lockdown

13th April 2020

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Easter Monday felt like the laziest day since lockdown for me, although D took on the challenge of tidying F’s room (with, sad to say, no help from F who just gets incredibly grumpy if it is suggested she should do the smallest bit of tidying her room).

We all got up late and didn’t do a huge amount in the morning. F curled up on the sofa listening to Cabin Pressure then played computer games, and I think B worked on the computer game he is writing some more. I read and mixed up some bread. We’ve got an excess of wholemeal bread flour so I thought I should try to use some up and decided to get a bit experimental. I had a wholemeal bread dough recipe from Richard Bertinet and a couple of recipes for bread made with honey, and so I decided to try baking a wholemeal loaf with some chestnut honey which I got from a stall on Warwick Market a little while back. The honey is quite dark and has a strong flavour (when I first tasted I said to the stall owner that it “tasted of old wardrobes – in a nice way”). I decided to go for a no-knead approach to the bread and just mixed, then stretched & folded a few times over the next hour, before leaving it to rise for another hour, then another stretch & fold before putting it in a proving basket for another hour before I baked it. Sadly that meant it wasn’t ready for lunch, which the kids had outside despite it being much cooler today.

The bread looks and tastes great. The honey flavour comes through enough to taste but not too strong. The texture a bit too soft for my liking – but I suspect the kids and D prefer the softer crust.

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Chestnut honey wholemeal bread

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In the afternoon F watched High School Musical 2, while I did some work (I’m a little behind where I need to be with some projects) and D worked on a blanket she’s been knitting. It was only when I got a reminder pop up on my computer that we remembered the kids had Maths/English sessions online today – and that we’d already missed an online art class for them earlier in the afternoon (in addition to missing Bs online piano lesson on Thursday).

It’s slightly odd that classes are carrying on despite the bank holiday – I guess we are all finding our perception of days and time is being affected by the lockdown and since no one can go away on holiday why not carry on with lessons and appointments.

I roasted a chicken with potatoes for me and the kids while D had eggs for tea, and we finished off Fs birthday cake.

We had an issue with F at bedtime and she got very upset, but I can’t bring myself to relive it right now – just 9yo drama but upsetting for us all and it makes us worry about her.

On a more upbeat note, D finished the blanket this evening after weeks (months?) of work!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-76iP6nJIY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Stay safe, stay strong.

12th April 2020: Chocolate, cross-stitch and The Magnetic Fields

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I slept in a bit this morning, and didn’t get up until around 9:30. As she so often does, D brought me a very welcome cup of tea just as I was waking up.

Today was Easter Sunday, which for us means Easter eggs rather than anything else. Unfortunately I’d left some of the eggs (including a fancy tear-drop shaped one for D) in the car boot thinking they’d be safe there and easier than hiding them in the house – but the hot weather meant that some of them had taken on a distinctly non-ovoid shape. As well as chocolate, D had put together a bag of treats for the kids including books (natch) and some cross-stitch kits.

D hid some small eggs around the house for the kids to find, and F had written a set of clues that B and I had to follow to find more eggs + clues which eventually led us to some birds for us to colour in.

D gave me a box of small chocolate eggs from Tony’s Chocolonely (are current favourite chocolate) which are yummy although I may take issue with the label that describes them as “great big chocolate eggs”

After the chocolate was out of the way, F wanted to work on her website a bit more and setup and wrote a page linking to Bs, Ds and my websites. Later in the day she started doing a music looping project.

It was obviously a “be creative on computers” day as B spent quite a bit of time building a 3D model of a human figure in Blender with the aim of using it in a computer game he wants to build using Unity.

F also got creative with the garden Jenga set that C dropped round a few days ago.

Meanwhile I tackled the last of the hedge and I think I’ve now done everything I can do without going round into the neighbours’ garden – which for obvious reasons will have to wait.

I made some ribs in sticky sauce for tea (some passata, soy sauce, ketchup and brown sugar all mixed together, poured over the ribs, and then cooked on 140-160℃ for 2-3 hours), while D made chips. After tea and some TV the kids video called with their US cousins, then stories before bed.

