• Feeling: Better
• Listening to: Lost in the Woods (Frozen II)
• Watching: All Creatures Great and Small

Today was much better than yesterday as I felt human again. Awake early enough to say goodbye to B before he left for school (around 7:30), and then up to take F to school (8:30).

Worked hard today (had several things to catch up with after being off yesterday) and although I barely had time to think about it, I did start to feel a bit alone in the afternoon – still getting used to the house being empty during the day.

At 3pm picked up F, then had a call before we went off to Fs piano & drum lesson and my singing lesson (I’m learning “Lost in the Woods” from Frozen II – a loving parody of soft rock / 80s power ballads – which my singing teacher is delighted about as he’s not been able to persuade anyone else to try it!).

Then home for tea, F had her 11+ tutoring after, B had a bit of homework (although that’s still not kicked in properly yet) and now everyone’s in bed – think we’ve all had tiring days!

In the actual news, the covid situation in the UK seems to be going downhill again pretty quickly. Eight and a half thousand positive tests have been recorded in England in the last three days (a massive leap from previously), there are delays in testing, and this evening more restrictive measures have been announced for England – with gatherings of more than 6 people banned (previously it was up to 30 people, although there were various conditions around when that was meant to occur and how many households could be present) – this will come in from Monday (although why let the larger numbers run over the weekend I don’t know – seems like asking for people to get together before stricter limits are applied).

Because we’ve got family there, we’ve also been very aware of the local lockdown affecting Bolton (which has got even stricter today with restaurants/cafés now take away only, and no visits to other households allowed). Its all a bit depressing and slightly worrying, although locally in Warwick cases continue to be very low so not too worried about our immediate situation.

Stay safe, stay strong x

• Feeling: Sick
• Listening to: Nothing today
• Watching: Ultimate Beastmaster

After a lovely day on Sunday, and overall feeling like it had been a pretty good weekend, on Sunday night I had a stomach upset that woke me and kept me awake for several hours. Even though I got some sleep, when D tried to wake me in the morning I just felt awful – so D sorted out the kids and made sure they got to school while I sent my apologies for my meetings and went back to sleep.

Happily whatever caused the stomach upset it didn’t last long and by the time I woke and got up (around midday) I was feeling better, if still a bit out of it. I spent the rest of the day resting and re-hydrating and went to bed early.

Today (6th) I spoke to a work colleague who said her partner had a similar brief gastric issue accompanied by a raised temperature (which I didn’t have as far as I know) and ended up having a test for COVID-19 (although it turned out negative). I don’t think I’ll send for a test (and it’s not clear I could get one right now even if I wanted to) – as I didn’t have the raised temperature, and looking at gastric symptoms that can accompany COVID-19 they don’t match what I had.

Second time in only a few days I’m having to catchup with a blog post a day late. Wondering if the universe trying to tell me to think about posting less often 🙂

Stay safe, stay strong.

• Feeling: Thrown off balance
• Listening to: Can’t remember
• Watching: No idea

Yesterday (Friday) I didn’t write a post – I think just the second time I’ve missed a day since March 22nd. Yesterday was a slightly odd day altogether, and rather stressful and tiring at the end – hence not managing to write a post. So here is Friday’s post, a day late…

Friday morning I got up in time to walk B to the bus stop (just) and bumped into a friend who’s son goes to the same school – we chatted for about 30 minutes (having not seen him face-to-face for almost 6 months) before I had to head back home to take F to school while D went off to work.

That left me at home all by myself for the whole day (at least until 3pm when I had to go pick up F), which felt quite odd and was very quiet. I had work to occupy me and again after a six month gap, it was basically the first “normal” work day I’ve had. Because I work at home by myself, unlike the kids going to school or D going into work – as soon as I’m by myself at home its “back to normal” – I haven’t got any adjustments to make, or new rules to get used to, or one-way systems to observe, or other people to worry about – I’m just sitting back at my computer getting on with stuff.

After I’d fetched F, she did some Minecraft while I had another call 4pm-5pm during which time D and B both got home. This was the point at which the day got stressful – D’s Dad was flying home from India yesterday, and was meant to get to Manchester airport (flying out of Mumbai and transferring in Frankfurt) at around 10am yesterday morning. At 4pm we found out from D’s brother that he’d not arrived. D’s brother had spent most of the day at Manchester airport trying to find out what had happened with no luck. We immediately rang the airline, but got the same answer as D’s brother – they couldn’t tell us whether their Dad had got the flights because of data protection. We also range the airport but they were unable to tell us anything (in this case because they didn’t have any information rather than having information they wouldn’t tell us).

Since the obvious sources of information either couldn’t, or wouldn’t tell us what they knew, we decided the only option was to phone the police – using the “101” non-emergency number. It took at least half an hour to get our call answered (no queuing system or information – just rang and rang and then went dead – and you had to start again – not great), but once we were through they took it seriously and started to take details. At this point D’s eldest sister rang – she’d spoken to someone (at the airline I think) and they’d confirmed that their Dad had missed the connection and was waiting in Frankfurt for the next flight to Manchester – which would get in at 11pm (over 12 hours later than the planned flight). D’s sister is obviously a lot more persuasive than me when it comes to getting people to share information!

