Quarantine diaries: day 4

 Subtitle: flowers and breakfast cereals.

Blah day yesterday. I think the excitement about being able to move my body in multiple directions of my choice (which probably explains all the dance and exercise enthusiasm) has worn off a bit. My glutes have got lockdown soreness - combination of overexertion in a short space of time followed by hours upon hours of sitting down. 

Flowers arrived yesterday, and the hotel was good enough to send up a vase, even though the lady on reception had to double check I was allowed. The smell is reminding me that smells exist, and the natural world is still out there somewhere, seeing as how I can no longer access any evidence of this. Also reassures me that I haven't got that anosmia symptom. I did get a little paranoid that I had a little cough yesterday, but when I think about it now, I coughed maybe 5 times and then turned the aircon to a higher temperature and put some socks on and I was fine. Being stuck in my own head is a strange way to force me to get to know myself better. 

I need to be careful to choose my entertainment carefully as well. BBC's the Repair Shop is definitely a good idea, as was the ABC's version of Back in Time for Dinner. Family-based positive kindness with a historical slant, and a focus on the tangible evidence of the resiliency of the human spirit is absolutely what I'm needing, even in the background, at the moment. Netflix art-house-style films by Charlie Kaufman not so much. I'm Thinking of Ending Things is not the weirdest or most depressing film I have ever watched, but because of the situation I find myself in, it left me profoundly disconcerted and pondering existential reality and that is So Not What I Need right now. Leave that for rainy days boozing it up with a bunch of friends over a board game, or sunny days lounging around on picnic tables at the beach. NOT when I'm stuck seeing no human faces for an extended, mandatory period of time. 

Then there was the aforementioned aircon war I had with myself. I don't know if it is because my own body temperature fluctuates during the day, which sounds plausible, or because I am so bored I need to pick a fight with machines, but I CANNOT seem to get the aircon to a comfortable temperature. I go from wearing PE kit to needing socks and a blanket and I am trying to manage the temperature depending on my activities but failing miserably. It feels like I am starting to miss fresh air and sight/feel of grass. Even whilst in full lockdown in the UK, with my lack of balcony or outdoor space, I could still open my windows and dangle my feet outside. I was still watering my little herb windowsill and still could complain when it was too hot/too windy/too rainy. This hermetically sealed room gives me the tiniest insight into, I don't know, submarine or ISS living or something. 

Well, that was dramatic. I'm blaming quarantine.