Hi All,

As you may know from my last post, I am currently Self Isolating due to the law in place in the UK for travellers. I travelled to Germany after this new law has started and now I am stuck at home! And let me tell you, I am dying of boredom.

I wish I could even go for a walk, but I am not even allowed to do that which is driving me insane. 2 days ago I sat in the garden for a while doing some crafts, as the day before I had a really bad mental health day (which happens to the best of us!) because of this self-isolation. I am used to seeing my boyfriend and his family a lot when I am home and when I wasn’t living at home I lived with my best friend (Simply Everything) so it really is meddling with my mind a lot. I know I have my parents around currently but it’s a different type of social interaction if you know what I mean? My friends don’t tell me to do the dishes, for starters.

Below I have inserted an image of what I ended up making in my escape to the garden, I have always wanted one of these but my mother would never allow it, she says its bad energy, but now she likes them so I guess opinions change. I haven’t been into my pastel arts as much lately, I have periods of time when I am really into it and that’s all I do but currently I don’t even know where my pastels are! So if the art part of this blog goes a little dry you know why! I am not going to force myself to do it, just have to wait when the inspiration hits I guess. If any of you have any inspo images, send them my way.

Also, I have been kept busy by playing Sims, I know some people may think its a really childish game but I really like it, keeps me occupied and allows me to bring my creative stories to life in a different way other than just writing them. I have lots of mods and additions so its cool to play to keep my mind off the current issues. When I was in Germany I played on my boyfriend’s laptop, which is a 10000000x better than mine, so now going back to my 2010 laptop, the lag and slowness is driving me insane! hoping to buy a new one for the new academic year as I will be writing my dissertation, but we shall see.

I have also been watching a lot of Polish TV (because that’s all we have in our house) and the elections are driving me crazy! Don’t get me wrong there are some good candidates, obviously not perfect as always with politics, but the current president (Andrzej Duda) is running again and I have always been the one to say that Poland is always 30 years behind, and this election proves me right. Some statements that come out of his mouth are as follows:

• “LGBTQ+ people are not people”
• “LGBTQ+ is just an ideology that is ruining Poland and the idea of family”
• “They are sexualising children”

When I saw this I was in absolute disbelief. This is disgusting that people cannot just be people simply because of their sexual orientation. Taking away basic human rights and outright outcasting people is not right and it makes me ashamed to be part of such a country that treats people this way. These are people and they deserve as many rights as anyone else who is straight, of colour, not of colour or anything else. They are not hurting anyone and Poland’s idea of protecting the family is just absolutely old fashioned and outdated. The worst part is that people support this? there are people at his debates supporting him and his disgusting ideas, which makes me even happier that I will be voting this year and kicking his butt out of his position.

All of these emotions and other things have also gotten me more into my current therapy I am in for my fear of flying. Me and my boyfriend have now booked to go to Poland in August to see family, which has opened my eyes that I need to be more active in my fear. I have started a journal for my emotions and just daily things that happen to keep track of and started thinking about flying more, for example simulating the experience just before I got to bed in my head, to get used to the feeling. It has been helping a little but I know I have much more work to do.

Nothing else to report otherwise, just my friend had a baby, cant wait to go see her after this is done! I will be stuck at home for another 8 days now, but I think I can deal with it. If anyone else is self-isolating too, make sure to keep your self busy, otherwise, it might start to get daunting!

Stay safe,

Love, Kasia x