By Jackie Scott
I’m a positive sort of person and have had much to be thankful for over the last 18 months. Yes, its been difficult at times; we have not been able to meet with family, we have not been able to travel and our lifestyles have changed dramatically due to the requirement to work from home. There have definitely been benefits though! Not only did we discover our neighbours are really lovely people, we also discovered that we can buy most of what we needed relatively easily from our local shops – within walking distance. Being constrained to stay local, we had the opportunity to walk around our area and see what local shops provide – you know the ones that we usually drive past on our way to go to a town where everything is in close proximity….
As we came out of lockdown, we were able to put some of that better local knowledge to good use. When it became possible for our grandchildren to visit, we realised that we did not have sufficient beds and needed a bunk bed very quickly. We found bunk-beds in one local shop (with an online delivery situation) but needed two 2 foot 6 mattresses within a week! Having done research during our lockdown walks, we nipped over to North Camp and thanks to our improved local knowledge, a wonderful shop and even more fantastic staff, we were able to order the required mattresses. Even better – the mattresses were delivered within 4 days.
So the lesson learned is that we have what we need – most of the time. If we have other needs we can support our local enterprises and probably receive better service than if we had gone online or driven to somewhere miles away.
So what have your experiences been during lockdown? Has life become simpler? Have you learned to appreciate all that is around you? Have you got a local lockdown story to tell? I love our locality and the people who live in it – I want to continue finding those local businesses and support them as best I can….
Would you like to share your stories with us? Send them to parishioner@ash-vale.org.uk.