Overview for Overton
OVERVIEWS OF LOCKDOWNS AND RESTRICTIONS
Diaries:
Life in Lockdown – Memories of a Global Pandemic, Overton 2020
Well, where to start? 2020 – 2021 have certainly not been the years I expected them to be. It all started over the winter of 2019 – 2020. There were worrying reports in the news about a new virus that was spreading in China. But that was OK – it was a long way away, right?
February half term 2020 – life is still ‘normal’. I take the children for days out, book fun activities for them, sit inside with others not knowing that this will be the last time we do such things for a very long time. We take so much for granted. Not anymore. My sister travels to Thailand to visit a friend. I think she is mad – isn’t that one of the places where this ‘Corona Virus’ is? Luckily the trip passes without incident, and she returns home safe and well.
Wednesday 11 March 2020 – A national pandemic is declared.
Friday 13 March 2020 – In the morning I have coffee with a friend. Of course, we discuss the pandemic – it’s all over the news, but it’s not really impacting us is it? That evening I have dinner with two old school friends. I hardly ever do things like this. I won’t again for the longest time. Not that I knew that then. I’m so glad now that I went. I didn’t know what a long time it would be before I could again.
Saturday 14 March 2020 – I was supposed to visit my 93 year old grandmother today. It’s a 2 hour drive away. I was supposed to meet my sister there and we were going to take her out for afternoon tea. We cancel it just in case – what if we unknowingly had ‘Corona Virus’ and passed it on to her (we are both teachers so have a lot of contact with others). We’d never forgive ourselves. Anyway, it won’t be long until the ‘Corona Virus’ thing passes. Maybe we can take her out at Easter instead or over the summer. If I had known then that it would be 18 months until I would see her again, I think I would have gone anyway. But I didn’t know. None of us knew.
Tuesday 17 March 2020 – All the children’s clubs have stopped. No Scouts, Cubs, swimming, youth group. Things are starting to get serious!
Wednesday 18 March 2020 – The government announces that schools will close on Friday. W*£$%(&^”&*$())$*&&??????????? I am a teacher and I have two school-age children - this will impact us massively. On the other hand, I am very nervous about this virus. To be honest I’ve always been a bit of a germ-a-phobe, so living through this pandemic is not going to be easy! At least if we’re all at home then I know we’re safe. And anyway, it’s not likely to be for long. It’s the Easter holidays in two weeks. Word on the street is that we’ll be in this ‘lockdown’ thing for those two weeks and maybe the two weeks of the Easter holidays and then we can all go back to normal. We were so naive.
Thursday 19 March 2020 – My last day teaching. I cried most of the way home. This suddenly feels big and real. What is happening???So many uncertainties.
Friday 20 March 2020 – Take the kids to school. Collect them from school. Chat to other parents on the school run. Kind of feels like a normal day. Today is not a normal day. Little did we know that this was my daughter’s last ever day of primary school – she is in year 6 and due to start secondary school in September. We thought she would be going back again in a few weeks. She didn’t. We didn’t know.
Monday 23 March 2020 – LOCKDOWN.
Home-schooling - I am a teacher, I am supposed to know how to teach. But I don’t. My brain is in a fog. I teach secondary pupils; my children are in primary school. I don’t know what a conjugated fronted adverbial is, I don’t know about photosynthesis, and I certainly can’t keep up with ‘PE with Joe’! We try to be organised. We have a ‘workspace’ (but this is the dining room table so has to be packed away every day). We make a timetable – it’s not great and we have to adjust it every few weeks as we learn what works and what doesn’t. Every day is the same. Get up, everyone at the table by 9am. Me trying to work from home, the children trying to do their schoolwork whilst kicking each other under the table and constantly demanding snacks. My husband upstairs in the home office on conference calls all day – we must keep quiet so as not to disturb him. Constant feeling of failing – failing my children whilst I try to work, failing my work when I try to help my children.
Walks - Walks. And more walks. Every day we go out walking once the schoolwork is finished. Just to escape the four walls of home. The weather is gorgeous and hot. We make a challenge to try and find to new place or path to walk down every day that we’ve never been down before. We get to know the village better than we ever have. We keep this up for weeks and weeks. Eventually we have to reduce the challenge to one new place/path a week. Then give up altogether. We have walked everywhere!
