Month: June 2020

A belated post for the past fortnight, I feel that I’ve been busy but when I pause to try and explain why and what I was doing, I’m not sure what made it busy? Its been another fortnight of work, home school and family life. More is beginning to slowly open up and it was wonderful to have a Chinese takeaway for the first time in lockdown. The school work is lessening, so there is more time for little adventures during the week, my favourite open space reopened this fortnight, so we went there for a walk, play and to chill.

I’ve watched …

The Salisbury Poisonings.

This was a three episode series about the poisoning of a Russian and his daughter in the town of Salisbury. Its original broadcast was delayed from the start of lockdown and I could see why as it explained the impact of the poison and how it could spread quickly and kill, not too dissimilar from Covid 19. However it was a really interesting drama with strong characters and great acting.

Big Brother 2000

It is the 20th anniversary of Big Brother and Channel 4 have been showing highlights of the past series. I loved Big Brother in the early series and watching the original 2000 highlights brought back many happy memories of the summer of 2000. The final was the night before my friend’s wedding and we stayed in, watching Craig win and getting all excited about the wedding and life.

I’ve listened

On my Spotify, sometimes listening to one song can take you on a journey of rediscovery and this week I have been enjoying Del Amitri and Crowded House, good music for these times.

I read

I finished The Hate U Give and as a fiction book it has made me really think and be disappointed in our society. How can we still be accepting prejudice and racism? I also read Broken Places, Outer Spaces by Nnedi Okorafor. The author had a serious back injury due to an operation in her late teens which stopped her potential sporting career and led to her losing interest in her science studies. however from this adversity, she developed a passion for writing which led to her exploring her culture and becoming a celebrated sci fi writer. There is no bitterness in the tale and its an inspiring read. I also have started Zadie Smith’s Swing Time. There is a theme to my reading at present, I am trying to read novels written by black writers. I’m not sure how I can personally address the Black lives Matter movement but when in doubt, books are always a good place to start.

I made

The weather took a bit of a turn on some days and it was winter warmers for tea. I made a beautiful told in the hole, adding fresh fennel from the garden to enhance it. I love being able to pop out to our vegetale beds and pick some lettuce for salads, strawberries for pudding etc.. Our autumn harvest is looking very promising.

I visited

To quote my group of the fortnight, Crowded House, it feels like we’ve had four seasons in one day recently. We’ve had a mini heatwave (and ridiculous numbers of day trippers who seem to think that social distancing doesn’t count at the seaside) cold, rainy days and everything in between. I have been making the most of our local environment, we’ve had trips to the beach, the forest and a lake. I’ve been wild swimming and realised how much I’ve missed swimming, the feeling of being immersed in water.

I helped

Little Miss will have been off school for 6 months by the time she returns in September and this has been the perfect opportunity for her to try new looks. She has been dying her hair and this fortnight we went deep purple, my poor bathroom took a lot of the colour. It was a little dark and gothic, the bright pink has been my favourite so far.

Have a happy week.

We have now been in lockdown for 78 days and we are very slowly beginning to be allowed to meet others outside from our household, in the open air with social distancing. Shops will start to reopen from next Monday and primary schools are opening for limited year groups. There’s no news on pubs, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theatres and the one I’m desperate for hairdressers. We have no idea when we will be able to visit people in their houses and stay a night away from our homes. When things reopen all is going to look very different. This has got me thinking about the last normal, when we didn’t realise what was coming. I look back on a couple of weekends with fondness now, at the time, they were just normal.

At the beginning of February, Little Miss was in her school’s production. It was a new time of the school year to do the show, but had been designed not to distract Year 11s from exams. The timing meant that of all the school productions due to be done this academic year, it was one of the few which happened. This was the last time I saw my parents who came down to watch the show on Thursday evening, before they flew to Thailand for a 3 week holiday. It seems so strange now that despite news about a virus that they still travelled and then returned home with no health checks. On the Friday, I went to do some collaborative work with a sister school with my colleague, meeting up with our peers, it was a really useful day and promises made for further visits and joint work, which are all are currently on hold. On the Saturday, my father in law came to stay for the weekend so he too could see Little Miss in the show, my sister and brother in law also decided to do this on an impromptu visit. My over riding memory is of us all in the fish and chip café in between performances, a big, loud table full of family, pots of tea and steaming plates of chips, it really is the simple moments which are the most precious. After the final performance, Little Miss and I stayed for a drink and dance in the theatre bar. The bar was packed, noisy and hot, reminiscent of Saturday nights out in my 20s and just brilliant. It felt a grown up moment with my daughter, chatting, high on excitement as we walked home on possibly that latest she had ever been out. This weekend filled with family has got me through those low moments in lockdown and the promise that we will get back to normal.

The final normal weekend was March 7th and 8th, it was a weekend when we knew something might be changing, but at the time it was all about hand washing. I did my parkrun, it was the penultimate parkrun and talk was about the possibility of postponing upcoming marathons, we hoped parkrun would be safe with perhaps a few alterations. After parkrun, I picked up Little Miss from her drama session at the local youth club and we headed to ‘big town’ for some shopping and lunch. Its these things I miss so much now, popping into a coffee shop for lunch. I remember treating Little Miss to a ruby pink hot chocolate which made her happy. I don’t always spoil the children, but I’m so pleased I did it on this day, no point waiting for treats which can’t happen now, carpe diem! We had to buy a birthday present for my nephew, we got summer swim shorts and matching flip flops for his upcoming holiday to Florida, I never imagined it would not happen and the virus would cause Disney Land to close. Fortunately as I was in the summer section I picked up a few shorts and t-shirts for my son as they had his size, these were very useful purchases and has taught me to pick up the things I will need when I see them, you never know what will happen to change your plans. Lockdown has given us the sunniest, hottest and driest spring on record and these clothes have been worn lots.

On the Sunday, we were still limited in our walks because of the storms and we walked through the botanical gardens of a neighbouring town, finishing up with a pub lunch. Whilst this sounds idyllic it was cold, windy and showery on the walk and the pub was packed as people tried to avoid the rain. I do remember having hand sanitizer in my bag and making everyone use it before the food, given the packed pub I’m not sure if the virus had been in the air that we could have avoided it given the lack or knowledge of social distancing. I’m not sure what we did after we came home, but I presume it was watching the football on Sky, ironing the school and work shirts and getting ready for the coming week. The ordinary which has now become the extraordinary.

Our normal will return, but for my wellbeing, I am working on this being a long term project. If it happens quickly, I will be delighted and relieved. I’m looking forward to the normal things on a weekend, a parkrun, a trip to the coffee shop, popping into shops, listening to the football results at 4.45pm on a Saturday afternoon, Sunday pub lunches and having school and work shirts to iron again. I will be so grateful for normal.