I don’t celebrate Halloween, but I’m aware that many people do, and with it coming up I thought I would make a seasonal post on responsible ways to do so this year.
Although we in the UK don’t have as much of the Halloween hype as the US, trick-or-treating is a thing here, as are Halloween parties. The CDC have advised against traditional trick-or-treating this year, and obviously traditional parties are currently not a safe option in a pandemic.
(Note: I saw on the news after drafting this post that Halloween has been “cancelled” in Wales this year. Please make sure you adhere to your local restrictions, and don’t go trick-or-treating if it has been banned in your area.)
Covid-Secure Suggestions:
Go Virtual
If you would normally hold or go to a Halloween party or costume contest, attend or host one over Zoom!
Organise in advance with your neighbours, to check that they are happy for you to knock on their door, and to arrange contact-free ways to deliver individually-wrapped sweets. Make sure to keep to social distancing rules and your regional lockdown restrictions. If dressing up in costume, be careful not to sacrifice the effectiveness of a face covering for aesthetic reasons!
Carving pumpkins are edible, and yet the majority of them are discarded every year. Food waste is a big issue that I’m passionate about, so I couldn’t not mention this. The internet is full of ways to use pumpkin flesh in food and beauty recipes; alternatively you could make a DIY jack-o-lantern from other material such as papier-mâché. (Just don’t put a candle in it; papier-mâché is flammable!)
As we all know, the pandemic is having a huge impact on the economy and so many livelihoods have been lost or are at risk. Previously I haven’t known what to write about this, because I don’t understand economics or finances at all and I have no personal experience in this area to share. However, I’ve recently had my attention drawn—via the news but also through a friend who’s a freelance musician—to the huge gaps in the government support system that so many people are falling through.
There is a petition online for a more responsible policy for the hospitality industry. If it gets enough signatures, it has to be debated in Parliament.
Earlier this week, my aforementioned friend joined the protest in Westminster about the lack of support for freelance musicians, many of whom have lost all or most of their income due to venues being closed. Previously there has been a similar protest by theatre performers. I’ve done some googling to see if I can find a petition for greater support for the creative industries, but not found one that is still open. If anyone knows of one, please share it in a comment and I will update the post.
“If you can’t see light at the end of the tunnel, keep walking.”
I don’t know why it took me so long to come up with this title! Many, many years ago, that one sentence in a sermon at my parents’ church resonated with me powerfully and became my personal motto.
It’s absolutely perfect for the situation today, and in fact for all difficult circumstances. So the title of this blog is now “Keep Walking” instead of “Life in Lockdown”. It’s much more positive and hopeful, doesn’t automatically make people think of current life problems, and much better describes my vision for this blog.
So whoever you are, wherever you read this, this is my message to you today. Keep walking through that metaphorical tunnel.
Lockdown was actually a blessing to me personally in many ways, the main one the accessible online opportunities it offered. For several years I’ve been semi-housebound, and struggled to keep up a routine for myself beyond mealtimes. But once so many things moved online, it gave me so much structure.
I made myself a timetable based on my writing group’s Discord socials, my church service and group(s), and WritersHQ’s virtual writing retreats. It worked. I felt so much more purposeful, made much better use of my limited energy, and it helped me keep habits I’d been failing to keep for months or years previously.
But then came the summer. The heat itself, as I’ve posted about before, makes things much more difficult for me, but actually what impacted my routine most was the loss of half of my scheduled activities. My church takes a break from groups meeting over August, and because lockdown has been easing my writing group has, for now at least, stopped its online socials. And as a result I’ve been slipping. I’ve found it harder to remember dates and times, been forgetting to prepare meals, lost complete track of my bullet journal (which I started a few months ago to organise myself better), and felt a bit more isolated generally.
While structured routines don’t work for everyone, it was working for me. I was able to be flexible about what I did in between the set times, but those set times gave me a framework for my life, and I’ve missed it. A while ago my mum and I swapped our timetables (because we both kept phoning at inconvenient times!) and a while ago she asked how my poetry writing went, as I’d previously made Monday my “poetry writing day”. I had to admit I hadn’t done any for a few weeks.
Written 2/10/20
I originally drafted the above in the last week of August, then got distracted and forgot about it. Since then, I’ve made myself a new timetable, which I’ll admit I haven’t been sticking to as much but I have been making better use of my energy than I was during the summer. I’ve half-started my bullet journal again, and trying to work my way through a list of tasks that I wanted to do over the summer. One of them sorting out this blog.
