Total Distance Travelled: 974 kms Days to holiday: supposedly 204

Days in Lockdown / New Weird World: 102

I said it before, and I will say it again – strange as it may seem, weird and almost wrong, this Pandemic has done me a favour.  I am not an exercise person, although on occasion I have engaged in structured form of exercise – bit of cycling, stint at the gym, some tennis lessons.  But I’m not a huge fun of structured education.  I attended school because I had no choice; at college I managed to skip a few lessons and was glad to discover that in England unlike in many countries, when you get to college you only have to learn 3 subjects; by the time I got to university, only because it made sense, I was well skilled in lecture avoidance, and late-night study catch-ups just so I could pass the required exams.  However, I like to know things; I’m constantly searching, googling, reading and questioning.  It’s just that I like to do it on my own terms.  With exercise, it has always been one of those things where I’ve been too busy for it.  I have more important things to do with my time, like reading, or crochet, or pretending to write books.  Exercise was forever on the to-do list, when I have more time, as well any notion of learning another language, even though I find language learning fairly easy (it’s numbers that I hate). 

The pandemic, the lockdown, have brought with it time; time I did not have before.  About 3 hours a day of my life previously spent on commuting to and from the office, suddenly became free to do with as I please; and I’d be damned if I’d spend that time on work.  Hell no, I’ve been utilising that time to get my little cottage industry needlecraft hobby business into a steady little rhythm, finally learning off-by-heart those piano pieces on my wish list; and now adding regular exercise and new language to the repertoire. 

On the exercise – I must admit, I didn’t expect to carry on with the Shred HIIT sessions for longer than the initial 30 days.  I’m not even sure I can put my finger on the reason why I’ve decided to carry on with it.  I guess doing it as a team, we are all supporting and helping each other, we’re motivating each other and not willing to let the team down.  I think all 4 of us have a reason for doing the sessions, and when we’re seeing someone in the group struggle and ready to give up, we each take turns to power through, thus not letting the ‘struggle’ give up completely. 

On the Chinese Mandarin front – I might have mentioned, I first got into watching Chinese Dramas on Netflix about 18 months ago; that in turn prompted me to book a holiday to China, which didn’t take place because of the bloody virus.  Anyway, after a while of watching the Chinese soaps, I got fed-up of having to constantly follow the subtitles, plus one can never fully appreciate the nuance of a language once it’s been translated, that only comes from being able to speak the language, so why not.  Initially I simply googled phrases in English and tried to hit upon the right sounding phrase in Mandarin, with various degrees of success.  Then I got on to the idea, that if I ‘dictated’ to google the phrase in Mandarin, as I heard it, I might get a more accurate translation – that proved to be less successful, which was due unsurprisingly down to my pronunciation.  I meandered like that for around 8 months, until a month into lockdown – when I opened my Duolingo subscription. 

So now, 3.5 months into lockdown – I am 2.5 months into structured Mandarin lessons, 2 months into regular structure exercise, and about 1 month into ad-hoc Mandarin digital lessons with an online tutor on iTalki.

Thanks to the pandemic, I’ve lost weight, increased my fitness levels, and now have a basic grasp of Mandarin which has considerably reduced my reliance on subtitles when I indulge in binge watching Chinese drama box sets on Netflix.  So yes, in a strange way, this strange new world we live in, has been a gift; and I have already told my boss I do not intend to go back to working in the office 5 days a week.  Why would I?  For years all those big companies have preached to people like me about the benefits of work-life balance.  What work-life balance when you have to sit in the office 9am till 9pm, get home to a late night supper, then crash out, only to get up 6 hours later and press repeat.  Finally I have a work-life balance! Why would I give it up, end up losing my new-found language skills, and quite possibly regain all the weight I’ve lost, as well as my risk loosing my marbles again.

No bloody chance. Over and out.