Overall a quiet day without any drama and one in which a tweet reminded me of how much I love 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields.

Stay safe, stay strong.

11th April 2020: a 9th Birthday in lockdown

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  • Feeling: Pleased that F enjoyed her birthday
  • Listening to: Apple music “Chill” mix
  • Watching: Spiderman: Far from home

I’d been worrying about Fs birthday and it being a special day for her despite the circumstances. Happily she seemed to have a great day, and even though at the end of the day she was a bit tired and grumpy, I think that was just normal over-tiredness after an exciting day – to be expected on any 9yo birthday.

She was really pleased with her presents – from sweets, colouring books and pens to spray paints to a computer of her very own (an Acer Chromebook 11).

F had specifically requested to wake at 7am and got me to set her alarm – I think she was worried about missing out on some fun if she slept any later. I made sour cream waffles for breakfast and after coffee F made us do a read through of another of her presents – a script from Cabin Pressure – a radio comedy written by John Finnemore. Since there are four main characters (and this particular episode, Limerick, only features the four leads) we were able to take one part each and read through the whole episode.

F played a computer game B had written for her specially for her birthday (the actual present B had ordered for her didn’t arrive in time but I think will provide some extra excitement when it does reach us).

Then the kids played outside a bit while I started to mix some dough for some pita bread so we could have it for lunch.

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Pita bread

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Inevitably the kids fell out after a little while, and F came storming in – but luckily we’d saved another birthday treat for her – a special birthday message from Tweedy the clown.

Tweedy is a stalwart of the Cheltenham Pantomime in the winter and Giffords Circus in the summer (although sadly not this year), and is a firm favourite with all the family (my Dad in particular would be reduced to hysterics watching him). I’d seen him offer on Instagram to do birthday messages, and emailed him, and got a video back – and F loved it. She must have watched it 4 or 5 times back-to-back immediately, reduced to fits of giggles each time.

After lunch in the garden we spent the afternoon out of the sun, with F starting to setup her first website from her Chromebook, and doing some drawing and colouring using her other presents.

F had requested spaghetti bolognese and a Victoria sandwich for her birtday tea. Luckily we’d been able to get everything except the spaghetti – and somehow I’d got the last packet of linguine in the supermarket – so she pretty much got what she wanted.

I got a bit (lot?) grumpy while I was baking the cake as our hand mixer broke while I was trying to cream the butter & sugar, and I made a bit of a mess as I tried to beat the mixture by hand. I think I was a bit tired by that point, as I fell asleep later in the afternoon. Anyway – the cake turned out great and B helped me do the butter cream & jam filling.

In the afternoon we had a Zoom call with most of Fs close family – aunts, uncles, cousins and her grandma – we all got to sing happy birthday and she blew out the candles (a feat she then repeated later during the weekly quiz we are doing on Zoom).

Overall a very successful day. Happy Birthday F. Stay safe, stay strong, keep smiling.

10th April 2020

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Good Friday! It was good to have a day off today (although I keep thinking it was Saturday). We all slept in, and had a slow start to the day. After breakfast the kids watched some TV and I sat out in the garden reading a book (can’t quite believe it was warm enough to site out in shorts this morning).

I looked at the work left to do in the garden but somehow managed to resist actually doing any of it, and instead read and enjoyed the sunshine. Although I still feel less than 100% (bit hoarse, but no temperature again) I found enough energy to carry on building a den with the kids, this afternoon.

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Building a den from hedge cuttings

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D did some printing, although she wasn’t entirely happy (she is too critical!) and I worked with B on getting his book review site finished.

The kids found the milkman had unexpectedly been (we weren’t expecting a delivery on Good Friday, so we hadn’t checked), so we are hoping being out on the step all day hasn’t ruined it.

Later we managed to play some music as well, which D kindly filmed, with F looking effortlessly cool as the drummer, and B doing his best Vince Clarke impression.

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Inside a Fantasy Land rehearsal #isolationcreation

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This evening D and I have been getting things ready for Fs birthday tomorrow. F is so excited and I hope the day lives up to her expectations as it isn’t, of course, the birthday she wanted.

