Dropping before your Shopping

Afternoon everyone, 

13th week of this madness we all call lockdown in the UK. At this moment in time I write to you as being only a few hours left being on furlough (or signed off sick - whichever it may be). Whilst I spoke last week and in previous weeks that the time off has been helping with my mental well-being and stress levels, although I must say I am looking back to getting back to a "New Normal" as this last week has been difficult to occupy my time since all my projects and errands had been completed, mostly anyway. 

And so things do seem to be looking up. Figures from the BBC have confirmed that just 38 people have died today from COVID-19 (Monday 15 June 2020). With the "R" rate and new cases falling in recent weeks I am pleased and hoping for this to come to a steady end very soon. I spoke last week on the comparison to other countries such as New Zealand where they had fully opened up the country due to no new cases, something which I can only hope for soon and not yet experienced an unsettlingly high spike in deaths or new cases. 

In a report from Sky News, today, Monday 15 June 2020 saw demand across England's High Streets surge as some non-essential shops reopened for the first time after a three-month lockdown. The well-known news outlet confirmed that high streets, retail parks and Malls were bustling with shoppers again as the shutters are lifted after months of uncertainty and inactivity. Gone are the posters about Easter and Mothering Sunday and with no use for the spring posters and advertisements with pictures of lambs and chicks. Oh no, we were in Summer now baby! 

Whilst the rules of shopping and etiquette have changed it apparently hadn't put off swarms of shoppers lining the streets and as shops welcomed back customers for the first time in 12 weeks I did have to consider how I would spend my last day in furlough with little responsibilities of the normal 9-5. Sky News confirmed that the footfall on high streets, retail parks and shopping centres in England was up over 40% in comparison with last week, according to a survey by retail experts Springboard this morning. I had considered popping out to the shops today, although I use that term in the loosest of ways as you can never just "pop" somewhere now, its more of a "pooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop" - and yes with the poop emoji in there for good measure because let's be honest this is all shit. 

Despite all this, however, one customer spoke to outside (oh what a surprise a queue) the Apple Store in London had said that whilst she was happy and pleased about shops reopening, she was not so keen on all the queuing and that it made her think twice about whether she needs something from that shop - something which I think many, many people can relate to. I certainly know I can. 

I think as time goes on, however, I am still irritated with all of this Corona-queueing. I hate queuing at the best of times. I can be (only sometimes) a grumpy and impatient old lady and standing there wasting my precious time and life by queueing. There are plenty of things I want to occupy my last few months of being in my twenties doing such as travelling and enjoying life before kids and bigger mortgages. Queuing outside IKEA for a fucking lampshade in the pissing rain is not one of them and neither is any other queue I might add. Queuing for this and queueing for that. I am done with it all. I am bored with it all. Gone. Gone are the days when you could just walk into a shop and buy your crap and get out. No. Now I have to stand in the rain for 40-minutes just to try and take back some T-shirt's which didn't fit my fat-ass because of COVID eating, a trip in-store which took all of about 5-minutes, if that. So yeah, I suppose you could say I am at the end of my tether with it. It is all just so pointless. 

Regardless of this and my ranting, one of the places I considered and was at the top of my shopping hit list was my local shopping-retail-centre-park-thing in Bletchley near Milton Keynes. But on reading online from the MKCitizen I was dissuaded as it seemed the town (and the rest of the bloody county) had gone crazy as shoppers wait for up to two hours just to get into Primark with a staggering 200 people at least in the queues that stretched the length of the car-park. And Bedford wasn't any better being a smaller town centre the wait there was over the 120-minute mark.

Scrolling through my news feed, I was shocked that people were tweeting and looking down their noses at people queuing for non-essential clothing stores. With meme's popping up all over Insta and Facebook, I thought about how privileged these people must be, the keyboard warriors shaming people of where they shop, or more importantly, where they can maybe only afford to shop. The MKCitizen reported one cynic as saying that Lockdown has been going on for 84-days, which, in the grand scheme of things isn't a long time and in his words "you really have to wonder what people need so desperately that they're willing to queue for hours and hours for." 

A fair and valid comment, this got me thinking to myself and about me and my life during lockdown, but also about others I knew - People with children or who are pregnant and with a growing family. Maybe standing in those queues, should I have found myself in one of those situations, I would have thought it would be worth it. In the space of three-months children have grown out of everything and why spend a fortune in other shops on clothes they will barely get a few wears out of before having to size-up again. I myself have put on the pounds, pretty much returning to the weight I was before doing Slimming World at the back end of last year and earlier this year. For me, some new clothes would be nice. I suppose like most people I am looking for a boost of confidence, especially so and very much needed when there isn't much to be confident about in the media at the moment ...  

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx

Snowmageddon

Hello one and all! 

So with the new found confidence I discovered in a bar last week down in Bedford's grim town centre of a Friday night I battled the storms and winter weather just as everyone else did admit Storm Emma and the dreaded Beast from The East. England and the rest of the UK was in for a chilly reminder that winter is yet to be over this last week and whilst it is nearly Easter and should be all spring time sunshine, flowers, bunnies and lambs - This is far from the reality of Blighty weather. 

With apply named Beast from The East, the colder weather coming across from Russia being blown by Siberia and picking up some icy chills on the way the temperatures plummeted to rival the sinking of the Titanic and blizzard snow's hampering travel plans and all manner of daily activities life for some across the British Isles this week has not been great. All was but for a minor inconvenience until Storm Emma forcing the MET Office to issue a red weather warning foreboding to a loss of life should people be caught up in the outside winds of 70mph coupled with the already existing polar vortex from Beast from The East with forecasts for -15C wind chills and snowdrifts nearly as tall as you. Yes you! 

As the snow fell carnage descended as shelves were left empty as shoppers (and general idiots) grabbed everything they could (including wiping one Tesco I went into completely of cake) in order to brave the potentially long winter nights ahead. Delays of two hours were a pleasant surprise for some people where others were stuck for hours or sometimes a couple of days on end in the middle of motorways and A-roads up and down the country. 

Call me cynical and don't get me wrong I don't live very far North of London so weather here in the comfy Home-Counties was not adverse by anyone's standards but I just don't get it when people freak the fuck out about a little bit of the white stuff. I mean it is to be expected, we are an island off the coast of some of the coldest places in the entire world; Russia, Siberia, Iceland and the Artie just to name a few, and that's not including places right on our door step like Scotland, Norway and Sweden all suffering from much snowier weather during the winter months. But they deal with it in a much better way. Heated paths and walkways so people don't slip over and better public transport that doesn't just break under the strain of a few snowflakes. I understand that for the UK the methods used in other countries are both costly and something that would not necessarily be beneficial for the people of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but it does question about how they seem to have got a grip on things over there when the weather gets bad. 

Now I get that not everyone was that lucky enough like me and Mr. Warehouse to have the snow disappear on Saturday Afternoon as it did in Bedfordshire. I understand that to be in a car for over sixteen-hours potentially with a newborn baby with little or no water or food and only a blanket to keep warm or if you were stuck at home awaiting an ambulance to come and help you when you need it most it is not ideal and when weather is poor it only exasperates the situation and makes it worse. I, like others, have watched the news and listened to the radio hearing stories of wonderful community spirit and people being labelled as Snow Angels for the acts of heroism from John O'Groats to Lands End and everywhere in-between. And it is those moments that make me proud to be British, regardless of the weather - Come rain or shine we all stick together!

'Til next time, Love A.Lou xx