Stealing from 'Sunday Stealing'

I'm on 'Medium' these days, but visit here to keep an eye on mates who are still blogging on.  I admire their commitment and attitude and writing and ability to keep on going.

Today however, I'm stealing from - http://sundaystealing.blogspot.com/2021/02/coronavirus-questions.html - I love a questionnaire.

In the past year have you–

1. Gone without a bra. Yes, but not for as long as you'd think, being in my third lockdown here in France. I wear a sports bra during the day as we've recently adopted a very active 4 year old Spanish shelter dog, who requires several walks. These total around 12km each day, so I stay in my dog clothes for the day. At 6pm, I finally shower and get into my PJs, therefore bra-less.  With nowhere to go, why bother putting on clothes? The only excursion is to take Felix downstairs for his bedtime wee and going bra-less under a parka is a good disguise.

2. Skipped making your bed.  No. I read somewhere years ago that, even if your depression has really crushed you, as soon as you get out of bed - whether it be 6am or 4pm - make that bed. It feels like a tiny job has been done AND looks less stressful. I've stuck to that advice ever since. It does help.

3. Ordered groceries to be delivered  No. We live about half a km away from a supermarket and I've preferred to drag my nana cart up the street and do it myself. I can keep my asthmatic husband Love Chunks safe and get a tiny outing at the same time.  I think I could tell you where every product is on every shelf now.

4. Cooked a real meal. Rarely.  I have a few reliables - spaghetti bolognese, green chicken curry, corn chowder and quiche but Love Chunks is the chef in our house.  Cleaning up and buying the required ingredients is so much better than doing the cooking.

5. Spent the day in pajamas? Only if suffering a migraine.  Even wearing dog clothes makes me feel as though I've made an effort.

6. Skipped shaving your legs. Oh goodness gracious me yes. Love Chunks and I can fuse together like velcro these days.

7. Spent hours on Instagram or Pinterest. No for pinterest but yes for instagram. If there are cute animal stories (especially dogs), humour or anti-Trump/GOP content, I'm there.

8. Eaten in a restaurant. A couple of times during the summer when 50% capacity was allowed.  We wanted to support our local cafe owners and were gratified at seeing how many people were arriving to collect their take-away orders.  That approach seemed smarter than sitting nervously in a warm room.

9. Skipped washing your hair. Yes.  My hair is very fine, like cobwebs and gets greasy after one day.  Now I'm firmly in my fifties, it seemed way past the time to wean myself off daily shampoos and try every second day.  Well that was a mistake - I looked like a sad old advert for brylcream!

10. Not folded the laundry. Nope, this is always done.  It's a fast and satisfying job that, in these lockdown times, reduces the visual clutter.  An easy win.

11. Worked a puzzle. Nope, no, no.  I'm a wordy gal but hate all forms of puzzles. My brain just shuts down and says, 'Can't be arsed.'  I'm not proud of it, but that's the way it is.  My worst nightmare would be to lose my books and wifi and be stuck in a room with only a game of scrabble and a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

12. Had Zoom calls.  Yes.  Both for work and to catch up with friends.  I'm more familiar with facetime messenger, so I'm invariably the one you see peering up too close so that my nostrils and general look of dumb puzzlement are on blurry display.

13. Written letters. Do home made greeting cards count?  My mother turned eighty in September and we could not go back to Australia to celebrate. I made a card shaped like a handbag because hers was always like Dr Who's tardis - much larger than it looked.  Inside the card were five pages of things I remembered that she always had in it.  It was fun to get out felt pens and paper and draw like a child.

14. Binge watched a TV show HELL YES.  Breaking Bad, then Better Call Saul, then Cobra Kai..... Netflix doesn't even bother to ask me if I'm still watching

15.Gone barefoot. Only in the bathroom when stepping out of the shower.  I'm pathetically weak when it comes to my feet.  They always feel so naked and bare and vulnerable, so unless it's hot and I'm wearing birkenstocks, they've got socks on at the very least, with ugg boots for the remainder of the time.