This post follows on from my earlier posts Don’t Get Bitter Parts One and Two. In Part One, I discussed some reactions from the disabled community to the sudden widespread provision of accessibility.
I personally have benefited from the widespread move online hugely, and have chosen to stay positive about its availability now and hopeful for long-term change of societal attitudes. But I’ve also seen a lot of resentment around that people, organisations, companies and institutions are suddenly providing what had been previously denied to many of us.
Something I have not yet mentioned in this blog but which has been raised within my family is with regard specifically to home learning, since my parents had to fight a battle with the school and relevant authorities to get home tutoring provided for myself and my brothers, when we were school age and not healthy enough to attend. That’s a very painful part of our family’s history that’s left all of us scarred to some degree. It’s easy to get angry at the “they have to be in school!” attitude we received then when looking at how flexible and accommodating the educational system has been forced to become now.
Earlier today, I discovered through a support group the announcement of provision for a specialist NHS service for people facing long-term health issues as a result of getting the virus, and it’s also been met with bitterness. ME/CFS is closely linked with Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome, and specialist services are a postcode lottery that vary in quality. There also still persists damaging attitudes about the condition within the healthcare system, such as it being “all in the mind”. (Which it isn’t!)
Although I’ve tried to stay positive during this crisis, moments like this are still challenging, and I get hurt and occasionally angry too. But we can turn our pain into action, grab the opportunity with both hands and use it to spread more awareness. The world is waking up to the difficulties faced by disabled people on a daily basis, and we need to keep that going in order to educate society as much as we possibly can.
Easy to say, but how?
If you’re reading this and you have never had a long-term disability or health problem, have never been on the receiving end of ableist or ignorant attitudes or had to fight for your rights, be thankful. Many people live in what is essentially lockdown, permanently, for years, often without ever knowing if they’ll ever be healthy enough to come out of it. Take a moment to consider that, and how it might feel, and then take some time to educate yourself. If you don’t know where to start, here are some ideas:
Read the Spoon Theory, which is an analogy to describe what life is like for people with various chronic conditions that limit energy.
Contact someone you know who’s disabled, and ask them what they would like more people to know about what life is like for them. (Don’t put them on the spot unexpectedly! Ask them to take some time over it and get back to you when they’re ready. A written message would probably be preferable for most.)
If you run any kind of company, organisation, institution etc which has had to move online, open a discussion with those for whom this has been a blessing and what they would welcome in a post-pandemic future.
For those of us who have struggled with these issues or are currently struggling, making change happen doesn’t necessarily require investing lots of energy we probably don’t have! We can all contribute in small, practical ways. Pick one thing (or more than one if you’re able) on this list.
Share the Spoon Theory on your social media, with a personal addition if you’re able.
Write down a short statement about how it feels to have your condition, and send it to someone you know or post it on your social media. Keep it to hand for any future time you may need it.
Contact the organiser(s) of anything you’ve only been able to access because of lockdown, tell then why it’s been good for you and ask that they consider remaining more accessible in the future. It doesn’t have to be long or detailed, as long as they know there’s a demand.
Write to your MP about your experience with healthcare services, benefits, and/or any other relevant issues.
If you can think of anything I’ve missed off these lists, please do share in the comments!
One of the contributing factors to my writing this post was discovering this morning that places of worship are allowed to open today, followed by my pastor announcing that our online services would continue when they begin physical services again. I’m currently drafting an email to him explaining my circumstances, expressing my support for this and for physical services to continue being livestreamed after lockdown.
I’m sure most people reading this have never heard of PKU, but it’s been familiar to me throughout my entire life, as I have the condition myself. Phenylketonuria or PKU is a metabolic condition that means the body can’t break down phenylalanine (a component of protein) properly, so it builds up in the bloodstream and inhibits brain development. It’s screened for at birth, and the main treatment is a low protein (technically low phenylalanine) diet. Without the diet, children with PKU grow up severely brain damaged, so it’s absolutely vital!
Since yesterday was International PKU Day (I didn’t manage to finish this post until today), I thought I’d share a bit of my experience with PKU, and an idea of the challenges that we face.
High protein foods, e.g. meat, fish, eggs, cheese, most legumes and pulses, tofu and nuts are all on the “red list”, meaning they can’t be eaten on the diet. Medium protein foods such as bread and pasta are also on the red list. The PKU diet is made up of fruits and vegetables; measured amounts of lower-protein carbohydrates like potato and breakfast cereal; and specially made low protein foods: breads, flour, milk, pasta, rice, and others; plus a protein substitute which is essentially phenylalanine-free protein, with added vitamins etc to make up what we don’t get from our food. Here in the UK, we’re able to get these products on prescription, but in most countries in the world they have to be purchased at huge expense.
