Being Prepared

So, it’s March 2020 and the world finds itself it the grasps of a pandemic, Coronavirus (Covid-19) spreading across the globe with ease and bringing with it detremental consequences.

Here in the UK, we’ve been watching on as China, Italy, and Spain completely shut down and begin the process of self-isolation. With cases beginning to rise here, we all knew that it was only a matter of time before it was going to happen here.

The un-prepared

This is where the idiots enter the frame, the panic buyers, buying up as much toilet rolls, pasta, bread flour and yeast as they could. Purchasing items they never have before or even know what to do with it once they have it.

Other idiots panic bought food in general, fresh things like fruit, vegetables, and salad stuff. They bought it in so much quantity that a huge proportion of it will go off and be thrown away within a week or two.

Others did nothing, perhaps through denial, perhaps through not fully understanding what was heading our way. Maybe they just thought that even if we did get put into a lockdown situation that they would still be able to shop for food normally.

These are the un-prepared.

My Panic

A few days before the country began to gradually lockdown, I suddenly had a bit of a panic. Up until this point, I was confident that we were well prepared for it, but all of a sudden I wasn’t sure, I hadn’t checked and it was starting to get to me.

I normally keep a fairly well stocked fridge and pantry. I’ll always keep adding to it when I perhaps see things on offer in the grocery store and I will admit I don’t always know exactly what is still in there all the time.

The whole thing is a bit of an inside joke in our house, which makes us chuckle from time to time, and I usually retort to the heckling by pointing out that they won’t be laughing when we get locked in the house for a month unable to go to the shops! (I never thought it would necessarily come true).

So, to rid myself of the anxiety, I decided to head to the freezer and pantry with pen and paper in hand. Writing down everything that each contained so I could begin to understand what ingredients we had so that I could use them all as wisely as possible. The more I wrote down, the more my mind was eased.

Knowledge is Power

My panic, my anxiety was all created out of the fear of not knowing exactly what we had. The process of writing it down so I could see it all there in black and white on pieces of paper made all my self-created stress go away.

I knew exactly what gaps we had and which if any supplies we might need still to get to be able to cope well through this testing time.

Something so simple as to write it down solved all my problems that day.