Travel – We can’t travel anywhere, but on a trip to Lidl one day for groceries my husband discovers their specials isle, and this week it’s Spanish food. This kicks off a new challenge for him, and one that we get to benefit from too. Each weekend he cooks food from a different country, and challenges himself more as the weeks go by, increasing the number of meals that fit in with the chosen cuisine. Spanish, Italian, Indian, USA, UK are just a few of the ones I can remember. It was fun. It gave us something to focus on. A ‘holiday at home’. And the weather joined in with the fun. The sun shone day after day like never before, or that’s how it felt.
Rainbows – Rainbows become the new icon for the NHS, for hope for us all. People put rainbows in their windows and we decide to join in. My daughter colours a rainbow. Crochet is my craft, so I crochet a rainbow, and enjoy it so much I do another, and another.
Soon my bedroom window is so full of their bright colourful shapes that I can hardly see out - I have to take some down. I send some to family. The children get given a rainbow science experiment from school – they have to cut out a rainbow shape from kitchen paper, colour in the ends with rainbow colours, and then stand it in water and watch the colours spreading up and over the whole shape. They are very pretty, and they still have them up in their rooms now over a year later.
In a moment of inspiration, I decide that we are going to make a rainbow out of foraged flowers and leaves. We go on a walk (another one!) this time armed with bags for collecting our treasures. The children enjoy trying to find foliage in all colours of the rainbow.
When we return home, they sort it all out into colours, and then stick them on paper in a rainbow shape. It’s beautiful.
Community Spirit – The Community spirit in this village has always been amazing but now it really comes into its own.
Overton Cares is set up, and although I am blessed enough never to have had to use it, it was such a comfort to know that if we were ill or needed to isolate, that there were people – strangers – who would get shopping for us or pick up a prescription.
The Lockdown Larder was there for anyone struggling to get food.
A ukulele teacher from the village (amongst other things) offers free ukulele lessons over zoom. What a legend! This was a godsend. Both my children really engaged with this and progressed massively as the weeks went by.
A neighbour of ours who is a primary school teacher offered to give my children some lessons on the grass outside our house. This was such a relief from the stress of home-schooling. Every day he was there, armed with a big white board propped against the tree, and a socially-distanced rug to sit on. Just knowing they were getting a bit of input from someone who a) wasn’t me, and b) actually knew what they were talking about was a huge relief.
I also had some friends who lived near my parents who off their own backs offered to pick up things for them that they needed – groceries, or things for their pets.
So many people gave their time and care for free. We felt so blessed and so looked after. Every one of them made their mark, whether they know it or not.
I have tried to focus on the positive for most of this account, and there were some good times. Many good times in fact. But it was also hard. Incredibly hard. My sleep suffered. My sanity suffered! There was so much fear, so much uncertainty… and we were lucky enough not to be directly impacted by illness or loss of life. For those who struggled with their health or lost loved ones my heart goes out to you.
We are not through this yet, but we’re getting there. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We have vaccines now; we have new treatments. We are learning to live with this. Life may never look quite the same again, but this new ‘normal’? It’s OK.
Helen Noble
My Diary of Lockdown:
Introduction
At the moment, it is 2020 and I am 9. The self-isolating has just begun (well it has been a week or two) due to the coronavirus.
01.04.2020 Wednesday
Being stuck at home is so boring! It’s not being at home that’s bothering me, it’s not being able to go out. In the holidays or at the weekend, I would normally just stay at home anyway and have a lazy day but now that’s not the case. Recently, I received a message talking about coronavirus. It said stuff like ‘don’t go out for bread, for anything’ and ‘we will be in a Maximum stage of infection’. This message scared me, so my parents reassured me everything in that message was not necessarily true. This helped me understand.
27.04.2020 Monday
Been ages since I last wrote, and a lot has changed. I’m starting to settle into home schooling and now have a timetable. I’m actually starting to enjoy it. I will probably miss it!
