JULY 2020
JULY 2020
Wednesday 1 July 2020
OMG! We've been locked down for 100 days. On the 23 March 2020, when we were told that we had to be locked down for 3 weeks, who would ever have thought it would have morphed into this? But actually, it's become a way of life now.
Whilst some restrictions have been lifted (and I've driven all the way from Scotland to Cornwall to spruce up my house ready for holiday makers), my life hasn't really changed that much since 23 March. I'm still isolated and alone, although when I was doing the dog walk this afternoon, I did pop into my friend, Ds garden, for a social distancing chat.
100 days in lock down. This really does have to end soon.
Thursday 2 July 2020
The highlight of my week during lock down has been my weekly shop to Aldi and D&Ms songs & sundowners sessions which they've been streaming live from their shed every Thursday evening. As things are getting back to normal on Saturday (whatever normal may be), I went to D&Ms garden so that I could watch the last session live. I sat outside in the garden with a glass of wine and watched as D played his last songs and sundowners session.
Thank you D&M. You have no idea how much enjoyment I have had from these weekly sessions.
Friday 3 July 2020
The last day before hoards of holiday makers descend on Cornwall. 80,000 of them apparently. .....20,000 of which are coming to St Ives.
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Went for a long trek about with Trixie, the Collie pup. All the beaches were pretty much empty. The car parks were empty too. I walked to Lelant via the road and came back via the coastal path. The coastal path was very overgrown, presumably because cutting it back hasn't been considered essential work. Not sure how social distancing is going to work on the coast path because there's no way that anyone could stay 1m away from someone else whilst passing them. Having said that, there's no way that anyone will be able to stay 1m apart from others in the narrow streets either.
It's actually quite scary to think that the population of St Ives is going to more than double in the next 24 hrs. And the weather forecast isn't great for tomorrow either which means there's going to be lots of grumpy holiday makers in town. After working in hospitality for more than 20 years, I know that holiday makers are always grumpy if the weather is bad.
Just imagine it. 80,000 people all driving down the A30 in the rain and not being able to get into their accommodation until 7pm (to allow for the extra cleaning time), not being able to go onto the beaches because it will be too wet, and not going to be allowed to just walk into a pub/restaurant. It's going to be mayhem.
Not my problem though so I won't worry about it.
Saturday 4 July 2020
The media are calling this 'Super Saturday' and I have to say it has been rather super. I went to a friends house for wine & dinner. At last some kind of normality.
It's very busy in town and all the car parks are full. Having said that it doesn't seem nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Everyone is supposed to walk on the left. That doesn't really seem to be working and there's not a great deal of social distancing going on. To be honest the streets are far to narrow for anything like that to work properly, but hey ho if you're that scared of catching Covid then you shouldn't come to a place like St Ives.
Sunday 5th July 2020
Went for a 7 mile walk through Tehidy Woods to Hells Mouth and back. Cornwall doesn't seem to be too busy at all. There were no problems on the A30 getting to Tehidy and no queues at Aldi when I popped in for a couple of bottles of Prosecco. Maybe things are getting back to normal after all.
Monday 6th July 2020
Today has been almost normal, whatever the new normal may be. What a lovely, lovely day.
Coffee in the garden with M&C, went to the hairdressers and got my hair cut and then this evening out to the Cellar Bistro with P&C for dinner.
Tuesday 7 July 2020
D came round for a few glasses of wine on the sun terrace. Life just feels like normal here. That's what we'd be doing in normal times.
Even though St Ives is now pretty much opened up to holiday makers for the summer; the contrast between lock down in a city and lock down in a small seaside town is incredible. Although there's a lot of tourists around it still seems really quiet to me. Obviously all the restaurant/pubs are pretty much booked up and I don't think you'd manage to get into one without a booking. However, I walked past the Co-op at 9am today and there wasn't a queue. No queue at a supermarket. Wow! About a month ago I walked past my local Waitrose at 7.40am (it doesn't open till 8am) and there were already 17 people in the queue.
There's a lot of arguments for and against holiday makers coming to Cornwall. FB is filled with some very anti holiday maker, stay away messages. Personally I want holiday makers to keep coming. They're my income and I haven't had any for three months.
Obviously everyone has to be kept safe, but after more than three months in lock down, people have to take responsibility for themselves and work out what is best for them. Personally, I think I've 'done my bit' now. I don't want to catch Covid, but I want to be locked up even less, so for me, I'm prepared to take the risk and go out and about.
I still think it's going to take a long time to get completely back to normal though.
