This blog is going to be difficult to write as I will be talking about my views, thoughts and philosophies.
It comes as a result of a wonderful email I received from Kaz Jordan which I will take the liberty of publishing here. Kaz wrote:
"Hi Peter. We have never met but I do look forward to your blogs and updates. It strikes me that you rise in the mornings with a purpose to your day. You have structure to your day in this lockdown. Which I know many do struggle with now there is no need to go into work whilst furloughed and have lost purpose to their day/life. This may impact on their mental state of mind also. I would love to see a blog how you have managed to keep structure in these times."
Ok here goes and I apologise for the length of this post in advance.
Being an only child I grew up comfortable with being alone. I had plenty of friends but once I was at home it was just myself and my parents. It did mean that I was happy organising my own entertainment. From a young age I devised games - usually based around football or cricket.
I developed a football game based on the old English First Division where I arranged fixtures and then played matches with a dice - 10 rolls for the home team and 6 rolls for the away team. Each time a six appeared it was a goal. I put together tables and whole seasons and typed it all up on a portable typewriter. I also developed a system for the FA Cup where giantkillings were possible but unlikely. I wish I had kept those sheets.
Similarly I developed a cricket game with cricket rollers (which you can still buy). I won't bore you with the rules but I played whole test matches, county matches, made teams up and included rain delays according to the weather outside, analysis, batting and bowling statistics and much more.
I suppose you could say that it was my fantasy world just as today's kids play computer games. But I had a good balanced childhood often being out all day with friends playing football, cricket, tennis or riding on my bike. Like so many growing up in the late fifties and early sixties I would just go home when I was hungry or it was time for bed.
As I grew up I got more and more into music, often listening to the top 20 with Pick of the Pops on Sundays with the wonderful Alan "hi there pop pickers" Freeman, sat on a rug on the lawn in the garden in the summer. I constructed my own top 20s of songs I liked with a new chart each week. I so wish I had these now so that I could put together playlists on Spotify!
I believe that those days were the basis of my philosophy of today. I still fill every day with as much as I can.
Lockdown has brought its own challenges. I feel so sorry for those who cannot work and those who are finding themselves in serious financial difficulties. Being retired and with no real money worries has given me the opportunity to reach out with what I enjoy doing - writing.
I am a firm believer in contributing to local communities. Over many years I have been involved with numerous different groups in Hethersett and am still involved with many of them, but I don't want to bore you with all the details.
When Lockdown came I looked at how I could use my skills to hopefully bring a little sunshine to people who were perhaps suffering from loneliness or being apart from loved ones or those isolated on their own and unable to get out. So how could I do it? Sadly many of the skills I feel I do have were of little or no use. Ask me to put up a shelf and it is almost certain that it will fall down, ask me to sort out a problem with the car and I am clueless. But I do thoroughly enjoy writing and photography. So how could I use those skills?
Almost five years ago I started the e-magazine Hethersett Herald and it has expanded in the most wonderful way. So that was one thing I could do during Lockdown. Then I thought about walking around Hethersett and the neighbouring areas - primarily Little Melton, Great Melton and Ketteringham - taking photographs and writing a daily blog to accompany them.
Then what about history - something else I have become more and more passionate about as the years have gone by? Writing about local history seemed to fit in with what I wanted to achieve as well. So I began work to resurrect an old village web site and re-launch it - something I have now done at www.hethersettherald.weebly.com. This has given me plenty of ideas and work.
As I walked about the area I took note of nature and history and then returned home to write about them. My aim to do a blog every couple of days turned into a blog a day and then into two blogs a day - one from my rambles and one featuring a history topic.
The response has been phenomenal. I have been stopped in the street (at a safe distance of course) by people who have read and enjoyed my blogs. This week I even got hailed by a dear lady in Ketteringham who recognised myself and my wife from our photographs and wanted to have a chat about local history.
I have received hundreds (dear I say it thousands) of likes and comments and, to date, just three adverse comments telling me I should have stayed at home and kept myself and others safe.
I can tell you that every single like and every single comment has been hugely appreciated and I have taken so much heart from the kind remarks which have kept me going.
As for my philosophy, well that's an interesting one to write about. Many many years ago when I was a working journalist I gave a talk to a group about my job. I can't remember what group it was or where it was (although it may well have been either Cromer or Beccles). At the end the person giving the vote of thanks who I seem to remember was a visiting clergyman from the USA (which makes me think it could have been a Rotary Club) described me as being a wonderfully unbored human being. I have always remembered those words which have acted as a kind of mantra for me. I can say that I have always had too many ideas and things to do to have any time to be bored. I have been depressed but never bored. If you are feeling bored, just do something would be my advice.
