Lockdown Day 1

In these strange and uncertain times I’ve decided to try to do a diary blog of our time in lockdown whilst self isolating at work. Can’t promise enough will happen day by day but let’s see how it goes.

Yesterday was hard, we started the shift ‘business as usual’ with some additional hygiene tasks to perform. The Boss was halfway through the bin run when the email arrived and we buzzed his radio, “Steve, we are closed with immediate effect”. The guests, with the odd exception, were very understanding and supportive, it was sad to see an empty site at the end of the day, but equally, we fully agreed the closure was the right thing to do.

After a very unsettled nights sleep, the nightmare of Boris declaring lockdown last night on national television, seems to be real.

Day 1 of lockdown, scratching the sleep from my eyes, why is it when you’ve been up all night, the alarm goes off and you could sleep for a week. I fell into the shower and climbed into my uniform. Just got to wait and see what the coming days hold.

Last few measly, blueberries toppled onto my yogurt and cereal. No fresh fruit and veg left now, we need to try to go shopping at some point soon.

Start work on a cuppa and a chat about what we are going to get done today. The sun is out again and the skies are blue. Such a shame really. Under normal circumstances the site would be busy. Instead as we head towards the toilet block our only guests are rabbits, squirrels, pheasants and the odd pigeon or two.

The site is usually a twelve month site that never closes. The long gone ‘rotted’ entrance gate post was never a problem until today, so, trying to maintain a two meter space, the boys spent hours trying to dig out two feet of rotten wood from a concrete hole with hand tools only. After digging out yet another gate post from site they managed to reset, concrete and hang the gate to secure the sight. He now can’t feel his hands and says it’s the hardest days work for many a year.

Whilst he was digging holes, I spent my time scrubbing the loo block within an inch of its life. So good to just crack on with it, no time constraints, again with a constantly busy site it’s not always possible to take your time and scrub.

Back’s and wrists broken, my hands are like prunes despite protective gloves, we almost crawl back to the office for one last round up of the day. Our new site managers are our new family, people we are self isolating with. People we are sharing these scary times with.

Back to our accommodation and I’ve been mythering. The Boss trudges to the garage and brushes the dust off the tandem. A few laps around the site, our garden, 5mph obviously and we are invigorated. It feels so good to be back in the saddle.

Fajitas for tea, time to rest the aching bones ahead of another day of lockdown tomorrow.