Birthdays and Lockdown Shenanigans
10 September 2020
Melanie Finley
Lockdown continued into April. We returned our rental car when we found no real use for it having few places we were allowed to go. We stayed on board in the UK, awaiting more positive news as we started to plan out jobs we could do while self- isolating. The most important one was to replace the water tanks. We had removed and sent off the old ones just before lockdown, so now we were crossing our fingers that small businesses would continue to stay open, and our tanks would be manufactured.
Covid-19 shopping in a foreign country
Oh how we missed North American Amazon. The UK version truly isn't the same. And how nice it would be to walk into a home depot and actually measure plumbing fittings. But ever mind, you make do with what's available, even if it means re-ordering things because they aren't quite right. Online shopping, while sometimes easy, definitely had its limits for us, and caused things to take quite a bit longer. However, time was on our side.....
Birthdays
April is a busy birthday month for us. Neither of us envisioned our b-days as they happened this year, but we were healthy, and the weather was good. That, as well as all the cheap booze we could stock up on, made for some small but festive celebrations with the family. A local family even went out to buy cards and gifts for us- it is truly amazing how kind people have been to us here and we will always see that as a shining light in all of this craziness.
On our Own
One of the strangest parts of the lockdown for us was being on our own. Luckily, the marina staff kept a close eye out for us, the security guards were super friendly, and we did find just a very few other people harbouring on their boat in the marina. We passed the time bike riding, watching movies, playing games, and cooking a lot of pork roasts. We learned about the local flora and fauna, tasted local delicacies (someone brought us some wood pigeons to cook up- delicious!), and helped the kids work on their school work.
But it did take work to not feel completely alone. We missed many events we were looking forward to- pubs, castles, history, and seeing family and friends. We were grateful to be well and safe, but WhatsApp can only fulfill so much in the socializing spectrum. I remember thinking how one of the most popular courses at Bluewater Association was the "Psychology of sailing" (which we didn't participate in) as many couples feared spending so much one on one time together. Well, COVID is a great test to spending time together. Funny how strange times make you creative, and grateful, and we were able to keep entertained as much as possible.
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