Lynne in lockdown

Monday was a really tough day. It was much worse than Sunday. While I had loads to do, (because two jobs) and I was really busy, I was snappy and annoyed with myself and generally unsettled.  Last night I gave myself a big kick up the butt. There are loads of people in lockdown in HK (and all over the world), many in tiny apartments and many with children to try and home school and entertain. Many people in HK are relying on strangers to bring them food, thank goodness for the HK quarantine and group for rallying volunteers to do food deliveries.  I have a lovely apartment, a balcony (thank god), fabulous friends who are reaching out to me and enough money to live comfortably in lockdown. I went to bed feeling grateful for all that I have. On to the positives of the day. I was up at 6 and into a training session on the Sweat app. The app is great but I’m not sure that the round that I’m doing is pushing me hard enough. Maybe I need a longer warm up on the skipping...

Sunday started off well. I slept through the night as I didn’t have hourly messages from the ‘stay at home’ app, thank god. I had a strong coffee and checked out Instagram. Brad Goreski’s ‘Bradbucks’ is the highlight of my morning lately!   I smashed out a 60 min cardio session (because bored) then wandered aimlessly around the apartment. Back in the day whe n life was normal, I would jump in the shower straight after the gym then head out for the day. Now that I’m in lockdown, I’m trying to find things to do to delay the feeling of wanting to go out. I gave the large plant on the balcony a trim, had a tidy up and I was done. What am I going to do for the rest of the day??? Luckily (for me) it’s raining, that puts a dampener on wanting to go out (pun intended). I took random photos of my balcony - it really is a great little space. I would be lost without it at the moment. Life in lockdown isn’t normal. I have to take my temperature twice a day (although this has b...

I was a bit concerned about being in lockdown over the weekend. Would I feel trapped inside or would it feel like just another day but without work? I woke up at 8am which is really late for me. To say I didn’t feel well rested is an understatement. The ‘stay at home’ app decided that I needed to log my location every hour.  That’s EVERY hour ALL night. I got up at 3.26am (hence the photo of my phone below) as I was wide awake. I wandered around the apartment for nearly an hour before I finally managed to get back to sleep.  I had seen some posts on the HK quarantine FB page about people receiving messages all through the night, but had also read that the govt were making changes to the app and the whole process to fix any issues. Well clearly this issue is still on the ‘sort this shit out’ list. I took the photo of my wrist band once around midnight and decided that was enough. If the quarantine police want to come and check on me in the middle of the night, then ...

I’m calling days 1 & 2 of lockdown the honeymoon stage as everything is reasonably normal for a start but late on day 2 the challenges are appearing. I woke up Thursday morning relaxed and refreshed after a great sleep in my own bed. My bed was about the only familiar thing about being home - I’ve been reaching for light switches in the wrong place and forgot to close the shower door properly and flooded the bathroom, but that’s more about being away from home for so long rather than being in quarantine. I’d planned ahead and ordered a skipping rope and fit band to be delivered. Add in my yoga mat and some water bottles as weights and I have an instant home gym. There are loads of trainers posting workouts on insta but I’ve chosen the  Sweat app as I knew there were some ‘stuck at home’ programs available. My guest room became the ‘gym’. I opened the balcony doors and off I went. Valuable life lesson: skipping is not fun! But I’ll keep at it as I’ve ‘expanded’ somew...

After 5 months in Singapore on a work assignment, it’s time to head home to Hong Kong. We are living in unprecedented times, countries are going in to lock down and most flights are grounded. I was due to fly home on Friday 27 March but received an update from the airline on Monday night to say my flight was cancelled, so it was a mad scramble to get organised to fly on Wednesday. We have been working in split teams in the Sg office so I haven’t seen many of my colleagues or team members face to face for many weeks. It’s sad to be leaving without saying goodbye in person. It’s fair to say I was quite nervous to be flying at this crazy time. I was also very anxious about the thought of going in to quarantine for 14 days. But the need to be home was important so I donned my face mask, stocked up with hand sanitizer and headed to the airport. I’ve never seen an airport as empty as terminal 4 at Changi. I stocked up on some duty free skin care (because quarantine) and headed to t...