Surviving COVID

How to Sur vive COVID without Really Tr ying!

By Liz Clark

What did you achieve during the lockdowns in 2020? Did you take up belly dancing, study Russian or Chinese, discover felting, paint a portrait, explore your family’s history or install a water feature in the garden?

Maybe, like many other residents, you finally got round to painting the house, remodelling the garden, finished some craft projects that had been sitting around for a while, or you sorted out your pantry? Perhaps music consoled you, or a new hobby, or just time to stop for awhile was therapeutic. People will give you a funny little smile when they talk about how much sourdough bread they baked, how much chutney they manufactured or how many scarves they knitted to help them fill in time during the COVID lockdowns, but it is so interesting to hear how people managed those long and difficult days through the winter that never seemed to end.

At my house, Simon used some of the many skills he has been honing at the Men’s Shed by renovating two very old and tired garden benches we had in the garden. He dismantled them, removed old paint and dirt and rust, sanded and scraped, then painted and varnished them until he produced something not only as good as new, but vastly improved models of their former glory.

As COVID began, I was recovering from a knee replacement and happy to be less active than normal. I found YouTube and subsequent new skills that showed me how to enhance my old hobby of card-making with some very interesting and innovative ideas – cards that twist and fold and move and surprise and become three dimensional and alive in their own way. I had such fun. I played the piano a lot. I exercised the knee.

I also kept a daily diary to record not only the ongoing reports that kept us all in touch with daily events (or non events), but also allowed me to write down how I felt, my opinions about life, how I appreciated kindnesses from others, how I could still make a

difference in other people’s lives too. Reading it back now it proves that I didn’t nearly die from boredom. It provides anecdotal evidence of an important time in our history and has lead me to begin this article on what to do when you have nothing to do. A short survey has produced an interesting range of other people’s activities. Elizabeth revealed that she was finally able to give herself permission to read a book all day if she felt like it – and admits to doing so fairly often. She also loved spending hours in the garden, growing flowers and produce to eat, as well as reorganising her studio and learning new card-making skills. Marion’s dear friend called in almost every day to take her for a walk and she became much steadier on her feet. She particularly enjoyed the day they went to the mouth of the river and walked out to hear and see the ocean –she hadn’t done this for a long time. Friends unpacked all their old photos, sorted them so they could make some photo books, but packed them all up again – it was too hard. Many of the crafty women in town made gowns, masks and hats for medical staff in the local hospitals. Well done, all of you. Judith spent lots of time putting jigsaws together, and also made clothes to send to her grandchildren overseas.

Many people reported how much they enjoyed walking each day, talking to people they passed, observing nature and the wonderful flower display in the bush. One day, a frog serenade greeted Sue and Rick along the river. Others commented on the bird life around them, their new attention to little things, and walking time that allowed them to contemplate and think and just be – quietly. Of course, there were many families who were forced to undertake home schooling or to work from home, and so many of them learned new computer skills, were able to push themselves to be more creative, lots reported enjoying time with their kids (or not), playing games with them, and getting to know them better. Zoom and Whats App proved to be wonderful resources for chatting with family and friends, sharing photos and recipes, and staying in touch. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all positive for many people. Those with family members in Nursing Homes had their hearts broken as they were unable to see them, be with them, or check how they were going.

Many had to get used to being on their own all day, every day, and to find the resources to keep busy and sane. And we all wept over the TV reports coming in from overseas of emergency wards, sick people, mass graves, dire predictions for the future.

Didn’t we miss the library bus, having coffee with friends, being able to go shopping, the Men’s Shed and the Art House, book clubs and birthday celebrations, weddings, ‘normal’ football and just the freedom to go where we wanted to, when we wanted to.

Didn’t we hate wearing masks on the beach, Zoom meetings, daily reports from the government, the sense of hopelessness that overwhelmed us ever so often? Didn’t we just want it all to go away?

So many of us would normally pack up vans or travel north for winter, but there was none of that either. I know a couple of people who slept in their vans for a night or two, just to get the feeling of being elsewhere. Others spent hours trying to get refunds on planned trips and holidays, and although the weekend newspapers continued to try to lure us to take holidays in beautiful places, we read their ads and stories with heavy hearts, knowing that this wouldn’t happen any time in the near future.

There was a very popular move to home cooking, and innovative chefs learnt to cook a wider variety of meals, chutneys, jams, preserves –often from YouTube.

Unfortunately, this, along with the bread people shared with each other, lead to slight increases in waist lines. One good thing about this was that we were no longer able to have face-toface appointments with the local doctors, so they couldn’t remind us of our broadening beams or those few extra kilos that crept up on us.

COVID is still with us but hopefully we have learned new skills, gained new insights, and found new ways to make the most of each day, support one another, and find something to do when there is nothing to do.