Well, there are little shoots of recovery beginning to sprout.
Obviously until there is successful treatment or a vaccine we’re not out of the woods, but I feel confident to come out from hiding a little more.
Will I be rushing to a supermarket, a hairdresser, clothes store or pub any time soon? NOPE! Can’t say that I will.
…But I did go to work the other day, this time as a staff member, rather than a customer, and I felt confident and safe.
I always wear a mask if I am in a building that isn’t my own home, I always anti bac (this predates corona), I didn’t like catching the germs that were circulating before the pandemic ensued.
Why do I wear a mask so readily and merrily? Well firstly, I have consideration for others but also I have a pathological fear of being exposed as a “super spreader”!!
Do you remember back in March that man came back from Italy and infected loads of people and then the papers tracked him down and ‘exposed’ him like he was some sort of murderous criminal mastermind, rather than a scout leader that likes to ski in his spare time. I do not want that thanks very much. Hahahahaha
You could say that this is my time to shine, I’ve been pandemic ready for about 30 years, how I’m not working for Public Health England I will never know!?
I’ve always considered my germ phobia a bind till now, but actually I couldn’t be more grateful. ;)
It’s also comforting to know other people are now washing their hands!
Dress from French Connection, Shoes from Hermes
I had a meeting with my boss about our upcoming social media plan. I was in that meeting for well over an hour and there were no ill side effects from wearing my mask, the only side effect I suffer by going into work is that I spend in store way more than I earn. ;)
I bought some of the new laundry rage that’s just come out. Oh my lord it smells beaut!
It’s a bit on the pricey side so I bought it just to use on my bedding. It smells divine, I keep walking in my bedroom just to smell it.
…And yes, I spent more than I earned just by buying these two items, but at least the my bed smells amazing! Hahaha
I spent the rest of the week quietly pottering around home.
Just because we can go out more doesn’t mean that I want to.
I still see my friends, in the open air, which I find more relaxing than the thought of being indoors.
I had this plan for Kim and the girls to come over and for me to take photos of them in the field of borage behind my house.
It’s so beautiful, I thought it would make really lovely photos…what I didn’t know about borage, until I bent down to take the photos and sat on some, is that it’s really quite prickly! The poor girls must have thought we were mad putting them in there for a photo shoot! What next? Lion’s den or croc pit! Hahaha
Bless them, they did very well bearing in mind the situation.
The photos turned out so well that I thought I’d take my own princess for a shoot.
Don’t worry, no dogs were harmed in the making of this photo. I learned my lesson and found a patch of ground with no borage in it, much like the tractor tyre tracks we used for the girls.
I think it’s fair to say I really have too much time on my hands! Hahahaha
We spent Saturday or Super Saturday as it was coined, just chilling out, we knew we had a big day coming up on Sunday.
Saturday 4th July was the day that the government gave the go ahead for pubs and restaurants to reopen.
We don’t drink, so going to a pub wasn’t of interest to us, but we do eat and that was of huge interest to us!
It was ‘Our coming to London for food day!’ Catchy! ;)
We have been planning to go back to London, to Chutney Mary to be precise since lockdown started. In fact Chutney Mary was the last restaurant we ate in just before lockdown began.
This took a lot of consideration on our part, but I did the maths, weighed it up and for us the benefit outweighed the risk…
I saw this chart on Twitter, which I found very helpful, and yes, eating in a restaurant carries a moderate - high risk.
BUT with my anti germ fetish and my precautions and the procedures put in place at the restaurant I felt confident that yes, the benefit was indeed outweighed by the risk!
It was too!
Dress from H&M, Shoes from Valentino Rockstuds, Bag from Chanel.
First things first!! My coming out of lockdown outfit was planned months in advance!
Second: could I have chosen a more unsuitable dress for such a windy day! :)
I wouldn’t usually consider wearing short, floaty stuff but since I’ve been wearing cycling shorts under dresses it’s literally changed my wardrobe and life! Who knew cycling shorts could have such a profoundly positive impact?!? (Well, Leonie knew as she’s been nagging me to wear them for years! Hahahahaha).
