Support in the time of pandemic

 This week has been a mixed one as far as my mental health is concerned   But it’s  the support and contact with my friends and writers’ groups which has kept me going. 

At the weekend my seven year old iPad finally decided to die.  This would be irritating at the best of times, but now when I’m relying on on-line interactions with friends so much, it was an even bigger deal.  So Sunday saw me seeking  a replacement, which wasn’t as easy as usual.  One suppler had a five-day delivery window, so I was forced to venture into Portsmouth and brave one of those glossy - and  incredibly hostile - tech stores.  I did get what I wanted, and after a couple of hours of setting the new tablet up, I was nearly back to normal.  It has made me realise how much I interact with writers on-line, many of whom I only know through our regular interactions on Twitter.

Friday last week got me together on-line with a few of my writer friends from Portsmouth Writers’ Hub and T’Articulation.  It was an editorial  meeting for Pens of the Earth, an environmental writing project which long-time friend Helen Salsbury founded. It was good to interact with other writers again, but a two  and a half hour Zoom meeting left me totally wrung out.

On Tuesday I did get back to face to face interactions with writers from another group.  Carol Westron and I have managed to get Havant Writers’ Circle together in person again.  It has meant changing the place where we meet, and I must admit when I set off in the dark and rain I did wonder why I was doing it.  But it was great to have some real interactions with people again, ad to hear what they’d been working on during lockdown.  It was a small gathering, but worth it to keep the Circle going and rescue my sanity.

I have also had reminders via social media from two other friends to arrange coffee dates with them.  As an introvert, I’m notoriously bad, as most introverts are, at initiating contact, but I do I intend to contact these friends next week.

This fiercely independent introvert has discovered during this pandemic that she’s not quite the hermit she thought she was.