Some examples of low protein foods available in the UK on prescription
Now you have a basic idea of what the diet is (in reality, it’s hugely complicated and this post could fill a book if I let it), I’ll tell you a bit about my experience living with PKU.
The diet has been a challenge my whole life, more in some times than others. Some of my earliest and most vivid primary school memories involve hiding my food behind my lunchbox, being teased because of my protein substitute (then a foul-smelling “blackcurrant” paste), and envying various items my classmates were eating. At secondary school, we tried to discuss the possibility of my having school dinners, but my year head just couldn’t understand why it required planning and in the end we gave up and I kept having packed lunches. Temptation became a big thing when I started sixth form college, and I fell into really bad habits of sneaking food I wasn’t supposed to. There’s a long story attached to that, but it’s a bit complicated for this post.
It’s recommended “diet for life”, although in practise many adults come off diet, for various reasons. I can’t remember when I decided that I wanted to, at some point in my adult life, come off diet. (Temporarily, just for the experience.) The reasons I started seriously considering it are also very complicated, but I think the clinching factor was timing: I thought it better to risk having to redo my A-levels if I experienced side-effects, than redo a degree, or lose a job. I came off diet for just over a year during my third (out of four) years of A-Levels.
It is impossible to describe the experience of coming off diet. It took me a while to get used to some kinds of meat, but otherwise I liked most of the foods I’d never had before. I think I was a bit of a foodie already, but I’m much more so now!
How adults are affected off diet varies widely; it’s currently not possible to predict how someone will fare eating normal food. I never noticed any obvious symptoms, perhaps because common symptoms overlap with ME/CFS which I also have, but in case it was making a subtle difference, I went back on a year before I left for university.
Most of my struggles during university were because of my ME (that’s probably for a different post), but as time went on I had less and less energy to manage my diet. The thing about the diet is that you can’t just go out and buy a ready meal or a loaf of bread (In those days, I didn’t like any of the ready-made breads on prescription, so had to bake my own); almost everything has to be made from scratch, which is extremely time-consuming and energy-draining. During the latter part of my first year, with coursework deadlines looming, I felt that something had to give. I couldn’t stop going to lectures or trying to do my coursework, and by that time I had no social life to sacrifice, so I paused the diet so I could channel the energy it took into getting my work done. With a deferral this took until the end of the summer, so I was effectively going back on diet at the same time as starting a new year, in a new house on a new campus, and that was a really bad move in hindsight. In the end I decided I was going to have to give up the diet until I had finished university completely.
My three-year degree took five years, thanks to my ME, and by the time I’d finally finished it, my overall health was much worse than when I’d started. I’d exhausted myself by doing it. I don’t regret doing it, because I learned so much and really needed the independence for my own mental health, but I could tell I wasn’t going to handle going back on diet yet. That was back in 2015. Although my health stayed pretty much the same between then and two summers ago, my mum made an offer which completely changed things: to batch-cook stuff for me to fill my two freezers with.
After weeks of brainstorming food ideas and searching online to find low protein replacements for the high protein foods I’d become so fond of—delighted to find that the rising popularity in veganism has brought about a lot of vegetable-based creativity—I decided to give it a go. It took months of preparation, because I’m a cautious person (and prone to indecision) and wanted to plan as much as I could in advance to save running into problems later.
I’ve been back on diet since August last year, and initially it was quite exciting and I was able to experiment a lot with new recipes, cooking more than I expected as I was prioritising my diet over everything else. Unfortunately it became much more difficult as a sleep issue drastically reduced my energy, but I managed to keep the diet up. I’ve been taking valerian drops since around February, and my energy levels have improved again, which couldn’t have come at a better time! Lockdown has made the diet more challenging in the area of getting hold of the right food, even now I can finally access delivery slots, and now the hot weather is sapping my energy again. But I’m confident I can keep going.
Phenylalanine-free protein substitutes. I drink these with my meals: Air once a day, and Glytactin twice.
I didn’t notice any problems of being off diet for all those years—though an MRI scan showed “white matter” in my brain—but people around me have reported an improvement in my general mood since returning to my diet last year. I feel good about being back on it, as I used to suffer guilt for what being off might be doing to my brain. As a bonus, my protein allowance is now 10g of protein a day—very little compared to the 70g the average person eats, but phenylalanine tolerance varies widely and that’s comparatively high! Many other adults are on 5g or even less. That’s two and a half Weetabix, or a large portion of McDonald’s fries, or a quarter of a tin of baked beans.
