Lockdown

We are in week three of the lockdown and I fear that quite a few weeks more are looming.However, I can’t complain, yet. I have decided to see this time as ‘calm down’instead of ‘lockdown’. I can’t remember a time in my life when I took time slowly. I must have done as a child, but as my mother was manic, I think I adopted this constant state of frenzy at quite an early age. I remember that,as atoddler, if I didn’t run to keep up with my Mum I got lost.

Jonah introduced a timetable for our time at home together. I have gone along with this without complaint or digression. We take it turns to walk the dog in a morning, then he writes and I sewuntil lunch time at 1pm (tea and toast at 10.30am). We have an hour for lunch then,in the afternoon,we do jobs that have been avoided for around two years. We have tea break at 3pm and stop at 5pm. At week three, I think we have accomplished allthe horrible jobs, but Jonah won’t stop painting. Heis moving things to paint behind them, disturbing my spider web collection. However, I refuse to feel guilty;this is my time to calm down. I have taken to filling my afternoons with creative things, like building a cat ramp (see photo). This has been life changing.Matilda now climbs up the ramp through the bedroom window, instead of waking me up to be let in at 5.30am. She occasionally stops by to bite Jonah’s leg, but he can live with that.

I have also constructed a paved area from any old bricks and tiles that I could find. It is a little undulating, but not to worry. There is a photo of this, but Mathew apparently laughed when he saw it, so I am not going to make it public.

I have also started to be adventurous in cooking, getting out all the books I haven’t used to date. I now relish what I would usually damn as “prat about cookery”.Tonight,we will be having homemade veggie burgers with onion marmalade and harissa mayonnaise.

My manner has become so mild, I am nearly as laid back as Jonah. I think he is testing me. Thismorning he stated:“Martin Lewis says that you should run the water into a bucket while waiting for it to get hot, rather than letting it go down the drain”. To this, instead of the expected response, where I might suggest alternative ways in which Martin Lewis amuse himself, I trotted offto the shed for a bucket. 

I do really miss seeing people, but I am very thankful thatwe are well and I am not having to amuse children. I know that must be a challenge. And I can’t begin to imagine the suffering that many are going through in dealing with the current situation.

I have to finish now, it’s nearly 5pm and I can’t wait for the daily briefing to find out how much longer I need to remain calm.