26.07.2020 Sunday
It’s now the summer holidays and I’ll be going back to school in September. I can’t wait! Of course, I will be having a week in year five just to say goodbye /get used to things. I’ve started riding a bike again. I LOVE just going on trips around the block. We have seen Granny and Grandfather a few times (once at our house, one for Granny’s birthday and we’re going to go there for Grandfather’s birthday). Also, I got a The Week Junior subscription from my aunty for my birthday (although it arrived a bit earlier in June). On top of everything else that has happened during lockdown, I came second in the Basingstoke Rotary Competition that I entered for my school. Basically, you and to write a short story of around 500 words, send it into your school where you have a very small chance of being one of the two sent from your school and then you have even less of a chance of winning/second place. I can’t wait to go back to school!
15.11.2020 Sunday
I haven’t written in a while, but a lot has changed. Firstly, I am back at school in year six. Secondly, although we’ve just gotten out of lockdown, we’re in it again! But this time is different because I’m still at school like way way way before the pandemic. We all go in at different times to the other year groups, so we don’t cross bubbles. We also play at different times (1 key stage 2 year group on the top playground and 1 key stage 1 year group on the bottom one) and leave separately. On the first day of school, a large group of my friends gathered and had a group hug. I didn’t join in because I knew it was against the rules. Most of my class play a game called corona touch where one person is the vaccine, and one person is the virus and everyone else are people and people who are caught by the virus must stand still for ten seconds and if the vaccine frees them, they are cured but if the don’t they are viruses to. Yesterday, I went to the opticians to check out some new glasses. It was very strange. I had to where a mask the entire time and step outside when I needed to cough. There was hand sanitiser, 2 metre guidelines and the man who sorted out my glasses was wearing a plastic apron, a visa, a mask and handed me my glasses on a plastic paint tray. But the last time I went to the opticians in lockdown, when I had my eye test it was much stranger. We had to stick our eyes one by one into a machine as it took a picture of the back of our eyes. I remember my nose hurting so much because I had to squash it against the machine. As Christmas approaches it become clearer and clearer that we will not be able to see anyone ☹. On a higher note, Jacinda Arden has been re-elected to be New Zealands prime minister after her extraordinary dealing with COVID-19. Also, Joe Biden has beaten Trump in the US election. Hurray, Trump’s gone 😊! I really hope that the thought to be newfound vaccine works and things can go back to how they were.
05.01.2021 Tuesday
My predictions were right because we didn’t see anyone at Christmas, but we did see Granny and Grandfather on my brother’s birthday and had a zoom call with them and my uncle on Christmas eve and on New Year’s Eve. We’re in lockdown again for the third time now. Although I went to school yesterday, someone has decided that we’re now in a national lockdown, yet playgroup and nurseries can stay open. I am happy for my brother as he has just gone to playgroup, but my other brother and I are stuck at home. Somehow, my brother is happy that he is not going to school whilst I am unbelievably miserable. There’s just a different feeling when it’s the holidays and you’re at home and when you know you should be at school. The thing that really puzzles me is the fact that the premier league is allowed to stay open when schools can’t.
16.02.2021 Tuesday (half term)
You know what? I’m actually starting to get used to it even though it is strange. I mean I am still baffled at why the premier league gets to stay open and schools can’t, but things are ok. I get up at around 7:00 and I have until 8:45 to get ready and join the meeting which is much later than I usually have (I had to be ready at 8:20)! My live lessons are at 8:45, 11:15 and 1:45. Home schooling is also difficult at times because, although my mum and dad can work it out in their heads, they’re not trained teachers and sometimes it can get a little confusing 😐. My big brother is being an absolute pain (as always!) and even though my little brother is soooooooooo cute his games can be quite repetitive especially his Peter rabbit games. I am doing ok with my work but now my teacher is trying to make them “fun” by letting us bring in mascots like five-year-olds! On the last Friday we didn’t even have a maths input we just talked about our teddies. Anyway, I am looking forward to going back to school next half term (hopefully I just have a few more weeks of home schooling 😊).
