Weird, interesting and scary time we’re living in… Thinking back to February when we started hearing about the Corona Virus, thanks god far away from us in China. Concerned about what happened over there but never thinking about it could effect us as well over here. Oh dear, we were so wrong but it took us a while to find this out. As it started to spread in Italy my worries were growing, a country close to my heart and close to my home country Switzerland but still far away from my own life that was normal as ever. When I was attending the Cambridge Half Marathon on 8th of March you could feel a slight insecurity among the participants, hand sanatizer was used more often but we were still smiling while washing our hands and sining Happy Birthday. Five days later they postponed the London marathon: the first time the virus attacked my own personal safe world and I got angry and desperate. I felt to be treated unfairly by this unnecessary precaution. All this commitment for nothing and only because of a stupid virus that doesn’t affect me… Meanwhile daily life was still going on as usual. Sure we were concerned about the measures taken in other country but deep inside we were still hoping that it wouldn’t effect us and we were only worried about our own belongings and how unjustly the whole situation is.

In the meantime schools are closed, sport trainings are canceled, everyone is working from home if possible, we have to stay two meters away from other peoples, we don’t meet others, even friends and family anymore, we only go outside for buying food or once a day for exercising. The grocery stores went out of essentials like loo roles, beans, tomato sauces, eggs and flours and we started criticizing the behavior of others in order to cover up our own insecurity. The beginning of the lookdown felt like a rollercoaster ride: being angry and being grateful took turns constantly like the new infection rate and promising news tweets. And we finally understand that this virus effects us all and the time is ripe to change our selfish way of behavior.

After two (!) weeks in lookdown it looks like hat at least the behavior curve starts to flatten and we learned that we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously. We start talking with people we never talked before ore we haven’t talked for ages, essentials are back in stock, we go out of ones way respectfully, we stopped reading every single news feed and we started to overthink before acting. Sure, there are still a lot of smart arses around but it looks like this curve starts to flatten too. I never really liked making phone calls and to make them in a foreign language cost me even more effort but now I start to understand why people can spend hours on the phone. We found out that the world is not going under when your usual breakfast cereals are out of stock, sometimes the replacement tastes even better. And there’s always a neighbor with a spare pack of flour, the hens are still laying eggs and loo paper is overrated either way.

Even if it’s not the spring break we planned and I would rather write about the adventures and memories we would have made while friends were visiting us we still have special moments and projects I’m thankful for. We made a swim gala in our living room, pure resistance class at four in our backyard is epic and makes my muscles sore on and off, we go out for runs or bike rides together, Greg had never so many volunteers to go out for a walk with him, our homemade scones are getting to perfection and the brigadiers rounder and rounder, the windows are cleaner than ever, art projects started years getting a second try, we’re traveling culinary from Mexico, over Thailand to Yorkshire. Oh and I’m up to 10 pull ups in our family internal challenge and a glass of gin at two in the afternoon is not to be sneezed at… as well as all the spare time for my beloved books.

Yes, life has changed completely. I was walking the dog yesterday around eight o clock in the evening: a surprisingly warm spring evening with a beautiful sunset and I didn’t pass any soul. It felt completely surreal but contrariwise the quietness and the birds twittering was lovely and comforting. The whole COVID 19 thing is frightening but on the other side it’s kind of relieving to know that the humankind can’t control everything, right?

Stay healthy and happy!