An unexpectedly long lockdown... For the Record COVID-19 project, 2020

Description

For me and my family, lockdown began on the third week of January. Little did I expect to still be in it many many weeks later!  We started lambing back in January and finished some time in April - right around when every day began to feel the same. Lambing time means early mornings, late nights and the fridge looking like it's sponsored by M&S ready meals (other supermarkets are available).

Lambing lockdown and COVID lockdown are two completely different beasts: one allows for the occasional night off and the other currently seems neverending. Around day 4 of COVID lockdown saw my first working from home meltdown. I'm not quite sure what happened but all I remember is that there were tears and plenty of them. What I quickly realised is that a) nobody here understands why I'm frustratred and upset no matter how much I rant and b) pet lambs are the best for animal therapy! There have been many meltdowns since and both pet lambs have not failed to deliver on the animal therapy front.

During COVID lockdown, the work and home life lines have been blurred and that has been tougher to handle than I thought. I never expected that the act of physically going to work would be so key to switching off at the end of the day. Currently, simply clicking 'log off' just isn't cutting it. There's no 'in between' time and as soon as you're done with work, the chores are there waiting like a queue for free pizza! There are many good things that have come out of the COVID lockdown such as better communication between colleagues, weekly Zoom quizzes with friends and an online cocktail class every other Saturday night. However, the fuzzy line between knowing when to finish work for the day and then going straight to make dinner has been much more stressful than I expected.

I miss my colleagues. I miss the students. I miss my desk. I miss the library. This list could go on and on but in all honesty, I'm quite enjoying working from home even though I mostly find it stressful. This is genuinely because of two four-legged, fleece covered, adorable little pet lambs called Siani and 55. It's sometimes hard to see the end of Lambing lockdown and as cute as lambs are, it's also hard to see the point of it all when it's one in the morning, freezing and a newborn doesn't make it. For me, the point is always the pet lambs.

I never expected to find myself working from home and I always thought that I'd take to it like a duck to water. This could not have been further from the truth and that's fine. One thing I do know is that I'll never take those peaceful moments to switch off from work sitting in traffic on Penglais Hill for granted again!