I’m beginning to understand what life in a monastery must be like…

It’s the routine. It’s not that I mind routine. Well, some of the time, it’s the fact that right now there’s no opportunity to deviate from it. It’s not like you can leave work early and drift into your local on the off-chance of meeting someone for a chat and a laugh. You can’t make impromptu decisions to go out for a meal or see a show or go into town or even have a weekend away by the seaside or somewhere.

Yes, I know we’re doing it for everyone’s good – and I fully support it, just let me let off some steam as it’s almost certain we’re in for another 3 weeks at least of this.

At least the weather’s great. It would be a lot harder if we were cooped up inside as the rain hammered on the windows. Being able to sit out in the garden’s such a blessing. As I’ve mentioned before, my heart goes out to people who’re living in places where they can’t do that – as I have in the past.

Apart from thinking about these things my day was quite productive. Both Dawn and I kept ourselves busy and I managed to get a lot done. By evening time the pair of us had reached saturation point with staring at computer screens so we got out for a stroll in the sunshine. It was a lovely way to reconnect with the real world outside cyberspace where things had been pretty busy for me as our new high-speed railway (HS2) had been given “notice to proceed”. This was the final Governmental green light, so the project moves on from site clearances and utilities diversion to mobilising the main Civil Engineering contractors who will actually build the line. It means the Dept of Transport has now signed off the four major civil engineering contracts worth a total of £12bn. A dozen firms involved can now start work immediately with site preparation works and (crucially) placing key subcontracts which gives the construction industry some certainty (and a guaranteed workflow) in these uncertain times. Needless to say, those opposed to HS2 had an attack of the vapours at the news, but there’s not a damned thing they can do about it other than moan. I’m blogging about all that separately so you don’t need to worry! 

Back at the grindstone I managed some decluttering as well as everything else. It’s amazing some of the stuff you amass in a lifetime. Stuff that you don’t want to part with for sentimental reasons and the happy memories that it triggers, but when do you ever actually look at it, especially when its 33 years old and several lifetimes away – as well as stuffed in a folder in a cupboard?

Still, I might just digitise it before it gets binned, purely for the sake of posterity! There’s a few more like this too. They’re an interesting look back at a very different age but that has a resonance with some of the stuff I’ve been talking about regarding HS2 in another blog. 

With another 3 weeks of lockdown to go and with an eye on the future afterwards, I think I’m going to be keeping the council’s recycling team busy. Thankfully, despite the lockdown Calderdale are still collecting stuff. They’re yet more unsung heroes, the people you take for granted but who you can’t do without. Sadly, Calderdale has closed its main recycling centres out of concern for the staff, which I can understand, but it has led to many more incidents of fly-tipping, like this one on the promenade I noticed the other day.

To be honest, we get a lot of that in our local woods even when the recycling centre IS open. There’s a lot of lazy sods around here…

Despite the odd moonlight fly-tipper, the promenade has become a lovely place to walk and enjoy the views over the valley. The Constabulary have stepped up their presence as they know it’s a place where you’re likely to find a few Covidiots who can’t resist congregating. Now the Covidiots are getting the message and staying away. How everyone will cope with a few more weeks of this is an interesting question, but in general (ignoring the few idiots) the reactions have been good. My main concern is for local businesses and how they pick up the pieces afterwards as there’s some very mixed messages coming from the Government, but no change there…

Right now, all I can do is hunker down. I’ve articles to write, pictures to scan and decades of memorabilia to rationalise. Bored I ain’t…

The start of another working week in lockdown, although the days are hardly that clearly defined now as the routine doesn’t vary that much for me. It’s more marked for Dawn as she’s freed from her desk and telephone to concentrate on personal and home matters.

We started the day early at 05:50 so Dawn could do her HIT training before beginning work. I don’t mind getting up at that time either as it gives me chance to have a coffee, plan the day and edit and upload any last slides from the previous days scanning. After meeting up for breakfast we managed to meditate together, then we were both straight into work. My mission for the day was to catch with slide scanning as the pace has slowed in recent days due to the holidays and other work. I also had a batch of pictures to get off to a magazine so I had to ignore the fabulous weather outside and concentrate my attention on a lightbox, slides and computer screen. The time flew in more ways than one as the slides transported me back to November – December 1989, when the world looked very different in all sorts of ways. I’ll show you what I mean later in the blog.

