My local authority still says that you cannot go over to England even though it's within your 5-mile distance. So for the past few months since the beginning of lockdown I have had a very small area to get my essential shopping. And it's not good enough, partly because it means going to several different shops and being a disabled person It is just too much for me to do. But I've been trying to do it, and I've been exhausted.
So I was looking forward to last week when I thought Wales would extend that 5-mile distance and I could have gone further in Wales to get some of my essential food. But that didn't happen the 5-mile distance stayed.
So, since last week I've been planning to do the 5-mile distance into England because I live right on the border and that gives me 3/4 more of this 5mile radius of circle where I can get better food and better food for the cat, and last night I decided to go this morning.
The big problem I have is I need a toilet quite frequently, so the only way I can plan that with there being no toilets open is not drink anything at all since yesterday afternoon and that is very hard, actually impossible with having a dry mouth and needing to sip liquids constantly. I have been sucking sweets all night (and this morning) so that my mouth wasn't completely parched and stuck together.
I didn't sleep most of the night, not because I was worrying or anything but I just couldn't sleep. I managed to fall asleep at 3:00 a.m. and I woke up at 7:00am.
I managed to leave at 7:30 and I drove past the police station to see if the squad cars were there and the unmarked cars they have. But even that early, pretty well most of the police cars were gone and that's quite a lot of them and a lot of the unmarked police cars have gone. You know which are the unmarked police cars if you are constantly driving past. I'm so I made the assumption, that as it's going to be a hot day today and the heat wave this week they are probably preparing to stop cars coming in from England at their checkpoints. And usually at their checkpoints is a very small white porta-cabin presumably to do their relieving duties in.
Anyway in Wales, here, the the roads look pretty much deserted still, and very few people in the street, but as soon as I got on the expressway it was like traffic was back to normal to pre lockdown. It was absolutely packed with vehicles on the Expressway. And then when I got to the retail park in Chester, it was just business as normal with cars everywhere and people. Everything felt normal, and I needed that.
Why didn't I not do this sooner because it is within the 5-mile limit of essential driving? Because my county council had said we could not go over the border, and it also said that people who worked over the border could not go and continue to work there because they lived in Wales. And yet their employee in England insisted they had to go back to work.
Anyway it was pretty easy going over, easier than I thought it was going to be. It is a route I used to take weekly to do my shopping before lockdown.
There are a lot of shops on this retail park which I can use, but there are three next to each other which were going to be most useful for my food shopping and for my old cat, because in Wales where I live they only have a limited amount of cat food and that is for cats over 1-year-old, but not Popeye's age there's nothing for 7+ or 11+ or even 28 years old!
But the shop I went into in the retail parking Chester, had plenty of 11+ wet cat food. He has been eating food that has been too rich for him, since lockdown, I think because of his age. And he's just eating the gravy and left all the meat, but just now when I came back I gave him some of this 11+ food and he ate the whole lot. So I'm pleased now.
I've got some food for me, and some ready meals and a roast beef dinner in the chill cabinet and another roast dinner. when I got home I actually had the roast beef dinner for my breakfast and it was delicious. It is the only chilled ready meal that I actually find is worth eating.
It was much more civilized than shopping in Wales. For start there was no one way system to completely tire me out. There was no 6 ft black lines all the way around the store, none of that. But they were at the till area which is absolutely fine.
Under another thing, I do not like Wales queueing system at the tills. In the shops I go to in Wales which are the nearest to me, they just have one till open, and you have to queue down one particular aisle, and no matter how many people (there might be 10 or 20) are in that queue in that aisle you have to wait. And there are no concessions for older or disabled people. And that totally exhausts me as a disabled person and I just don't want to do any shopping or go out anymore.
But, in these shops I went into in England this morning, there was only two people in front of me at one till (one being served and one waiting), And I was next, yet a new till assistant appeared from nowhere, opened up the till and beckoned me over.
You have no idea how welcome this was to me.
And another thing, when I was in that shop there was an older lady who wore a face shield, and I was looking at her. She noticed and she struck up a conversation saying these are much better than the face masks. And we talked a bit, she was a complete stranger to me, but none of this is happening in the Welsh shops at the moment at the bottom. (It's a bit dog eats dog at the shops at the bottom road from me.) Then the older lady said they sell them in this shop. And she said come with me and I'll show you. So we went to where the face masks were, and they were face masks and shields and some other protective stuff as well. (There is none of this in my local shops).
She got one down for me, I couldn't reach, and she showed me why it was a bit different to hers, and that hers had elastic on the back where this was just a thin piece of plastic, and she said I'm sure you can elasticate the back of that. And I said yes I could, and she pointed out a couple of differences between this and hers, because she had paid more for hers online. For £1.99 this is definitely worth it for me to try out to see if I like this idea.
I'll tell you why I like the idea, it's because I could lip read this lady, I could see her lips. Otherwise if she had been wearing a mask there's absolutely no way I could have followed this conversation.
We were almost at the 6 foot distance. Then, going around the store we bumped (not literally!) into each other a couple more times. We had to conversation about cats at the pet food section, and then a bit later another conversation about something else when we were in the same bit.
This is the first proper normal, conversation I have had with another human being since March, the beginning of lockdown. I needed this in many ways.
Yes, I have spoken to the shop till assistants but there's been no conversation there. It's just you want your till receipt, and yes or no.
Anyway, coming back the traffic was building up and by the time I got to the expressway it was pretty certain it was going to be gridlock fairly soon, presumably being with English tourists coming into Wales.
When I came back into Wales there was a flashing notice on the Expressway saying 'You are entering Wales'. And then it said 'Be aware Welsh Covid Rules Apply'