Stay safe, stay strong.

9th April 2020

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Bit of an odd day. I’d meant to get up early again, but could not manage to wake up when my alarm went off and ended up getting up closer to 8am than 6 as I’d intended. I woke with a headache and a complete lack of energy.

I went to the supermarket in the morning, and despite a long queue outside the shelves inside were better stocked, and with more choice, than the last time I went just over a week ago. Sainsbury’s had definitely tightened their protocols to ensure people kept a good distance apart but although it was still an odd experience it wasn’t as stressful as when I went last time. I even managed to get some linguine which I hope will make a suitable substitute for spaghetti in Freya’s requested birthday meal of spaghetti bolognese on Saturday.

When I got back from the supermarket, despite a restorative hot cross bun, I still felt completely shattered. I took my temperature just in case but it was normal, and then slept on the sofa for an hour before lunch. That definitely helped me recover a bit and I managed to work through the afternoon, but I wasn’t really my usual self.

C from choir dropped round some games and gifts this afternoon which was so nice & thoughtful – can’t wait to try the fig jam and D & the kids have already been having fun doing some “querkles” and playing giant Jenga.

Querkles

While I was working my mum had messaged D about a poem about libraries written by Ian Macmillan (who went to Wath Grammar school at the time Mum taught there). This inspired the kids to write their own poems about libraries – and record themselves reading them to share with Mum.

D cooked cauliflower cheese & sausages for tea (my favourite comfort meal) and after tea B and D watched “The Great British Menu” while F showed me a computer game she’s been playing called “Tower of destiny” and even let me play a little 🙂

I was playing around with some more looping this evening, but not at all happy with the results – I think I might need to look at a different song. In the meantime D was working on carving a woodblock for printing and being a lot more successful than me.

The day has ended with some TV and chocolate, slouched on the sofa with D. I’m still not really feeling myself, and slightly stressed about work that I’ve not done, but also happy it’s now the long Easter weekend.

Stay safe, stay strong.

8th April 2020

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  • Feeling: Glad to (virtually) see friends
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Nothing today

I slept better last night, and slept a bit later this morning. D was already up so I came down and joined her and we had a bit of quiet time before the kids came down. I mainly bombarded her with a load of work issues that had been running round my head since yesterday and I needed to get out to work through them and reduce my stress – it really helped me (D is pretty used to me doing this and puts up with it very patiently).

Also managed to bake some sourdough that I’d started the day before and had been in the fridge overnight.

I had no meetings scheduled this morning so after yesterday I decided I should take the morning off and spend some time with the kids. I did do a bit of work before the kids got up, but then stepped away until I had to be on a call at 1pm.

I tried (and failed) to help B get his 3D printer working as it stopped working a while back and we never got to the bottom of why. We didn’t make any progress today, so emailed the company that makes it to see if they could help (but not response yet).

We spent a bit of time in the garden, trying to clear a bit of garden that is a bit of a weed & gravel wasteland right now. I didn’t make a huge amount of progress but it was good to make a start.

Later in the day the kids and I started to try to use some of the branches I’ve removed from an out-of-control hedge to make a bivouac style den – we managed to get the basic frame up, but it was quite hot out in the sun and the kids decided they needed a sit down inside before we got any further.

It was good to spend some time with the kids and B and I worked on his book review website although we didn’t manage to finish what he wanted to do.

The day ended with a really nice virtual choir session – I was more relaxed and less stressed out (probably because I’d had the morning off) than I’ve been the last couple of weeks and enjoyed it a lot more because of that. For the virtual choir we’ve hit a pattern of having a main session lead by the musical director which streams on Youtube where we warm-up, sing (to ourselves but with a track played over the live stream) and look at performances and specific pieces in detail. This session (around 1hr) is sandwiched between two social Zoom sessions where people can see each other and chat (about 30 minutes before, and for however long people want after the Youtube session). This seems to work really well – at least it works well for me – I hope others get enjoyment out of it as well.

Going to try to make more time for the kids during the day tomorrow again and then it’s into the long Easter weekend.

Stay safe, stay strong.

