I have been extremely lucky during this pandemic so far, I have been able to continue my work but from home, I know so many people that have lost their jobs or been furloughed. I also know several people who have been severely effected by the virus through illness or losing a relative during this uncertain time and it is awful, I am very aware of how much worse it could be for me and I am so thankful that it has not been that way.
We have been adjusting to this ‘new normal’ for a while now. At the time of posting this I have just started my 13th week in lockdown and have been in London working from my temporary home for 8 weeks (unless my work has reopened in between writing and posting this and I have now returned to Wales).
Most people have had to make huge adjustments during the last few months and we have had so many holidays, days out, birthdays, weddings, celebrations, gigs, festivals etc cancelled, postponed or dampened.
I am one of the many people who have had to try to celebrate their birthday during lockdown but I was determined to make the most of it, and to see as many people as I could (virtually that is).
I am currently living in London with the lovely man I have been dating since last November, Jez, so not only was I shut in, I was also away from my family. However, I took a couple of days off work, made lots of plans and ordered a birthday cake to celebrate.
The few days leading up to my birthday I had lots of requests for my temporary address and received several cards and packages but resisted opening them to save them up for the day.
At the time of posting it has been a whole month since my 29th birthday (30 next year eeek). My birthday was May 14th, I had the Thursday and Friday off work as well as not having to work the weekend. When the end of my work day came around on the Wednesday I popped to Sainsburys to collect our online shopping order, several issues with it but was determined for it not to ruin my birthday, that was a future Rachel problem, I did get my bday cake and my gin (and that was the most important bit obviously). Had a bit of a pamper session then had a nice sleep in prep for a long day.
The awkward thing about face masks is not being able to move or smile… 
My pile of pressies ^_^
Thursday morning, I had made sure there were no alarms set on my phone, but sadly all 3 of my current housemates were working so I got up at 10am, still a decent lie in though and meant I wouldn’t be sleeping the day away.
After breakfast I had a lovely video call and rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ from my parents and little brother, opened the cards and gift I had got sent from them, a box filled to the brim with different chocolate bars and a set of hot chocolates which took me over a fortnight to get through. Once we had hung up I also had a bunch of Bloom and Wild flowers arrive from them too, I arranged them then sent them a photo of the gorgeous display ^_^
I then chose to relax for the biggest chunk of the day while everyone else was working, I managed to finish the book I was reading (The Girl with the Lost Smile by Miranda Hart), had lots of cwtches with Woody, the Guide Dog of one of my housemates, he is a gorgeous black labrador and is so affectionate, as soon as I sat down on the sofa with a cup of tea and my book he took his rightful place cwtched into the crook of my legs so he could get ear scratches in between page turns. I love dogs!
(I was so comfy I didn’t take photos but here are some others showing him getting as close as he can, bless him).
Once I’d finished my book it was still only around 2pm so, after I’d had some food, I caught up on some Netflix shows as I’d forgotten I was still 2 series from finishing Vampire Diaries, hadn’t finished the Uk drag race episodes or series 3 of The Crown amongst many others due to all my moving around last year. I still haven’t finished everything on my Netflix list (the rate I add more things I’m not sure I ever will get through it all if I’m honest) but I’ve definitely made a dent in it compared to before this corona quarantine.
At 4pm I had arranged a video call with my little sister for when she and her mum had gotten home from work (her lovely mum Jin works in a school so hasn’t had the luxury of stay home at all over this period and so my little sister has had to go in with her). We had a lovely hour long chat catching up, playing games, using the various facebook video call effects, pulling funny faces and just generally being our true weird selves, it was lovely. They live a long way from me so I’ve not been able to see them in person for 18 months so was an extra treat to have so long a catch up with them on my birthday.
Ok, so scrolling through this post, it seems to be a getting a liiiiittle bit long and I’ve not even finished the birthday day itself and I had 4 days of celebrating so I am going to split it into 2 posts and end the first part 1 here 🙂
Until next time, stay safe, stay home, stay connected (virtually for now) and TTFN.
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