Exmoor Lockdown Diary 100 - One Hundred Days of Solitude

So, my 100th Exmoor Lockdown Diary. And to celebrate it I put up one of my favourite interviews - which is saying something, in my own humble way, because I must have conducted thousands over the years. Anyway, Marcus Govier was a true country gent - and he had one of the best Somerset accents I have heard since my own grandfather passed away 40 years ago.

Do have a watch - and perhaps try to bounce it up onto a larger screen - which is what I do at home when it comes to YouTube videos…

Anyway, the Exmoor Lockdown Diary… Although the work has been totally unpaid it’s been fun. And it has allowed me to slowly manoeuvre myself into what’s being called the ‘new normal’.

Just now a Japanese person I know invited me to “attend the virtual launch party” of a posh new hotel which her company has built just under Mount Fuji in Japan.  Sawako said the Tokyu Hotel Group had wanted to invite me to fly out and stay at the new hotel - which of course I would have enjoyed very much as I love Japan. 

However, because of the ongoing pandemic the company is now having a virtual launch and I’ve been invited to the Zoom party and shown around on the internet. They are even going to send me a box of Japanese goodies so I can join in with the spirit of the launch at home here in lovely, but not very oriental, West Somerset. 

Hmmm. A free luxury trip to Japan versus a stay-at-home Zoom party and a glass of sake... I wonder which I’d have preferred had there been a choice?

However, just say the PR company had invited me anyway now that the restrictions are being lifted. I’d be quite happy to self-isolate at home for two weeks after returning from Japan - but would I have gone?

You’re joking! I have spent 101 days keeping well out of the way of coronavirus - we haven’t been to a supermarket once and have more or less relied on a weekly trip to our excellent village shop and a handful of deliveries. All that careful avoidance only to end it all by getting on a train to Heathrow, then climbing into a sealed metal fuselage for 13 hours with 300 other people breathing the same air?

If I was 23 instead of 63 it might have been temptation, but now I shall put on my best kimono and pour a glads of Tokyo’s finest here at home in front of a screen.

So, it’s a weird kind of new normal. One we’re all going to have to get used to for a while yet. Which is why I will continue the Exmoor Lockdown Diary for now - although perhaps I will try to find a new name for it as restrictions ease and even an old stay-at-home like me gets to venture outside the valley.

And talking of the valley - I took these shots of the best stand of foxgloves i have ever seen yesterday. Half the valley has been overtaken by the things since the forestry people did some clear fell.