No one needs (or wants for that matter) to see my naked arse when the wind blows up my clothes. I don’t feel particularly confident about the thought of a gust of wind exposing my colostomy bag too.
Which may seem odd as it’s not something I’m embarrassed about. You’ve seen enough photos of me in my bikini (probably too many for your liking) to know I’m certainly not worried about showing it off, no, for me it’s a badge of honour of survival.
But when I’m dressed I don’t want it on show, and I certainly don’t want it exposed by random gusts, a bikini is my choice, gusts of wind aren’t.
Cycling shorts are life changing. My modesty is preserved, and my confidence is restored.
There’s nothing worse than that feeling of having to hold a dress down on a windy day. It ruins an outfit for me, or at least, it used to.
So there we were, in London on a Sunday. Again it was incredibly quiet in places, we found pockets of people throughout the day but for the most part we had the place to ourselves.
We arrived at Chutney Mary far too early for our booking time (we are eager beavers!).
We were standing outside, waiting excitedly, like children on Christmas morn hahahahaha, when I noticed some bicycles. I said to Chris “oh they look fun”.
(*Lime bikes are battery assisted, I wouldn’t really have the confidence for the Santander normal bikes).
To which his response was, “they’re bikes, they look anything but fun!!” Haha.
I proposed that maybe after we eat, we could hire them to get over to Harrods on.
His face pretty much said it all, so I left it.
Chris is not a bike enthusiast, and I think that might be the understatement of the year!
Anyway, it was our reservation time so we headed in to the restaurant and I said no more about it.
The restaurant is doing its upmost to protect customers and staff.
On arrival there are sanitiser stations, customers are asked to use them, then a member of staff greets you with their usual familiar charm, and then they ask if they can take your temperature.
You are then shown to your table that has hand sanitiser wipes in sealed packets waiting for you.
Your napkin is offered to you by another member of staff, you can choose between disposable or cloth napkins. They are handed to you by use of long tongs.
I heard someone whinging the other day about all the new COVID adaptions being made and how awful it all is…I’ve got to be honest I couldn’t disagree more if I tried!!
I love social distancing!! This is my dream! Cleanliness, people being aware of the risks they pose to each other, what’s not to love!?
(just to clarify I don’t like the death and destruction part of coronavirus, just the germ spreading prevention part, but I’m going to assume you knew that anyway).
It was so good to be back in Chutney Mary. The food was incredible as ever, even with a reduced menu (although that might be because it was lunch time rather than corona related).
I had my first mango lassi in New Delhi and have been addicted ever since.
We have our favourites on the menu there. We pretty much stick to the dishes we love and just add to it every now and then.
We savoured it, It just felt so special.
The only thing I have missed since lockdown- apart from family and friends is this place!
We took longer this time, purposely enjoying every mouthful. Which is very unlike us, we usually inhale it rather than eat it! Who knows when we’ll be back?
I took my usual mirror selfie, I don’t take them anywhere else, but I just feel good in this place. :)
We then, satiated but sad to be leaving headed outside to the sunshine…and those bikes.
I really hoped they would still be there, but in a way it seemed futile as Chris wouldn’t agree to ride anyway.
Let’s put it into context. Chris does not ride, he hates cycling. The last time he was on a bike was 10 years ago. The last time he rode a bike on the road was at least…at the very least, 40 years ago! Yes, four - oh years ago!!
Anyway, were standing outside the restaurant for a bit and he says “do you want to then?!”
I was a little bit taken aback. BUT hell yes!!!!
I got all excited. I loaded my Chanel bag into the basket, I climbed on in my Valentino shoes (oh I came dressed to ride bikes I can tell you!!).
We downloaded the app…and discovered these bikes had dead batteries. Bugger, bugger, bugger!!
So near and yet so far!!
He then says, well the app says there’s two more round the corner do you want to see if we can find them? ERRRR yessssssss!
…And so we did!!
Oh how I laughed, I was cackling like a women possessed, I’m surprised you couldn’t hear me from where you were!
It was so unexpected.
Never in a million years did I think he would agree to it.
I cycle a little bit around and about our village. Chris thinks I’m mad riding on the roads round here, and they’re quiet country lanes.
