Lockdown - week 2

20 degrees but we can still have a fire!

So we come to the end of week 2 of lockdown and its fair to say there have been ups and downs. on the one hand, we've all been hugely grateful for the fact that we are hardly slumming it - with an enormous garden and plenty of open spaces around us that are sparsely used, we have been able to walk Bertie and get out for exercise safe in the knowledge that we will be able to maintain a good 2m+ of distance between us and anyone else we might meet. I've been taking Bertie for a long walk at 6:15am every weekday morning and if we are (un)lucky we might meet 1 or 2 other walkers who have ventured out at that time. Given we walk in pretty big open spaces even then it will usually be someone in the distance. Glenn has been doing his normal long bike rides (no change there of course) and again, we see relatively few people given where we live - lucky us.

Unfortunately it seems there are a fair few idiots who have not yet sussed that the only exit plan we have is to demonstrate we can behave ourselves with social distancing until we get to a point of either herd immunity or a vaccine, given neither are immediately around the corner we are keeping fingers and toes crossed that in the meantime we don't have to go to the more draconian measures France, Spain and Italy have gone to where you aren't even allowed out to exercise - that would be the end of us I think. Glenn's tolerance levels are minimal as it is (the novelty of having his family in 'his' house all day every day wore thin on about day 2!), I can only think with horror what they would be like if he couldn't get out on his bike.

The upside other than where we live is that the girls have clearly worked out that for the next weeks / months / who knows, they have each other as company and for fun, and they are getting on brilliantly. We have had minimal complaints about the fact they aren't allowed out and can't see friends, and they have found all kinds of things to do, only some of which involve sitting in front of a screen. This afternoon they came for a dog walk with me for an hour - I walked and they took their Segways (which have had an enormous amount of use). It's not exactly exercise as I might like but at least they got out for an hour and got plenty of air. As I write this is getting dark and yet they are still outside playing together - shouting and laughing loudly but I think that's excusable given the circumstances.

Izzy is finding it harder than Abi - being the more extrovert of the two she misses the varied people

Hairy Monster!

interactions she's used to - as she's said more than once - "Home schooling is not for me". We have discovered that she clearly has a number of words she would like to get out over the course of any one day and given there are fewer people to talk to, we are the recipients of the verbal onslaught which gets more frantic and hyper as we go through the day. By the evening she is on overdrive and it's quite draining. Another reason to encourage them to go outside and burn it off.

Abi on the other hand is having to "social distance herself from the fridge!" I agree - not used to be immobile at home so much I find myself snacking far more than normal, and ion far less healthy snacks. At work I have nut bars and the like that I eat if peckish. At home I find myself eating a penguin or one of the may cakes or biscuits the girls have made to while away the hours. Abi makes a mean carrot cake it turns out and Izzy is queen of the cookies - all to nice to ignore! Thank goodness I'm getting more exercise, even if it feels like I'm not because I spend far more of my day sitting at my desk than normal.

I guess the reality is we are all out of our comfort zone. The Queen has given only her 5th non-Christmas speech of her reign, BoJo has been hospitalised with coronavirus, there's talk of the lockdown going even further and we don't yet seem to have an exit strategy - arghhhh - no wonder we are all hitting the chocolate!!!

Practising seated Segway skills