Practising for self-isolation

What a beautiful day so off we went on a self-isolating walk up Blackford Hill. It was far from self-isolating. It was like the whole world were up there. This is a Blip of me in stalking mode. I'd spotted 10 dogs having a play at the top of the hill and I wanted to go and play with them. Unfortunately they didn't want to play with me cos they had each other to play with. …..........And Ann didn't talk to anyone because she was practising social distancing!!



But what annoyed us most; was the 20 plus kids who were all playing together in the burn when we walked through the Hermitage. We thought the whole idea of the schools closing was so that the kids could go into self isolation with their families. Not all meet up with their mates for a little jolly.



Oh well ho hum. Obviously I've still got to go out on my walks and Ann's trying to take me to big wide open spaces, but it would seem that everybody else today wanted to go to a big wide open space.



Not really sure that people are taking this self isolation and social distancing thing as seriously as they should. Ann feels that she didn't worry about it until a lot later than some of her friends, but the number of coffee shops that are still full of people sitting less than 2 metres away from each other is just incredible. ….........Obviously that is all going to change now that the government has issued a ban on the opening of all coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, fitness clubs, cinemas, theatres, etc



Today Ann popped out to M&S and Superdrug, both of which were surprisingly quiet. From now on she's only going to be shopping locally, because if anywhere is going to be a breeding ground for Coronavirus it's going to be the over-crowded supermarkets which are full of stock-piling selfish people.



However, one thing that is worrying Ann about how this whole self-isolating thing is going to affect me is............................. If Ann is staying in pretty much 24/7 and only going out to walk me, I'm going to become very dependant on her and when this whole thing is over, I'm not going to want to stay 'home alone' again. And then she's going to have to start my 'home alone' training right from the beginning again!!!



Problems, problems.



BUT............................ what is even worse is the fact that the 'over 70s' don't seem to understand how drastic this crisis is?? We saw loads of them just wandering around today. And there were loads of them up the hill just sitting together on the benches in the sunshine. It's almost like the government advice to stay indoors doesn't apply to them. They seem to think they're immune...................... I bet it will be a different story in another few weeks.



In fact we heard today that a group who can't do their 'normal' things are planning on meeting up and going for a walk together. Oh and they're also planing on picking each other up in cars to get to the start of their destination. Sooooo...................... you have four/five over 70s in a car and then about 10-15 people going on a walk together. Seriously?!!! What part of 'self-isolating' do they not understand????????



Anyway, as of tomorrow, myself & Ann are going to go into complete self-isolation lock-down. She strongly believes that it's the correct thing to do.



…..........The only time that she will be going out is when she takes me on my walks. Now that the mornings are lighter she is taking me out about 7.30-8.00am-ish and we hardly see any one at that time. On my big walk during the day she's going to plan to take me to somewhere where she doesn't see many people. And then I might get another little trek around the block around 5pm-ish, but as long as Ann doesn't talk to anyone surely that's OK. And then for my bedtime wee, I just go out, have a quick wee and then come back in again.



Title for tomorrows BLIP is going to be, 'Self-isolating – Day 1'



PS - Stay safe peeps and for goodness sake stop thinking that you're invincible. ......You're not!