By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans.

After reading the following in today’s Guardian, here are some changes I will cop to post-.lockdown, going forward, From going grey to hand washing: 12 lockdown habits we’re going to keep.

I hereby reveal mine.

What are yours?

Handwashing. Like most people, prior to the onset of COVID-19. I occasionally washed my hands. Certainly after using the bathroom. And before and after cooking, too. But I’ve since realised, I didn’t really wash my hands.

Not in a way that did me any good.

Because i thought I knew how to do so, but didn’t.

Here’s how to wash your hands.

Having  lnow earned  how to wash my hands properly. it’s a practice I’ll continue.

Why?

Well, I’m not getting any younger, and coping with colds and ‘flu is  more difficult  as one ages. But that being said, doesnt anyone. regardless of age, wish to  dodge colds and ‘flu?

Hong Kong, which has done an exemplary  job in managing its COVID-19 infections (and deaths) has also seen its  incidence of  ‘flu plummet this year –  no doubt due to people’s use of masks and their frequent handwashing.

I also spend much of my time in places where nasty infectious diseases are common or endemic.

So, I’ll keep washing my hands -now that I know how to do so. Just one way to avoid the creepy crawlies- including COVID-19/

Keeping Track of Protein

Like many Westerners, I don’t usually keep track of the protein I eat. Usually more than enough, given the typical Western diet.

But marooned in the East, I om confining myself largely to a vegetarian diet – cooking myself- with occasional forays to local takeaway options, including fish and other types of meat .o

Subsisting on a largely vegetarian diet means I must pay more attention to my protein intake

And for that matter, other intakes as well. Not sure how this attention to what I eat will survive lockdown conditions.

I really prefer to enjoy rather than fixate on food.

Prior to COVID- 19, Only My Hairdresser Knew For Sure

Like many people of of Eastern Europeans origin, my blondish hair has darkened as I’ve aged., Well past the point one would expect it to go grey,  it hasn’t. Nor has my mother’s,  and we expect her to turn 85 n August.

A couple of years ago I found myself in Bangkok, with hair striped hair like a tiger.

After some weeks or ignoring my predicament. I had to decide whether to go light or dark. As I was in Bangkok. a a city of few blondes, I opted to go dark. I figured the hairdressers would know how to do that.

Which I’ve done for a couple o f years – with some lighter highlights. And a lot fewer chemicals.

Odd, the dark hair. I occasionally didn’t recognize myself in the mirror, until I got accustomed to seeing myself this way.

No longer an issue,

But I can live without the highlights.

And Then There’s the Reading

Ever since I  was a wee kiddie and  learned to read. I’ve been a voracious reader. I  finish at least a book every other day and I have logs to prove it.

But then COVID-19 happened, and I found I could not finish books. Even disposable ones, I still read a lot, but not longform  things,

The end of May rolled around, and I only had three books in my log for 2020.

This worried me.

Since then, I’ve added six more, So I’ m back on my normal track. I seem to have broken the jam.

But what caused it? Other than the obvious anxiety over the collapse of the world I thought I knew, , I have no clue.

I am just happy to be able to read – and finish – books again.