Keith finds positives among the challenges during lockdown.

Hello, fellow Diarists and others who drop in to Dementia Diaries to have a listen. It’s Keith Oliver here.
We’re now about three weeks, or just over, into the semi-lockdown or, for those of us with Dementia, pretty much a complete lockdown. Rosemary and I have not been away from our house or garden now for approximately sixteen days and we are lucky that we have a bit of a garden where we can get out and exercise in, but it is still at times quite challenging and quite difficult.
We do though try, both of us, to find positives in these challenges and I just wanted to talk a little bit today about some of those positives that we are attempting to undertake.
First of all, no matter how big your garden or small a garden one has, one can sow a few seeds in pots and get some great pleasure from them and then the occupiers are thinking about their watering and nurturing them.
I keep a diary every day, I keep a record, I keep a routine established. This helps enormously in enabling the days to pass and to pass quite quickly, to pass quite positively and then tick things off as they’re done.
We often play a game in the evening, because evenings can be harder than the days, so often a board game will come out, or a card game or a numbers game, something which we can both do together.
Jigsaws, I understand, are flying off the shelves of shops and the Alzheimer’s Society are now in conjunction with a company called Active Minds to sell jigsaws which are appropriate and made specifically for people with Dementia, which are great. I have a number of them and I do do them.
Computer – those of us who have got one and those who use them – technology has really come into its own over the last three weeks and with your help and encouragement, I know most of us have been able to learn new skills and be able to apply them to remain physically distanced but socially connected.
And last and not least, taking time to sit in a bit of sunshine, either through a window if you’re indoors, or outside on a patio or garden with a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and just take in what the world is providing us on these Spring sunshine days.
Thank you everybody and do take care, stay safe, stay well and see you all at the end of the tunnel.
Thank you, bye bye.