Tips on Lockdown No 2 from Emma Ball

Today is the first day of Lockdown No 2 in England. Does it feel different from being in Tier 3? Does it feel different from Lockdown No 1? Yes and Yes. Being in Tier 3 felt a bit like being looked down on by people who lived in Tier 1, like we were paying the price for flouting the rules, like we were ‘scum’ and that we were isolated. In Nottingham we didn’t really have any connection with other Tier 3 areas like Liverpool or Manchester because we had the hardest level of restrictions. We were no longer ‘in it together’.

Lockdown No 2 does feel different, in that we have learnt a bit more about looking after ourselves, what works and what doesn’t. Yesterday, I went into a local gift shop because I needed to buy a present for a new born baby. It was 4.30pm, the shop was unusually staying open until 7pm. As I made my purchase, I said to the woman behind the Perspex screen “Good luck for the next four weeks”. She replied, through tears, “Thank you so much for supporting us”. Lockdown No 2 is different because we all of us, in very many different ways, know what is coming up And it is a bit scary because the ‘Virus’ likes cold weather.

Then this morning I opened up my Instagram Account and saw this from Emma Ball. I love it and asked her if I could use it in “We’re all in this together”, in the Virtual Tea Towel Museum, as a record of this very strange time. I think it is a good start. As Christmas is approaching, we could all be looking up our local independent shops, and small online stores, to see if we can get what we want from online shopping or the ‘click and collect’ method and help to keep them going. If Sainsbury’s, with it’s huge profits and magnificent salaries for it’s CEO, can announce on the first day of Lockdown No 2 that it is making thousands of people redundant, then let’s support the locals and, as Emma Ball suggests, be kind to each other. Here is her post:

At the top is my Emma Ball tea towel from Sidmouth, from one of my earliest Tea Towel Blogs and one of my favourite places. Soon I’ll be back out there! Thank you to Emma Ball for cheering me up on this cold and frosty morning.