Connecting in new ways

Hi all, I hope you’re keeping safe and staying well. It’s a tough time, isn’t it? I’ve been staying at home and not going out except to walk the dog. I’m getting my first-ever grocery delivery tomorrow. It’s all a bit strange.

For me, it’s not so very different though, as I work from home and have a tendency to be a bit of a hermit when I’m writing, which I always am. I always have a book to work on. I talk to friends via email, and phone, and that hasn’t changed, but it’s weird not being able to meet a friend for dinner or a movie.

Recently, after my annual writing retreat was cancelled, we decided to meet each evening during the “retreat” on Zoom, which worked well. We talked, laughed, drank wine and nibbled on snacks, just as we always do when we’re on retreat. And we’ve decided to do it once a week from now on and see how that goes.

My little movie-watching writers’ group have also decided to choose a movie to watch on line, and then discuss it. That should be interesting too.

The word wenches are also going to trial a zoom get-together tomorrow, but that one is a little more difficult to coordinate, as we wenches are scattered world wide. The time zone differences mean that I will have to be awake, dressed and Zoom-ready at 7am (7 AM!!!)  while the two English wenches will be starting at 10pm (one is threatening to meet in her jammies), and the US wenches are at several different times. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

But still, despite the physical isolation, people are managing to connect in all kinds of ways.  Yesterday afternoon a friend of mine walked her dogs around to my house (a good half-hour walk), phoned me from the front footpath, and told me she had a present for me but I had to come outside. “I hope you’re dressed!” she said. LOL. Luckily I was. 

I went outside and sitting on my car bonnet was a lovely bunch of fresh basil from her lush backyard garden. We talked for about 20 minutes — me from my porch and her from the footpath — while my dog glared through the front door at her dogs in case they dared to enter her yard! (Her boy dog and my girl dog have never got on.)  And then they continued on their walk, and I went back inside to work. It was a lovely little break, and now I have some gorgeous fresh basil that smells so divine I almost don’t want to cook it.

I hope you’re all keeping your spirits up. I’m avoiding a lot of social media — too much gloom and doom for me — but I did have a chuckle at this video, the  “Family Lockdown Boogie” If it doesn’t show here, just click on the link. (I’m still having trouble getting videos to embed in my post.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-ugfNXYcDgy