What a relief – and around 11:30pm we got confirmation he’d landed and D’s brother had picked him up. At this point D went to bed, but I was pretty wound up by this point and needed to watch TV for a while before I calmed down and was able to go to bed – by which point I was too tired to write anything – hence this is a day late.

Stay safe, stay strong

• Feeling: Good
• Listening to: Lost in the Woods (Frozen II soundtrack)
• Watching: Miracle Workers

Both B and F back at school today – so for the first time in months we had to be up and going through the school routine. It felt very strange, especially to be sending B off to school again since (unlike F) he hasn’t been at all since March.

D woke B up and he was ready in reasonable time – although having to turn back during the walk to the bus stop when he remembered he hadn’t brought his timetable meant we almost missed the bus. Luckily the bus driver was the same one from last year who B knows well and gets on well with – so she stopped just on the road next to us to let him on saving us a dash to the bus stop.

D dropped F at school and I did the pick up later in the day. Despite the staggered drop-off and pick-up times (so just two classes at a time) it was pretty busy – which feels uncomfortable although I’m not convinced this really matters given the kids spend the day together.

Both kids came home seeming very happy and pretty excited after having a whole day out of the house – which was good to see – especially for B who seemed quite apprehensive going in this morning. B had chosen to wear his mask most of the day but said most people didn’t (except teachers in classrooms where 2m distancing was impossible). Overall it seems like the schools are trying to do the right thing, but ultimately I’m not sure the conditions (lots of children in a small space) are in any way conducive to meaningful distancing or “bubbles”.

For D and I at home it all seemed very quiet, and with D going back to work on site from tomorrow I’m going to be home alone again – which will be very strange after 6 months of constant company.

Stay safe, stay strong.

• Feeling: Good
• Listening to: Lost in the Woods (Frozen II soundtrack)
• Watching: QI

Despite good intentions to get up earlier this morning as a pre-back to school test run, everyone except B failed at this. B was up and about at 6:45, while the rest of us didn’t manage to get moving until gone 8.

Not a terribly exciting day overall – work for me and D, while B was working on his 3D model of a panther and F was amusing herself reasonably well. F watched the Lego movie 2 in the afternoon and that inspired her to get out the lego and play for a bit, and she started to try to film some stop-motion animation with it. Unfortunately she struggled a bit, so B agreed to help, and then they fell out … so not sure much got filmed in the end.

My main “excitement” for the day was replacing the battery in B’s iPhone. We bought B a refurbished iPhone 5S when he started secondary school, and overall it’s worked pretty well – but the battery has always been a bit crap. In the last couple of weeks it’s completely given up the ghost and so I decided to order a “battery replacement kit” from a company called iFixIt who specialise in making it possible to repair devices that are really not designed to make this easy. The kit was about £30 including shipping – so it seemed worth a go, and if I bodged it then we weren’t really in a worse position.

The biggest challenge was getting the old battery out as it’s held in by glue strips which really didn’t want to let go – eventually I managed to get it out and the rest of the process was relatively straightforward if fiddly and slightly nerve-wracking. The result seems to be a working iPhone – hopefully it stays that way 🙂

Stay safe, stay strong.

• Feeling: OK
• Listening to: Apple “Easy Listening” hits
• Watching: MacGyver

D was the only person in the house who managed to get out of bed at a reasonable time this morning – which doesn’t bode well for Thursday when B will have to be at the bus stop by about 7:40, and F will need to be at school for 8:30 (F’s school is staggering start times and she is in one of the early slots)

I woke at a reasonable time but could not get myself moving and despite setting several alarms only managed to actually get up at 9am. Breakfast outside then on to a work call at 10am.

The rest of the day was work for me and D. B was working on a 3D model of a panther-like “spirit animal” based on concept art by his cousin (also B). Meanwhile F has belatedly realised that the tree at the front of the house is perfect for climbing and hiding in (and she got me to chop some branches off to improve it further).

In the afternoon F did a repeat watch of the new Disney film “Magic Camp” which we watched as a family yesterday.

At the end of the day F and I had our first face-to-face music lessons since March – all at Totally Rad Music in Leamington. F has had some drumming lessons on Zoom but she hadn’t had a piano lesson since March – and she had both today. I had my first singing lesson since lockdown started – with a big perspex barrier between me and my singing teacher. F and I were the first students in the afternoon/evening slot and it was very quiet overall – which was nice. The studio has been adapted as well as possible for the conditions I think and hopefully we’ll continue to feel comfortable there (because it is all one-to-one it feels pretty safe overall).

After the singing lesson then had a meeting with the rest of the choir committee about plans for between now and Xmas. Unfortunately it isn’t as easy to get the choir back together as to do individual lessons like I had today – but we have a clear plan to keep singing even if we can’t do proper rehearsals and performances – which is, of course, what we all want.

Need to get some sleep now as tomorrow we (me, F and B) need to practice getting up a little bit earlier so it isn’t so much of a shock on Thursday when we have to do it for real!

Stay safe, stay strong.