Wednesday 8 July 2020
Only one more day in St Ives. My house is booked out until the end of September, but I so wish I could just stay here for the summer. I guess I'd better take the chance to make some money while I can though.
Thursday 9 July 2020
Today is my last day in St Ives and apart from a walk with M&C, I've been cleaning. I've done as much cleaning as I possibly can. If people are paranoid about staying in a property where other people have been and don't want to touch things that other people have touched, then they shouldn't be coming on holiday. I've left them plenty of cleaning materials and will be doing one final hoover tomorrow before I leave and that's it!
It will be interesting to see if anything has changed in Scotland when I get back.
Friday 10 July 2020
Heading back to Edinburgh and stopped off to see my friends C&T. We sat in the garden.
I'm getting very confused with the rules now. Haven't got a clue what I'm allowed to do in Scotland.
Saturday 11 July 2020
Stayed overnight with my sister last night (I can do that because I've formed a 'social bubble' with her family) before heading back to Edinburgh today.
Stopped at Spittal Beach (just south of the Scottish border) so that Trixie, the Collie pup, could have a play. It's a massive beach but I have to say there wasn't much social distancing going on at the takeaway food outlets along the prom. Also, I'm not sure what the rules are for the number of people that can meet up outside. Is it 6? There were a lot of big groups playing cricket/rounders etc. Is that allowed in England?
And now I need to have a FB rant.....................
My FB feed is absolutely full of pictures of people in Cornish towns and villages of people who are not social distancing. I would say that there are three reasons for this...............
The streets in most Cornish towns/villages are so narrow that following social distancing guidelines are almost impossible and will almost definitely get worse as the season progresses.
Holiday makers will almost certainly have arrived from large cities/towns where they are used to a lot of people walking around in close proximity. Ie, the difference between life in Edinburgh and life in St Ives over the last couple of weeks has been like chalk and cheese. Even after the 4th July, when all the hospitality venues opened up, it still wasn't as busy as it is in a city. We know that a lot of the locals have been panicking about the number of people in town but to me................... it's like, what people? It really doesn't seem that busy at all.
Holiday makers are known for leaving their brains behind when they come on holiday so whereas they may try to social distance at home, they seem to think that because they're at the seaside that Covid won't strike?!!
…............And then what usually happens on these FB posts is that there's hundreds of comments from locals and tourists having a go at each other. Honestly it's getting ridiculous. Same old, same old. I actually find the whole argument quite amusing. Everyone knows that thousands of tourists descend on Cornwall in the summer. Everyone knows that Boris has opened up hospitality. Everyone has been locked up for more than 3 months so why do some people think that holiday makers shouldn't visit Cornwall. Everyone knows about social distancing, washing hands, etc and everyone knows that not everyone adheres to the rules.
Why are all these posts popping up on FB every day. Obviously I don't have to read them all but as I'm quite nosey, I do!
Which brings me to my next point..................... What is the definition of a Cornish local? I'd lived in Cornwall for more than 20 years, when I decided that I'd like to spend more time in my flat in Edinburgh. At which point I registered Edinburgh as my main home and my St Ives house as my second home. In retrospect that was a bad move. But how could I have predicted that I wouldn't have been able to visit my own home for more than three months. I've adhered to all the lock down rules for three months but if there's ever another lock down I certainly won't be told which house I can and can't live in.
I totally understand that there's only 15 ICU beds in the one main hospital in Cornwall and I totally understand that a large proportion of the population is elderly and vulnerable but to be totally honest if second home owners are paying full council tax, why shouldn't they be entitled to full council amenities. Am I to get a refund of 3 months council tax for the months that I wasn't allowed to visit my own home?
And before anyone jumps on their high horse and starts ranting about holiday lets being registered as a business and being able to claim £10,000 worth of grants, don't even go there................... Even though I rent out my house when I'm not there, my house is registered as a second home because I don't rent it out for enough days for it to qualify as a business. ............I know that loads of people just ignore that rule and automatically have registered their second homes as businesses, even though they hardly ever rent them out. There doesn't seem to be any way of checking how many days these 'businesses' actually rent out their properties. In my opinion the whole system needs a complete overhaul to weed out all the people who are so blatantly cheating the system. I thought I was doing the honest thing by registering my home as a second home and not a business, but I think it's appalling that I haven't been allowed to visit a home that I have lived in since 2002, just because I am now choosing to spend two thirds of the year in Edinburgh.
OK rant over!!
