Things have settled into a routine now. I am working downstairs in the dining room, along with TW. Occasionally we are joined by TE, but TMO works up in her bedroom. She’s on Facetime with a group of girls as they do their work, so that’s okay. TY doesn’t really have much to do; she’s in Year 6 and would normally be doing SATS now, which means revising what they’ve already learned and practising for the exams, so they don’t really learn much new stuff. She’s got a few bits to do, but not as much as the older two.
In effect, the girls are busy for the morning, but less so in the afternoon. That can be a bit distracting, but I think I’ve got a bit of rhythm going. It’s a shame it’s the weekend; now I’ll have to start again on Monday. At least the weather has been good – we made the right decision (or TW did) when she mowed the lawn last weekend.
It occurs to me occasionally that these really are unprecedented times that we’re living through. I’ve never before been told to stay at home as much as possible, and never before has the government had to pay the workforce in the way they have decided to now. TW & I are both in good positions, as we are employed by larger companies and we can both perform our roles at home. I don’t know how I’d cope if I’d been furloughed, and all I had to keep me busy was watching the news. I’m anxious enough as it is, and I’ve got work stuff to focus on. Not that the news doesn’t get in the way.
Luckily though, Disney+ has launched this week, and so we have agreed as a family that we are going to watch all the Marvel films in chronological order. We started with Captain America on Tuesday night, then Captain Marvel, then Iron Man I & II. We saw Avengers Assemble last weekend, but TE didn’t, so I’m not quite sure how we’ll navigate that, but we’ll find a way…
TW did say the other night that she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather be in lockdown with, which I thought was rather sweet, and I feel the same way about her. Not bad for 16 years of marriage. We make a pretty good team. Probably not as awesome as The Avengers, but up there somewhere.
TTFN.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Monday, March 23, 2020
20-03-23 Monday I - Covid-19 Day #7 - All At Home
Today was the first day of the new regime, with the children at home as well. We all set up in the dining room, and were quite busy for the morning. TW had a conference call at 10am, so she booked the living room and closed the door.
Email traffic for my job was much reduced compared to normal, and my expectation is that it will slow even further. I personally think that things will slowly grind to a halt. The next thing I expect to see is more stringent conditions on leaving the house, and we will virtually -if not actually- be on lockdown. On occasion in the past I have suggested that Nature is self-correcting, and possibly we could be hit with an epidemic that would affect us so quickly that we wouldn’t be able to react to it. When the news programmes first started discussing the novel coronavirus, they advised a vaccine wouldn’t be available for 12 to 18 months, and that fits with a doomsday scenario like the one I’ve outlined. With the fast infection rates and exponential growth in the number of those affected, I don’t think we can wait that long, but if we were to go on virtually total lockdown, we could break the chain of transmission. And then maybe, just maybe, it could die out.
I’ve read a few descriptions of how the severely affected have suffered or could suffer, and I’m more than happy to stay at home. The issue is supplies. We need to get food. I went out twice today; both times to the Post Office to post some comics I’d sold and one of those times I visited the Co-Op. I was able to get humus and butter, but not able to get pasta, tomatoes or ketchup. TW will have to brave the supermarket tomorrow to get a bigger haul of food. Hopefully the shelves may be back to some semblance of normal. I don’t think that most people are stockpiling; as others have pointed out, now that most of us are housebound, we’re eating at home rather than snacking out. In addition, if we are going to have to quarantine, we need food in the house. It seems that we’ve all changed our shopping patterns at the same time, and it’s just screwed the supermarkets; although they might be the only winners out of this whole sorry episode – especially if they get their supply issues resolved.
TTFN.
Email traffic for my job was much reduced compared to normal, and my expectation is that it will slow even further. I personally think that things will slowly grind to a halt. The next thing I expect to see is more stringent conditions on leaving the house, and we will virtually -if not actually- be on lockdown. On occasion in the past I have suggested that Nature is self-correcting, and possibly we could be hit with an epidemic that would affect us so quickly that we wouldn’t be able to react to it. When the news programmes first started discussing the novel coronavirus, they advised a vaccine wouldn’t be available for 12 to 18 months, and that fits with a doomsday scenario like the one I’ve outlined. With the fast infection rates and exponential growth in the number of those affected, I don’t think we can wait that long, but if we were to go on virtually total lockdown, we could break the chain of transmission. And then maybe, just maybe, it could die out.
I’ve read a few descriptions of how the severely affected have suffered or could suffer, and I’m more than happy to stay at home. The issue is supplies. We need to get food. I went out twice today; both times to the Post Office to post some comics I’d sold and one of those times I visited the Co-Op. I was able to get humus and butter, but not able to get pasta, tomatoes or ketchup. TW will have to brave the supermarket tomorrow to get a bigger haul of food. Hopefully the shelves may be back to some semblance of normal. I don’t think that most people are stockpiling; as others have pointed out, now that most of us are housebound, we’re eating at home rather than snacking out. In addition, if we are going to have to quarantine, we need food in the house. It seems that we’ve all changed our shopping patterns at the same time, and it’s just screwed the supermarkets; although they might be the only winners out of this whole sorry episode – especially if they get their supply issues resolved.
