure I will be able to face another takeaway! topic I have used a couple of words in this piece that would never have crossed my mind if I was writing in 2019 but now are very much part of our day to day vocabulary. It got me thinking about other words

and phrases that have become commonplace in 2020 and ones that I would very happily never hear again. Pandemic, social distancing, lockdown, PPE, self-isolation, new and persistent cough, panic buying, stockpiling, home schooling (OMG that was fun!!!) the list goes on. On the plus side though there are a few words that I would quite happily use over and over, key worker, NHS staff, regular exercise, sourdough, baking! Not such a long list, maybe, but a small positive to end what has been, by anybody’s measure, a dreadful year. Merry Christmas everyone and bring on 2021, it’s gotta be much,

Phil Rockliffe

As an aside and on a slightly different much better than 2020 surely!!