Am I a cheerful all the time kind of person? Well no more than the next man or woman. I have periods of feeling low, of feeling depressed of feeling inadequate. Periods of feeling tired and worn out. But I do have a philosophy that is community-based and based on helping people in a small way if I can by using the skills that I have.
Kaz mentioned having a structure to each day and I believe that is vital for anybody's welfare. Each evening I plan out what I want to achieve the next day. Sometimes I write these aims down and sometimes I just make a mental note of them. I never get up in the morning thinking "I've nothing to do today." Neither do I wake up thinking I would rather have a duvet day or I can't be bothered getting up because I have nothing to do. The aims have to be comfortably achievable otherwise they can lead to additional stress which is definitely not the aim. Be careful not to over analyse things though but always remember that ultimately happiness is a state of mind that can come from deep within yourself.
The regular morning walks help both mentally and physically and give me a chance to take photographs for the second blog of the day. The first is usually based on some historical aspect and from research I have carried out the previous evening or from something I have written in the past or from comments left on Facebook. I just love hoovering up facts. That's why I love quizzes. Put me anywhere near a karaoke machine though and I will run a mile.
The lockdown has given me the chance to launch my Hethersett History Project which aims to look at all aspects of our village's history from the people to the buildings, from the families to the topics. It has also given me the chance to research many of the topics about the village that interest me and to share them through my blogs. I am hoping the project will eventually become the most comprehensive history of the village ever published and will be useful to schools etc. I have already developed a talk entitled Hethersett Heroes and Heroines and a Horse which I delivered to two groups before the virus hit. I am now working on a follow-up Hethersett Heroes and Heroines and a Tree and that will be followed by a third entitled Heroes and Heroines and Tea. If anyone wants a good sleep they could invite me to do all three in one go!!!!!
Getting back to my day. If the weather is good after lunch I will do some gardening and weeding. The lockdown has given us the garden we have always wanted but never had the time to do. I then spend the evening on various writing projects and then get up the next day and start it all over again. Oh I must mention I have become addicted to the lunchtime soap "Doctors" (just like Casualties without the blood and gore and the angst and with a bit of humour as well).
It will be very difficult once lockdown is eased to decided what kind of life we want. Do we want all the previous hustle and bustle or are we happier with a quieter more peaceful existence? At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter, although spending lots of time with the grandchildren is high on the future agenda. I also miss going for coffee in Wymondham and having chips and mushy peas on Norwich market.
What I miss the most about lockdown is the ability to have the freedom to go where we want, when we want and that's been hugely frustrating especially when Facebook continually tells you what you were doing a year or two years or five years ago. I'm a person of simple tastes and dream of a day with the kids at Great Yarmouth's Joyland going on the snails (something four generations of my family have enjoyed) and the remarkably scary roller coaster which surprised us the first time I went on with my grandson when, after a leisurely climb along the top, it suddenly unexpectedly plunged down into the dark!
I also miss being able to meet friends at the pub. It's very important to keep in touch with people. Two days ago I rang a dear friend who is well into his eighties to check that he was ok. This is a man with a wonderfully positive outlook on life who has used the lockdown to catch up on his philosophy reading. I asked him what he has been doing apart from reading.
"Oh I've been ringing up friends to make sure they are ok," he said.
"You haven't rung me," I replied.
"I said friends," he said. Love that kind of insulting banter (it's very much a Norfolk thing - you always insult people you like. Well that's my theory, perhaps he was just being truthful).
So to return to Kaz's very kind and much appreciated comments I would suggest the following:
- Always have a structure to your day
- Set yourself reasonable and achievable aims
- Do some form of physical exercise - a bike ride, a jog, a walk, exercises from the internet or a short ramble in the garden
- Keep in touch with family and friends via the telephone or via social media sites such as skype, zoom, house party or what's app
- Put aside time to do the things you enjoy - listening to music, reading, gardening, cleaning the car, or anything else you enjoy doing
- Go to bed when you are tired and get up when you are no longer tired.
- Drink lots of water and don't drink any more alcohol than you would normally
- Have a positive outlook and tell yourself this will all soon pass and we will get back to some kind of normality
- Think about learning a new skill, perhaps via the internet
- Listen to Michael Ball on Radio Two on Sunday mornings
Sorry the last one was a bit left field but I do find his show uplifting and very comforting. The man deserves a knighthood for all he has done before and during this lockdown.
Ultimately I do think that structure comes from the mind and having a positive attitude, although I realise I am writing these words from a position of relative strength without the heartaches and financial hardships suffered by so many. I also acknowledge that finding a new structure for somebody not used to spending 168 hours a week trying to find things to do is difficult. They almost have to re-align their whole life and that's a tough ask.
I suppose the advice I would give anyone in these times who finds their world turned upside down would be - find a new routine that suits you and stick to it.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what I've written.