I've always been someone who has siloed my life and so before I retired, work was a completely separate entity from home and my only friends from work were those who didn't talk about work when we were off. Being retired has meant that I have no schedules or solid timelines to commit to and apart from not being able to see friends, my life has continued virtually unchanged. My rides have been shortish loops around home, no more than 35miles and the dogs have had longer walks as a result. I haven't missed not being able to go on holiday but have missed not being able to visit my lad who lives in Cornwall. I've still been able to see my daughters and it's made no difference that it hasn't been at a public venue of any sort.
That all said I have seen how profound an affect it has had on others and I find that disconcerting. I have a relative who has been turned from mildly cynical to a raging conspiracy theorist and as a consequence has alienated themself from friends and family. Though I stopped watching the news a couple of years ago, I'm still aware of what is going on and the blatant display of hypocrisy and open corruption in the face of those facing difficult times sticks in the craw.
Thankfully, being of cheerful disposition, none of this has got me down but that may be due to early onset dementia... Anyway longer and harder rides await and the sun is always shining, even if it's only above the pouring rain.
July 1st - but
Moderators: Bearbonesnorm, Taylor, Chew
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macinblack
- Posts: 643
- Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:02 am
Re: July 1st - but
I find 'the news' by whatever medium these days to be hard work, especially tv and radio where it's no longer just a case of 'reporting the news' but it has to be analysed and distorted to the nth degree. I know the BBC is meant to be impartial and that the media empires have political allegiances but it's just so hard to accept anything these days as factual and correct. No wonder it does peoples' head in 
Anyway, it's been a strange 15 months or so for me; have never really stopped working, we kept the mill operating all the way through. As others have said, it was lovely how quiet the roads were early last year but, equally, amazing how busy the FoD was especially with the South Wales mtb centres all closed. Had one interesting conversation with a group of lads down from the midlands, I'd said 'hi' as they were prepping their bikes and gave them a cautionary bit of advice that the police were running anpr checks in the area (this was during total shutdown) to which they confidently replied "oh, that's OK. We're key workers"
The last year or so has affected me though in as much as, because I live in a van full-time and sites were all closed, I have had some issues with over-zealous, mostly elderly, people not understanding that my van is my home when they told me to 'go home'. Hey ho, you either get the whole van-life thing or you don't, probably not really surprising that most don't! Travelling in that respect was seriously curtailed; luckily though I had friends with land so I mostly spent my time sharing a 12 acre field with some Shetland ponies
My problem though is that as I get older, even though I was expecting to get more laid-back and mellow, I am actually getting seriously Victor Meldrew. This worries me. A bit
Anyway, it's been a strange 15 months or so for me; have never really stopped working, we kept the mill operating all the way through. As others have said, it was lovely how quiet the roads were early last year but, equally, amazing how busy the FoD was especially with the South Wales mtb centres all closed. Had one interesting conversation with a group of lads down from the midlands, I'd said 'hi' as they were prepping their bikes and gave them a cautionary bit of advice that the police were running anpr checks in the area (this was during total shutdown) to which they confidently replied "oh, that's OK. We're key workers"
The last year or so has affected me though in as much as, because I live in a van full-time and sites were all closed, I have had some issues with over-zealous, mostly elderly, people not understanding that my van is my home when they told me to 'go home'. Hey ho, you either get the whole van-life thing or you don't, probably not really surprising that most don't! Travelling in that respect was seriously curtailed; luckily though I had friends with land so I mostly spent my time sharing a 12 acre field with some Shetland ponies
My problem though is that as I get older, even though I was expecting to get more laid-back and mellow, I am actually getting seriously Victor Meldrew. This worries me. A bit
We go out into the hills to lose ourselves, not to get lost. You are only lost if you need to be somewhere else and if you really need to be somewhere else then you're probably in the wrong place to begin with.