As lockdown continues, I’m continuing to stay busy and yes the house has actually been spring cleaned throughout now although with us being here all the time, it gets messy again very quickly. The garden continues to thrive and has needed a lot of watering in the recent hot weather. I’ve learnt more new skills such as doing morning prayers live, albeit on the third attempt last Tuesday. I can summon people to a zoom meeting and I am able to do an online shop. It’s definitely a measure of the current times that the greatest excitement of the day is having reserved a delivery slot with Morrisons or Asda.
I’ve listened carefully to all of the advice coming from official sources and like much of the population, got very confused by some of it. The evidence on mask wearing seems conflicting and somewhat vague, and I do understand that wearing one in public is often of more benefit to everyone else rather than myself, but that’s fine. My husband has a chronic chest condition and so would seem to be more at risk than many and although he hasn’t been in a shop in weeks and I have only been in one or two local shops, I decided to make some masks.
The first prototype would have been a delight to any airborne virus. There were gaping holes on either side of the nose, but then having this pointed protuberance in the middle of your face does make life awkward. Also they could have got in around the chin and the whole thing was generally useless. So off to Google and YouTube and there I found a more effective looking pattern and having found the correct sized dinner plate to draw round I made one and I have to say it’s much more effective, so more have followed.
Then comes the crunch of using them. I’m carrying hand sanitizer, plastic gloves, wipes and the mask in my bag at all times. Well I am a GirlGuide and our motto is Be Prepared, so I am. I’ve just been to the Post Office to post two birthday parcels, one to a small girl who will be 8 this week and the other to a good friend who lives on her own and lost her Mother last week and will be having a very significant birthday on Friday, so needs cheering up. I donned the mask as I entered the shop, but what I hadn’t anticipated is that the combination of mask, hearing aids and glasses is lethal. The aids flipped out as put the loops behind my ears and once everything was in place, my breath through the mask caused my glasses to steam up! Oh well, plenty of time yet to practise!
Hazel Jenkins