7th April 2020

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  • Feeling: Tired and a little grumpy
  • Listening to: Hamilton soundtrack
  • Watching: Kim’s Convenience

I didn’t sleep well, and after struggling to get to sleep last night I woke at 5am. I dozed a bit after that, but got up a 7am, which was about when D and B both woke as well.

Tuesday is usually a good day – I don’t usually have too many work calls, and it tends to be relaxed. But today I’ve been tired and grumpy and work was a slog. I also had some bad news from a friend and felt pretty down about not being able to do anything to help, especially in the current situation.

Originally I was meant to have this week off, but because of being stuck at home I decided I may as well work – I’m regretting that a bit now. I might try to carve some time out next week instead.

I did have some nice breaks in the day, and we were all able to go for a walk in the sunshine at lunch, and I played with the kids in the garden in the afternoon which was great fun.

This evening I decided to try to record the other looping song I’d been working on a while back. It’s a bit scrappy in places, and there are some bits in there that I’d rather re-record, but this is it as I recorded it, and it’s late so I’m going to post it rather than leave it for another day.

Stay safe, stay strong.

April 6th 2020

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  • Feeling: OK
  • Listening to: Something inside so strong – the tenor line!
  • Watching: Nothing today

Last night I was was pondering on where we were in the Covid-19/Coronavirus crisis, and realising we were probably not even half way through a realistic ‘best case’ lock down period – that’s pretty sobering to be honest.

I’ve been trying to keep this blog about how the current situation is affecting us as a family, and to record something of daily life at the moment but it doesn’t seem right to pass without mention that this evening that the Prime Minister was moved into intensive care as a result of Covid-19. While the PM is just one more person affected by this virus (and so many have already died as a result of it), it seems inevitable that his condition will have an impact on how people, in the UK at least, regard the situation we are currently in and how we react as a society to it.

Back to more personal stuff …

I set an early alarm (6am) in order to get up and do some work before the start of the day proper. I didn’t exactly leap out of bed but I was at my desk by 7:10 and even managed to spot our milk man doing a delivery for the first time.

The Easter Holiday starts for the kids today, which means the schools haven’t set any work. I’ve been dreading it a little – originally I was due to take this week off, but there doesn’t seem a huge amount of point at the moment. D has decided to work half days for 2 weeks instead of taking one full week off as originally planned.

B already had lots of plans for his holidays (mostly about some computing projects he wants to work on) but F not so much – but she seems glad to not be worrying about school work at all. Despite the holidays the kids had Art class today and an hour of Maths & English tutoring each.

Once D was finished working for the day she took the kids out into the garden, and they started work on digging a space for us to bury an old baby bath to start a pond. Over lunch I helped with this and we got the bath into the ground.

I’m hoping we can build up an area around it and have a little water fall – but for now we’ve sunk the bath and ordered some plants to go in it.

The rest of the day was mainly work for me. I cooked sticky ribs for tea which F loved and B thought were my best attempt at them so far (meaning he was just about willing to eat it) – which I was pleased with considering the recipe was basically:

  • Some left over passata
  • A slug of soy sauce
  • Roughly 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
  • A good squeeze of ketchup

Everything mixed up and thrown over the ribs, which were then cooked at 160℃ for an hour or so.

For the “virtual choir” project my choir is doing we are a bit short of tenor voices, so I offered to try to record the tenor (although I usually sing bass in the choir, I can sing in the tenor range especially for this piece which doesn’t go particularly high) – so I’d been listening to the guide track all day to learn the tenor line and recorded it this evening after the kids were in bed.

Doing the recording at home makes me feel I want to do a few more looping based songs which I started doing after my singing teacher introduced me to looping last year. Here’s one of my old ones, but I have another one I was working on a few months ago which I’d like to resurrect – if I manage it I’ll post the results here.

Stay safe, stay strong.

April 5th 2020

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  • Feeling: Tired out
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Batwoman

Had a proper lie in this morning for the first time in weeks. I didn’t wake until after 10am! The kids both slept in as well so D had a couple of hours to herself in the morning.