I’m not proficient, I literally didn’t pass my cycling proficiency test at school, something about being slow and wobbly, which as it happens is still my preferred cycling style. ;)
So I never for a minute thought he’d agree to cycle across London, on a bike, in the traffic.
The secret to a happy marriage ~ always keeping the desire and ability to surprise one another alive!
I jump out on him to “surprise” him all the time in the house (as you can imagine he loves that, doesn’t find it incredibly annoying in any way! ;) ) and he got on a bike and rode round London for me.
I for one was very impressed. xx
We rode towards Green Park, we ended up entering it through an unsuitable side gate, down some stairs, yes, I know, only us! ;)
Anyway we were merrily enjoying ourselves having a quick refresher on biking when we were pulled over by the police!! Yes, actually stopped by police on bicycles! Only to be told that where we were practicing was a cycle free zone.
I was a little put out that two officers riding bicycles told us off for riding bicycles, but never mind. Anyway she explained that there was no cycling allowed in this part of the park. To which I responded oh ok, we didn’t know because we came through this gate here, but can we just cycle out of the park to save pushing them?
She then replies yeah go on then. Hahahahaha that was worth the stop then? ;)
Well, back on the road and ending our criminal activity we headed off to Harrods.
I have driven past Buckingham Palace many many times in my life, in various modes of transport, but never has it look so glorious than whilst riding a bike!
We had the best time, I can’t say I wasn’t scared on the roads because I absolutely was. You can imagine how Chris felt!? Hahah.
The roads towards Harrods were ridiculously dangerous. The roadworks didn’t help, but also the drivers round there are utter arseholes.
One bloke in a 4x4 Bentley came about a hair’s breadth from knocking us and two other cyclists off their bikes.
I imagine it’s something to do with owning a 4x4 Bentley…I mean, who would? Yuk…yuuuuuk! I love cars. A normal Bentley? Yes please, by all means give me one, but the 4x4 one, nooooooo, never. :)
I have arrived at this spot many times, mostly by Tube like the peasant I am hahahahaha, sometimes by cab but never ever by bicycle!
Anyway, unbelievably we arrived unscathed by our journey, I personally was feeling exhilarated, Chris bless him was suffering from nervous exhaustion.
We headed in to pick a few bits and bobs up, some for me, some for a friend.
Harrods itself was extremely quiet, apparently they’ve opened a huge discount shop at Westfield White City to get rid of excess stock, which explains why the store was so quiet.
After we finished our shopping, we then headed back outside. I really thought our cycling career was over but no, we went back and reclaimed our Lime bikes and rode back the way we came, through the crazily dangerous road works on Brompton Road and back past Buckingham palace, this time remembering not to ride in certain parts of the parks.
I had one of the best days in London I’ve ever had. Not sure Chris feels the same. ;)
We headed back to Fortnum and Mason, where we parked the car, to pick up a few more bits and to use their loos, very clean, would highly recommend.
I bought a hamper for using on picnics and it came in the biggest bag I’ve ever seen.
As soon as they handed the bag over I wanted to get in it!! It’s a compulsion. ;)
But I at least waited till I got home.
Chris was busy putting the cars away, and I rushed indoors…
He came in to find me in the bag and the dog barking wildly as she was a bit confused, in fairness so was Chris, but I imagine not surprised, I have form on trying to get inside bags…
I think it’s a borderline obsessive compulsive thing. Hahahaha
We came home, flaked out on the settee. It only seemed fair to let Chris choose the movie, seeing as he had been so magnanimous with agreeing to the cycling.
We watched The Shawshank Redemption, I wasn’t particularly keen but actually it’s a great film, would recommend, especially after a terrifying day out cycling. ;)
I’d say all in all we had a great day. Chris actually said that we’d definitely do it again. Just perhaps not the cycling on Brompton Road again.
Sometimes people ask me if there’s anything you can’t do with a colostomy. There isn’t anything I can think of that I can’t do if I wanted to or was capable of.
The only thing I would say is if you have the same op I had you won’t be cycling for a fair while after. Sitting on a settee is bad enough after that so sitting on a bike saddle is a no no, but it’s not a forever no.
Just take time to heal, and then take on the world!!
xx