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Well I originally had R down for reading - anyone following my blog will know by the number of book reviews that I love to read. But I wrote about reading when I posted K for Kindle.
I then thought maybe I'd write about retirement - I've sort of been retired since I left my job back in 2015 although I'm not yet drawing a pension. Hubby has been part retired for a while now and at the end of this month he will fully retire. Again I touched on that subject when I did H for Hubby.
So I'm wracking my brains for another R word. I need redirection.
I think we all need a bit of that right now as we come out of lockdown. We're going to need time to adjust to whatever the new normal might look like. For example non-essential shops can now reopen but how many of them will have survived. Some businesses have adapted and increased their online presence or diversified but others have gone to the wall. There will be a lot of boarded up shop fronts on our high streets and in our malls.
Some people will be keen to get back out and socialise and will be happy to return to the beauty salons and fashion shops, others like me will be more cautious. I think visiting family will take priority over shopping.
Of course it will be nice to dine out again but finding the right restaurant might be key. Some look as if they're taking the guidelines seriously and making their premises as Covid secure as they can, others clearly don't have a clue about social distancing. I think most people struggle to estimate what 2 metres looks like - they certainly aren't keeping the length of a bed between them when chatting in the park for example. And yes I know that if you wear a mask you can reduce the distance but lots of people are reducing the gap and not putting a mask on.
As for things like the cinema and theatre well, maybe once we've both had our second jabs they might seem more appealing, but travelling on public transport is another hurdle to overcome.
There's definitely been redirection there. If you try to plan a journey around London on the TFL site (Transport for London) it will give you walking or cycling options first before giving a transport option. That never used to be the case.
Holidays are another thing where redirection will be very prominent for some time yet and the travel industry will take a long time to recover. Watching the situation in countries like India (which is now on the red list for travel) it's hard to imagine how international travel will feel easy again any time soon. Especially if countries don't work together to get vaccines redirected to countries that aren't able to produce them theirselves or have the finances to procure them.
As dreadful as it has been here in the UK with so many mistakes made and so many deaths there are worse places to be. On that cheerful note I'm going to redirect myself to bed to read. I managed to get to the library yesterday so have new books.
Redirection is a good word for today. I think that there will be no going back to what we considered normal so there are a lot of areas that will need some redirection.
ReplyDeleteA good word and all you said is spot on! We are a little ahead of London, here in Lakeland, but things are still being redirected for us too.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mixed bag here in the US. There are still many fearful people and many who are just carrying on with life as it once was. And there are lots of people who fall somewhere in between. Messaging is also mixed and it's difficult to know what's true, and what is hype or politics. The vaccine is confusing too-can we be around people who haven't had the vaccine or is that risky? And if so why? If we can't resume normal activity why vaccinate? It's still a bit of a murky icky mess.
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