I had intended to post some reflections on isolation when we reached day 100. That has long since gone. Here we are, day 120 and I have now broken cover and left home for the first time, in order to visit half my family in a socially distancedish manner. Perhaps this means I shouldn’t call it isolation anymore but I am now home and have returned to hiding myself away.

What have I learned in 120 days? I have learned that going out is not essential to my wellbeing. I desperately miss my family and it would be lovely to see the sea but apart from that, I am relatively content in my own little world. I have learned that I probably would not be able to cope so well if I did not have a garden and the flowers and birds have been a joy. I was also fortunate that I was not locking down alone, although I am now officially a bubble instead. I have learned to use Zoom and Facebook Live. I have begun to find ways round the dismantling of my employment and book selling opportunities. I have learned that I can play a recognisable tune on the piano, albeit very slowly. I have not learned Cornish though – still on the to do list. Nor have I found time for all the cleaning and sorting I might have done.

I am still keen to stay at home, especially as our little area of Devon, which has the lowest COVID rate in the country, has just seen some new virus cases after a five week gap. I have zero desire to visit the hairdressers, the pub, a café or a shop. I do know I should be supporting the economy but these are not things I need to do and I don’t feel ready for this yet. I am probably up for a few walks in the country, if I can make time in the hectic online schedule I seem to have created for myself. This week is particularly ridiculous with wall to wall Zooming.

On the subject of Zoom, yesterday I gave a talk for Devon Family History Society. Devon FHS have gradually been building up these meetings over the past months but this was the first that one had been advertised to the whole membership. The room capacity was 100. We had, after much debate, decided not to increase the capacity, as doing so would mean we would need to change the link we had circulated and folk are easily confused. People had been asked to log in 5-15 minutes before the start time. Half an hour before and there were already 30 people waiting. Ten minutes to go and we had hit 100 attendees. I had already promised to repeat the talk back to back for any who were waiting. My voice just about held out for the second session. Round two saw another 47 people in the room. Wow. They came from New Zealand, from Canada, the USA,  from France and from Malta. There were attendees from Scotland, from Wales and many English counties. Understandably, those who could not get in were disappointed and frustrated but there were so many lovely comments afterwards, it was worth the hard work. Several said that meeting in this way made them feel that they belonged to the group for the first time. The Devon FHS room capacity has been increased for future meetings and we look forward to bringing members together in this way on a regular basis.