20th of November to 6th of December, 2020.
The supermarket is not far but, since I want to buy everything I need to the next 14 days of my quarantine, so I do not need to live the house at all, it turns to be a heavy lot and I, stupid as I am, brought just one shopping bag, plus my backpack, so I have to lift a lot of weight in just one bag. I struggle.
I am not sure anymore of difference of food prices between here and Brazil. I sure damn remember it was not cheap to buy fruits and vegetables back in there before I leave. Right now I believe the prices are almost the same, with the difference that people get much better paid here than there. I get some vegetables, fruits, milk, yogurt, oats for porridge, toilet paper, peanut butter (an outrage, I know, but it is for protein), eggs, bread, jam, butter, some local delicatessen (which F. said I should try) like crumpets and hot cross buns (the first ones I loved but hot cross buns are yucky to me), oil and sugar, all for about 24£. Not so bad in my opinion. It is food for two weeks so…
My days are quite simple and quiet. At the beginning I tied up the kitchen, cleaning up the cupboards, I clean the bathroom and living room, but I could not do a really good job because there are no cleaning products. It is been long since F. has been here. Apart of that, you know, I am reading, writing, organizing the texts for my blog, and watching movies.
I was trying to keep a good timing for waking up, like not so late. Not just because I can keep up like that when I finally need but also because, damn! It is getting dark early around here. It gets light around 8 (not shiny light, but light) and around 4 p.m. is almost dark. But I admit that for a few days, I was sleeping until I could not more. I mean, I allow myself some small pleasure sometimes, you know? We never know if you will wake up next morning anyway…
The heater boiling is not working. F. warned me that this might happen though. I tried all the tricks he told me but nothing worked. So I am basically as the same as it used to be back in Brazil: no warm house in the winter, just put on a bunch of clothes. I am use to so it is fine. And I do not get cold at night to sleep. The only problem is about washing clothes and showering. It takes ages for the clothes to dry and my shower is limited to warm buckets shower. At least there is this small electric heater, which I can turn on inside the bathroom so it is not that bad. I am doing nothing anyway so it is not like I need shower everyday.
When the quarantine is over and I can finally go out, I make a plan of sending emails to T. (my host in Scotland) and F., plus I want to check bus prices from here to my destination, Pitlochry. A beautiful snow fell down just a couple of days before my quarantine was over, so if I already was worried about hitchhiking in this cold, that snow kind of settled things. So I will do all that and my plan is to go to Leeds next day, Sunday, to exchange my Dollars into Pounds and buy the bus tickets, hoping for a few Pounds less for buying in advance. I am concern about the exchange house in the mall not be open, since it is Sunday, but I know that if I come on Monday, the prices of the tickets will have increased.
To save the money from the bus, I decide to walk. It is 5.6 miles from here to Leeds Bus Station but luckily is just nearby a huge and fancy mall. For my surprise, the exchange house, or better saying, the Bureau de Charge is open. But when I get to the bus station, the tickets info area is closed. Even though it says in their website they are open on Sundays.
I just walked in front of a few old buildings in the centre, like the National Gallery, City Hall and the Cathedral (which is not as gorgeous as some other local churches, I must say) to take some photos. But the problem with these sights is, even though they are amazing buildings, they are located in the middle of the city centre, surrounded by things which stand the in ways of a good photo.
The way back is devastating. I am exhausted and my legs hurt a lot. My back hurts too. The absence of any exercise for the last 14 days definitely paid back. I actually had a plan of having some daily “dancing classes” with myself, for something around one hour. But since I could not dry my clothes easily enough, I could not get them dirty either. So laziness.
I know my legs will be killing me tomorrow and going back to the city for those tickets it s crazyness. But I also know that it might be raining on Tuesday while on Monday it supposed to be nice weather. Plus, the idea that, a big group of people will need to go to Edinburgh and they will book all the available buses from the days I need to, would not leave my mind.
On my second day in the city, at the register the lady asks me if I am aware of the restrictions of going to Scotland. I say I am not. She goes one saying that, she can sell me the tickets but, a few passengers had to come back because they were not allowing everyone to cross. So I ask her if there is wi-fi in the station, to what she say yes, and I decide to check things first before buy the tickets. A read an email from T., warning me about the restrictions. Why she did not send me anything before? I had not contact them but she knew I was coming and would be better if I had got those news as soon as possible. But she was lovely as usual, trying to think of a better plan for me to come. She said that the restrictions were to be reviewed on Friday and asked me if I could wait until there? Did I need money for food was the next question. I tell her about Benjamin giving me the money so I could get the food and that F. said I could stay in the house for as long as I needed.
Walking back today is less worse then yesterday an it seems to have passed much faster. Maybe it is because I was imagining the beginning of a wonderful friendship with Dave Grohl all the way…
