Day 219

Sunday 25 October

The day started with wind and rain but ended with calm breezes and clear skies with distant clouds.

Referee duties again today. As much as I love it, I do feel like I’m missing out on the walking that our friends are doing. Just as we were due to be in Italy this week, so our friends were due to be back in the Lake District.

We had all been going up there for the past few years, each autumn half-term holiday. There was so much to love about it all. The togetherness, the open-space and obviously the mountains. It was these holidays where my love for walking grew. Walking with great friends, beating the inclines and trying to get back to the cars before darkness. The latter, not always achieved. But, even then, there was always a pub and a shared meal around a huge table, seating twenty-plus.

All of this has been cancelled this year. Despite us taking a year off from Cumbria. No one can really travel anywhere unless it’s pretty local. Still, this blog is trying to show me that there is still lots to see all around us.

But it is all becoming mentally and emotionally tougher. As macabre as it may sound, it was a bit of a twisted adventure at the start. This invisible virus reaking havoc on society, batten down the hatches, get supplies in, don’t panic!

But the adventure has vanished, and people are struggling to abide by the self-isolation rules. Everyone is becoming tired of it all, bored even. In a world of instant gratification and low-attention spans, for some, this game is over and they want to move on to something new.