Although the UK is, as I understand it, the best country to be in if you have PKU, that doesn’t mean the system is perfect. A lot of medical professionals have trouble understanding that we can’t just get our special prescription foods in the supermarket like gluten-free products, so many patients have trouble getting prescriptions. Parents of children with PKU have to spend hours cooking and preparing meals, communicating with schools and other carers, and doing home blood tests with their children; they are under a lot of pressure to get a very complicated treatment right, and psychological help for them and for PKUers themselves is limited. Medical diets have only in the last few months been recognised as “treatment” by the Department for Work and Pensions. The sugar tax has led to the more widespread use of aspartame, which we can’t have as it’s made from phenylalanine. The National Society for Phenylketonuria and a PKU APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group) are campaigning for better awareness and provision for people with PKU.
Having PKU has shaped my life in ways I can’t fully measure. My feelings about it differ from day to day; I appreciate it far less on the days when I don’t have the energy to be creative, or on the days when I have to put in a prescription and wonder whether the pharmacy will be able to order all the items without an issue this time. But no matter my feelings about PKU itself, I will always be hugely grateful for the diet, as without it my brain would be permanently and severely damaged.
I thought I’d finish this post with a short list of some of my favourite low protein meals/foods:
Low Protein Lasagne: made from scratch from low protein lasagne sheets, vegetable filling (Mediterranean veggies or mushroom mince are my favourites), tomato sauce and low protein “cheese” sauce made from low protein milk, cornflour and crushed Quavers. (Yes, Quavers!)
Low Protein “Fish” and Chips: I’ve only had this once so far as it’s a relatively new invention and very fiddly! Based on a vegan recipe using banana blossom in place of fish, it’s coated in low protein batter (made with low protein flour and low protein milk) and deep fried. The chips have to be counted as part of my daily protein allowance.
Low Protein Philly Cheesesteak:Jackfruit (to replace steak) fried in Worcester sauce, onion and garlic, with mushrooms and green onions, topped with melted vegan cheese. (Vegan cheese is a wonderful invention! Unlike most vegan/vegetarian substitutes, it’s low protein. It didn’t exist when I was on diet before; real cheese was my biggest weakness when it came to “forbidden foods” and I would have struggled much more to return to the diet without this stuff!)
Low Protein Chocolate Chip Pancakes: Low protein batter (made from scratch from low protein milk and low protein flour) is great stuff. (Much better than low protein pastry, which is really difficult and more often than not falls apart when you try and shape it.) Did you know cocoa powder has protein in? So chocolate has to be counted as part of my daily allowance. There are a couple of low protein chocolate substitutes available on prescription, but I prefer to save my allowance for real chocolate.
I should probably leave it there—I’m making myself peckish …
I posted Safe Alternatives to Leisure Activities yesterday, and it turned out to be the hottest day of the year in the UK. Today is looking like it might be another record-breaker in terms of heat, AND there is also a warning about the very high UV levels.
PLEASE stay safe.
If you’re desperate to get outdoors, or you need to get outdoors for your health—I saw interviews with some people who live in very high flats which get hot easily—take as much care as possible, not just with social distancing but also with good sun protection and an awareness of the risks and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
If you’re planning a trip, for example to the beach, follow the lead of the family I saw interviewed who had arrived on the beach very early—go at a time when there will be much fewer visitors! You don’t necessarily have to arrive before the sun is up, as they did, but aim for a time when social distancing will be much easier, and leave before it gets too busy. Also if you’re going to the beach–or somewhere else where there’s water–make sure there’s a lifeguard on duty, as many places don’t have any at the moment. (Unfortunately the RNLI website is currently unavailable so I haven’t been able to provide a link. I will check back later.)
Since a lot of people living on their own will be staying indoors, please check in on vulnerable family and friends to make sure they’re okay. If they’re not the kind of person who outright says if they don’t feel well, quiz them a bit to make sure they’re not suffering from heat exhaustion and just don’t realise. Make sure they’re doing what they can to protect themselves, and help them out if there’s something they need.
I realise not all of these will be practical for everyone, but these are some things I’ve found useful for keeping cool at home:
If you don’t have one already, large fans can be bought quite cheaply. I recommend having one in your living-room (and whatever room you spend most of your time in) and one for your bedroom.
If it’s safe for you to have your windows open, open all of them, even if you’re not using the room. Use fans if you have them to further air your home.
