COVID DIARIES: The Great Pottery Throw Down, Winter Watch and dreaming of Aruba

As part of the #BeatCovidNE campaign she has been keeping a diary of life in lockdown.

We caught up with Brenda, who has just received her first Covid vaccine. Here she explains how she’s feeling during lockdown and the things she’s been doing to stay upbeat while reinforcing the importance of sticking to the rules…

“I received the first dose of the Covid vaccine last week, which I’m really happy about. I got it down at the local primary care centre and everything ran smoothly; I was super impressed with the organisation of it all.

The needle was the tiniest of pricks and I was in and out quickly. It’s definitely worth getting as it takes us one step closer to getting out of this pandemic.

I’m proud of the North East’s response to the vaccination roll out. We’re leading the way in the fight against this awful virus and the joint local effort between the councils and the NHS has been phenomenal.

Just because I’ve received the first dose of the vaccine though, my life hasn’t changed.

I still realise how important it is to stick to the rules until we are all fully vaccinated. We still must act like we have the virus and keep any social contact to a minimum, wear our masks wherever we go and regularly sanitise our hands.

Given that many people can be symptomless you just don’t know who has it so you have to do everything you can to minimise the spread of the virus.

The UK’s death rate is nearly at 100,000. It’s frightening. God bless our hospital and healthcare staff. How they are coping with this day in day out is beyond me – they’re doing such a great job. We owe it to them to do our bit and follow the rules, sticking to the stay-at-home order where possible.

I realise how monotonous lockdown can become so that’s why it’s important to stay occupied. I’m in a support bubble with my daughter and grandchildren who live a short walk away from me and we’ve decided to subscribe to Hello Fresh which deliveries fresh ingredients and new recipes to your door each week. It means I can pop down on an evening, help prepare and eat a nutritious meal and enjoy the company of those I love too.

I am also watching a few new programmes on the TV. I am loving The Great Pottery Throw Down and also Winter Watch where I’m learning lots of things I didn’t know about UK wildlife. I sometimes pop onto my Facebook too. Someone had shared some of the cutest photos of companionship between dogs and cats the other day - that gave me some light relief and made me smile .

I know a winter lockdown is tough especially the dark miserable days but it makes me appreciate the sunshine. If I woke up tomorrow and could jump on a plane, I would head to my favourite Caribbean island, Aruba with my daughter and grandkids. I also can’t wait to dine in a nice fancy restaurant and enjoy a top- notch steak with all the trimmings.

I know I’ll get to do that again one day, it’s just a matter of time."