Day 45 – Wednesday 29th April
Today has dragged by. I was on the phone with friends and family for most of the morning, which was lovely, but I’m conscious of the fact that I am counting down the hours until I’m allowed out for a walk. Tomorrow should be better as I have to do my usual Friday supermarket trip on Thursday as Friday is a bank holiday here.
This week I have increased my stair climbing. I’m now doing 1000ft a day and it feels great. I’ve never paid much attention to how much incline I do on my hikes. I trudge up the mountains for fun. It makes me feel good and the views tend to distract you from the fact that you’re doing exercise. Walking up the same stairs everyday is not as distracting and you end up counting the stairs, which is super boring. Instead I decided to just continue going up and down until I hit a certain number of feet in altitude. I started with 400ft then gradually increased it. The gradual increase had nothing to do with capability, rather finding a time of day when I would not be disturbing others. This way I can switch off, like I do when I’m walking.
This week I’ve also managed to finish ironing all my summer clothes. You know it’s bad if I’ve resorted to ironing. I did wonder when I started this task last week, whether I’d have the opportunity to wear my summer clothes this year or if I was doomed to a summer in pyjama shorts. Then the government announced the deescalation phases and that gave me the impetus to finish the job. All I have to worry about now is whether any of the clothes will still fit me, but there’s a fair few with elasticated waists so I should be alright.
Years ago I lived in Singapore and I had a lovely Filipino maid, Cristie, who would wash and iron everything and I mean everything. My underwear drawer was a thing of beauty. When my family visited they would pack half their clothes unwashed and throw them into the magic wash basket on arrival. Couple of days later it would all be cleaned, ironed and neatly folded away in their bedroom. I miss Cristie. I found myself thinking of her as I did the ironing, but decided that the day I start ironing my knickers is a day too far.
The reality is when you have too many hours in the day you sometimes find yourself filling them up with inane activities, like the little obsession I indulged in at the start of this lockdown: taking my temperature. This was so I knew what my usual body temperature is and could tell if it started to go up (fever being one of the Covid-19 symptoms). I mentioned previously the last time I had a raised temperature when in hospital for a day op, I was totally unaware of the fact. So I dug out the digital thermometer I bought last year (It was on sale at my local supermarket for 5€ right next to the deodorant I was buying at the time and I thought what the heck, it’s been sat in the medicine drawer ever since in its original box) and started to take my temperature at different times to see what my ‘normal temperature’ is. I’m usually between 36.5c and 37c. One time it got cold real quick when it went dark and I was busy writing so didn’t notice until I started shivering. I took my temperature whilst huddled under the duvet trying to get warm: it was 36c. I also took my temperature after sweaty exercise and when I got out of a scalding hot bath. It seems 37.5c is my maximum.
Then there was the week a friend of mine had us all measuring the length of our leg hair, as obviously we’d given up shaving for a while. Between this and the endless FaceBook and YouTube rabbit holes I’ve been down, you can see how much I need to get out.