Cooling sprays like Magicool are wonderful, and much better (and less faffy) than squirting water on your skin.
Keep drinking water in your fridge. If you want to cool the water quicker when refilling, pop it in the freezer. (But don’t forget it’s in there!)
Also, my most extreme way of cooling myself down is to take a cold shower or even shallow cold bath. I’m sure this might not be suitable for everyone though, and I don’t have adequate medical knowledge to be able to say who it would and wouldn’t be suitable for, so please use common sense before doing this.
Recommended steps for a cold shower:
You will not be getting dressed in the bathroom, as it’s usually warmer than other rooms. Make sure that your bedroom (or whatever room you get dressed in) and any rooms in between that and your bedroom have the curtains closed and are free of other people you don’t want seeing you naked.
Run the shower at lukewarm temperature and get in (unless you can tolerate getting straight into cold water, which I can’t).
Do NOT get your whole body wet. Avoid the shoulders and focus on the lower part of your body.
Gradually turn the temperature down in increments until it’s as cold as you can bear and you are shivering.
Get out, but don’t dry off. Wrap a towel loosely around you, just enough to stop you dripping too much, and leave the bathroom as soon as you can.
If you have one, stand naked in front of a fan while you’re still wet to cool you down further.
The longer you take under the cold water and before drying off, the longer the cooldown will last for, but it’s still only a temporary relief. A cold bath should last longer but is still only temporary. I most often do one of them just before bedtime.
I came up with this method after a few hours in an unheated swimming pool had me shivering in a sweatshirt for the rest of the (very hot) day, which is unheard of for me because I’m rarely cold enough to wear a sweatshirt even in the coldest part of winter. (I really feel the heat!) The trick to staying warm in a cold pool is to get your shoulders wet, so therefore the trick to staying cold is to not get your shoulders wet.
Once again we have more lockdown rules easing in the UK, and I’m here writing my response.
Although I try not to criticise on this blog as much as possible, I think before I go into the details I need to clarify my position, that I think lockdown is easing far too fast. I acknowledge that there are many consequences of lockdown, to mental health and people’s livelihoods, but I feel that the government is making change after change without pausing long enough in between to see the effect it has. While virus testing is theoretically available to everyone, it’s not an automatic thing for the general population—people are being tested if they’re symptomatic or are known to have been in contact with someone who has confirmed positive. So the actual number of people infected is still unknown as common sense says there must be asymptomatic people slipping through the cracks. It’s basic maths—if it can take up to 14 days for someone to show symptoms and an unknown portion of the population is asymptomatic, and it takes a number of days (I’m not sure how many) for the statistics to be gathered, then any rise in the infection rate is going to take some time to filter through. Any rise in the death rate will take even longer since there will be a time gap in between someone being confirmed as having the virus and their death. During the time in which these numbers aren’t yet available, more easing of restrictions could have taken place.
Having said all that, I was closer to being relieved than I expected when I saw the decision of the debate about the 2m distancing rule this morning. I was very anxious about the thought of it being reduced, especially after seeing someone on the news (I can’t remember who) confirm that a distance of 1m is definitively riskier than 2m, and I’m aware that the review is probably mainly down to the pressure on the government from the business sector.
I’m very thankful that it’s not been reduced as a standard thing, and that it’s been accompanied by the advice to keep to 2m wherever possible.
However to quote a doctor on Breakfast, “We must not get complacent”. Don’t take the smaller distance limit lightly, as it carries a significantly higher chance of being infected if the other person has the virus. I did try to make a note of the stats, but I couldn’t actually make sense of what he said.
I feel for people worried about losing their livelihoods, I really do, and I wish there was a simple solution. But protecting lives has to be the priority here.
So my advice to people is to please avoid going out where possible. If you go out, keep to the 2m as much as possible. Don’t switch back into your pre-pandemic habits; be vigilant about hygiene and protect others as well as yourself. Avoid indoor public areas and areas in which social distancing is being ignored. If you see a shop or other kind of venue that’s not taking the proper precautions, don’t stay silent about it.
I understand that with the warm weather, and places opening again, it must be very tempting to go out for a bit of enjoyment. But for the sake of those of us who don’t have that luxury because we don’t feel safe doing so, please find responsible alternatives to help prevent a second wave. I’ve done a post on alternative leisure options here.
As aforementioned doctor also said: if we have a second wave because people go back to their normal lives, then it will likely fall in colder weather, when being outdoors—where the virus transmission rate is much lower—is much more difficult. A second lockdown in colder weather will mean less freedom than before.
