COVID -19 what’s been happening.

Hello, Gents,

Hope you’re all staying safe and well. 🙂

Covid-19 what’s been happening, is a blog article I decided to write. As you can imagine, it’s obviously had such a huge impact on us all. I will update the website just as soon as it is permissible for me to massage again.

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for not having written something about it before. I realise lots of people have. I’ve been asked many times, if I could do any massage. 

Some views

Obviously, safety, and ethics, suggest I shouldn’t. As I have COPD, I have to be particularly careful. I have a mild form of asthma, and frequent episodes of bronchitis. Given the difficulty with breathing as a consequence, I’m probably one of the people not hugely at risk, but, more so than if I wasn’t afflicted. 

I certainly wouldn’t want to find breathing so hard that I fight for breath. It’s the one thing that’s worried me more than anything else.

That aside, it’s very apparent to me, that we’re all missing, and needing, physical contact, warmth, close company, and intimacy. The virus, or rather, the fear of the virus, has caused many of us to be starved of physicality, contact, companionship, and intimacy. 

As a body-worker who works closely with men, I can understand the frustration of feeling isolation. I also know you all want to experience intimacy. At the same time, lots of us are fearing it. Many of us have developed a Coronavirus-fear-of-close-proximity-in-an-enclosed-space. The very opposite of how, and what, we really prefer to be. It’s been the most surreal situation. 

Family stuff

My lovely Mum sadly passed away on March 9th. Her funeral took place on the 25th. Because the funeral was early in the morning, it was necessary to travel to the Westcountry the day before. Here’s a very unique, and unusual photo of Paddington Station. 

Considering the normal, bustling, hardly-any-room-for-us-all place, it was, instead, deserted. It felt just like stepping into an episode of Dr Who. Like a twilight zone.

The funeral service was lovely, but nobody was able to be closer than 2 metres. This made it seem much more difficult to cope with emotionally.

Also, for the first time, I’ve never been without a stream of income. A while ago, there was nothing in place to support self-employed people, such as myself. 

Fortunately, that’s been reviewed, due to lots of lobbying of politicians by self employed people. The economy is going to suffer considerably, and we’re all going to have to change the way we do things.

I’ve been doing lots of creative thinking, and actually being creative in many ways. This helps me to focus on things I can do to keep me gainfully employed. For instance, I’ve been doing some DIY. 

I thought, as we only have a front yard, and no garden, I’d make some planters. I’ve had lots of white, melamine faced chipboard, laying around for years. I’ve always wondered what I could use it for, so the time came to do just that. 

So I put them together, wrapped them with self adhesive polythene, in hope to stop them falling apart by getting wet. Then, I painted them to match the colour of the front door.

When they were finished, I filled them with compost, and planted some seeds. Unfortunately, a fox had other ideas! Evidently had a field day, digging up the Nasturtium and Aster seeds I planted! So, not to be outdone, I fitted chicken mesh over them, which seems to have stopped further problems. Fingers crossed!

I’ve been doing lots of cooking, too. Making casseroles, and the like. I also made quiches..

And several batches of sourdough rolls, which turned out very well, and were absolutely delicious. Baking… bad for the waistline, admittedly! 

The lockdown has, in some measure, given us all an enormous opportunity to work on various aspects of our lives. 

Time to reflect, create, enjoy the here and now. Although what will happen in the future, or when, is a cause of anxiety for many, I believe it will teach us more about being present with ourselves now. Realising our strengths, working on improving our weaknesses, and becoming stronger though having to do things differently than before.

I’ve installed a ceiling mounted infrared heater, which produces a gentle, delicious, but very noticeable warmth when it’s running. The upside, is that it takes up no floor space. So instead of feeling like we need basting, this works quietly and effectively, and makes us warm and comfortable. It certainly converted those nippy, March/April mornings and evenings, into almost feeling like I was already in July. Apologies for the vertiginous appearance. It’s difficult to photograph ceilings. Just gives you an idea of what it looks like. It’s very efficient. 🙂

It won’t be needed in the summer, though. Might be just a bit too hot for comfort.

A toast 🥂 To your good health! 😜 

Steve.