COVID-19 City Tales: Lisbon. “I miss surfing. When you surf in the ocean, it feels like it washes all your problems away. It’s like therapy”.

A conversation with… Manuel, 27, Growth Marketer, Estoril. Self-isolating for over 45 days

Firstly, can you let me know if you are self-isolated or quarantined? How many days has it been?

I’m self-isolating since March 14th, so over 45 days.

Are you spending it alone or with company?

I’m spending this time with my family. Both parents and 2 sisters, so 5 in total. Kinda feels like Christmas as it’s rare for all of us to be home at the same time…

How are you coping with confinement?

Being introverted I think I have an unfair advantage over any extroverted person in this situation. I love having time for myself, doing my things, like reading, working on side projects, and go for a surf/runs (which I’m not really doing during self-isolation).

I don’t want to make it sound like it’s been easy, as most people I also miss the things I enjoy doing, like surfing, hiking, or just going for a ride on our Harley Davidson. The thing that keeps me going is being able to remove myself from the situation, and putting myself in the future sort of looking back. In an expected stretch of 80+ years life, ‘missing’ 1–6 months doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.

Another perspective that keeps me going is thinking about others. Knowing that all this effort has a reason behind it. To be able to stop this nightmare that is taking the lives of the weakest. I can easily sacrifice some ‘fun’ time for them.

Also, being with my loved ones really helps. I can’t imagine being by myself in London during these times. Having an employer that was very supportive when I decided to literally scape London before all the madness was key. I’m grateful for that every day.

Describe the area where you live. Did you know your neighbors much before this happened? Has your relationship changed since this started?

We live in Estoril, a small village near Lisbon. It has summer vibes all year round. Here the streets are wide and we are surrounded by big houses with loads of trees, not buildings.

Our relationship with our neighbors is almost inexistent, we don’t regularly interact in a normal situation and so far that hasn’t changed since the COVID-19 ‘crisis’. I imagine how this can be completely different for people living in apartments.

What I can say is that the sense of ‘community’ in our home has improved significantly. It feels like everyone is making an effort to avoid conflicts and making sure we don’t make it extra hard for everyone. I’m truly grateful to be surrounded by people that are taking the government advice seriously and keeping their selfish ‘adventures’ to a minimum. We all have to make our part.

What was the last thing you did before isolating?

I flew from London to Lisbon (1 bus ride, 1 train ride and one 3-hour flight). I must admit I was pretty scared just thinking I might get the virus and bring it home. But that was a risk my family was willing to take in order to have me back home before the ‘lockdown’. The thing impressed me the most was how relaxed the airport was at the time, it was only a week before the UK government announced mandatory ‘self-isolation’.

I think most people were and still are very skeptical. I can’t blame them as nowadays the news tend to blow things up out of proportion just for attention, but this was getting pretty real in many countries, I can’t see why the UK among many other countries took so long to put measures in place.

Do you miss the outdoors?

YES!! But not really… What I mean is that I try not to think about it. This is how I deal with hard times. I don’t tend to dwell on things that were lost/are missing or how things could be.

I’ve been surfing regularly for more than 15 years now, and to think I haven’t surfed since late 2019 (so almost 4-months now) is a bit nuts.

I think it’s worth mentioning that unlike running or cycling, for some reason surfing has been forbidden. Worst yet, it seems like the whole world has turned against surfing but not other individual outdoor sports. Feels unfair and the community is feeling pretty revolted. I can’t blame them, as shots are being fired. I mean literally, just watch this video of a policeman trying to shoot a surfer in Costa Rica. There’s also been a few full-on Baywatch style ‘speed’ chases in California beaches. It’s funny to watch but at the same time pretty sad knowing that other sports such as running are recommended while surfing is not.

As surfers, we have a weird addiction to the ocean. When you surf/swim in the ocean, it feels like it washes all your problems away (at least for those 1–2hrs). Now, that we aren’t able to enjoy the beach and surf, many are having a hard time coping with their pains as surfing is therapy.

Besides running I love going for sunset runs, but now that we’re on self-isolation I’m not doing it. The reasoning behind it is twofold:

1. I don’t want to increase the chance of contracting the virus thus putting at risk 4 people I love
2. I don’t want to ‘crowd’ the streets making it seem it’s ok to be out living our normal lives.

I still run tough… Which leads me to what’s probably the craziest part of my self-isolation life. Basically, I started running around in circles in my garden. My current record is 13.8km! One day I just started running and didn’t realise I’ve been at it for an hour straight. The thing is that I turned into meditation as repetition takes us to a weird peaceful state. It’s funny but It works.

Do you agree with the way your Government has handled the crisis?

I’d say no. But it’s been ok when compared to other countries. What I mean is, we are right next to Spain and us (my family) being half-Spanish, we follow what’s going over there very closely and they’re messing up badly.

That makes Portugal look good, but we started similarly as the Czech Republic and they ‘outperformed’ us by miles.

I think the ones who need to get recognition are all the people who were aware of what was going on in the world and quickly adjusted their lives in anticipation. ‘Mandatory lockdown’ is not something the government is having a hard time enforcing as most of us were conscious that it was the way to go.

Do you think this will have positive consequences as well?

It sounds obvious but people are actually dying and many more are suffering direct conseuqences of the associated crisis. Sometimes it’s hard to really think about it because it feels so distant (at least to some of us). No matter the outcome this will always be a dark period in history.

In terms of positiveness. YES. Sure, good things will and are already coming out of this.

Perhaps the main one is forcing people to take a step back, reassessing their lives, realising what they love or don’t, and giving that the deserved value and attention from now on. For me, that’s the simple stuff like the sun and being ‘home’ with my family.

On a macro scale, one of the more obvious positive trends is the shift to remote working. I see many people having a bit of a hard time adapting to it but I believe this is opening many eyes towards this, not so common, practice amongst more ‘old-school’ companies.

Personally, I was used to working from home as both my current and previous employers are super flexible with their working conditions. So, I am used to spending loads of time working not only from home but from a different country and even with people in different times zones.

As someone who loves the freedom to choose when and where to perform my job. I’m actually happy that people are now forced to learn how this works first hand. Hopefully, this will allow them to emphasize a lot more with us ‘remote workers’. In the end, I wish this became a normal practice during ‘normal’ times.

Lastly, tell me something new you’ve learnt about yourself during isolation.

Hum. I guess learning to not complain so much. It’s easier now to ignore small issues when facing such a big one.

Also, I’m getting better at being patient, not wishing to have what I can’t. Not being selfish, sneaking out of the house, and putting others at risk. Not losing hope when my company, like many others, is going through a hard patch. Not being a lazy ass sitting all day watching Netflix, making sure I come out of this better by reading more, taking courses, starting new projects, picking part-time remote jobs, and appreciating all the good things I already have in my life.

It’s clear to me that this time won’t be wasted. All this effort is for a reason. To save others. All we have to do is stay home, do our part, work if possible and if not, enjoy life and improve ourselves. Seems easy, right?