Shopping returns but wait for other activities will be much longer

STILL waters run deep. The effects of lockdown run deeper still.

As we were surprised by the government’s fast-tracking of the phased return to normal last Friday afternoon, we start to look forward to some semblance of normality returning. We can return shopping again, so if your fancy is a new suit, a jacket, a new lamp, a new sofa, set of curtains, there are options available.

But shopping now will not be like shopping before, a day out shopping around Mary Street or Grafton Street in Dublin will be unlike anything we’ve experienced. Making an appointment to go shopping inside Arnotts or Brown Thomas is not shopping as we know it. Imagine the guilt and pressure to buy something, after being greeted at the door by a member of staff. Just browsing isn’t really on just now.

Never before is shopping local more important or more convenient. The queuing won’t be as long, the hassle as great and returning goods if need be will be equally convenient.

While we welcome a return to a normal experience, the queues outside the fishmongers in Park Street will continue, as will the groups of people standing patiently outside Conlon’s, Kierans, Country Fresh and the Home Bakery at the top of the Avenue Road on a Saturday morning. All fine and well on a sunny day, but not so pleasant last Saturday when the weather took a minor turn for the worse. Imagine the wind howling and the rain lashing you sideways in the middle of October and November, hell, that even happens in July and August here in Ireland.

But while some aspects of life start to return and sport may well be back before the summer fades into memory, we will have to make an appointment to visit the National Gallery in Dublin.

What about indoor leisure acitivities such as bridge, camera clubs, flower arranging, ICA Guilds, active retirement groups. Many of these activities attract the more senior members of our society, those seen as vulnerable to COVID-19.

While there was much focus on the return to golf which many seniors enjoy and the relaxing of restrictions to attend weekly church services, it is hard to see activities such as bridge resuming any time soon. So the cocooners who have lost many of their outlets through necessary caution and having spent several weeks at home isolated from their friends, may well find that those outlets remain unavailable for some time to come.

That will be a huge challenge for those to overcome and look positively upon in the weeks ahead, particularly when the bright evenings start slipping in early autumn.

What of our youth, teenagers were largely unaffected by the health aspects of the coronavirus but they too endured lockdown for the greater good. Now back socialising with their friends, their activities such as team sports and youth groups have yet to resume. Football coaches fear a drop off in numbers participating, particularly in the 14 to 17 age category. Those are difficult years, the dropout rate from organised sports and actiivities is at its peak during this time and many will simply not return to their previous activities.

Rural teams could lose players and those few who go missing may well mean the difference between fielding a team and not.

There are bigger health, social and economic challenges ahead as we try to resume a new normal life, but the small things are important too for our well being and we need to remember that in the days ahead.