After we got up, F claimed I’d said I’d make pancakes for breakfast, and although I didn’t remember saying that it seemed like a good idea, so I went ahead and made them.

Then F really surprised us by suggesting we all went for a walk – lockdown must be really getting to her. She wanted to ride her bike, so we walked towards Warwick as far as the ponds on the edge of St Nicholas park and back again. D took some nice pictures of flowers while we were out.

It was a lovely day and really nice to stretch our legs. Unfortunately F had a bit of a meltdown when we said she couldn’t watch TV when we got back. It was quite a tantrum, but eventually passed and then we had lunch.

After lunch I went out into the garden to work on the leylandii hedge again and made some good progress, but by the time I was done I was absolutely exhausted.

B spent the afternoon doing a tutorial on building computer games using a game engine called Unity, and F asked if he would write her a computer game for her birthday – very sweet.

D spoke to her sister & family by zoom, and then a couple of old Uni friends and their kids (with B and F as well) – I joined in a bit, but started to make tea at the same time.

After tea (potato dauphinoise as a treat) the kids watched some TV then I read to them (Wings by Terry Pratchett is our current bedtime story) and said goodnight.

I made some bolognese to go in the freezer, and then collapsed on the sofa with a glass of red. D and I watched TV for a bit, but by 9:45 I was already falling asleep – so thought I’d write this and call it a night.

Stay safe, stay strong.

April 4th 2020

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I was rudely awakened by the postman knocking the door this morning – it brought me out of a lie in (8 o’clock!) with a start. A package for the kids from their grandma (my Mum) with some lovely keepsakes to remember their grandpa who died in January this year.

I managed to drag myself out of bed but after breakfast, coffee and some jam making I collapsed again and went back to sleep on the sofa. As a result I didn’t get half the things done today I wanted to. I did manage to get our old baby bath out from the loft which I’m hoping we can turn into a wildlife pond. I also started to tackle the Leylandii hedge issue (they are several feet too tall) but after two hours I felt I hadn’t made much progress (although I think I now have a method which should make the remaining work slightly easier (which is good as I have three or four times as much to do as I’ve already done).

The kids found out about Google Arts and Culture and other virtual tours online, and spent some time in the morning browsing round various museums and the Taj Mahal. Predictably, if slightly disappointingly, the virtual tour of the the Legoland Hotel seemed to spark more interest than the Taj Mahal 😀

Having not really got going in the morning the afternoon seemed to race away from me, but I did manage to record my part for a virtual choir project I’m taking part in.

We’d all been looking forward to the Saturday evening quiz run by C from choir, and since this week was a David Bowie theme fancy dress F, D and B had been working at making Bowie masks and Bowie themed cupcakes with blue/red icing and lightning bolts.

We thought the quiz was harder this week and were then amazed when our lucky guesses all came good making us winners for the week – to much excitement from the kids (and the adults).

The day was rounded out with the second part of the Gilmore & Roberts online gig including a request we’d made and a namecheck for B & F which they loved. Then D and I watched “Have I got News for You” – as with “The Mash Report” which we watched yesterday – it was very strange to see these topical news comedies/satires having to film in people’s houses and especially in the former the lack of an audience to react to jokes and comments really showed and made the result a bit strange to watch (for me anyway). We then watched the final episode in Sky Arts “Portrait Artist of the Year” (where the winner is commissioned to do a portrait of a famous figure – in this case Nile Rodgers) which was weird in the other way of being a reflection of a time where people would just meet and get together and do stuff! It’s strange how quickly we’ve started to see this kind of scene slightly jarring. Antiques Roadshow was another programme where we were watching and it felt strange to have all these people just crowding around each other!

Last achievement of the day – I finally managed to finish baking the focaccia I’d originally intended to have ready for lunch today – so that will be a nice treat for tomorrow.

Sitting with D this evening I realised that we really haven’t had much proper time together for weeks. During the day we’re both working and trying to accommodate the kids, in the evening we’re both tired. I think the best “quality time” we’ve had in the last three weeks is when we were both up early one morning and the kids were still asleep (or at least still in bed). Something to try and fix next week I think (love you D xxx).

Stay safe, stay strong.