Corona Lockdown Journal: Stay Positive – Setting Goals

Due to health issues and the fact we are approaching our winter years,  we decided to go into self-isolation on Friday 13th March several days before the Portuguese government declared a state of emergency and  ‘official’ lockdown.

We prepared well in advance thanks to our daughter who lives in France. She warned us what was heading our way as we were about two weeks behind France. We decided after following the Covid-19 horror in France, Italy and Spain and the rapidly rising death toll, we are taking no chances.

What amazes me is that while the majority of residents in our local area are adhering to the lockdown and supporting each other,  tourists from Northern Portugal, the epi-centre of the virus, and Lisbon still intend to travel down for the Easter holidays despite government warnings.

At the time of writing this post, the Algarve only have 109 confirmed cases so why travel down and risk passing on the disease? How irresponsible and selfish are these people? Lockdown means lockdown!

Don’t these people follow the news and the rising death rate of the poor souls in Italy, France and Spain?

Thank God the GNR tried to stem the flow of cars travelling down South to enforce the lockdown.

The week following the lockdown I had serious anxiety issues as I noticed the stats for the ‘Closed’ cases -survival v deaths- did not make for good reading. Sleep wrestled with fear as we witnessed the corona tsunami sweep across the world.

At that point, some people were still comparing the CoronaVirus to the flu and apparently we were all over-reacting and scare-mongering. Idiots.

Moving on … Setting Personal Goals

I have now moved passed the anxiety challenges to focus my energy on the positives by setting myself goals. I feel by doing this at least by the end of the lockdown I have developed some new skillsets or completed art projects.

1. Study Portuguese for a minimum of one hour per day. I discovered a brilliant website PortugueseLab.com with free online lessons for European Portuguese.
2. Research new recipes using simple basic ingredients. Check out Jamie Oliver’s website for ‘Keep Cooking and Carry On’. I also have 100’s of recipes I’ve collected over the years but have never cooked PLUS about 25 cookbooks. I plan to work through as many as the limited storecupboard will allow and create my own reference file of tried and tested recipes.
3. Get creative. Painting- I’ve always been attracted to painting water, seascapes etc. so a YouTube search led me to some very interesting ‘How To’ videos. Study perspective so I can paint pictures of our local town. Mosaics – I wish I’d bought some more glue before the lockdown. For now, I will mosaic the smaller pots.
4. Handpan – practice for a minimum of fifteen minutes every day.
5. Gardening – grow all our own salad crop and as many veg as possible.
6. Lose weight and exercise:  lose a further 5kg in weight. Continue with the pre-knee replacement operation exercises to build muscle around the knee and walk a minimum of 2000 Fitbit steps a day. Perhaps I should also include some tummy tighten exercises as I look like I am wearing a bum-bag. Hopefully, the ugly duckling will emerge a swan after the lockdown is over. We anticipate, and I hope we are wrong, this will last several months.
7. NaPoWriMo National Poetry month starts on April 1st. Write 30 poems in 30 days. why not join me on on my other website: WritingForums.com

What goals have you set to see you through self-isolation?

Stay safe and try to make the most of the time at home.

*Image by sumanley