Just when we thought we could never slow down – well we have

Country Living with Francis Farragher

It’s kind of like I’ve been put on something akin to an adult soother . . . there’s more time being spent in bed . . . the car is being driven around at a significantly lazier pace . . . each day seems to have delivered more disposable income in terms of time (and money too) . . . and all of a sudden, hours seem to have presented themselves for the reading of newspapers, books and periodicals.

Of course, we all know that time does tick along at the same pace from one century to the next but it’s our perception of this concept that can change. By the end of last February, most of us were moaning about the pounding of wind and rain we had taken for the previous couple of months . . . little did we realise that there was a far more sinister little monster on the way.

No matches to go to; no football, hurling, soccer or rugby to watch on the TV; no restaurant to visit for a little lunchtime or weekend treat; no quiet hour or two to be whiled away in the local hostelry where all the woes and wonders of the world could be dissected and not even an hour to be spent at some of your favourite locations like The Prom or your local park.

I’m not really sure whether I appreciate that sense of not being overwhelmed at once again having time on my hands to do such ordinary things as going for a walk to the local village, a ramble up the fields, or a quick cycle on the hybrid, even if the same 2km route has to be traversed a number of times over to discharge any reasonable level of perspiration.

On any given week over recent years, it would have been quite apt to write a column about how we all spend day after day ‘chasing our tails’, trying to get our daily tasks completed with all kinds of hints and tips being given by psychologists and life coaches (Oh God, but that latter term does make be squirm a bit).

Now, we’re all learning to improvise, in a bid to beat the boredom that has been created by a microscopic little bug that has so far outwitted all of the top medical and research minds across the world.

It is hard to imagine how the two words, coronavirus and Covid-19, could have set in-train such a seismic change in our lives. Now, our new breed of stay-at-home people find their days melding into one another without any discernible borders – even those lines between day and night, sleep and wakening seem to have got blurred.

While perusing some material on social media on people’s reaction to the current semi-hibernation of all things living, I came across a tweet from Hollywood icon, Bette Midler, summing up her current state of mind.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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