Covid-19 Lockdown, A Rural Diary - Week 6
On the Monday of week 6, having cleaned the bathrooms, I stumbled across HealthCheck UK Live on BBC 1. This instantly became part of my daily routine. What's not to love about it? The presenters are all, to a man and woman, so completely and utterly upbeat, informative and funny that it is the best start to the day you can imagine. It screens from 10am for 45 minutes which suits me perfectly - not too early, not too late, not too long. It combines health tips and topics on all things mental and physical, geared especially to the situation we find ourselves in, as well as interesting interviews with interesting people, a cheeky chappy of a chef coming up with good, unpretentious food ideas and, last but not least....Mr Motivator! Now, for those a little long in the tooth Mr M, who is a throwback to another era, is the perfect antidote to all the endless Fitness Gurus currently clogging up the internet and so beloved of the young, but an enemy to age. As my middle daughter hones her figure to that of an Olympic athlete while my waist continues to expand and my hair grows wilder and greyer by the day, it is quite simply a relief to see a slightly swollen-bellied Mr Motivator show us some wacky moves at the end of the show to get our bodies moving and our blood flowing. Dig out your 80s lycra, grab a can of baked beans in each hand and smile your way through his tongue-in-cheek workout with the presenters and all the other contributors to the show. It is impossible not to feel happy at the end of it all, believe me!
Meanwhile, I laboured on with Gareth Malone and his Great British Home Chorus, see-sawing between 'Why the hell am I bothering' and 'Come on, let's do this!'. Briefly the latter attitude won, and I wasted hours of my life trying to get the perfect recording of my Alto part for 'You Are My Sunshine' which is the first song he wanted us all to learn. We were then to record ourselves singing our part and upload it to the internet. As you can imagine, this was not as easy as he made it sound. Believing that this was meant to be as professional a recording as possible, and sneaking a peak on YouTube at others who had done it ahead of me, I spent nigh on two days trying to get it right. If the dog didn't start barking, the iPad didn't run out of battering or memory, the cat didn't walk across my music, the rain didn't start hammering onto the glass roof, my family didn't burst into the room, or the doorbell didn't ring, that was a bonus. The other problem was actually getting the singing right myself and after a lifetime of being in choirs, even doing solos, it suddenly seemed that I couldn't hold a tune to save my life! I blame menopause. Hormone havoc. Anything, frankly. It was a depressing experience. And then, one afternoon, I finally managed to achieve something I wasn't entirely and totally embarrassed to submit. It then took a few false starts to achieve the upload - won't bore you with the technological issues - but it was SO FRUSTRATING!!! By the end of it all, when the deed was finally done, I had to crack open a bottle of fizz, such were my levels of emotional exhaustion and euphoria combined.
So, apart from the blossom on the cherries reaching its peak, and the pale mauve blooms of the wisteria beginning to emerge, I think we can safely say that that was about the sum total of week 6 for me. It sort of reflected the weather. Up and down. Some good, some bad. How was it for you?
Meanwhile, I laboured on with Gareth Malone and his Great British Home Chorus, see-sawing between 'Why the hell am I bothering' and 'Come on, let's do this!'. Briefly the latter attitude won, and I wasted hours of my life trying to get the perfect recording of my Alto part for 'You Are My Sunshine' which is the first song he wanted us all to learn. We were then to record ourselves singing our part and upload it to the internet. As you can imagine, this was not as easy as he made it sound. Believing that this was meant to be as professional a recording as possible, and sneaking a peak on YouTube at others who had done it ahead of me, I spent nigh on two days trying to get it right. If the dog didn't start barking, the iPad didn't run out of battering or memory, the cat didn't walk across my music, the rain didn't start hammering onto the glass roof, my family didn't burst into the room, or the doorbell didn't ring, that was a bonus. The other problem was actually getting the singing right myself and after a lifetime of being in choirs, even doing solos, it suddenly seemed that I couldn't hold a tune to save my life! I blame menopause. Hormone havoc. Anything, frankly. It was a depressing experience. And then, one afternoon, I finally managed to achieve something I wasn't entirely and totally embarrassed to submit. It then took a few false starts to achieve the upload - won't bore you with the technological issues - but it was SO FRUSTRATING!!! By the end of it all, when the deed was finally done, I had to crack open a bottle of fizz, such were my levels of emotional exhaustion and euphoria combined.
So, apart from the blossom on the cherries reaching its peak, and the pale mauve blooms of the wisteria beginning to emerge, I think we can safely say that that was about the sum total of week 6 for me. It sort of reflected the weather. Up and down. Some good, some bad. How was it for you?
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