15.04.2021 Thursday (Easter)
So, I’ve had almost half a term back at school now and things are good 😊. I’m looking forward to Testbourne in September. I have to choose whether to learn more French or to change to Spanish which is quite a hard decision because I ‘ve been enjoying French recently but I used to dread French lessons. I’d much rather learn German or Italian because I really enjoy those languages. I also went to the library on Tuesday and was the first person there since October!!!!! It was very funny because I arrived around 9:30 and sort of lingered there until 9:42 when it still wasn’t open. Then I checked the timetables and there was a massive one that was wrong and a smaller one that was right! So, I went a waited in the zipwire park until 10 the actual opening time. When I got back to the library still didn’t seem open, but I went up and checked. I didn’t think it was open, so I rushed away when a lady poked her head out of a hatch at the side and called to me that they were open! I went inside and chose The Taylor Turbochaser and Head Kid both by David Baddiel and River Whale by Sita Brahmachari. Then my library card didn’t work partly because I was holding it the wrong way up but mostly because mum had a different card which did work. Luckily, they were able to do it without the card! So to sum it up, I’m looking forward to next term and am pretty happy.
Diana
Letters:
Christmas letter 2020:
Well, we won’t forget 2020, will we? It was a year characterised more by what we didn’t do than by what we did! The first thing to say is that we have, so far, escaped the Coronavirus and remained fairly healthy throughout - bar the usual aches and pains.
We have certainly been less affected than many people and feel fortunate to have a fairly spacious house and garden, reasonable internet speed and enough local shops and facilities to meet our immediate needs. Not having to go to work now is a great bonus! This contrasts with our son, Robin, who has had a massive extra workload to make Winchester courts Covid-secure such that jury trials and other crucial court business could continue, and our daughter-in-law, Natalie, who is very much on the health front line as an ambulance paramedic. Whilst some have been furloughed, and even enjoyed their enforced break, others such as Robin and Natalie have had leave curtailed and additional workload. We feel for those who are isolated and have had their plans massively impacted - experiencing an on-line funeral was just one example of how much things have changed this year.
We couldn’t holiday in Hawaii and Scotland but once National Trust gardens re-opened, we booked ourselves a timed slot to walk in the grounds and re-acquaint ourselves with a number of fairly local properties.
We had to curtail bellringing - initially there was a full ban and with no church services there seemed little point anyway. Then, further guidance was issued which meant that if we wore masks, we could ring four socially distanced bells for 15 minutes. So, we rang when there were occasional Sunday services and for two small weddings.
We didn’t finalise Alan’s Mum’s move to a care home but continued to “bubble” with her next-door providing groceries, dosset boxes and occasional meals.
We couldn’t join the village walking group but timed our daily exercise to include the same Monday morning slot and met (socially distanced) several fellow-walkers, all on different circuits, at various points on the footpaths around Overton.
We didn’t have the street party planned for VE day with bunting but we did gather at our front gates to celebrate that and also to “Clap for Carers” during Lockdown 1.0.
We didn’t have our usual dental check-ups but Valda managed to have two crowns fitted between the two Lockdowns.
Valda couldn’t go on her “Girls’ Day Out” events with ex-colleagues as have been arranged since they all retired from the Open University but these have been converted to “Girls’ Day In” Zoom calls for periodic catch-ups.
Valda had to postpone Heritage Overton’s great archaeological dig which would have seen several cubic metres of several village gardens excavated to unearth our medieval history. With our lawn spared this ravage, we tended borders and hedges as never before and had a bumper crop of apples to turn into cider.
We had to abandon the champagne book launch but the IET did publish the latest edition in their Transportation series that Alan had been co-editing for the past two years, so it was great to finally see it in print.
Alan couldn’t go to his yoga classes but we converted one bedroom to a Yoga Studio and through Zoom and Facebook Live classes have continued. He also spent two weeks repairing the treadmill so the home gym became fully functional again.
Alan couldn’t go to conferences in Brussels and Turin but the scientific world adjusted very quickly to on-line events – Transport conferences without transport! In fact, the change was welcomed by many and has prompted much greater numbers and broader attendance, particularly for free events. It seems likely that the international conference scene, as well as technical journals and magazines, has changed forever. Whilst there may be physical events in the future, the on-line offering is now a central part of scientific dissemination.
We didn’t go to the shopping malls and see the Christmas lights but the village shops, especially our local Co-op took most of our custom. The village now looks very festive with its own Christmas trees and lights. Alan became a Street Volunteer to fetch and carry groceries and medicines for those unable to get out.
