December 10, 2024
Chicago 12, Melborne City, USA
Dear Diary

This Week I….

Well, itā€™s been an interesting week.

It started quite innocently and has ended in an impending apocalypse.

I have been in the gym this morning, albeit with far more hand sanitizer and wipes than normal, and I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon avoiding social media and snuggling my Pugs. I hope youā€™re doing similar, though not with MY Pugs, obviously.

Before I crack on with that, first, this week I…..

Ran a 10k

After the Half Marathon I struggled to find a decent event to do in March for my #12in12 challenge.

April was packed, March, not so much. So instead I opted to sign up for a virtual race. I thought International Womenā€™s Day seemed like a good opportunity, so I signed up for a medal and last Sunday I ran 6.22 miles home from work in my very best purple leggings and then got Mr LLL to take my post race photo on top a hill.

It was hard. I ran a Half Marathon less than a month ago so I didnā€™t expect it to feel like such a slog, but it did. I swear Iā€™m getting slower and tireder every day!

I fully suspect that my April event at least, and possible the May one too are going to end up being cancelled. So Iā€™m not sure what to do about my #12in12 challenges. Some more virtual challenges maybe on the cards.

Located the Panic Buying Shelf

Early on in the week, before the world succumbed to total psycho stock piling, I popped into QD to grab a packet of toilet roll.

The newspapers were already full of reports of panic buying, but mercifully that did not seem to have hit QD yet so I picked up ONE pack, as per usual.

I did notice that the enterprising folk at QD had helpfully created a one stop Corona Virus panic buying shelf in their seasonal aisle, which for some reason made me very happy.

It features rubber gloves, a multitude of disinfectants, ibruprofen, aspirin (no paracetamol, but more on that later), tissues, tins of soup and bags of pasta.

I found it faintly reassuring that a store like QD still managed to be so enterprising in the face of panic buying and empty shelves.

Could not find any paracetamol

Whilst I was ok for toilet roll, paracetamol was another matter.

Paracetamol is the only pain killer I can take as I am asthmatic and my blood pressure meds interact with ibruprofen anyway.

I also currently have a painful elbow (random, donā€™t know why, ignoring it in the hope it will eventually go away) and, yā€™know, itā€™s nice to have *some* painkillers in the house and I was down to one strip of paracetamol.

I went in 3 shops near me and nowhere had any.

Thankfully the following day a friend of mine spotted some restocked shelves and turned up at my house in the afternoon with a few packs, for which I am hugely grateful, because by the time I got back to the shops the following morning the shelves were once again bare.

I did manage to find some Zoflora though. I use it for damp dusting. I was embarrassed to buy it so I hid it under a pack of dog treats.

Had an Anniversary

I didnā€™t realise it was quite so soon, but this month is the anniversary of my very first session with my very first ever Personal Training Client.

He bought me a protein bar with a candle in it. I took a photo, then deleted it and realised when Iā€™d already started eating it. So I cunningly recreated it.

Engaged in some panic buying of my very own

Trust me, Iā€™m not immune to panic, especially when it comes to random diseases.

When everyone kept telling us all to stay home if we had a temperature I very quickly realised I couldnā€™t find my thermometer. I had a vague recollection it might have been broken and never replaced because it didnā€™t seem like an imminent priority.

How foolish I was.

Everyone, it seems, had the same thought because thermometers can no longer be bought in any shops.

I tracked one down on Wednesday on the Lloyds Pharmacy website, but it was supposed to be click and collect next day and itā€™s not arrived yet, so who know if itā€™ll actually turn up.

Another thing that suddenly seemed like something I should definitely have in the house but didnā€™t was alcohol wipes to disinfect my phone. No else had those either and they bought them all before I got there.

I do have hand sanitizer though. It smells of strawberry laces. In your face panic buyers.

Planned ahead

Talk of lockdowns and closing public spaces did begin to make me a little nervous about the prospect of losing the gym as a training venue, so I took the plunge and did something Iā€™d been considering for a while. I bought some exercise kit of my very own.

I wanted to do this as the weather warms up anyway, but I am now fully equipped with resistance bands and a portable suspension trainer to do workouts anywhere, yay!

Outside is a good place to be right now and it would be good to know that I can work out myself should I not be able to get to the gym!

And that was another week in my currently still not infected, but slightly paranoid life.

How was your week?

administrator
Personal Trainer, blogger, red lipstick wearer and Cocktail drinker. Learning to enjoy the journey.

3 Comments

  • Rebecca March 15, 2020

    As someone in lockdown (I live in northern Italy) and rapidly running out of loo roll I can advise to stock up on the things you might not think of. Like fresh veg that will keep! Stupidly the day before this all happened I bought cat litter, cat food and a lettuce. Turns out that doesn’t cut it! oops! Thank goodness for my unhealthy obsession with pickled foods, at least I have enough of those to last a while. Totally agree with the getting outside too. I’ve been naughtily breaking curfew as I’ve decided this is a good time to take up running. I can do it solo, get fit rather than sit around and give into my anxiety, and frankly the way I huff and puff and get red in the face no-one is going to want to get near me, let alone within 1 metre!

  • Ursula in CĆ”diz March 15, 2020

    We’re in lockdown in Spain now too, despite the fact that there aren’t actually any cases in my town! As of tomorrow, you can’t go out accompanied in the street, and only on vital errands. SO, having read so much about it all, I can confirm that alcoholic wipes don’t do it for cleaning your phone: soap and water, is the thing, would you believe – Google is your friend as to how to do that…
    Well done on buying the training gear though because, yes, the gyms ar closed along with everything else.

  • Kate March 20, 2020

    Thanks for your posts as ever, Gemma. Stay safe and well, and enjoy time with your lovely pugs -and Mr LLL of course! Kate

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