Making sure that we have the food we want is the thing that causes most anxiety. However genuine people’s offers to help are we can’t help feeling guilty about asking for help. We wonder whether we really should be protecting ourselves at the expense of those who offer to go shopping for us. We wonder whether they will get fed up of shopping for us if we are too fussy. We wonder how particular we can be about what we ask for. I like to have half a cup of Edamame beans with my lunch time salad every day. It helps to ensure that I get 1 gm of protein for every Kg of body weight every day. I considered carefully who in my support network would know what Edamame bean are – I guessed right, thank you Ranald.
I have said previously I am very keen to continue with minimising plastic wrapping for shopping if possible. Now that we are so reliant on NHS staff having all they need for protection, much of which will be plastic wrapped I want to minimise my own use. My Zero waste shop Scoop has come up trumps. They emailed and phoned to let me know my order was ready. Their system appeared to be so thorough on social distancing that we decided we would venture out ourselves to pick up the order. We both felt strangely nervous getting in to the car to drive through Matlock and Matlock Bath to Wirksworth. Everywhere was quiet. In Matlock bath there was an obvious police presence and teh parking bays usually full of motorbikes on a Saturday afternoon were blocked off with traffic cones. Not a biker was to be seen. When we arrived in the centre of Wirksworth we were relived to see that the parking ticket machine had been taken out of commission and displayed a large notice asking ‘DO YOU NEED TO BE HERE’. We were able to wait opposite the Scoop shop to check there was no one in sight. I crossed the road and knocked at the door to see Mat in the shop holding up a bag labelled with my name. All I had to do was nod to show that was me and the door opened, an arm place the bag on the step and the door shut so that I could safely pick up the bag. Next the card machine appeared at the window and I placed my card on my side of the glass. It responded as quickly as usual. Who would have known that you can operate contactless payments through glass? My shopping, everything carefully weighted out into brown paper bags is now sitting in my north facing ‘decontamination chamber’ previously known as the front porch.
Driving home past Wirksworth Co-op, Sainsbury’s, M&S Food, Iceland and Matlcok Co-op we saw various different arrangements of people queuing outside at two metres apart and presumably only a small number being allowed in at a time.
When I got home I realised that one thing I had not got was a good supply of birthday cards which I need at this time of year for several relatives, mainly women. Sticking with the ‘shop local’ theme I got in touch with Sarah Parkin (http://www.sarahparkin.co.uk/), a local Watercolour Artist friend who has some of her paintings printed up as cards. By the end of the day I have had a delivery of 20 cards with spirit lifting spring and summer local scenes. All I have to do now is to remember to post them to the right people on the right day.
I finished the afternoon with a run on the roads around the top of the village. It was good to be sure that I had more than met my two targets for the week – 20 k of running and the equivalent of 300 minuets of moderate exercise. I will potter in the garden all day tomorrow knowing that any exercise I get is a bonus. As always, as soon as I had recovered from my run I felt fresher and more alert.