I guess I'm going to have to spend the evening checking out the Scottish rules. Apparently masks are now mandatory in all Scottish shops and on all public transport. Guess I'm going to have to go shopping for masks tomorrow then. Yet another expense and is a mask really going to make that much difference? At the beginning of lockdown there were interviews with doctors on TV saying that masks weren't necessary and now it would seem there's been a massive u-turn and everyone has to wear them.
Sunday 12 July 2020
Went to see my friend, F, this afternoon and sat in the garden drinking Prosecco. And that's as exciting as it's got today.
Monday 13 July 2020
Tuesday 14 July 2020
Had two friends round for dinner tonight. Is this Scotland getting back to normal now.
No Covid deaths reported in Scotland in the last 6 days, but reports in the media of a winter spike which could kill 120,000 people. Who knows what to believe.
Wednesday 15 July 2020
Hospitality venues in Scotland have opened up today. Yay!
Thursday 16 July 2020
I've totally lost the plot as to the 'rules' in Scotland and England so I'm just doing my own thing now. Haven't a clue when my fitness club or swimming pools are going to re-open. I think it's the end of the month in England, but I can't find any information about when it is in Scotland. Why the whole of the UK can't have the same rules I don't know. It's not exactly like Covid is able to differentiate between England, Scotland and Wales, is it.
Walked some of the Fife coast path today. Took a no. 5 bus into town and then got a train to North Queensferry. There were only three other people on the whole of the train. Walked 13 miles to Burntisland, where I jumped on another train and came home. A lovely day.
Friday 17 July 2020
Saturday 18 July 2020
Walked another section of the Fife coast path today – Burntisland to East Wemyss. Got there and back on public transport, which I have to say was very efficient and not too busy. I just don't get it though. We're still not allowed to share cars with people we know and yet we're allowed to get on public transport with people we don't know. At least if we were sharing cars with people we knew, we'd have some idea of where they'd been and who they'd been mixing with. We could be sharing public transport with any old person!!
Sunday 19 July 2020
Monday 20 July 2020
I'm getting really confused about this 'track & trace' thing. I've booked to go out for lunch with some friends on Sunday and have left all my contact details. Does that mean that if someone else in the restaurant subsequently tests positive for Covid-19 then I will be contacted, and then I will have to contact my friends (because the restaurant doesn't have their details)? But, what I don't understand, if myself and friends then all isolate for 14 days, does the 14 days start from the day we were in the restaurant or the day that we get contacted? Chances are it's going to take a couple of days to contact us, by which time we'll all have been out all over the place mixing with all sorts of people. And all the adverts are saying, 'don't leave home, apart from to get tested', but if Covid has a 14 day incubation period what is the point of leaving home and getting tested for a test that will probably be negative. On the other hand, if we stay in for 14 days and don't have any symptons, do we then have to go and get tested and if the test is positive, do we have to stay in for a further 14 days? Or once the 14 days have passed does it not matter because we will no longer be infectious, in which case what is the point of a test? It is all very, very, confusing.
Just posted this question on FB and apparently in Scotland it's called, 'test & protect'. That's even more confusing. Why can't the whole of the UK just all do the same thing?
And I still don't get why I would have to isolate for 14 days just because someone over the other side of a restaurant has tested positive. I'm not going to be less than 2m away from anybody that I don't know for longer than 15 mins. And if my friends get it, then they will tell me. The 'rules' just seem to be totally unrealistic.
Tuesday 21 July 2020
Wednesday 22 July 2020
All this putting on and taking off of masks is driving me mad. Masks have been mandatory in Scotland in shops and on public transport for a while now but as far as I'm concerned that's not where they're needed. There's hardly anyone on public transport and people in the supermarkets are pretty good at social distancing.
From my experience masks should be mandatory in places like North Berwick High Street (where I went yesterday) or Fore St and the Wharf in St Ives (where I was a couple of weeks ago). I know that both these areas are outdoors but everyone is squished into narrow streets with there being no chance of staying 2m away from anyone else.
Popped into TKMax at Fort Kinnard Retail Park. I would like a new pair of trainers and a little bag to hold dog walking bits and bobs. For some reason TKMax have taken out half of their stock so the whole shopping experience was a waste of time. I don't know whether I would have been allowed to try on a pair of trainers anyway. It seems like any time something is touched it has to be taken off the shop floor and put into isolation. Fortunately I didn't have to queue to get in, but when I came out 5 mins later there were 9 people in the queue waiting to get in. Also the car park was absolutely mobbed so people must have been in all the other shops there.
Thursday 23 July 2020
When we were in lock down I resigned myself to the fact that all I did was take Trixie, the Collie pup, for two walks a day and go shopping for Mrs R, once a week. Now that we are supposedly out of lock down I feel as if I should be doing more. But, actually there's nothing to do. Especially when it rains all day, like it has today.
