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It's fair to say one week blends into another these days, but despite this we are all desperate for Friday to roll around so at least we get some respite from the monotony of constant video calls be it work or lessons. We may not be able to go anywhere, or do anything, but at least we aren't glued to a screen from 8-5 at the weekend...
This week we have mainly been hoping that we would see some real progress on the house - not so much on ours, but on the people who are buying from us. Their chain feel though almost immediately after we had accepted their offer, but because they had a lot of interest in their other property we have kept the faith and not panicked. They had 11 viewings last weekend and (we understand) multiple offers, but after a week of procrastination they decided on Friday to go to best and final offers, and gave a deadline of Tuesday evening! what's wrong with Monday?!?! So we are now waiting patiently to hope that it will all be resolved and we will be back on track.
It's clear that while we are keen to get things moving, they have the patience of saints and would quite like to string completion (if not exchange) out for as long as possible. Turns out the thought of consolidating their two properties into one is quite daunting, and they feel that they'll need a long time to do it. My view is that you'll take as long as you have and sometimes you just need to get on with things! I'm hoping that whoever buys from them will put a bit of heat into the system and between us we'll manage to push them towards April or May rather than June or July.
Of course in normal times I'd be very pleased with end of June because it would mean that the kids could stay in school and finish the year in St Gabriel's. The reality though is that home schooling is a pale comparison to the real thing and they are at best maintaining rather than gaining knowledge. Having listened in to some of the girl's lessons I can safely say it's a combination of teachers who are doing their best, along with kids that mostly find it excruciatingly embarrassing to be the one to speak up in a lesson being taught remotely unless asked for a direct response, plus of course the odd one that loves the sound of their own voice and doesn't shut up! The practical lessons are no fun at all - who wants to do the theory of dance or DT when you used to be able to move or get your hands dirty, and don't get me started on science which has no lab based activity and its all on paper. It's not the schools fault but its not surprising that not much is going in. On top of this the kids get no social interaction, and we could still be in this state post the Feb half term!
The other challenge with home schooling is that at least when they were at school I didn't need to spend any spare moment I had between meetings checking everyone is OK. I try and finish my calls a few minutes before the top of the hour which used to give me a chance to get a cup of tea or stretch my legs. Now I finish and race around the house looking for children and checking they are at least paying some attention, before rushing to find Betty and check she's been out for a wee, before rushing back to my desk and hoping someone might remember to bring me a cup of tea occasionally. Its all a bit (lets be honest, a lot) rubbish.
In better news, the vaccine is being rolled out like a steam train and we now have more people who have received their first dose than people who have contracted Covid - that really is something. The logistics of delivering such a mammoth programme are mind blowing and it can't come a moment too soon given hospitals are at maximum overload. I spoke to one of Izzy's friend's Mum yesterday and as she put it - "don't do anything too risky for the next month or so - there's not much scope for trauma care just now the system" - and that from someone who is normally pretty gung ho.
A final positive from lockdown - we sat in our living room yesterday evening, fire going, kids and dogs in a heap on the floor, watching TV and chatting. I remarked to Glenn as we went to bed that I doubt there are many families with teenage kids this far into a year of multiple lockdowns who are still on such good terms. We eat together every evening, Abi and I have started to walk again every night after work (a very much needed break from screens for both of us), Izzy is running again most days and with the odd moment of grumpiness, there is a general sense of family wellbeing which we shouldn't take for granted.
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