The day flew, but it was a productive one. I managed to get a lot of work done and around 60-70 slides scanned, edited and mounted, which is quite a volume of work as it’s such a tedious process. We did manage to get out later to enjoy the brilliant sunshine which was the ideal time as the day had really warmed up. The past few mornings have been distinctly chilly because of the clear evening skies the day before. I don’t know if the lockdown and consequent lack of traffic pollution has contributed to this phenomenon but the air certainly seems clearer and sweeter. We certainly notice the lack of traffic noise from the main road at the bottom of the valley and infrequence of cars using our road. It’s something that I’ll miss when normality’s restored.

There was no time for a walk to the other side of the valley today so our usual circuit up through the woods, along the promenade and around the park and back again had to suffice, but at least I managed my 12.5k steps as we were later than normal we were treated to a gorgeous sunset on our way home.

The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed. I caught up on some world news, which is showing some signs of optimism as various countries begin to look at easing their lockdowns. How long before we do is anyone’s guess as it’s impossible to get an accurate picture of what’s happening with coronavirus in the UK. We’re not carrying out the levels of testing that would allow us to accurately map infections and the number of deaths is hopelessly unreliable as the figures aren’t collated accurately or consistently. The official figures given out daily have no credibility at all. Personally, I’m preparing myself for the idea that the lockdown will remain in force for another month, but who knows?

The pair of us took a break from reality later in the evening and indulged in some escapist TV by watching a couple of episodes of “Unforgotten” on Netflix. It’s a ITV police series written by Chris Lang that stars Nicola Walker (‘Spooks’ & ‘Last Tango in Halifax’) and Sanjeev Bhaskar. It’s very well written, directed, filmed, acted and also – thoughtful.

Well, that’s probably the quietest and weirdest bank holiday Monday I’ve had – certainly in the UK anyway! No travel, no socialising, no pubs, no meals out – just a healthy walk in the country.

Don’t get me wrong, over the years I’ve been in some interesting places at ‘interesting’ times. I’ve sat through strikes (Bandhs) in India where we’ve been through lockdown in our hotels for a night (or two). I’ve sat on rooftops in Kathmandu during a strike where the police are patrolling the deserted streets after shooting students dead – I even had to walk several miles out to the airport to fly out as the whole country was on strike the next day. I’ve been through coups in Thailand where Bangkok airspace was taken over by military helicopters like something out of ‘Apocalypse Now’ and I’ve watched the ‘reformasi’ (reformation) demonstrations in Java after the fall of President Suharto – but I never quite expected something like this happening in the UK.

Our day started much as normal, or what passes for normal now. The weather was good but bloody cold, we actually had frost on the cars outside today, but the mercury rose throughout the day until the temperature was actually quite pleasant in the sunshine. Not that the pair of us were going anywhere. The day passed more like a normal Monday as we tried to keep occupied with various chores and bits of work until late afternoon when we escaped for our daily walk. Being thoroughly bored with our normal circuit I took Dawn on the amble across the valley I’d discovered the other day, which certainly broke the monotony of trudging around Savile Park. The beauty of being on the other side of the valley is the views. You’re looking across to the South facing side which looks gorgeous when its bathed in sunshine, especially when you’re high up on the opposite side – as this view illustrates.

Here’s a bit of information about the viaduct, which is Grade 2 listed. Built in 1851 for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company it crosses the River Calder, the Calder and Hebble Navigation and Wakefield Road. It’s built from snecked rock-faced sandstone, with 23 arches in all on tall piers: 15 semicircular, with rock-faced voussoirs brought to course and 4 at each end, wider, segmental, with similar voussoirs in Ashlar. The Easternmost arch over Wakefield Road (just at the right edge of the picture) is considerably flatter. There’s a plain band at impost and cornice level with parapet above. Railway Terrace, below the viaduct is also grade 2 listed. Built in the 1840s for Colonel Edward Akroyd, it’s considered an important early example of planned industrial housing.

As you can see from the picture, the woodlands are just starting to burst into leaf after what feels like a long, wet, winter. 2020 has certainly thrown some challenges at us. We’ve survived floods and now a pandemic. The only thing we haven’t seen this winter in any quantity has been snow (thankfully). Now the weather’s warming up, so if we have to say at home, at least we’ve got decent weather to do it in.

Weekends seem to mean so little now because with ‘lockdown’ every day is pretty much the same. Our only break from the routine we’ve got into is on Thursdays when we head over to Huddersfield to shop for Dee’s parents. This morning we both thought ‘sod it’ and actually had a lie-in which is pretty much unheard of as both of us are normally up early as Dawn’s exercising and I’m scanning pictures. It almost felt rebellious to still be in bed at 10am!