Took two bags of stuff to the charity shop this morning. I've got loads of stuff just sitting in my spare room waiting to be donated but can only manage two bags at a time. The first shop I went into said that they weren't opening until 5th August (even though the door was open and the staff were in there working). Not to worry. The charity shop next door took them.
Then I popped into Wilkies because I'd spotted a very lovely little 'Kippling' bag in the window which would be ideal for holding my bits and bobs. It had 30% off but 30% off £54 is still quite a lot for a bag that is basically just going to hold a few poo bags and a phone. I told the very lovely shop assistant that I would think about it and I had a very pleasurable 10 mins browsing around the shop. There's never more than 3-4 people in there during normal times.
There were no queues at Waitrose either so I popped in there for another pleasurable shopping experience. Haven't been in there for more than 4 months and it was lovely. Wide isles and speedy checkouts.
However, I am still very, very, bored!!!
Friday 24 July 2020
Had a lovely day out in Ayr today visiting my friend, I. On days like this it almost feels like we are getting back to normal. But, is life ever going to be normal again? Who knows? And all of a sudden, it's dark at 10.30pm. All I keep thinking is; 'this time next year'! Surely life will be back to normal by then?
Saturday 25 July 2020
Went for a mooch around town this morning. Jumped on a very empty no 23 bus and went to a very empty Prince's St. Went into a very empty Primark. Was too scared to touch anything because one is not supposed to handle the goods. Sanitised my hands a couple of times. Not really sure why because I didn't touch anything. It was a very unpleasant experience so I decided to leave. Got to the front door and realised it was the 'in' door. Had to go all the way to the back of the shop and exit via the Rose St exit. Why? There's three doors at the front of the shop. I think they could have organised that a bit better.
Next stop – a very empty M&S and unlike Primark, where the shop assistants were just standing around talking to each other, the assistants were very attentive, so every two secs I was being asked if I wanted any help. I didn't! Sanitised my hands a couple more times but I found the whole experience too intrusive so I left.
TK Max was just as empty. More hand sanitising. Tried on a pair of trainers, using the 'pop socks provided for you protection'. And after that I was so fed up with the whole eerily quiet shopping experience that I jumped on an almost empty no 11 bus and came home.
I can't see the city centre shops surviving if this is what it's like on a Saturday.
It's mandatory to wear masks in empty shops and on empty public transport, but it's not mandatory to wear them while walking along a crowded narrow street, ie North Berwick or St Ives.
This afternoon while I was out on the dog walk I spotted queues outside all of the charity shops, ice cream shops and chocolate shop. People were standing less than 2m away from each other but they don't have to put their masks on until they get inside the shop. The whole situation is just mad!
Sunday 26 July 2020
Out for lunch with the girlies today. There were five of us squashed in a little 'beach hut' in a beer garden. I can't say I was particularly worried but apparently we could do that because we were 'outside'.
Stopped off for a drink with one of the girls on the way home and even though we were sitting outside we had to have our temperatures taken.
The rules don't seem to be very consistant. Every business just seems to be doing it's own thing.
Monday 27 July 2020
Tuesday 28 July 2020
Went to K's birthday party. The party started off outdoors and ended up indoors. Is that allowed? There was probably about 12 of us there. Who knows what the rules are anymore.
Wednesday 29 July 2020
Went out for cocktails and lunch with a friend.
Thursday 30 July 2020
Went for a walk along the canal this afternoon and two things struck me as strange. Firstly the electronic sign that tells us how many cyclists have used the path today said 105 (at 3.30pm) which I think is pretty much normal. I would have thought that it would have been lower seeing as a lot of people are still working from home.
Secondly, I could see the bottom of the canal. It's not very deep but I'm guessing that you can see the bottom now because the barges aren't going anywhere so aren't churning up the water.
S came round for dinner tonight. It's nice to get back to our regular eating and drinking shenanigans.
Friday 31 July 2020
Did a 'meet & greet' today. First one in four months. Yes I did wear a mask and yes I did sanitise my hands. Not really sure why because I didn't shake hands. Lovely family, mum, dad and two teenage girls. We all stood 2m apart while I explained a few things to them. I was only there for about 5 mins so I'm pretty sure I didn't put myself in danger of catching Covid-19.
S came round this morning for coffee and a bacon roll. She doesn't like being outside so we stayed indoors and sat on separate sofas.
Popped up to see F this afternoon and we shared a bottle of Prosecco in the garden.
And just like that, we're at the end of July. What a strange summer this is.
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