A few people I know in the care leaver community have started a project called Care in the time of COVID. It’s a diary project, and one of the prompts is to write about your Saturday. I started writing, and then I deleted my entries because I felt like it was boring/sad. But then I decided to restore the entries because they are a reflection of the time (though they are very dry reading).

I have to declare that these entries are not part of the project, but they have been inspired by the project.

Saturday 2 May

My days have been unstructured since the start of social distancing. I may have awoken in the early hours, but I went back to sleep. My partner tends to bring me a tea, smoothie and a facon bap around eight o’clock. Sometimes it’s hard to eat because my medication from the previous night has made my throat uncomfortable. Even though it’s the weekend, I will probably look at my work for a few hours today; I work part-time but I’ve found it easier to work a little bit every day rather than have assigned work days – this is just because my computer is old and tired, and my partner is in video conferencing calls throughout the week so the only place his voice doesn’t reach is the bedroom. I don’t like working in the bedroom as it’s my safe space (panic attack den).

After I wake up I tend to spend a few hours watching Youtube videos. My latest favourites are Ozzy Man Reviews (he’s very sweary) because his responses seem very stream-of-conscious. They make me laugh, though some of the videos make me wince. In one video he reviews the Coopers Hill cheese rolling, and it looked really painful. But the commentary felt spot on! I think it’s important to watch videos that make me laugh because I’ve found it really difficult to get out of my low mood lately.

Later in morning I check my emails to see if any of my writing pitches have been picked up – it’s normally a no! But I also use this time to seek out publications that are looking for contributions and enter some writing competitions. I don’t know why I check daily but I get such a buzz when I’ve got some feedback.

I’m looking forwarding to video calling my sister and her family tomorrow. I watch my niece and nephew play for half an hour, and then catch up with my sister and brother-in-law. I don’t very often have much to say but I think they like to check I’m doing alright and we chat about our jobs a bit. My sister and brother-in-law know I am looking for a second job to help with my money situation so I’ll tell them about roles I’ve applied for. My brother-in-law is an architect so I like hearing about his work; it’s very interesting.

Around noon I have lunch, today it’s carrots and houmous. I still felt hungry afterwards so I had some vegetable crisps.

I log into my work account and look at the intranet for news. I check my work emails and then look at social media for news that might be worth sharing with my colleges on the Care Leavers in HE JISCmail. I don’t like being on social media at the moment (I deleted my personal account earlier in the year) but I’ve found social media is very good for finding out about policies and events. I tend to prefer social media on Friday and Saturday because I like to see #FollowFriday posts; it’s normally how I find out about more positive news and interesting projects! I also log into my workplace Stream to watch some wellbeing videos. Yesterday I took part in a compassion meditation; I did it again today.

In the afternoon I visited my partner’s family, we sat in their garden and chatted. My partner’s father was chasing seagulls and pigeons off the roof of his house because they scare away smaller birds. He makes a lot of noise! At one point he got a whip out and swung it around, and the cracks made the bigger birds fly away.

My go home and have some dinner. I asked for salad and pasta. My partner loves cooking (and I hate cooking) so he often makes whatever I ask for. We watch some TV in the evening, though I didn’t pay attention today because I was getting ready for a shower and spraying the bedroom with aromatherapy oils. I sprayed a bit too heavy because I was sneezing after I came out of the shower. I asked my partner to put some moisturiser on my back because my hives have been awful this year! I’ve had four months of itchy nights. I put a silk scarf on my hair after my shower and go to sleep.