We are reminded of the Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”; 2020 has certainly been different and perhaps the first part of 2021 will be the same, but we look forward to the prospect of the latter part of 2021 being rather more predictable.
Very best wishes for Christmas and a healthy new year.
Alan & Valda Stevens
Letter at Christmas 2020
Dear Friends
Who'd have thought as we wrote our Christmas letters this time last year we were about to enter a year unlike any other? I hope this finds you all well.
Throughout this time we have been conscious of how fortunate we are. We haven't needed to go out for anything other than the essentials conveniently on hand in the village – the Co-op has remained open throughout as have the butcher, bakery and greengrocer. Zoom and phone have kept us in touch with our kids and our friends, and until it started to get a bit wet and chilly we were out on our bikes two or three times a week.
The huge gift of 2020 for us is Robert – born on 17th August – our first grandchild!
The timing was good as he was born after lockdown and so we were able to get across to Lewisham once a week for quite a while until first London then Hampshire went to tier 2 which put a stop to it. But like all proud parents surprised by the joy of it all, they treat us to almost daily updates on Whatsapp!
Otherwise, like many of you I expect, there is very little to report. I imagined I would be able to use the time to do all those jobs that I had earmarked for retirement and 5 years on had not yet done. Well, I still haven't done them which is depressing as I realise that if I couldn't find time in lockdown then they will probably never get done.
Meanwhile we watch the antics both here and in America with a mixture of concern and disbelief. What a huge relief it was to wake up to the news of the Biden victory, narrow though it was. I hope and pray that he will use the next four years wisely. It seems such a short time to try to turn things around and remedy the damage. As for Britain, who can guess where we'll be this time next year? Keir Starmer is like a breath of fresh air and sanity, but he too has much to heal.
Anyway, the vaccine is good news and Advent is here with all its promise of hope and Christmas is just round the corner. Our lovely village is doing its utmost to keep all our spirits up. The church and village community have come together marvellously during these months in a joint effort to make sure heightened needs are met. This seems to be true of many communities countrywide and I want to believe it will be part of whatever the 'new normal' turns out to be. Here our combined churches set up a food distribution centre for those hit economically as well as a system whereby volunteers in every street made themselves available to deliver groceries and meds to people self-isolating or shielding. From this week we are all being encouraged to 'light up our windows', with planned walks round the village to see and admire them and there is the possibility of open air carols a few days before Christmas. No Christingles, but our ingenious church administrator has masterminded a DIY version which is somehow going to be beamed from individual homes (I'm hazy on the technical details as usual).
I imagine that Christmas day will be different for many of us this year. We have reluctantly decided to stay away from the family. Mike teaches in a big secondary school where whole classes and staff have been going in and out of quarantine so the young will join forces and leave the two sets of oldies out of it! It seems sensible though it will be odd.
This comes with best wishes for a happy Christmas and peace, hope and health in 2021.
God bless all.
Much love from us both,
Ivan and Julia Hodgson
Reflections and feelings
A few reflections from the Rectors Wife, St Mary’s Church Overton
June 2021
In the early part of 2020 when we were starting to hear about a new virus that had been found in China, I remember being shocked that the Chinese authorities had tried to silence the doctors who first realised there was evidence of a new disease and their efforts to learn about it and contain it.
By February 2020 I was starting to wonder if this was going to become a problem, and ordered some surgical face masks on Amazon, just in case. By the end of February going into March, Italy was in a lockdown, and it became inevitable that people on skiing holidays in Italy at half term were going to bring the virus back to this country.
In the middle of March, the government asked for social distancing to be implemented and workers to work from home and by March 26th we were in our first national lockdown.
A meeting was called at the end of March between various members of the Overton community, churches, council and local businesses. I wasn’t present but heard later that day that ‘Overton Cares’ was started with the aim to help neighbours look out for each other with shopping and prescriptions during the first lockdown. Vulnerable people and the elderly were being advised to keep in their houses and so there was a need to provide assistance. Overton Cares requested for volunteers on Facebook who could help the neighbours in their streets and form a WhatsApp group, where requests for help could be shared out with all the volunteers for that street. The appeal for volunteers was successful and about 200 came forward.
