Covid-19 - Lockdown Living

Our social media, marketing and communications manager was struck down with #coronavirus . Find out how The Meating Joint Butchers in Studley can help you if you are forced to isolate.

I'm Laura, daughter of the Meating Joint is the voice and normally, when you write to me, your reply comes from Milan. As well as posting on social media and replying to your messages, I am a teacher at The British School of Milan. Northern Italy was the European epicentre of the Covid virus and so I was able to keep four weeks ahead of you guys in the U.K. I was able to lead the diversification of our service to include a next day meat delivery.

Everything was going well. Italy locked us down - hard. We weren't allowed to leave the house for 11 weeks unless it was to go to the supermarket, chemist or to take the dog for a walk. I was glued to the Facebook page in between lessons and enjoying a bit of yoga.

I felt great - cocky even. You needed our meat, eggs and cheese bringing to you and I was managing to co-ordinate it from my apartment in Milan. The staff were working what felt like millions of hours a day and we were delivering meat to those of you who needed it. Nurses, self-isolators, sufferers and those just too busy to get to us!

Then, about a month ago, I got Covid. I was struck down with the symptoms one Saturday afternoon and I slept for sixteen hours straight. My #fever showed in my bright red cheeks, I had an unbearable #headache and the aches and pains were unlike anything I had ever felt before. I did the 'tampone' here in Italy which is the #swabtest. It came back negative. Maybe it was just the flu. After all, I felt lucky, my symptoms were not horrendous.

After about a week of isolation, the cough came and the difficulty breathing. I tried the ten second test and had a bizarre pain in my chest. You lovely customers hadn't heard from me for a while and the lockdown restrictions were getting tighter in the U.K. Some people had even started panic buying. I had to navigate my first #onlineshop in Italian. Who knew there were so many types of pasta? I cooked every day (hated it) and taught online in between naps. I locked myself in my house and did nothing but rest and recover.

All in all, my symptoms lasted three weeks. It wasn't awful but I wouldn't wish it on anybody. #staysafestayhome

What I learned

Being stuck in the house is hard! Until you cannot physically leave, you don't realise how much you rely on services like ours - high quality meat delivery right to your door.

You don't realise how hard it is to look after yourself and so you need a reliable supplier of fresh groceries.

Food is life. When you can't go out, your shopping list is huge and you get adventurous. You need to treat yourself to a fancy steak or a nice leg of lamb to survive.