How do I cope with Lockdown?

Well I don’t know about “Keep Calm and Carry On” - I find calm, in fact, deadly boring, and irritate everyone around me because I am fed up!  I have a job working out in the community because I LOVE a bit of organised chaos - teamwork, and banter, which is why lockdown has not been my friend (though I do have a nine-year old bundle of fun and energy in the house with me fortunately).  I have missed my work friends and my clients very much, and have felt the absence of anything lively every day. 

I found my little bit of happy and normal by volunteering when I can around work.  This has included being a Delivery Elf working with Ignite Imaginations over Christmas which was loads of fun travelling all round Sheffield with gift bags and wellbeing calls, working as part of my community hub providing support for shielding people in the area where I live, and my favourite by far has been working as part of a lovely team running the local vaccine centre. 

I have a whole new group of close friends aged 17 to 75 who turn out in all weathers, cover ourselves in PPE (I am not totally sure we would recognise each other if we passed in the street to be honest!!) and work our socks off together helping people get through their vaccination efficiently and safely, and with a smile and a laugh if we can manage it.  Apart from the masks, aprons, visors, gloves, gallons of hand sanitiser, bails of alcohol wipes and distinct lack of hugs, it feels like a wonderful little slice of NORMAL!!!  We all love it and fight over shifts. 

And since we started in December we have seen so many thousands of local people go through the centre and each one is a little affirmation that we will be ok and that sitting in my messy little house talking to people (and trying to look like I don’t desperately need a haircut) on yet another Zoom call isn’t forever.