Walking around the village in England

I’ve been incredibly lucky this spring – I got married last year and we had trips and activities planned for most of the 2019 and the beginning of 2020, but we didn’t have anything booked or planned for the spring except for one theatre trip. My husband was in a production of Rent that had to be played online; I was in a production of Sister Act that’s been postponed to next year, but the other play I was in went ahead just before the lockdown, and my first story-telling event at the Coffin Works, Birmingham was in February, so I’ve been lucky there too. I feel so, so sorry for everyone whose wedding has been cancelled this year and I feel like we’ve had a really lucky escape!

I’m a university lecturer, and I work from home 2-3 days a week anyway, so even that hasn’t been a huge change. It was a bit manic for the first 2-3 weeks as we scrambled to get everything online, re-write our classes, reassure our students, change our assignments so they could be done from home, and learn how to use Zoom! But now, we’re moving into the exam period (with alternative assignments) so that’s starting to feel fairly normal too.

I live in England, so our lockdown hasn’t been too strict – we’re allowed out for an hour a day to exercise, and I have a dog, so I’ve been exploring! Again, I’m incredibly lucky, as I live in a beautiful village in the West Midlands, surrounded by countryside, and the weather has been good, so I’ve had some lovely walks with the pup. We were even able to celebrate out first wedding anniversary by walking up to the (closed) church, then getting takeout pizza from the pub where we had our reception. The lockdown has been much harder on people living in cities, and in small flats – a lot of flats in the UK don’t have balconies so it has been really rough for many people.

I volunteered to bring food and supplies to anyone who needs it in the village – so many people volunteered that I haven’t had to do it much! But I did take one lot of medication to a local couple, and I did a leaflet drop and took an Easter pack (complete with palm cross!) round to a few local houses for my parish church.

I usually describe where I live as “the UK” rather than “England”, but the four nations of the UK have individual control over their lockdowns. My parents live in Wales and the hardest part has been worrying about them as my Mum is particularly vulnerable and had to go into hospital for an unrelated problem right at the peak of the virus. I’m not when I’ll be able to visit them again as Wales may end up with stricter rules than England – we don’t know yet. My brother is a musician so he’s worried about work, while my husband is furloughed – so far the government have been supporting furloughed workers, luckily.

I miss going to the cinema with my brother every week, and I’m desperate to pop down to the pub for a drink! I’m also really anxious to see my parents – and to work out how I might be able to do that without endangering them, as there are a lot more cases where I live in England than where they live in Wales. I miss travelling – although I don’t go to France every year, it feels weird to know I can’t go there right now! I’ve been doing my regular dance class on Zoom, but I’m looking forward to having a bit more space when we eventually move back into the studio. But overall I’m very, very lucky and haven’t suffered too much yet. I suspect the virus will continue to be a problem here for a long time, so I’ll continue to worry about my parents and other vulnerable friends and family, and I suspect I’ll be working from home for at least another 5-6 months – which I don’t really mind, to be honest!

Juliette is a storyteller, freelance writer, Classicist and Trekkie. She can be frequently found blogging at Doux Reviews, or on her own blog Pop Classics. She runs the podcast Creepy Classics, re-telling and discussing ancient, medieval and early modern ghost stories. Juliette also tweets @ClassicalJG