holiday – My Journey to Kili and Back

The Virus Diary – Day 212 – Second wave or not?

That’s the question on everybody’s lips everywhere. Some countries seem like they have never been over the first wave, and some have clearly entered the second wave phase already. I suppose Finland is tiptoeing on the rope not sure on which side to fall. We would need to be able to contain the ”R factor” lower than 1 meaning around 30 cases a day (if I remember correct), but since the beginning of August we have been breaching the limit continuously which indicates that we are entering the ”second wave”.

Based on all the above the government now recommends everyone to use a face mask in public transport and potentially crowded spaces where you cannot keep the recommended distance from other people. They also recommend again for everyone to work from home so the ”not working from home” lasted only less than two weeks.

The news of recommendation to work home does not really change anything for me as I will continue working from home anyway for the rest of the year at least. I have grown to accept and live with it already and I don’t even miss the office. I do miss people and getting together with people and it’s been so great to be able to do that with family and friends during the summer. It was especially a relief that I was able to attend my grandfathers funeral as he passed away during the summer (not corona related).

Schools start

Enjoying holiday on the beach . Had perfect weather!

At the same time as the situation already began to get worse, also the schools started so more people travelling and interacting with each other on a daily basis. I for once have no other choice than to take public transport when I take my youngest to school. She started in first grade just last week meaning no more dropping children to daycare for me after 17 years! When you put it like that it seems like forever, but in the end it’s not. So we have tried various other methods to get there, but public transport just makes most sense, and with the mask recommendation and me also wearing one, I don’t feel that paranoid as I did before.

I think people are starting to take the recommendation more seriously by the day and I can see more and more masks. I think we all want to avoid this from blowing again into our face and that we don’t need to go into partial lock down again like we did during the spring. It is in everybody’s benefit to keep the community running.

We need the jobs, we need BAU!

What next?

So what will happen after the second wave? A third wave? A fourth wave? I am happy to see that many companies have adopted this new way of running business and to them this hassle with sanitizers and precautions have become business as usual.

Since we do not have knowledge of the exact length of this situation it makes sense to start running your business around the fact that The Virus will be among us for an indefinite future so you might as well learn to co-exist with it.

So I suppose that is where we are headed, a life with this virus as a part of our lives just like all the other ones before it. It will make though permanent changes to how we perceive things, how we work and how we interact with each other. For example it was really hard to learn not to shake hands when you meet someone new and introduce yourself. It was a bit awkward actually at first I admit. You did not know quite what to do or how to be.

Nowadays I use the Aussie tactic so I speak to strangers 😉 But should there maybe be some rules around this too? Like who talks first just like you have with shaking hands? I suppose this is all yet to come. One thing I am pretty sure about is that shaking hands is probably history, but hugs will never be <3 ( trust me I have hugged so many people when we finally could!)

How am I coping?

One music project I was working on with a colleague

Good question. Spring was tough, summer a bit easier and now it’s getting better all the time. I have found other ways to keep myself busy with the leg being useless. I have had a few singing projects and multiple different tv/movie productions. So when you are not able to travel what do you do on your holiday… well work of course in something you love like music and modelling!

It has been so great to be able to soak into something completely different from family chores every now and then. I can say that it has been one of the most exiting summers of my life. I have found a way to channel my energy to something else and discovered that actually I want to keep doing these movie/tv productions and modelling in some form in the future. I will find a way to educate myself and get better at it. I already had my first bit part (part with talking) on a series so small steps!

BUT it’s been tough no doubt about it, and everyone I have spoken to have had the same feeling. Spring was very tough and summer a bit easier. We are coping , we are adapting and tomorrow will come, again.

The Virus diary – Day 152 – Holiday season

The situation here in Finland is so much better than it was the last time I wrote. The government decided to lift the restriction in early June for the first time and have since done some more changes to them. Now we are allowed to eat in a restaurant (with restrictions… 50% capacity inside and so on) and go to gym and other places. Practically almost everything is now open. Not that it means that they are doing well. The restrictions do require some ingenuity and extra work. Nevertheless I am happy that we are getting back to some sort of ”normal” finally. and the ”exception law” hasn’t been applied since 16th of June. The amount of new cases is close to nothing and even though the first restrictions were lifted already earlier this month new cases amount has not increased, so we are in a good situation it seems.

Camping fun

Enjoying the sunshine after long dark winter <3

Since it’s looking generally better here, the number of new cases is going down to less than 5 in the whole country, we also decided to go for a short ”family getaway” camping with the kids. If a teenagers asks ”Mom, can we go camping ?”, I will head packing straight away. It is such a rare occasion nowadays that they actually want to do something together. Decided to go fairly close here to a campsite that has both a water park and an amusement park next to it to avoid too much hassle with travelling and knowing that it had just opened up for the summer (normally they would have been open from May) thought it would be fairly empty anyway and I was right.

They had taken all precautions and naturally we also did our part and kept washing our hands and waited patiently for the ”clean-up” breaks in the amusement park. Camping itself was fun and it was great to see the kids getting along so well. They sometimes keep bickering around constantly and then suddenly get along so well. Today was a good day in that sense so camping turned out to be a success.

Next day we went to the water park which was rare luxury that we had such perfect weather. It was closer to +26 which is a lot here in Finland and it was so hot ! Sliding down into cool water including a bit of sunshine was perfect a way to spend the day. In the water park they also had two ”shifts” for customers, morning and evening ticket. This was their way to limit the amount of people coming in so we would not be all full packed next to each other. Apart from the mosquitoes and black flies it was a perfect and much needed holiday.

YES I did go on that crazy swing high up!

Working from home continues

Although the situation if better everywhere in Europe our company has taken the approach to keep all offices closed until the end of the year. This means that I won’t be returning to our office in the city centre for a while yet, but at least I can go and eat lunch outside somewhere if nothing else ,since the restaurants are now open again.

I have done some changes now to my ”home workplace” to accommodate this change. Got a proper office chair and will most likely use a small chest height cabinet as a table and stand every now and then. Holiday is now over and it’s back to the grind again on Monday. Luckily weather will be warm enough to work outside for a few months more so I will take advantage of that and change spots a bit around the house and terraces. If I will be able to get my leg back in shape again maybe do some shorts walks during the day to get some every day exercise that I lack now without commuting (walking to metro, walking to office, walking to lunch and so on). Physiotherapist might disagree, let’s see once I get my first appointment.

How will choir singing continue?

Most choirs are on summer holiday ,at least more amateur ones, so there is no practising anyway during June-July. What will happen in August is still a bit open to many of us. Some have started practising with the whole choir, some in smaller groups, some through zoom, some not at all. If the situation continues to be this good then maybe we can get back to some sort of arrangement on live rehearsals, but since singing (and shouting) have been proven to spread the virus through aerosols we are being cautious for a reason.

I am still taking part in various different virtual choir projects and love them all but I do miss the live situations and singing, not to mention actual performing. BUT this is now and who knows how the situation changes in the next few months. Hopefully to the best and we can get together again without fear of infecting anyone with our lively singing. Gospel singing has never been a very ”inconspicuous” type of singing and performance 😀

Who knows what the rest of the year looks like. We just need to wait and see just like until now. One day at a time.