The 5 Minute Coffee Corner: When COVID Strikes

So almost an entire year after the pandemic began, COVID has finally made its way into my home. Although, technically, if you think waaaaaay back to last March when I got ill and lost my sense of taste and smell for an entire week (post here), I suspect it had already hit then. At that point, losing your sense of taste and smell weren’t actually symptoms, so I didn’t think any more of it other than how odd it was because it has never happened to me in my life (and I’ve been ill a lot!).

Anyway, back to the point. COVID has reached my home (again). Poor James has been terribly ill, and received a positive COVID diagnosis a week ago. So many people I know have got it right now, so many more than the first wave and lockdown (have you all been having a party without me?!)

James is actually on the mend now, it’s been a long 10 days of suffering, but hopefully the end is nigh. After rereading my post above, I remembered that (as stated in the post) ‘James found the whole thing quite amusing and couldn’t believe how much of a fuss I was making over my lack of senses’. I had to laugh when he tried to enjoy fajitas with no taste the other night and experienced the sheer horror and pain of not being able to taste. WHO’S LAUGHING NOW HEY?! Well, I didn’t laugh for too long as he was very poorly and I’m not that cruel.

We’re very, very fortunate to have loved ones around us who are checking in on us daily and seeing whether there’s anything that we need given that we can’t leave the house. One of my beautiful friends dropped a bunch of supplies and home made tomato soup for us one day too, which was such a treat! I know many people aren’t so lucky, so I’m extremely grateful for this right now. I’m also happy that we have a large wine stock in, as it would have felt a bit embarrassing when my in-laws have been asking me if there’s anything we need and I’d have to respond “yeah – 6 bottles of wine please”, so that’s good, pleased about that.

James would be better writing this week’s post given that he’s well and truly milking the rona for all it’s worth right now, and is enjoying doing nothing but watching TV constantly while I clean the house, do all the washing up, make food, entertain our super hyperactive high maintenance brat dog, oh and just that little thing called work! Still, being stuck at home and unable to do anything else, I have managed to ingest some interesting stuff this last week, which I’m sharing below!

Reading

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

I’ve had this book on my bookshelf for years, and never gotten around to reading it. I saw recently that one of my favourite authors Libby Page shared that this was one of her favourite books, and given that I was in need of a new venture, I decided to give it a go. I spent the first half of the book feeling a bit apathetic towards it, but it’s started to pick up a bit in the second half. I’ve actually tried to read this over the years but never quite managed it, I’m guessing that’s probably why.

I really want to read more this year, and my friends are sending me great recommendations but I’m always open to more. If you’ve read something brilliant lately (preferably something not too dark right now – times are dark enough) send it my way please, especially right now whilst I’m still in isolation!

Watching

Pieces of a Woman

TRIGGER WARNING – Themes of Infant Loss/ Grief/ Depression

With James being bedbound with COVID and me having no work on Saturday just gone, I decided to get around to the household tasks that I can never be bothered to get around to (you know the types – deep cleaning the oven, rearranging the cupboards – that sort of thing). When making my way through my humongous pile of ironing, I saw this on Netflix and knew James would never watch it, so I decided to make the most of him being bedbound (after I looked after him and made sure he had everything he needed of course!).

I thought this film was absolutely brilliant. It was powerful, raw, engaging and emotional and I had to keep stopping my ironing to just stand and watch it because I was mesmerised at times. Some of the scenes were incredible and I thought it was a really well put together film! Beware of the themes of child loss, depression, and grief, if you feel that you will be affected by any of these then I’d strongly recommend you don’t watch it, as those themes are integral throughout.

Good Luck Marine!

My local football team (at home home in Liverpool) made it to the third round of the FA cup, and whilst I don’t really understand what that means, I understood it was a huge deal because they were playing Tottenham, which are a huge team in the Premier League. I found it fascinating that they were going to be heading to my hometown of Crosby, but moreso because the football ground is very small, and on a road that’s always a nightmare to get down anyway, so I could only imagine the chaos it would be when there’s large coaches etc. It was funny to see it on TV and hearing people talking about Crosby and how tiny the ground was, and when watching it live you could see the row of houses on the road behind it, all numbered so if the ball went over the fence, somebody would know what number house to knock on and get it back. I guess it’s quite novelty for Premier League footballers to play in such tiny settings, but it was great to see it on TV, especially when a drone zoomed right out and my house will have been somewhere in the picture. I was really sad to see them lose, despite it kind of being inevitable.

I loved this video (link above because WordPress still don’t embed from Facebook!!!) with well wishes from all local places around Crosby, and it made me feel really homesick, but happy at the same time. I can’t wait to spend some time at home with my family once all this lockdown business ends again and it’s safe to.

Listening

Saltwater – Chicane and Maire Brennan

My wonderful friend reminded me recently that trance exists, she was listening to Trance classics in the background of a voice note and apologized for her guilty pleasure. I don’t know how I forgot about this as it’s all I used to listen to growing up, and I still do really love it. I put on a trance playlist when I needed a bit of energy writing a really boring bit of copy, and I was instantly reminded of how much I love this genre of music.

I also really want to get back to a club and dance – I’m craving things like this. Listening to stuff like this makes me imagine I was in huge clubs in the 90s partying away like my life depended on it. I used the term imagine and not reminisce, because in the 90’s I was aged between 1 and 10, so definitely wasn’t in clubs.

Before You Go…

I’m pretty much off social media at the moment (see post here) and realised I usually get a lot of my content for these posts from something I’ve seen online. It’s been strange not being online as much (well – scrolling), and I’m looking forward to evaluating the experience at the end of the month!

I am still on Insta a little bit, and I’m really loving the amount of people (celebrities or well-known people too) who are taking to Instagram lives or similar platforms to interact with their followers in ways. For example, Sophie Tea Art did a live tutorial on how to create your own artwork in her signature style. Marianne Power has done writing for fun workshops and the latest one this week, Marian Keyes has done a live Q&A about writing a novel, and there’ll be another one every Monday for the next four weeks. I know at the start of lockdown last year, artists started doing intimate live gigs from their homes, but it seems that everybody’s got on board nowadays and offering whatever they can – all for free! I think it’s absolutely amazing what people have done in the lockdowns, and it’s a time we’ll all look back on with gratitude (as well as, you know, sadness and bitterness and hatred towards lockdowns!)

So that’s it from me this week, here’s hoping I don’t catch the rona off James, I’ve been dosing up on my daily vitamins etc. just in case! And all being well, I’ll see you next week for your 5 minute coffee break!