Quite a feeling of déjà vu.
We have closed again as a member of staff has tested Covid positive. In line with government guidelines because we have had contact with someone who has tested positive we must self-isolate for 10 days. I know some people have gone and got a test and then carried on as normal if theirs was negative but that's not how it should work
I know I could do with a couple of days off, but shutting the shop wasn't what I had in mind and we can't go anywhere
Not that I've been anywhere lately anyway. As I treat I have done the cash and carry run on an odd occasion but other than that I've hardly left the premises since last March.
Looking out the window on the outside world as I watch people walking by it's as if it's just a normal day.
How we all long to be able to meet up with friends and not have to plan a trip to the shops in regimental style
Stay safe, keep looking out for those silver linings and I look forward to seeing you all on the other side
Joanne, Godsithney Store
Lockdown 3 has brought more time spent on a computer than ever before. Teaching online has been a steep learning curve for everyone involved but it has been wonderful to have the chance to see each other every day, share our news and continue learning together when our classroom has otherwise been empty. Pets have joined us each morning including guinea pigs, cats, dogs, stick insects, peacocks and even a sour dough starter! We all say each day how much we are looking forward to getting back to school as normal.
Anya
I’ve been lucky to be working in schools some days each week but when I couldn’t it was musical zooming again. I’ve tried all sorts of things to make it possible for everyone to participate either at home or at school, with or without instruments, so that included kitchen samba. You really can make music with anything! Tom has continued to be part of everything. He’s a great teaching assistant.
Chris
After 7 hours and 90 jabs I blessed the God of Tea and the lady who brought homemade brownies. More jabs next week and onwards into the summer. I quite like the freedom of scrubs but the face covering steams up my specs.
Jane
Lockdown 3 was probably the hardest really. By now we are well and truly fed up of wearing masks for 10 hours a day ( we still are ) and working weekends to keep up with all the extra deliveries we had to do for vulnerable and isolating patients. After almost a taste of normality it was hard to be back into lock down again.
We are now looking forward to relative normality and working closely as a team again.
Tara
Overnight my business disappeared – I’m a wedding and festival caterer so from one day to the next COVID wiped out over a year of booked events. I felt almost weightless, suspended in mid-air, floating and then there was a rush of falling back to earth with a bang as it dawned on me that there was absolutely no money coming in. Added to this was the stress of having a partner locked down in Peru and two children to home school.
Then we were saved in the short term by being asked to supply food to NHS staff at Redruth and Falmouth hospitals. We then went into a weird time of tranquillity; the children excelled themselves and were very supportive, making smoothies and baking and then we got Annie home and things started to sort themselves out.
By the end of May we decided to try taking the trailer to local venues and offer a takeaway service. It’s been great. The first night had a long (socially distanced) queue with many people breathing a sigh of relief at the thought of having a night off from the cooking. We’ve built up a local following and we have kept going week in, week out through both the beautiful and the hideous weather. It has literally kept the wolf from the door as well as enabling us to meet so many more locals with whom it’s great to catch up with on a weekly basis
This summer we have added campsites to our venues as well as starting to cater the odd wedding. Weddings are smaller now – but gradually things are opening up for us in the hospitality trade.
Lindsay
Li
Here I am between piano on the left and computer on the right, composing
and orchestrating a movement of my Zennor Symphony. It is a highly concentrated activity requiring me to run orchestral and choral sounds through my head, having played them on my computer via the Sibelius Programme, experimenting with different combinations of instruments, or different “tunes”, and notes, often tried out on the piano, hence my piggy-in-the-middle position.
When you consider that I am having to handle, or even juggle, anything up totwo dozen simultaneous staves of music at any one time, it will strike you that one can lose oneself in this situation for hours at a time. Small wonder, then, that Covid and lockdown have had little effect on this, except perhaps in affording even more peaceful (therefore more helpful) surroundings, and making the idea of burying oneself at home between computer and piano for hours on end, slightly more normal than would otherwise be the case!
Another major activity shackling me to the computer is work on my bookabout female and black classical music composers, which I am desperately trying to complete, so again the Covid situation has had little effect. All this may give the impression that I am a computer nerd: not so! My computer is simply an excellent tool for music composition, a convenient means of creative writing and a receptor for emails. Outside these areas I am happily
far from it, preferring handwriting, playing the piano, drawing, painting and
physical activities – things I consider more “normal”!
Brian
Adam
Counting the birds on my feeders for the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch Sunday 31st January 2021. My favourite family of long tailed tits came- taking no notice of social distancing and simply flying off together after their free lunch. Lucky things!
Kate
I miss James so much, I miss the life that we should be sharing now and growing older together. I miss his smile, his wit and intelligence, his conversation and knowledge, his kindness and gentleness, but most of all his love.
He was diagnosed with an aggressive and inoperable brain tumour at the beginning of February this year and passed away a month later – only eight months after we had begun our new and joyous life.
We met 55 years ago in the sixth form, dated for a while and then went our separate ways. At the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020 we reconnected via social media, there then followed many emails exchanging memories of people and places from our past, bread recipes, photography tips, favourite reads and films, anecdotes – all manner of topics. Lockdown became bearable as daily I looked forward to a new tale from the north. James visited for a couple of days in July… and never went back! I don’t think we could believe our luck, finding each other again and falling in love at 70. It only happens in fairy tales, or so I thought.
I can now only feel so very grateful for the wonderful, albeit too short, time we spent together. Tears fall freely and frequently, interspersed with smiles as I remember the most amazing man that is James.
I still love you James, let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic
(Into the Mystic Van Morrison)
Colleen
Counting down the days to the unknown; we’ve all got our personal agendas on what we’d like to do or go, eagerly awaiting the day we get our time to spend it how we wish.
We often say, “ We’ve done that, we’ve done this, we’ve been there!” Abiding by the government’s restrictions.
This lockdown has been by far the toughest, with homeschooling, a baby to look after and the daily household keeping. At times we have all snapped at each other but we do reflect and think about others who are worse off than us.
What keeps us going is the planning ahead, the thoughts of Spring and the light at the end of the tunnel.
Louise, Nick, Jessica, Cohen & Hali
I became increasingly aware that as I threw on my clothes in the morning I’d begun to gravitate towards an old, previously neglected BFI ‘Days of Fear and Wonder’ t-shirt. Summed it all up!
I’d gone from lockdown in Peru to quarantine in the garden shed with a long bizarre journey in between. Rescued by my nephew from a deserted airport and put on a near empty train to Cornwall – everything was strange!
In Peru I’d watched the pandemic play out on screen with my lockdown family between binge watching Netflix box sets, family yoga sessions and creating Ottolenghi feasts. Now I was home with uncharacteristically good weather watching daughters on the trampoline, sitting at an unfamiliar distance from family, eating supper with Lindsay at opposite ends of the garden table, helping with homework and taking daily bike rides around the neighbourhood.
Moments of panic kicked in as we realised the precariousness of our existence - how were we going to keep our family afloat? We were not unaware of our good fortune living where we do. I knew I needed a creative outlet and I soon found it in ‘Unfamiliar Distance’. Working on the project during the pandemic has kept me sane.
Photo credit: Chris Judge
