SEPTEMBER 2021

Thursday 2 September 2021

Heading down to Cornwall again and instead of staying with my sister (my nephew has Covid, so I'm playing it safe), I'm staying with my Bestie, C, in Nuneaton. It's her daughter's birthday so all her family are here and we're having a Chinese takeaway. Yum! Am I any safer staying here with her three grown up children and their partners than I am staying at my sisters, where my nephew is holed up in his bedroom? Who knows?!

Friday 3 September 2021

Back in St Ives. I love this place. My sister, J, and her partner, S, have also come to stay overnight as they are setting off from Lands End on Sunday to cycle to John O'Groats. I knew it would be far too busy for us to get into any of the pubs this evening so we had a bottle of Prosecco on the beach before going out for dinner at a restaurant that I'd booked ages ago. Seems to be mega busy in St Ives.

Sunday 5 September 2021 

'Cyclists Tour de Britain' day and they passed through St Ives in about 2 mins. Lol!

My sister, J, and her partner, S, stayed with me on Friday night (before setting off to cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats today) and they couldn't believe how busy it was in St Ives. Mmmmm........... they live in the middle of nowhere in the North Yorkshire Dales so obviously anywhere they go is going to be busier than there.

They came down on the train and they said that the further South they got, the less mask wearing people they saw. I'm surprised they saw anyone wearing a mask because they got on the train at Darlington and England abolished masks weeks ago.

Apparently Cornwall is the Covid hotspot of the UK. Well it's bound to be isn't it? No one can go abroad so it feels like the whole world has been here on staycations. There again, the Covid rates in Edinburgh, (where I've just come from) are very high.

Am I worried? Do I feel as if I'm putting myself at risk? Of course I don't. Most of us have been double jabbed now. We just have to learn to live with Covid. And for those of us who still feel that Covid is a threat.......................... then stay in and don't go out for the rest of your lives.

Everyone has a choice?????????

Monday 6 September 2021

Took Trixie, the Collie pup, to Agility Classes this morning. It's really lovely that life seems to be back to normal here in Cornwall and I can do stuff like this.

Tuesday 7 September 2021

Absolutely love it in St Ives. How lovely are these sunrise photos that I took on the morning dog walk.

Hindsight is a great thing. If on the 23 March 2020, Boris had said.................. the whole world is going to be closed for more than 18 months; decide where you want to live.......... I would have just packed up and come back to St Ives. But of course that didn't happen. We were told we were going to be locked up for three weeks. Three weeks? That's what we were told. And then it was another three weeks. And another and another. Until now, more than 18 months later and in Scotland we're still not free.

And in the last 18 months I've lost 8 months of income because I haven't been able to rent out my house here. Nor have I been able to get a job in Edinburgh because it would seem that everyone in Edinburgh just wants to employ students. And if they don't want to employ students, then you have to go through ridiculous online psychometric tests and zillions of online interviews just to get a minimum wage job. It's like common sense doesn't exist anymore. And yet if I'd actually been living here, I know that I would have been able to get a 12 week contract working in a supermarket, at the start of lock down, which no doubt would have been extended once I'd got to the end of my contract. Or I could have just walked into one of the numerous shops/restaurants/pubs in town and said, 'Give me a job'.

Obviously the government were dealing with an unknown virus and the UK has never been in this position before, but personally, I just feel as though I've been living in limbo since the 23 March 2020. If I had known how long this lock down was going to go on for and how isolated I would be in Edinburgh, I would never, ever have stayed there.

I was one of the lucky ones. I had a choice. I had a house in Cornwall, which, had I known all the facts on 23 March 2020, I would have moved to for the duration. I would still be there now and I would have got a job in Tesco and I would have been a 'keyworker' throughout the whole of lockdown. Right from the beginning.

BUT................. unfortunately, the government took that choice away from me. I was told that I had to stay in Scotland. I was told that I couldn't go to my 'other' home. I was told that lock down was only going to be for three weeks.

…...........And after three weeks, when the lock down was extended to another three weeks, and then another and another, I had already been indoctrinated to following the rules.

I will NEVER, EVER, let anyone isolate me in this way, ever again!!!

Sunday 12 September 2021

Apparently Cornwall is one of the worst infected areas of the country. Well that's only to be expected as it seems like the whole world has been squeezing into Cornwall all summer for staycations. There again the infection rates in Edinburgh are pretty high too but that's probably because it is a major tourist spot and has loads of visitors. I might be living in dreamland but I'm pretty sure that if I catch Covid it will be because I've been squashed onto an Edinburgh bus.

I know without a shadow of a doubt, that had I been locked up in St Ives instead of Edinburgh my life would have been totally different. For starters I would have bumped into real live people, on my daily dog walks, who I knew and who I could stand and chat to outside. Living in a 4^th floor flat in Edinburgh I didn't even have the option to meet neighbours. And all the normal dog walking routes in Edinburgh just became so ridiculously busy once Boris told everyone that they had to go out for their daily exercise, that I used to trek the dog for miles round the city centre because it was quiet there. It will be really interesting to find out what is going to happen to all these dogs that were purchased during lock down. I bet a lot of them will end up in rescue centres.

Friday 17 September 2021

The cases of Covid in St Ives are still really high. There's a sign about four miles out of town warning people that they are entering a Covid hotspot. 'Stay safe, wash hands, wear masks', etc. Does anyone take any notice? Of course they don't. The visitors are still piling into St Ives and the town is busier in September than I've ever known it.

Am I worried? Of course I'm not. Yes, it's mega busy here but like the majority of visitors, I've come from a big city where thousands of people are crowded together. For example the buses in Edinburgh hold 150 people and are pretty much as busy as they were before lock down. Therefore walking through narrow, crowded streets, outdoors, doesn't really seem like much of a risk in comparison.

As far as I'm concerned, life is pretty much normal here. I can't think of one single thing that I've wanted to do here that I haven't been allowed to do. I don't even need to wear a mask if I don't want to. And I HATE wearing masks so not having to wear one is a great relief.

The difference between living in the capital city of Scotland and a small seaside town in the South West of England is VAST, ENORMOUS, MASSIVE!!!

Obviously this pandemic could never have been predicted but as a single person in lock down my life/mental health would have been so much different if we'd been locked down in St Ives.

Saturday 18 September 2021

Went to the 'Food & Drink' festival on Porthminster Beach today. It's normally held in May but was postponed until today.

Thursday 23 September 2021

Since lock down I've become a bit of a recluse and hardly ever go out at night anymore. This evening I forced myself to go for a walk around town. Was lovely to see St Nicholas's chapel lit up for organ donation week.

Friday 24 September 2021

Today the news is full of people panic buying petrol/diesel. Why do people do that? It's like the toilet rolls/pasta thing at the start of lock down. I'm sure that there will be some households that will have toilet rolls and pasta to last them for the next 20 years. If people just shopped normally, there would be more than enough to go round. And actually there's not a shortage of petrol/diesel.......... there's just a shortage of drivers to deliver it and if things get really bad then the army will be drafted in to deliver it to the petrol stations, so lets not all panic yet!

Saturday 25 September 2021

Drove up to Newquay Airport this morning to pick up K, who has come to stay for a few days. Thank goodness I filled up with diesel on Wednesday because I certainly wouldn't have got any today. The queues at all the petrol stations was humongous.