On 31 October 2020, the Prime Minister announced that England would go into a second ‘lockdown’ starting on Bonfire Night.

Not again.

This is my mildly subversive 'advent' calendar, counting down from 5 November to 2 December - Freedom Day (or so we hoped).

Every evening I added the date and annotated the calendar with a daily doodle, which might be a Covid icon - spot the bubbles, Scotch egg and Trump's Bleachy Tonic - or something I had seen or done that day, or a significant event from the outside world.

Deciding what to include passed a half hour or so, and in a small way helped get through a long month.

Health and Wellbeing - Although I did miss the routine of catching the train and the morning commute to work there was also a guilty pleasure in keeping my slippers on and catching up on email with a cuppa. I stopped working until 7 pm too with the time saved commuting

Health and Wellbeing

I made a choice to trust my own immune system and to choose not to have a Covid vaccine. I didn’t know how controversial that choice would prove to be – I just did a risk assessment and deemed myself low risk as I was in good health. I also asked more questions than most and remained unconvinced that the vaccine would protect me or others in the way that it was advertised to. It didn’t make me any less scared of catching Covid or of my close family getting sick. In fact it was even harder because due to vaccine damage, a close family member was extremely poorly and more vulnerable. I chose to really invest in my own health and I shied away from contact with others because I was described in the press and by people in the community as ‘unvaccinated’, ‘inconsiderate’, ‘irresponsible’. Everything around the ethics of choice and respect for others seemed to disappear from our world. My own wellbeing took a hit because I couldn’t understand how these values were so quickly lost and worse than that, there was a silence or comments like this that didn’t conform to the expected narrative were censored.

While the rest of my house hold remained working as normal through the lock downs (key workers). I was in my 3rd year at university completing majority of my 100-day placement remotely from my bedroom. Being Dyslexic means I'm a kinesthetic learner so this change of remote learning was very tough to adapt too and at times I felt alone...

But when I would turn round and see my cat Star on the bed, it made me feel less alone and put an instant smile on my face. When I would get stressed or anxious I'd come away from my laptop to hug her or even just pet her. Did you know, petting cats and dogs for 10mins decreases the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) and releases oxytocin's (happy chemical). True story! Which means I pet her more and more each day. My cat Star helped me through the lock downs.

Hi - I have put these images in for all the categories as they show how we quickly managed to adapt to the changes. At work and at home I was aware of things like discarded masks and all the signs - my grandchildren and the little ones I work with growing up in this strange new world of social distance and hand cleaning!

I would like to put cycling into the health and wellbeing. Using my bike and getting out on the cycle tracks helped my wellbeing so much in the pandemic and helped keep my relationships going with other people as we could go on bike rides together.

I started doing daily walks and discovered lots of areas that I had not discovered. It was unexpected as I have lived in this area for years. This donkey became a regular friend on my walks and even though I had felt a bit cut off I looked forward to our daily meetings

The beauty of nature reminded me of what was important. A group of us saved our walks for the evening and went out together. It helped me to get involved with climate action even at my age as there is nothing more important nw than this

I think this photograph makes me capture a lot of the arguments that went on during covid and that are still going on although we seem to have forgotten covid is still with us! at first there was a belief that the virus was spread through touching the surfaces and we were all washing our hands and humming happy birthday to make sure we did it for long enough. As frontline workers we did not have the proper stuff at first or even anything and we all carried those small things of sanitiser but then as the time went on we were told that covid was actually spread by drops in the air and so we must all wear masks. Lots of people started wearing them but it was ever so tricky at work because you count see peoples faces properly and they couldn’t see you so it made the whole relationship more difficult. I’m thinking of how exhausting it has all been even as I am writing about it so good luck with your project

I passed this sign in the car on my way to work and I worried about the effect anti-vaxxers might have on everyone. I try not to be angry over it as everyone is entitled to what they belief but it was very hard working with some of the most vulnerable people and at the same time people saying that the whole thing was a scam and made up and a Q Anon conspiracy. So many people got sick and so many people died.

My photo is of my feet in walking boots. Like many people we walked and walked and walked…… that is a memory from Covid and lockdown.

I used to rollerblade about ten years ago and got good at it but gave it up. When we all had to stay away from each other I bought some new roller blades online and these are my new rollerblades. The streets and paths were so empty that I could rollerblade for miles and it added to my wellbeing in lockdown

….and now I have had three Covid vaccinations. And I still got Covid! I am so grateful to all the NHS workers and volunteers and everyone who made it possible for us as social workers to have these vaccines and to have them before other people. It made a lot of difference for me at work knowing that I had finally got some protection

This is picture taken from my work desk located in the corner by the window of our bedroom. Prior to the pandemic this picture would have depicted only what I consider to be a nice view of flora, often offering me nice and pleasurable thoughts. Now it brings the additional reflection of having to be locked into this view and memories day when I longed to have a break from it by going into work and seeing people. It highlights the importance of taking breaks, walks and needing to change work locations to maintain ones own mental health. It still does fill me with gratitude for simply having the view as well though.