TTFN.
 |
| Our home office, previously known as the dining room. |
Sunday, March 22, 2020
20-03-22 Sunday I - Covid-19 Day #6 The Weekend
Another day under lockdown. We’re not under lockdown as such, but that has to be the approach we take. We’ve only left the house when necessary. Having said that, we did go into town first thing because TY needed to pick up her new glasses, and we wanted to buy some hair dye from Superdrug. Now that the girls aren’t going to school for the foreseeable, we thought it would be fun to dye their hair.
The weirdest thing I saw was a queue outside Savers; TY’s appointment at Specsavers was at 10:10, and Savers wasn’t due to open until 11am, but there was already a queue outside Savers. God knows what they were queuing for.
We visited our local butchers yesterday morning; we don’t normally except at Christmas, to get ham and a turkey, but it seems that local shops are the ones which currently have stock. We got sausages and eggs, and then went to another local shop where they had bread and veg. So we had what we needed.
Last night we watched Avengers Assemble together, except TMO fell asleep at the climax. It was a nice evening.
Things are very weird at the moment. I think we’re all waiting for things to get worse; currently the virus is something that is happening to other people and we’ve not been affected by it personally yet – other than working from home and staying away from others, of course. We’ve battened down the hatches, but the storm hasn’t arrived yet. Let’s see how things pan out over the next few days and weeks, and if there are more announcements making life more restrictive.
TTFN.
The weirdest thing I saw was a queue outside Savers; TY’s appointment at Specsavers was at 10:10, and Savers wasn’t due to open until 11am, but there was already a queue outside Savers. God knows what they were queuing for.
We visited our local butchers yesterday morning; we don’t normally except at Christmas, to get ham and a turkey, but it seems that local shops are the ones which currently have stock. We got sausages and eggs, and then went to another local shop where they had bread and veg. So we had what we needed.
Last night we watched Avengers Assemble together, except TMO fell asleep at the climax. It was a nice evening.
Things are very weird at the moment. I think we’re all waiting for things to get worse; currently the virus is something that is happening to other people and we’ve not been affected by it personally yet – other than working from home and staying away from others, of course. We’ve battened down the hatches, but the storm hasn’t arrived yet. Let’s see how things pan out over the next few days and weeks, and if there are more announcements making life more restrictive.
TTFN.
Saturday, March 21, 2020
20-03-21 Saturday - Covid-19 Day #4 Working From Home
So, I’ve made it to the end of the first week of working from home. PM Johnson announced on Monday evening that those who could work from home should, and from that point we were advised that we were on a Working From Home footing. To be honest, it’s a bit strange knowing that I might be working from home for a number of months. I’ve done the odd day here and there, but nothing on this scale. I may come out of this slightly changed.
It’s been a difficult first week, I won’t lie. There have been a number of distractions, and it’s been challenging to adapt to my new working environment, which is a fancy way of saying my laptop is set up on the kitchen table. On Friday afternoon TW worked from home as well, and we have moved the table into the dining room because I expect the wi-fi signal there is better. In addition, from Monday, TE and TMO will be working from home as well, doing their schoolwork at the table alongside us. So actually, it will be like working in an office.
TW and I had a little contretemps on Friday afternoon; not serious enough to be called an argument. Our personal laptop, which she was using for work, has a bit of a loose connection in the power department, so she suggested I should send it back, which I’m not going to do. Then, somehow, she managed to disable the touchpad, so that the onscreen cursor disappeared; it took me about twenty minutes to identify and correct the issue, but at least I know now that Shift+F6 disables the touchpad. Not that I can think of a reason why one would want to do that.
Anyway, TTFN.
It’s been a difficult first week, I won’t lie. There have been a number of distractions, and it’s been challenging to adapt to my new working environment, which is a fancy way of saying my laptop is set up on the kitchen table. On Friday afternoon TW worked from home as well, and we have moved the table into the dining room because I expect the wi-fi signal there is better. In addition, from Monday, TE and TMO will be working from home as well, doing their schoolwork at the table alongside us. So actually, it will be like working in an office.
TW and I had a little contretemps on Friday afternoon; not serious enough to be called an argument. Our personal laptop, which she was using for work, has a bit of a loose connection in the power department, so she suggested I should send it back, which I’m not going to do. Then, somehow, she managed to disable the touchpad, so that the onscreen cursor disappeared; it took me about twenty minutes to identify and correct the issue, but at least I know now that Shift+F6 disables the touchpad. Not that I can think of a reason why one would want to do that.
Anyway, TTFN.
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