Skip to main content

Lockdown - month 3

Bertie hoping to be allowed to move into Abi's shed
As we pass the mark of 2 months in lockdown it has become all very normal - in fact as I walked Bertie yesterday I was resentful of the cars whizzing past me when it's been so peaceful for so long. We have now moved from 'Stay at Home' to 'Stay Alert' (England anyway, the wee Krankie up North refuses to do anything remotely aligned to the rest of the UK on principal). Apparently the majority of the country finds the new message very confusing - " what does it mean?" they ask themselves. This is what the media would have us believe anyway, because what else is there to do in lockdown but shit stir and create confusion when there is no need. We have definitely now  moved past the point of being in this together and gone back to the normal blame game. So much for solidarity.

Friday also marked the end of the first half of term, although half term has never felt so much like school, or more accurately, school has never felt so much like half term. The kids managed to make it
Izzy working out how far she can get from 
the house and still do her lessons
to the end with at least some pretense that they are still applying themselves to their school work - it's hard to tell unless you sit with them throughout the day and I have neither the time nor the patience for it. I try and listen into some of their lessons but in reality I have no idea whether it's an acceptable alternative. I hope at least some of it is going in because their school years aren't going to be back in the classroom before September and listening to the fuss the teaching unions are kicking up, even then it looks like it's going to be patchy.

I read an interesting piece today written by a doctor who said that the virus will be with us for some time and there is no getting away from the fact that we will therefore have to learn to live with it and (m ore importantly) determine what level of risk we individually want and can take and use this as a basis then for how much we can and can't do. Common sense! He also went on to say that the most important precautions we can take are completely within our grasp - stay a reasonable distance away from most people, wash your hands regularly and don't touch your face. do this and you reduce the risks considerably. Given this we can get back to some semblance of normality, even if that isn't the normal we enjoyed a few weeks ago. We have to do something - its all very well saying we should all stay at home for ever more - but the stark reality is that this is neither sustainable financially or socially.

In amongst all the nonsense I had a moment of madness this week (while on a dull conference call) and bought a hot tub for the garden. I'm not sure what made me do it but I've been thinking about I for a while and the thought of possible limited trips this summer along with lots of time spent at home I just thought "why not?" The kids are excited, Glenn less so, but he did enjoy the fact that it meant it gave us the chance to have new bit of patio put in - you can never have too much patio it seems. As Dad pointed out - the space would make a lovely spot for a pond, and I'm tempted to put a little table and chairs there while we are waiting for the hot tub to be delivered - endless possibilities!


Hot tub to follow!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...

All about Izzy

This weekend has mainly been about Izzy, mostly because Abi has been off riding again and so we've hardly seen her. This has its pros and cons - on the one hand Izzy gets lots of attention and the choice of what to do. On the other she misses Abi and when big sister arrives home we have the inevitable few hours of resettling which seems to involve tears as a matter of course. I did have a moment of despair this evening when I looked across to the table just before Sunday dinner - normally a happy time - to see both of them, heads on arms, holding back tears. Luckily a bit of food and a game of 20 questions to share what everybody had enjoyed about their weekend and we kind of managed to get back on track by dessert. When asked what she wanted to do, Izzy immediately shouted "Jo Jo" so my task was to sort out a visit with Jo, the boys and Ellie. No matter how much time passes they still love to see each other and the first task is always the same. Edward and Izzy have t...