How 'living' has changed during Lockdown. Will it ever go back to normal? Watching 'Breakfast' in my Dressing Gown this morning (the carer's day off so I can be slovenly) two things hit me - and both were then reinforced when I read this morning's Times (still in dressing gown and slippers as I am now typing this). Firstly take aways. Apart from fish and chips now and again in neither of my marriages do I remember having a take away. Admittedly in the first marriage (ended with M's death in 1991) there were not many others about. But in the next one although we lived out in the sticks we were only a couple of miles from a chippy, a Chinese and an Indian - and then soon joined by a Pizza place.
But apparently the sale of take away meals during Lockdown has shot up by a good 20% and looks destined to stay that way. Even haute cuisine has jumped on the Band Wagon. I must say I love Pizza and could easily have it every night if I wished because our Pizza place delivers. Our up-market restaurants are doing things like 'Picnic Baskets' (not a cheap option).
I can't see things ever going back to how they were. In most families both parents work and it is good to not have to cook after a day at work. It does just worry me a bit that children grow up thinking the only way to eat potatoes is as chips. ** In one shared student house they ate £700 a month of take away food. (then I thought back to my son's student days when they ate in the same restaurant every night - mostly the same cheap dish - and they didn't seem to come to any harm.)
The other thing is litter. On Breakfast this morning they showed the aftermath of this week-end's Festival somewhere. It was appalling. Field after field of so-called 'Rubbish'. The organiser of the clean up spoke of the army of volunteers who were coming in to clean up. First to go would be the unopened fresh food and tinned food. They would be carted off to food banks. Then would be the tents. TENTS? In my day who could afford to leave your tent behind? Here, judging from an aerial shot there were hundreds if not thousands just abandoned. Apparently organisations move in and remove what they can use and when all else fails, parts which are reuseable are removed and the rest is shredded.
The first question that springs to mind is did we have that kind of money that could afford to buy a tent, use it for a festival and then abandon it - expecting to buy another next year? I don't think at the age of most of these young people I had enough to buy the original tent without saving up like mad (and then persuading my father to let me go - not that there were many such events (they hadn't been invented).
So it is not just Lockdown that has changed life for ever - it is everything has changed (one wonders just how many of those tents could have been dropped in the area of queues of refugees in Afghanistan for example.
It is easy when one reaches my age and lives alone - when the world is in such chaos and things are so very diffent -not to worry about such things. But I can do nothing, I have visitors for the day next week - relatives who I have not seen for almost two years. My carer is back tomorrow after her day off and is spending an extra hour cleaning for me. I have promised to do all surfaces and am very pleased with my progress with the warm soapy cloth and the duster. I am through to the kitchen so now I shall get dressed and attack the kitchen. The gentle cleaning, holding on to my walking aid, has reminded me of muscles I had completely forgotten about and has done me a huge amount of good. So I shall stop worrying about things beyond my control and concentrate on areas where I can make a difference.
It is still a grey day but the sun is threatening to come through. Have a nice day.
** I am reminded of one of the last times I stood in a Supermarket queue and stood behind a young mother with her son, who was about five. She suddenly remembered she had forgotten to get something and told him to dash and get the potatoes. He came back with a large bag of frozen chips - and she thanked him and put them in her trolley.