The joy of being housebound

The older I get, the more I’ve come to savour and enjoy being housebound for the day. In years gone by staying put and purposely choosing not to go out seemed anti-social and a bit of waste, but now the ability to hide away for 24 hours seems a luxury.

In the last week or so, both Adam and I have succumbed to our second dose of of winter sickness (methinks perhaps neither of us actually fully recovered from our first bout of sniffles, coughs and chills in February). That combined with busy work and full on travel schedules has meant it’s been weeks since either of had the opportunity to just spend a day at home.

Adam will have to wait until the weekend to get his housebound day, but I luxuriated in mine yesterday. I woke up to slightly fogged up windows, low clouds over the Malvern Hills and the soft pitter patter of rain.  Rain in England strikes me as gentle. In Australia you often get thunderous downpours, clouds almost violently shedding their heavy, watery load.  Here the rain, even when it’s falling steadily, has a quiet way of descending from the sky. A barely-there kiss from the heavens above.

I made myself coffee, stood at the kitchen window in my pyjamas and socks and mentally devised my ‘to do’ list.

I had work that I needed to finish, which would occupy the majority of the day, but being able to do it at my own pace, at my laptop, whilst in a nest of blankets and pillows in my bed made it much more palatable. I could sip tea all day and blow my runny nose non-stop.

I indulged in my favourite, ‘I’m feeling poorly’ lunch of Vegemite toast with grilled cheese on top and used a quick break in the rain to zip out into the garden to pick some of the flowers that are starting to appear in the garden.

After initially putting them in the kitchen, I moved my vase of soft pink blooms to the window sill in the bedroom – a lovely sight to gaze upon when clunking away at keys for hours on end.

By late afternoon the sun had made a brief appearance and for the first time in days, my head started to feel a little more normal and not like a bowling ball.

It was a lovely, simple reminder that I need to make time to slow down and hide for a day every now and again. How do you feel about being housebound? Does it fill you with joy, or make you groan?!