It’s summer. Most people want to be outdoors during this warm weather, and I fully appreciate that. And many outdoor places are either re-opening or expect to re-open in the near future, so I’m sure a lot of people are tempted to visit.
But although outdoors is safer than indoors, that doesn’t mean there’s no risk attached. For instance, everyone should be social distancing, but there’s been reports of that being ignored in some areas. And while deep cleaning is supposed to take place where appropriate, can you be sure it’s been done to a satisfactory standard and that no-one has contaminated it since the last time it was cleaned? I’m urging people to do whatever they can to find alternatives.
While I appreciate that many of these places are businesses which desperately need visitors, protecting lives has to come first. But that doesn’t mean to say we can’t be responsible and try and support some of these places.
I’ve previously posted on zoos when Chester Zoo made their announcement that without visitors, they were facing having to close. While I’m sure they’re happy at the announcement that they can re-open, and I’ll admit a part of me did feel happy for them, I’m still concerned.
So if you may be thinking of planning a day at the zoo, or a private garden, museum, etc, here’s a suggestion. Look up wherever you were planning on going, and see if they’ve got any virtual experiences on their website or Youtube channel. If not, try somewhere similar. Instead of buying a ticket/entry fee, make a donation instead, and then create a virtual day at home. Have a picnic in your living-room and, if you have kids, find some fun related activities for them. (Chester Zoo has some on their website and I’m sure other places will have similar.)
With regard to theme parks, you can find plenty of virtual experiences on Youtube. Not the same, I’m sure (I’m not a rollercoaster person), but might go some way to satisfying any rollercoaster cravings until a later date?
With regard to holidays, I’m sure many people are itching to get away, whether that’s abroad or elsewhere in the UK (or whichever country you live in). Campsites etc here are eager to get people there to try and salvage the summer; I strongly advise caution in considering that.
But if you’re keen to get abroad—maybe there’s somewhere you had been planning to go but had to cancel—I offer an alternative which, I hope, would help you survive not going until it’s safer to travel.
If you haven’t seen my Culture From Home posts (here and here), I’ve been collecting virtual experiences of all kinds, and in the process discovered virtual tours. Youtube is overflowing with all kinds of experiences from all around the world. Pick a destination, do a bit of research, and put together a virtual holiday. With an internet connection, a bit of creativity, and maybe something edible to suit the location, you can make something quite special.
I myself am working on creating my own Around the World Virtual Tour. I’m currently working on Paris and London, and will be posting them on this blog when they’re ready. From there I will move onto other places.
More generally, if you’re lucky enough to have a garden, wonderful! Make the most of it. But if you don’t, why not look into getting some low-maintenance indoor plants or window boxes? A bit of indoor nature combined with the windows wide open I know is not much of a substitute, but it’s something. Also, investing in a fan and some cooling spray is a really good idea!
As I was exploring online culture experiences, I had a brainwave. I’ve had a desire to travel for years, and there are SO many places on my bucket list I would love to go to. But I’ve been unable to travel much due to a combination of health and finance restrictions. (And some places I would be very reluctant to visit until I can cope with hot weather better!)
But now, with so many things going online, I’ve decided to see how many places on my bucket list I can ‘travel to’ from the comfort of my own living-room. A virtual tour of the world! And I would encourage anyone who longs to travel further than to the supermarket or your workplace to do the same.
With all this discussion about holidays, I think it’s a good time for me to do this, as an alternative to physical travel. Obviously there are limitations doing anything virtually, but for those who would normally go abroad on holiday and are currently weighing up the risks and downsides of potentially booking one this summer, I hope this might satisfy your itch until it’s safer to travel.
I am going to list some of the places on my bucket list (I’ve never actually written it all down, so I’ll probably think of a lot more after posting this) and then later, when I’ve put it all together, I will post all the links—probably one country/city at a time! I will most likely start with Paris.
In no particular order:
Paris
New York City
San Francisco
Iceland
Japan
Greece
Italy
Egypt
New Zealand
In the process of beginning my research, I came across a Youtube channel which does virtual walking tours (some of them hours long), documentaries and many other travel-related videos.
I actually drafted this post several weeks ago, before I wrote Culture From Home 2. Since then I’ve had the idea of doing this for places in the UK as well, for the benefit of anyone who wants to explore it a bit more, whether or not you live here. I personally have been to Wales a few times, but not to Scotland or Ireland, and though my family have almost always gone to different places in England for our summer holidays, there are plenty of places I either haven’t been to or would like to revisit.