I had been furloughed from my job at a pre-school and offered to help with Overton Cares and so spent the first few weeks of April entering the names of all those who had volunteered into a spread sheet. I then grouped volunteers with others from their street or ones near them, so they could form a WhatsApp group, to help a particular road or group of roads. Each volunteer required emails with more information about the role of Street Volunteer and who was the Lead Volunteer for their road/s. I liaised with Ginnie Cates as to how Overton Cares was run day to day and fielded ongoing emails from Street Volunteers and other related enquiries, such as putting people in touch with their Street Volunteer. There were also a number of emails that arrived with generous offers of help such as the Greyhound Pub and the Red Radish company giving away warm food, Wilson’s Greengrocers giving fruit and vegetable baskets, daffodils on offer, people willing to give lifts and collect shopping from Tesco’s, as well as giving their time to help in whatever way was needed. There was a lot of goodwill, and neighbourliness, as people realised it was a difficult time, we were all going through.
Stories soon started to come in about Street Volunteers helping their neighbours and how much the service they were providing was appreciated. And we heard of people enjoying getting to know their neighbours and wanting to keep these contacts going even after the pandemic.
The next initiative ‘Lockdown Larder’ started in response to concern that Overton people may struggle financially as a result of job losses and reduced income caused by the pandemic, the Lockdown Larder providing non-perishable food. We found the Basingstoke Voluntary Action group had money allocated to community groups like ours, which could fund this initiative and so the Lockdown Larder was started in May 2020 in the Red Lion Pub. It later moved to St Mary’s Hall and has provided free weekly food for local people until June 2021, again with the glad and willing help of volunteers, which has been so appreciated.
I went back to work in June and was unable to continue to help with emails as before, however Ginnie Cates continued running Overton Cares and the Lockdown Larder (as well as Freggies – providing a food delivery to families in the summer school holidays) and she has conscientiously carried on the day to day running of Overton Cares since then. Her commitment from having the initial idea of Street Volunteers forming Whatsapp groups to do errands for their neighbours, to being responsible for Overton Cares, Lockdown Larder and Freggies has been immense, and she deserves a particular mention. Her care, devotion and attention to detail has been much appreciated by all involved.
It seems right to mention the ‘Tree of Hope’ as well. As the new year of 2021 began with another lockdown, I was aware that it was a difficult time when many people were worried about the second wave of the coronavirus and our churches were shut. As a result, I started the Tree of Hope on a fir tree in front of St Mary’s Church and encouraged anyone in the community to put a ribbon on the tree and say a prayer for a loved one or situation. Over the following weeks many people came to tie a ribbon on and it became decorated with ribbons of all colours. It seemed to be a spiritual focus for the residents of Overton and provided comfort that God was with us at this time and heard our prayers.
The vaccine was being rolled out in the UK as 2021 progressed giving great reassurance that we now had some protection from the virus and a light at the end of the tunnel of this year of pandemic. It’s been impressive how the vaccines were developed so quickly, and how the NHS staff and volunteers vaccinated so many people so quickly. Hopefully we are coming through this pandemic now and will start to return to a more normal way of life.
Annabel Russell
Feelings
‘There’s no space’
Everything is out of place. The children have work. But I can’t motivate them. “I’m not a teacher”, they say each day. “I’m just a Mum.” Why is this unsettled feeling washing over me in waves? Drowning in ideas but can’t get them done. Unable to think straight and it’s making me spiky. There’s no space.
There’s mess everywhere. No order. Where’s my pen? The pad I had? Interruptions, questions and tantrums. I’m at fault for the teachers setting homework. I’m to blame for not understanding the new techniques. This system doesn’t work. There’s no space.
Big eyes watching, looking for assurance. I don’t have the answers. Listening to half conversations. Making up their minds on what my job entails. Strange questions asked. There’s no space.
My train of thought interrupted 50 times a day. A call I wasn’t expecting. No one keeps quiet. I leave the room. They follow. Like sheep they flock to every room a few minutes after me. Needing sustenance or my obvious tech wizardry. Or just to complain. There’s no space.
