A new reality

Frightening how reliant we are on something that can so easily vanish. They were the last words of my last blog post. Then I was complaining about not having electricity. Now, a short time later, we are under virtual house arrest, pubs shut, cafes shut, flights cancelled, borders closed, jobs being lost by the thousands in an environment that feels utterly surreal.  

I’m writing this on the first day of the Corona virus lock down in Ireland. It’s raining – nothing new there – but the pubs are shut, all of the parades are cancelled, and we are looking at a very uncertain period ahead.

Just a week ago I had a terrible day. I’d been trying to learn how to typeset on Microsoft Publisher – how hard could it be? I know my way around Word and have a pretty good grip of other software, but three days later I was still no further on. Finally, on Friday night I gave up and admitted I needed help. I’ve since booked a one to one computer tutorial via the internet. On Thursday I’d had another rotten day. My telephone died, literally turned itself off mid doing something and refused to come back on, despite how many YouTube tutorials I watched and attempted. Later that evening, fraught from my Publisher battles and the telephone I headed off to the stables late at night to check out Thelma who is obstinately hanging onto her babies and refuses to give birth. Halfway in between the stables and the house my torch died, plunging me into darkness. I groped my way back and used another torch.

Three disasters – things always go in threes, don’t they? Actually no. Goat checked and found to be kid-less again, I headed for bed, blissful in the warmth beneath the duvet, my toes cosy on my hot water bottle. Except, wait, they weren’t cosy, they were wet. Panic as I ejected the leaking hot water bottle onto the floor.

Could anything get any worse – yes, it seems it can. What a strange new reality we have.