Group meetings can be great
March 25, 2020Yesterday was a day of group activities. Yes groups, but no we were’t all in the same room. My exercise group aren’t even in the same country, but we are still working together and motivating each other. I admit I have a head start here. I have been keeping my friends in my pocket for years, and I love it. I have had afternoon tea with an American and an Australian at a motorway services to help me stay awake on a long drive. I have had drinks events at 3am to fit in with American friends. It’s fun and for me it’s pretty normal. To most people it appears I spend a lot of time at home alone even before this social distancing, I would say I am rarely alone. When I quilt my friends are sitting on the frame chatting to me. How does this work, well we have chat groups. We used to use facebook but that became too unreliable for me so now we use google hangouts. In the morning I often chat to my friends before my partner simply becasue they are awake and he isn’t. We eat together, which reminds us to eat at fairly regular times. We watch each others cooking, yup really, if one person says I have put XYZ in the oven, we all know that thing needs attention. It also works as a timer when we are cooking, each message has a time stamp on it so for those of us prone to forgetting to check the time when we put something on to cook this is invaluable. On balance I am pretty sure we spend more time together than any friends who don’t live together. I understand for those of you who crave physical contact this won’t meet that desire, but I do strongly recommend giving it a try. Having a group where you can chat anytime really can keep you connected.
The second group of the day was the Tuesday night gaming group. I stopped attending a few years ago but the group still happens every week and is a real social highlight for Tet. So they were also determined to carry on so they chose an online server that does board games. They were still playing when I went to bed so I have no idea what they played but I can say they could play later than usual and I didn’t have to stay up late to play taxi. It was also nice from my point of view as I had my quiet night in alone. Yes OK he was still in the house but he wasn’t in from a point of view of interacting. I suppose that is probably another valuable concept for people not used to being at home. You can be in the building but not available. During the day we each go to work. We have lunch together as we have a much shorter commute now, but during the work day we work in different spaces. Only after work do we really get together. So in many ways life hasn’t changed. Tet’s office overlooks the drive so he can message me when there is a delivery, this is really useful. When the railway sleepers arrived he did pop out to help unload them, but mostly its work as usual he just has a shorter commute.
Today I will be attending my exercise group again. I hope to find time to try and find my weights before then. If not I will use the tinned lychees again. Other than that, more longarm quilting, more knitting (that’s really slow I can only do a few minutes a day or I hurt my hands tooo much)and more piecing. Boring? Well this is my life year in year out and no I don’t find it boring. I try to have a variety of projects on the go which keeps me interested. There is also a chance some fruit and vegetables will arive today. I have some on order from a local greengrocer, but they are crazy busy so they will be delivered when it’s my turn. I am treating it as a bonus when it does make it. I am just excited that at some point I will be able to make some coleslaw and potato salad. Yup a bit out of character but as that is what is really rare atm it has become exciting.