I had to go to the shop today a bit further to get some food and my car had a layer of dust on top of it. I started thinking how long has it actually been since I have driven my car. I did not remember. It’s my fifth week working from home and 3rd week working from home with kids. Government just announced today (30th of March) that it will stay like this at least until mid May.

My own safe bubble

It was pretty quiet at the shop and people kept avoiding each other well. We Finns try to keep an arms length away anyway, but now you can see people taking the other aisle or stopping before passing by to keep the distance. At least at the shop where I went you could find anything you possibly need, there is only shortage of hand soap and sanitizer it seems.

It still feels like this is not real, this cannot be happening. Driving home I realized I was actually happy to get home to my own bubble where I know I am fine and forget the reality for a while focusing on something completely different. That is why running is good.

Knee hurting

Unfortunately I have hurt my left knee (too much trail running and running in general so probably ligament inflammation) so I am unable to train or even go for a walk to get distracted. The pain keeps coming and going so have decided to halt exercise completely until it heals because it got worse after I went for a short bike ride and walk with my daughter. No need for doctor as I know he/she would just advise me to rest which I know myself I need to do. Besides they are busy with much more important thing than my knee.

Let’s see how long it takes to heal, but I am in a way happy to take a break, but need to find other ways to pass the time and every now and then get my mind of what is happening. It seems to help. You can concentrate again much better to solve pressing issues at work and help the kids when you are able to momentarily get carried away with something completely different for a while.

It used to be going to the gym, running, choir practise and singing, but all that is now on hold. I think I will start playing the piano again… have not touched it too many times since we moved and at least you can sing along… Let’s see how long the family is willing to listen to that though…

Serious or mild case?

Stories of people that have become immune to Covid-19 and have healed from the virus are very different. Some seem to get it very serious and some milder. They have had very high fever for days and days and some only a bit of cough and aching here and there. It’s scary not knowing which one you might get as it doesn’t seem to make a difference if you are in good shape or not.

Days pass by pretty quickly and there is some sort of routine already. We’ll see, maybe by the end of the week my thoughts will be different.

Take care, be safe, keep calm and avoid people <3

Thought I would start a ”diary” on this situation as there are many things going on my mind and maybe writing them down might help. I will start from the beginning and hop to this day 69 (according to WHO. They started to publish the situation reports on 21st of January 2020).

When we got back from Kilimanjaro (see my Kilimanjaro challenge and journey here) first Covid-19 cases had already reached Europe and it wasn’t too long before it was here in Helsinki too. If we would have had the Kili trip two weeks later it most likely would have been cancelled, so lucky we did it when we did.

First week

First week back from Kili I was following the global news wondering what this means for us and how long it will take before we are in the same situation. Things were getting worse in Italy quickly and China was doing pretty bad. I knew it would reach Helsinki and my suburb eventually and since I have bad lungs, I made the choice about 4 weeks ago to continue working from home.

Bad lungs meaning if I get a flu and it goes to my lungs I cough for weeks and weeks so did not want to catch this one if I can avoid it. Plus I have had pneumonia a few times in the past 10 years so don’t want that again.

Second week

Things escalated really quickly. First advice was to avoid social contacts. Then all gatherings of over 500 were not to be held until end of May 2020 (meaning our spring concert would be cancelled). Then schools and kindergartens were partially closed (those who really need can take their children to school grades 1-3 and kindergarten any age). About the same time sports venues, public spaces closed their doors to everyone. Then no public gatherings no matter how many people to pubs, restaurants and borders all closing earlier this week.

Last measure the government made was closing the Helsinki Metropolitan area from the rest of Finland last night (27th of March) as we have most cases in the country and they are trying to avoid this from spreading to the more scarcely populated are of Northern Finland where they do not have the equipment nor personnel to handle outbreaks of larger scale.

Bad dreams

Long story short this is what has happened so far and I must say it has been frightening and unbelievable. You feel like you are watching a Hollywood disaster movie in real life. I have had bad dreams for a few weeks now and I am one of those people who remember them always. Sometimes it’s nice if the dream is a good movie, but lately they have been more horror movies than comedies. I would rather sleep during the night and not keep dreaming, but hey what can you do. I seem to have another life when I am asleep so have gotten used to that and know that they reflect my days, feelings and stress level.

Anyway today was OK and the weekend was a welcome break, but it has been tough getting used to this. There doesn’t seem to be any good news and the future looks uncertain in so many ways Everyone is struggling to grasp the magnitude of this and the consequences. I think after the initial shock next week will be already easier for me as I get used to this ”new reality” indoors and behind closed borders, but to be honest I don’t worry about me as much as I worry about others. So far we have it all good but I keep thinking how this will affect everyone in the world and how many sad stories there will be. I am sure there will be some happy endings too, but one thing is certain, the world will never be the same.

It’s an uncertain future and unforeseen things are happening. One thing is though in common this seems to affect every country around the world and every person either directly or indirectly. Sharing and caring about each other becomes more important and who knows maybe this will unify the world in a surprising way. I am hoping that anyway <3

So how is everyone?

What kind of feelings does this situation arise in you? How are you doing in your country? It would be nice to share thoughts so let me know and comment.

Take care, be safe, keep calm and stay indoors.