Cajoling and negotiating daily about technology use. The same words and phrases every day. The same juggle. What’s for dinner? Asked daily after being told. Another squabble about breathing too loud. Another distraction stumbled across online. Another empty promise about finishing something properly. There’s no space.
A bath interrupted. Not even peace on the toilet. The door is banging. The noise seems so loud yet their words muffled. Squealing, whining, crying. Something can’t wait. The dogs' nose appears. There’s no space.
Bedtime doesn’t feel normal. There’s no routine. Tears. Arguments. Apologies. Stalling techniques. Cuddles. The tiredness comes. The worry grows. Today you’ve not been enough. The growing heartbeat noise I hear in my head intensifies. The need to be free. Escape the mundane. There’s no space.
This feeling doesn’t work for me. There’s no space. My body aches, my head in a fog. There’s no space.
The tv isn’t a companion but another lot of interference. There’s no space.
Bed. Space at last. My babies arrive for cuddles. To talk, to be reassured, to feel safe in my arms. The space I needed wasn’t from them. I know that now. But from my anxiety. That’s the only space I need to find now. There’s no space ... for that in my life.
Allyson Taylor
I’d stopped writing poems
Cos it was stressing me out
God, now I know what stress it about!
It’s been a hell of a year
When all’s said and done
With a pandemic that’s literally touched everyone
Appreciate your memories
Cos we all have those
Some good and some bad
But that’s life I suppose
We all thought this Christmas
Was gonna be bad
Just me and my mum
That’s pretty sad
But as it turned out
Family comes up trumps
And they’re always there
When your down in the dumps
So mama and me
We had a great time
The odd g&t
With a big slice of lime
We had lovely food
And watched comedy
Cried at the queens speech
What more do u need?
So bring on next year
Cos we’re made of strong stuff
And we all pull together
When things get a bit rough
With family and friends
All doing their bit
Next year shouldn’t be
Half as shit
So my beautiful family
There’s no one above you
And it seems like a good time
To tell u I love you xx
Anon
Pandemic Poem written in May 2020
I could just stay in bed all day, no one would really care I might not bother getting dressed and never brush my hair Instead I’ll be watching Netflix or just staring at the wall Or mopping up the bathroom floor, whilst hoping for a call
I’ve gone a-walking ‘round our village covering quite some miles Discovered byways, woods and streams, lush fields and then some stiles I’ve cleaned out closets, hoovered the floor, weeded the garden and sorted galore And as I would ponder this state I was in, my “event of the week” became: Put out the bin!
And so I read many books and I studied Chinese And can fluently say “Shi, Qing” meaning “yes, please” I’ve exhausted every platform Whatsapp, facebook to instagram A reminder to my friends—or to myself— of just who I am
I’ve embroidered and painted, done crosswords galore, wiped out every shelf and done so much more Tim repainted the exterior, Tom replaced the heating pump Whilst I tried my best to avoid that mental “slump”
The “wobbly” that threatened us all every week Stopped us in our tracks and felled the most weak But we kept our chins up and tried to keep calm By doing the laundry and just carrying on
Being brave as we’ve been with no ending in sight We tried to stay safe and clap Thursday night And remembered those brave NHS workers indeed Who worked incredibly hard for all those in need
We shall need to stay strong, since deep in our human breast, There still is that something, helping us be our best, That thing that “springs eternal” and was once said to be “hope” Wise words to live by, thank you, Alexander Pope
Brigitte Tournier
Covid – a view from The Middle East
Following three decades of living and working overseas, with irregular short trips back to the village my family adopted as home in the late 1970s, my perspective on Covid brings with it some challenging impressions from a small desert country far from Overton.
As a long-term resident of one of the smallest Gulf countries, I left that country saddened, indeed shocked by the lack of compassion and humanity I witnessed there as Covid took hold. Far from the shared responsibility we witness here in the village and with an awareness that ‘we are all in this together’, in Kuwait the ‘blame’ was quickly and squarely laid upon the shoulders of the poor. There are a large number of expats, far outnumbering native Kuwaitis, many from developing countries who have made their long-term homes in Kuwait. These hard-working men and women, predominantly from Asia and the Indian Sub-Continent, serve Kuwait in a range of roles as drivers, nannies, shop workers, labourers and house-maids. Those who do not live-in are often housed in sub-standard accommodation where people, particularly men, are expected to share tiny multiple occupancy spaces where it is impossible to isolate, let alone to benefit from good ventilation and hygiene practices. One might suppose that in such a wealthy country, consideration might be given to those who had the least with which to confront a world-wide pandemic. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.
