Well hello there Phase 1. We are officially allowed to hang out with people from one other household at a time outside (socially distanced of course). On Tuesday I’ll be hanging out with a friend for the first time in two and a half months. I’m looking forward to that. In looking at the numbers, Scotland has fared pretty ok in all of this, compared to say England. I believe the UK is at over 38k deaths and Scotland makes up under 2,400 of those as of today… yet England is opening everything up more quickly. Non-essential stores remain closed in Scotland. Take-aways are still open and you can even get a take-away pint from your local pub in some cases. We still haven’t had take-away even though many places have offered it over the last few months. I’ll probably cave pretty soon. While we don’t like it, we have gotten into the swing of making our own meals over the last few months.  

I’ve started wearing a mask in stores over the last few weeks. Honestly, I should’ve done it sooner but I didn’t get my hands on masks until a few weeks ago (I’ve got some really nice cloth ones from Etsy). I don’t wear one when I’m outside, only when I’m inside stores. I do it out of respect for the people who work at the stores, not because I think it will protect me but it might protect them from me if I happen to be a carrier. More on what jump started this below. Oddly enough I’ve noticed quite a few people outside with masks but very few people in the stores with masks… go figure.

In March I had caught a bug that my coworker had. Her symptoms seemed pretty similar to what was being linked to COVID-19 but this is before it hit Scotland, so we assumed that wasn’t it. Recently we’ve learned that COVID-19 was here in February and wasn’t announced, so we’re realizing that could be what she had, which means that’s what I had. Honestly, I don’t know for sure what it was and likely will never know. I will say I’ve never had anything come after my lungs quite like this. Two months later and I’m still coughing and running for my inhaler daily. My lungs feel itchy, sore at times, and for the entire two months I’ve had a dry cough. This recent realisation is what kicked my ass into wearing a mask. IF I had it and have some sort of immunity, which I’m not banking on but just in case, I would feel like a real ass-hat knowing that I could be spreading it around not realising I’m contagious. Luckily, the husband didn’t catch whatever I had. Oddly enough he never catches bugs from me, even when I had the flu about a year ago.

I’ve done a piss-poor job of blogging throughout this all. In part because I’ve been too bored to do anything and also in part to being quite busy with my jobs. I’m so grateful for both of my jobs right now… I’m always grateful for my jobs but especially right now. The weather has been quite sunny during the entirety of lockdown and this weekend has actually been quite hot. People are out in full force (and full stupidity) when it’s sunny and hot, so I’m mostly only out in the mornings with the dogs because it’s still cool and people are still sober and in their flats.  

It’s hard to believe we’re almost at our two year mark of living in Scotland. Man, it was a hard journey getting settled in but I’m realising I’m at the point where I feel at home, comfortable, and have zero desire to ever leave. That said, my path in life has never been straight, it winds and zigzags, I can never see what’s around the next bend. I have no idea what the future will bring but I will just go with the flow and deal with things as they come along. I can’t exist in certainty and I’ve never been able to settle. I’ve come to accept this about myself and embrace it. Anyways, I’ll have to work on my “Two Years in Scotland” post next.  

I hope you all are well. The world is pretty shite right now, it feels so crushing and heavy at times. We have to find light where we can, don’t we? I hope you are finding that space to decompress and just breathe when you can… I’m not saying I’m doing that, but I hope you are. 😉 Take care my friends!