Post lockdown life

The lockdown is still in effect in some areas of life.

I live in a privately rented flat and the letting agency wants to do it's three monthly inspection.  They want me to be absent during the inspection so I don't breath on them.

I also have a job interview coming up and it's by video.

As a Christian, I have to anticipate, and embrace, oppression. Grace will prevail, in the end.

Money must be our servant, not our master.

the flu one is worse

Yes, I can.

Depriving the entire population of the world the basic human freedom to leave their homes, meet with other human beings, visit their dying relatives, attend the celebrations of loved ones, exercise their right to earn a living, receive basic health care... that is the very large sledgehammer... leading a balanced, healthier life is the nutshell.

Peace begins within, not without. No matter how many times humans have tried to restructure their outward world (usually involving committing grave injustices against one another and unspeakable atrocities along the way), none of the have succeeded.

There is no problem out there that didn't or does't emanate from inside us; our experience of the world is merely our collective psychosis as a race reflected back at us. 

You did everything you could.

From personal experience I would say feeling awful for a day or two after a jab is preferable to having covid.

At the moment I feel awful.  Yesterday morning I had the COVID booster jab, from Moderna, my first two jabs were from Pfister.  My arm still hurts and I have a temperature.

Tomorrow morning I'm due to have the flu jab.

Having hardly been out in two years, I had to go to London for my assessment. Dear God! Rammed up against the whole of humanity, at least a third of whom are not wearing masks, when I'm knackered and my nerves already fried and my SPD is screaming. Mid-pandemic I was in full blown melt down in the supermarket with people coming too close.  No idea how I held it together Friday. Got home stripped in the kitchen, every last scrap of clothing went in the wash including my coat, straight in the bath to scrub every nook and cranny of my anatomy. I'm still terrified I've got COVID.

Yep did it for years in London. Job was a sinch, commute was a killer. At least in the Midlands I get a seat on the bus and can whip out a book or a spot of crochet to calm the anxiety.

Getting too old for that game now.

Rob said:

But then you realise more precisely that the sitution gives some freedom to be the real you.

I think this was definitely the case and not just with autistic people. Many of my friends have anxiety and would probably agree with this.

4 hours commute! My goodness no wonder you prefer WFH. I thought my 20-30 minutes commute was enough.

The plebs are at it again! 

"Post lockdown life!"

Yesterday I had a nightmare bus journey, social distancing has come to an end!

I travelled on an X84 bus from Otley to Leeds in the early evening and it was packed.  Every seat was full, people were standing downstairs and on the stairs themselves.  I was sitting upstairs just behind a lady with mottled greasy hair, the smell from her was awful, I couldn't decide if it was body odour or the filthy clothes.

I'm only just poking my nose out of the house now. I'm still working from home - which saving me 4 hours of exhausting, sensory nightmarish, IBS triggering commute every day, has been fab for the old energy accounting.

I don't want to EVER do 5 days a week of that again.

I read this as past lockdown. Which I suppose is the same thing. The absence of other people in enforced lockdown was wonderful. But then you realise more precisely that the sitution gives some freedom to be the real you. It was hard enough to relate to the casual dishonesty and prejudice and judgemental nature of other people in prelockdown life. You build coping mechanisms to hide behind and to conceal your true self as it battles against the basically hostile battleground of the everyday environment. Lockdown experience gave clarity about the harshness of other people's behaviour. How do you go back / passed that realisation? 

A toolbox I like that!

I sometimes think of it as a framework that we build where we can hang different parts of our lives on in an order that makes sense. 

Yes, Key worker in solo household who used to work in supermarket until August :P

I loved the one way system round Tesco, I wish they would keep it

It's hard when you don't realise you need to take action though!  That's what got me into a mess in thr first place.

I like to think of things like a toolbox where we have strategies to help us manage our mental health.

Don't feel guilty for taking time off!

Thats true! I take less time off work than most of my collegues but I still feel guilty and afraid when I do.

Its not soft to need a rest, you are doing the right thing to look after yourself. I need to do the same