"Adventures" under lockdown

Well, what a strange time we’ve all been having; grounded, so to speak. With adventures of the travel variety on hold, we have all found new ways (or have reprised old ways) of enjoying ourselves and keeping ourselves occupied.

In our house it was quickly clear discipline would be required! Not a fan of to do lists, I keep a list of things achieved during the day; the rule (my rule) was that there had to be a minimum of 3 “achievements” per day (size did not matter!) This would somehow stop malaise or madness setting in! I also kept a record of weather conditions and what we ate (maybe in case we could track madness/malaise – not sure!).

So, the official lockdown started the day after Brian’s birthday and I have kept the “diary” ever since. It's been interesting looking back 3 months to see what we’ve been doing. Here’s a quick recap….

I returned to volunteering at Bedford Foodbank and started a new volunteer position at Food 4, a charity that redistributes food destined for landfill to those in need in Bedford. Brian has been helping out a British charity based in Spain with their GDPR (Age in Spain – which advises pensioners living in Spain about their rights and responsibilities).

In preparation for the day when we will be able to travel again, Brian has continued with his Skype spanish lessons, whereas I’ve been (re)learning German using Duolingo. (we are keeping our options open!) Strangely though I have noticed “Kein Bier vor Vier” – “no beer before 4”….seems to crop up a lot and I have wondered IS IT READING MY MIND?

We’ve indulged our Netflix habit of euro thrillers. There have been some really good ones (Derepages with Eric Cantona & Giri/Haji and anglo/japanese production), some fairly good ones (Bordertown, The Forest, Money Heist etc) and some just too bleak to mention (eg The Mire, set in 1970s Poland). Preferring to watch subtitled screenings over dubbed ones, we’re convinced that we are also fully conversant in most European languages; French, Norwegian, Flemish, you name it!

Its been an interesting time for a technophobe like me; like many others, I’ve found myself listening to Podcasts and Ted Talks, for the first time. I’ve attended a webinar and a guided movie screening. I’ve also used Skype for the first time! Brian has created a Zoom pub, with old mates from Uni; his group ever expanding in size and number of countries in which they now live.

In the past we have taken our garden for granted, having previously spent very little time outside, but we have come to love reading in a deckchair, growing veg from seed and doing the odd DIY project. Of course, the weather has helped immensely having been amazing throughout April and May (June, not so much!)

In addition, we have kept up our plot at Treewell Farm, the community project we got involved in last year. This has been so good for us as it has been the only time we have travelled out of Bedford; just a few miles down the road, but it has felt like a different world! Its our first real foray into growing produce and the last couple of weeks have seen our first harvest of beetroot, potatoes, chard and onions. we are beyond chuffed and bore people with photos at any given opportunity!

We've been busy in the kitchen too, spending lots of time testing out new ingredients and recipes but we will save that for a separate post!

I suspect we are not alone in spending a lot of time daydreaming about our first adventure post lockdown. But for the time being we have really enjoyed reminiscing about previous trips such as our road trip to Antwerp, Berlin and Amsterdam several years ago. Or our fleeting but memorable trip to Tangier.

We hope that all our friends and followers are keeping well and we look forward to the day when we can all meet up again in some way, shape, or form to share experiences and adventures!

Until that time Bleib gesund/stay healthy amigos

xxx