When I did finally drag my arse out of bed I made up for my indolence by getting stuck into some DIY. I’ve been meaning to waterproof the front of the house for the past few years. Where we’re situated, high up on the side of the Calder valley is pretty exposed and the front of the house takes a beating from the elements. Today the weather had warmed up sufficiently that I could apply the waterproofing coating to the stonework as per the manufacturers recommendations. Yep, I’m a bloke so I read the instructions! Our cottage is only small but it still took most of the afternoon as the stuff needs a couple of hours between coats. In-between I kept myself busy sanding down the wooden bench we have outside the front of the cottage in order to treat the wood with preservative and give it some TLC after the winter weather. Our home is South facing and it’s a lovely spot to sit in the summer, gazing across the valley, watching the wildlife in the trees opposite, or just chatting to our neighbours or friends passing by.

Ready for whatever the weather throws at us now!

Funny, isn’t it? We keep ourselves occupied with all those mundane little chores as if life is normal, yet it’s anything but – especially for those people who’ve had their lives altered by contact with coronavirus. Imagine not being able to attend the funeral of a loved one who’s passed away after contracting covid-19? The news reports that 708 people have died today. It’s a bare statistic, yet each one is a real person and almost all will have a family grieving for them in circumstances we know nothing about. Maybe, when we come out of all this, we’ll learn to appreciate what’s important in life – and what’s not. The events of the past few weeks have certainly made me look at life in a different way. I’ll be curious to see if we go back to ‘normal’ (whatever that actually means) when this is all over. Will be just forget about it after a couple of weeks and pick up where we left off? For some people, the one’s who will have lost their jobs, or even their loved ones, that will be impossible. It may be difficult for the rest of us as we still don’t know just what the economic damage is going to be at the end. There’s just so many unanswerable questions right now…

So, I’m not even going to try. Instead, I’m going to have a quiet night in (after all, it’s not like I can go anywhere!), enjoy some good food and prepare to make the most of tomorrow, because who knows what the future might hold?

I thought this lockdown was meant to mean that we’d have time on our hands? It certainly doesn’t seem to be working out like that for me. Friday was a bit of a frustrating day as I didn’t get anywhere near as much done as I’d planned. For once I didn’t even get time to get a walk in which left me way behind the 5+ miles a day that I normally manage.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. I did manage to sift through the next slide album in the queue for scanning which is the one containing the very first slides I took way back in 1989. I junked over 250 of the 830 in the album mainly because I’d got better pictures taken in the intervening years – or the fact that actually, some of them simply weren’t up to scratch! My standards and technical proficiency have changed somewhat in the past 31 years! Weeding out the rejects now saves me time when it comes to the scanning process. As I wasn’t so fixated on scanning slides I also managed to get some decluttering done and junk a load of old paperwork, which was mainly press releases and conference bumpf going back several years – none of which had any relevance anymore but you keep ‘just in case’. I’m getting much more willing to dispose of these things nowadays and be less of a hoarder, not just because of the space they take up, but also because life’s too short. When you consider the amount of stuff we surround ourselves with nowadays a bout of decluttering is no bad thing. Let’s face it , if I kicked the bucket tomorrow, most of it would end up in a skip anyway!

Another bright spot was the news that Chris Packham lost his legal case against HS2. I’d suspected he would as his action seemed to be completely without merit. I won’t go into it in detail as I blogged about it here yesterday. Maybe now we can finally get moving with a project that we desperately need for several reasons right now.

This weekend I’ll be keeping my foot off the slide scanning pedal as the weather’s meant to be improving and I’ve work to the cottage that I want to do. Normal service will be resumed next week as all the signs are that the lockdown is going to continue for several weeks yet. The death toll’s rising, which is tragic but hardly unexpected. We’re not going to be out of the woods for quite some time yet, so it’s a case of making the most of being cooped up at home and using the time to catch up on all those things that never made it to the front of the list. Who knows, by the time this is all over I might have all my old railway pictures online!

For me, Friday was the day when I’d often go up to our local pub, the Big 6, to meet up with friends and do the quiz, from the Pub Paper. As this is out of the question nowadays a few of us have got together to do it online, which isn’t quite the same, but at least we still get to interact and have a laugh. I do wonder just how we’d all cope with lockdown without the internet and modern communications. The ability to interact with family and friends – or just stream movies and binge-watch TV is making life more bearable. Just imagine how much of an emergency it would be now if the internet went down…