The lockdown restrictions finally eased in Wales on Monday July 6th. That's 104 days since we went into lockdown on March 24th. We are now allowed to travel more than 5 miles and can visit people in their gardens. People can also form "extended households" with one other household and can have physical contact and stay the night.
Luckily I had also booked this week off work. The furloughed staff were able to start coming back to work from July 1st, so they are all doing at least one day a week for now but it means that I can FINALLY have a proper break.
On Tuesday I set the alarm for 6.00am and headed off to Crickhowell to climb Table Mountain. It felt weird driving on the motorway, traffic was relatively busy though. I also had to go there via Abergavenny as the bridge is still damaged from Storm Dennis.
I parked the car and set off up the mountain at 8.15am. It was cloudy but warm and I only had to put my long sleeves on a the summit. Thank goodness I wore long trousers though as some of the footpaths were so overgrown with ferns and nettles. A machete would have been useful.
It was a good long ascent and I was sweating buckets by the time I reached the top. There was only one other person up there. It was absolutely blissful. I was so ravenous that I ate my sandwiches by 10.00am though.
On returning to the car I popped on my face mask and headed into the town centre and bought some treats from the local bakery.
I was home by 1.00pm ravenous and exhausted. I'd walked 9 miles and the equivalent of over 150 flights of stairs. It's also the first hill I've climbed since my hip replacement. I woke up the next day with throbbing buttocks and also aching in some new places, like the backs of my knees but it felt really good.
I signed up to Skillshare this week just so that I could watch the Aaron Draplin tutorials. He's so inspiring and enthusiastic, I could watch him all day. One tutorial was all about creating a word mark logo for where you live. This was my take on Barry Island.
It's been a grey miserable couple of days but I managed to get out for a half hour walk in the drizzle yesterday. I also ventured to Argos to buy some new headphones and got stuck in traffic as they are resurfacing the road leading down to McDonalds. I made sure I avoided that route on the way home. I listened to the latest Adam Buxton podcast where he informed us that his Mum had, it brought a lump to my throat, bless him.
In brighter news my boss had a crate of 12 bottles of wine delivered to my house to say thank you for all of my hard work. Unfortunately they'd left it hidden in my bush in the pouring rain for three hours, so the boss almost disintegrated as I dragged it into the house. I've got more booze in my house now than at the start of lockdown!
Over in England the lockdown is well and truly eased. Pubs are open, some restaurants too. The scenes in Soho on Saturday night were insane. More idiots acting as if the virus no longer exists.
Three pubs have already had to go close and do a deep clean as they had patrons that later tested positive for the virus. Of course my Dad went to the pub on the day that they reopened. He said that they allow thirty people indoors and have a marquee outside for another thirty. He went at 4.00pm and said it was very relaxed. It's waitress service only so the landlord has had to put the prices up to help to pay for the extra waiting staff.
Pubs in Wales are allowed to open outside only from July 13th, but many of them aren't going to bother. All of the Brains pubs are going to remain shut until they can open properly. A few of the independent pubs appear to be planning to open. I just saw the Blue Anchor in Aberthaw say that the beer had been delivered in readiness.
This means that my plans for just popping in to the Fox & Hounds in Llancarfan may be ruined as lots of other people may now have the same idea if other pubs are closed. So it looks like I'll be waiting a few more weeks before I enter a pub.
Off to watch another Draplin tutorial now.
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