Some weeks before I left Kuwait permanently in the Spring of 2021, I witnessed the erection of razor-wire and barricades along streets leading to the poorer areas where the less well-to-do lived. Rather than improving the domestic conditions of those who had the least, police road blocks were set up within these overcrowded areas in order to prevent anyone from leaving. Escape attempts were reported in lurid detail in local newspapers, with little sympathy and huge derision as the escapees were duly caught and jailed. A dystopian view of how best to handle a world-wide pandemic enabled the powerful to lay the blame upon those who had little comeback, now confined 24/7 in sub-standard living conditions. There was little focus in the state-controlled press upon the behaviour of the well-to-do employers of these unfortunate human beings who, almost without exception, stopped paying the salaries of those confined within the barricades. The poor had, quite literally, ‘no way out’. The blame for the spread of the virus was laid squarely on the shoulders of those who had little, if any, resources on which to fall back on. It was the ugly rationale behind what happened there.
Charities, like the Red Crescent and some other agencies including embassies, did their best to distribute bread, water and vegetables on a daily basis. Here, gender biases ensured that women, young and old, went directly to the ‘end of the queue’. Culturally, it was not the done thing for women to queue in the street, so those without sons or husbands were immediately placed lower down the survival ladder. Desperate men formed long queues with little if any social distancing. This inadequate life line resulted in the daily formation of long queues of people, many hundreds deep, already frightened, often with no access to money, to banks, to recharging their phones in order to check on distant families, or to any degree of hope. People were left with little option but to stand close together, queuing in significant heat in order to receive the food and water necessary to life. It was truly appalling to witness.
Following the erection of the barricades, the health ministry began to enter these areas, usually in the evenings, in order to summon entire buildings of men, women and children for covid testing in the street. When the inevitable cases were found in what were now overcrowded slums, entire buildings were ‘quarantined’; with those individuals who registered as ‘positive’ largely left to their own devices. The most serious cases were taken away to ‘field hospitals’; large tents set up in isolated areas where the outcome for the poorest went unreported. Incidences of suicide from amongst these communities were reported daily in the newspapers as the pandemic progressed. It is illegal to attempt to take one’s own life in Kuwait, so any failed attempts at this most desperate measure saw individuals who were clearly in need of psychiatric care, promptly jailed. Reading between the lines of daily newspaper reports of attempted escape or of suicides, it became clear that a resident from these barricaded areas who had received a positive diagnosis of Covid might consider this as a social sentence both shameful and un-survivable. It is unlikely that there will ever be even estimated statistics of the disenfranchised human lives lost during this period. It could well run into the thousands. There will, however, be firm records of every Kuwaiti citizen who died. We often speak of feeling hopeless in our modern world. Thankfully, few if any of us, will ever experience true hopelessness. We will never experience a sense of being powerless, voiceless and value-less in 21st century Overton. No one ever should, anywhere in the world.
It seems trite to talk of the civility of the shared humanity one met with on settling back into Overton in the Spring of 2021. My first impression was of disconcertion; in Kuwait, it was illegal to walk in the street without a mask, whereas here in Overton, it was necessary to wear a mask only when inside shops or when using public transportation. Watching the kindnesses extended to neighbours, to the old, to the frail and to the young in this wonderful village – simply put, witnessing the active experience of human kindness: kindnesses severely lacking in the country I’d just left, was truly overwhelming and wonderful to behold. So many Overtonians (not all, many of us do indeed appreciate what we have here) take the spirit of our village for granted. I will never take the sense of kindred spirit, common humanity and compassion for one’s fellow man for granted, particularly during the Covid pandemic. I know for certain that the grass is far from greener on the other side of the world.
For a local perspective, I recommend this excellent blog post from a Kuwaiti student at LSE.
Barbara O’Neil