‘It’s been nearly three weeks since the UK went into partial lockdown. While the majority of people have slowed down and stayed at home, over at Casa Tam, life has been hectic…’

Despite being overwhelmed with work, doing far more hours, losing income on my writing contracts, and being unable to buy unlimited stocks of fizzy fangs, I’ve managed to find some silver linings to the current shit storm clouds. Let me explain…

Traffic

We live in a coastal town on the beautiful Welsh coast. It’s incredibly popular with tourists so driving here during holidays and weekends can be a pretty stressful business. My route to work from home in North Wales to Machynlleth in Mid Wales takes me anywhere between an hour to one hour 10 minutes. I’m currently making the trip in 50 minutes. This isn’t because I’ve gone all Sterling Moss, it’s just because, well…there’s barely anyone else on the road. I can take my time and look at the scenery or just count the number of Mansel Davies trucks I pass each day.  Either way, it could be worse.

Car Singing

One of my favourite stress-busters is singing at the top of my lungs in my car.  Over the past few weeks, my music and my singing are even louder than normal. I’ve even indulged in a spot of dancing on more than a few occasions.  One of the best things about the whole singing thing is that I no longer feel it necessary to turn my volume down when I stop at traffic lights. Before Covid19, I was always conscious of looking like a crazy woman, but now there’s no one there to see (or hear) me. I can be found, singing along to some ear-drum bursting John Mayer, at any number of red lights across South Gwynedd on a weekday morning.

Wine

I appear to have come to the general conclusion that, if we’re all going to die, I can drink wine on a school night and it doesn’t count. Clearly, this isn’t the healthiest choice but I could care less, to be honest. I figure it’ll stop me from killing someone at work (customers, not colleagues…), so it can only be for the greater good in the long run. Plus, I’m helping the economy in this, the roughest of times. You’re welcome, winemakers of Italy.

Money

The other day, my banking app informed me that, in March, I spent £500 less than in February. This is because I haven’t been able to travel, even at weekends. Also, I haven’t really been buying anything (wine, excluded). I’m also working over-time, so I’m earning more and spending less. When all this is over, I’ll probably invest in some diamond-encrusted pyjamas and one of those awesome pimp coats, so I can laze around in style.

Doggos

Now that people have largely been told to stay home, many are only leaving the house to exercise their dogs. This means there are fewer people out and, even when they are around, they’ve often got lovely four-legged friends with them. This is my idea of a perfect world, to be honest. The only downside is that I can’t actually approach these doggos for a snuggle. I do send them all my love from across the street, though. I’ve been keeping a diary of those I’ve missed and hope to go back to them once it’s all over.

Divorce Rates

It’s been estimated that divorce rates across the UK will spike after lockdown is over. It appears being stuck in isolation with your SO isn’t always a good thing. Apparently, you’ll get on each other’s nerves so much, you’ll end up wondering WTF you were thinking all those years ago. Should you find yourself in this particular situation, you can always turn to http://petersmay.com/ for support.

This is currently not an issue in my house. Firstly, we’re both key workers and, secondly, with both of us out more than usual, we’re barely spending any time together. The only way we’re likely to get divorced after Covid19 is if we realise we quite liked NOT seeing each other for 3 months. Plus, we’ve both previously done our bit for UK divorce rates, so we’re going to sit this one out, thanks very much.

Suz xx