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!