Today was our weekly grocery shopping day. My third time out past our gate in nearly six weeks and I\u2019m exhausted, it was like going on a mission to Mars.<\/p>\n
First challenge was to find the hair dryer rather than let my hair dry naturally, Corona virus is serious but going out with wet hair is probably more risky in the eyes of Italians. Second challenge is to find a bra, I\u00a0haven\u2019t worn one since my last outing to the shop over a week ago. Third thing is get my gloves and mask, we only have gloves in one size, large so no matter how I try to make them fit I have flappy bits at the tops of my fingers. Then we get the shopping bags and get our carefully prepared shopping list.<\/p>\n We need our passports and our self certification forms.<\/p>\n Keys, wallet, phones and we\u2019re off. Except we\u2019re not. The car hasn\u2019t been used in a week and has an old battery which is now flat. So it\u2019s put on a charge. We both go back into the house and let our adrenalin subside over a cup of coffee.<\/p>\n We get going just before lunch. Only one person per family is allowed into the shop.<\/p>\n As I\u2019m approaching the trolley bay I see another two people getting out of cars heading towards other trolley bays. It\u2019s hot and there are already six people in the queue so I speed up. One of the other women sees me and is thinking the same, we\u2019re now both doing fast trots to our chosen trolley bay.<\/p>\n I have my XXL gloves on and I get to my trolley bay first, insert the coin into the trolley release and one of my flappy bits gets stuck in the slot but I keep going wrangling the trolley out of the bay. My phone starts ringing. I see the others are gaining on me time wise, I am closer but I don\u2019t want to be obvious and sprint to the queue so I decide\u2026 to skip. I haven\u2019t skipped in 40 years but hey I\u2019m skipping along into the queue, everyone is looking.<\/p>\n I get to the ticket dispenser just before the other woman and grab my number \u201927\u2019. Masked and sunglasses on, neither of us can read each other\u2019s expression. My phone is buzzing again, my flappy bit is still trapped, my dust mask has moved up my face to mid way under my sunglasses and is sticking in my eye. It\u2019s 22 degrees and I\u2019m wearing a wool jumper, I hadn\u2019t really thought my wardrobe choices through. I finally get my glove released without loosing a rubber finger. I pull the mask down to get some air and to save an eye. This in turn yanks my hair the elastic has entwined around on the back of my head. Phone is ringing again. I open the phone cover to see it\u2019s my mother. I try to answer but of course with the rubber gloves on the phone won\u2019t take my thumb print ID nor will slide to answer work. I\u2019ve missed an earlier call from her too I notice, she\u2019ll have to wait.<\/p>\n Just at the point I am thinking I am going to start melting in my jumper, my number is called.<\/p>\n First stop the veg aisle. They\u2019ve great walnuts here, perfect for banana and walnut bread. Bag them, weigh them, take the label and stick on bag but now my flappy bit is stuck on the label and the bag. I automatically try to release it with the other hand and now I have flappy bits of both hands stuck on the label. I\u2019m now standing shaking a bag of clacking nuts attached to my flappy bits, sunglasses fall back on nose, I pull my hand away to push glasses up while thinking \u2018Don\u2019t touch face\u2019, bag rips nuts fly all over the place.<\/p>\n I give up we don\u2019t need nuts that much nor any other veg that requires labelling. I grab pre packed and labelled fruit and veg and some frozen. It\u2019s like being on Trolley Dash \u2013 concious there are 10 people waiting to come in and only five people are allowed into the shop at any one time so I\u2019m rushing around getting everything on the list. My phone starts to ping continuously. I\u2019m picking up more things that are not on the list than that are on the list. There\u2019s really fast music playing, do they do that on purpose to speed us up? Ping. Ping. I\u2019m thinking I don\u2019t want to have to do this again next week so I\u2019m buying double of everything. By the time I reach the wine aisle I\u2019m loading bottles into every conceivable space left. Ping, ping. We have enough, I\u2019ve had enough.<\/p>\n I\u2019m in the pay queue. Ping. Number 28 reaches the queue just after me, she only has a few things so I wave her on in front as is customary in Italy. Ping. Well that was a wasted rush, I\u2019m thinking she\u2019s probably looking a bit smug under her perfectly fitted surgical mask. I\u2019ve been using the same builder\u2019s dust mask for all shopping trips and it\u2019s on it\u2019s last legs.<\/p>\n I check my phone, the pings are from a relative who has found pics of when we were young and has decided to send all 16 of them during my shopping trip.<\/p>\n My phone is ringing, I can see on the screen it\u2019s my mother again. Anxiety is rising, something must be wrong. Ping, ping. I pay for the avalanche of shopping and exit as quickly as possible. I hear Ronan before I see him, revving the engine like it\u2019s a getaway car, masked and gloved adds to the feeling we are doing a bank hoist rather than a grocery shop. My phone is ringing as I load the shopping bags into the back of the car. \u201cOh for f**k sake!\u201d I mutter into my smelly mask.<\/p>\n Ronan sensing I\u2019m distressed over something, gets out to give me a hand, not thinking about the flat battery. \u201cNOO stay in!\u201d, I shout slamming the door. He jumps back in, starts the dying engine.. and automatically drives off?\u2026 my flappy bit still attached. It stretches about a foot and then pings off my hand. \u2018Ping, ping\u2019 goes my phone. I steer the trolley back to the bay with my elbow and my covered hand where fairy pools have now gathered at the top of my flappy bits. Husband cruises the car park and comes back for me. I\u2019ve picked up the coin with my uncovered hand. Crap, I\u2019ve fallen at the last hurdle.<\/p>\n We have hand sanitiser in the car and so I dose my hands and my phone in it. At this point I have missed six calls in the space of 30 minutes from my mother, so my shaky hands slide all over the phone trying to call her. Bloody hell, that was so stressful. I\u2019m glad that we are home and have enough to eat to last probably two weeks so I won\u2019t have to go out again. While himself unpacks, I call my 23-year-old daughter in London and wonder why she isn\u2019t answering\u2026 so I call her a second time\u2026 and a third. \u201cI was in the shower, why are you calling so much, what\u2019s wrong?\u201d \u2026 And that is when I realised I had turned into my mother. Today was our weekly grocery shopping day. My third time out past our gate in nearly six weeks and I\u2019m exhausted, it was like going on a mission to Mars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[225,230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-quarantine-diary","category-week-5-corona-virus-italy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions\/2192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMy flappy bit get\u2019s caught in the door handle as I am saying \u201cGo, go, go, keep the engine running\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d I ask, skipping the greeting.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d she responds.
\n\u201cWhat? You called me six times.\u201d
\n\u201cI called you six times \u2018cause you didn\u2019t answer so I was worried something was wrong. Nothing is wrong here, what\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d
\n\u201cNothing is wrong here either. I\u2019m out shopping I\u2019ll call you later.\u201d
\nI\u2019m a bit annoyed, \u201cHonestly, I thought as an adult I wouldn\u2019t need to tell my mother whenever I left the house, especially as I live in another country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"