insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Outbreak #COVID2019
The Prime Minister now has coronavirus, as does the health secretary, and the chief medical officer is isolating after experiencing symptoms. They’re dropping like flies. It begs the question of whether they’ve all been following their own advice of social distancing and washing hands. Boris Johnson videoed the announcement about testing positive and shared it…
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What the kids have done in their first week of quarantine
Day 4 of quarantine and Elizabeth said to me today, “Quarantine is going pretty well”. She may feel differently after several months of this. For me, it has been rather nice not having the school drop-offs and pickups along with Highland Dance and everything else. I feel like I’ve adopted a slower pace and am…
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Lockdown updates
I’ve got aches and pains all over and am hobbling around like a wounded animal. No, it’s not coronavirus. It’s because I’ve been doing Joe’s PE lesson at 9am with the kids each day. He live-streams a 30-minute workout for all the kids stuck at home and I decided to join in with Daniel and…
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Eating during a pandemic
On Sunday, for Mother’s Day, I felt like a fry-up and since all the restaurants and cafés were closed we made something at home. We had mushrooms, baked beans, toast, vegan sausages, spinach, my home-made sauerkraut, and vegan black pudding. The black pudding is made by The Bury Black Pudding Company and contains black beans.…
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Lockdown with exercise #COVID2019
We are now in lockdown. I had hoped it wouldn’t get to this but it seems people have not been obeying the 2m distance rule and so the government yesterday banned anyone from leaving their homes unless it’s to go to work, get essential supplies (food or medicine) or go out for exercise. It is…
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Tips on how to be productive when working from home
There’s a lot of information online about the software you can use to work from home like video conferencing tools and chatbots, calendar and scheduling tools, workspaces and document collaboration. However, what is often missed is the non-technical element that’s probably more important than having the right tools: self-discipline. This is the ability to motivate…
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Resources for kids at home #COVID2019
It’s the first day of homeschooling and the kids have been following the timetable they created yesterday. It’s likely this will change as we figure things out but it’s working well so far. The schools have also provided work for them to do but Elizabeth hasn’t been given much yet as I think the teachers…
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A bumblebee, extraordinary changes for the UK, and thoughts on mother’s day for the most abused of all mothers
I got stung by a bumblebee yesterday for the first time in my life. Since all our usual Saturday activities were cancelled I took the opportunity to do some gardening and as I put on my gardening gloves I felt a sharp prick. Thinking it was a spider (I’m terrified of spiders and yes I…
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Physical distancing for 12 months #COVID2019
The behavioural and social interventions implemented by the government over the past couple of weeks will be in place for 12 months, according to this article from the government website – Consensus view on social and behavioural and social interventions. But there may be periods during this time when some restrictions will be partially relaxed…
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Phantom symptoms
Am I the only one who has been feeling my forehead, palpating the glands in my neck, and imaging various other phantom symptoms, wondering whether I’ve caught the virus? Probably if you’re not sure whether you have a fever you don’t have a fever. Nevertheless, I decided to take my temperature just to make sure,…
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Cycling to the rescue
It’s the last day of school today for goodness knows how long but it’s not all bad. There are some benefits to this virus. For instance, there’s noticeably less traffic on the roads, especially around the school gate. I think many parents have already withdrawn their kids from school. The air smelt cleaner and fresher…
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Science press briefing #COVID2019
There was a good press briefing today with Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance in which they explain the reasons for the decisions the UK has made since the start of this outbreak. It starts at around 5 minutes. Chris Whitty explains the strategy, “The idea that we’re going to put this virus back to…
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19th March 2020 update #COVID2019
Schools will be closing on Friday this week for the foreseeable future. It’s unlikely they will open again before the summer holidays which means they’ll be shut until August and potentially longer than that. Much depends on what happens in China when they lift their restrictions. Children of key workers and vulnerable children will still…
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University staff now working from home #COVID2019
Ben is working from home starting today. After the Christchurch earthquakes, he was unable to access his office at the university for several months. This time he has had advanced warning and so yesterday he didn’t leave the office until after midnight because he was packing everything he needs to work from home. The earthquakes…
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More restrictions for the UK #COVID2019
Yesterday more restrictions came into effect for people in the UK. We are now being told to self-isolate for 14 days if anyone in our household is showing symptoms. This means if one of us gets sick we all have to stay home. That seems reasonable to me. The government also advised people not to…
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Panic buying and the UK response to coronavirus
I don’t understand the panic buying. Do people not realise you can order groceries online and have them delivered? Anyone facing quarantine can still order groceries and have them delivered to their home. There’s no need to buy stuff to last the duration of the quarantine. Also, you can’t buy several weeks’ worth of fresh…
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There is nothing to fear but fear itself
We’ve noticed several similarities between our experience of the Christchurch earthquakes and the Covid-19 pandemic. After the big earthquake schools and universities were closed, hospitals and emergency services were overwhelmed, businesses went bankrupt, people lost jobs, shops were closed, supplies ran low including toilet paper, and people died. At that time, Ben remembers having to…
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How to work from home
I’ve been working successfully from home for six years and I thought I’d share some tips since more and more people are having to isolate themselves during this pandemic. I love working from home because it gives me complete control of my environment. I can set the temperature, lighting, and background noise to my preferences.…
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Coronavirus: let’s look at the positives
With panic engulfing the globe I thought it would be good to focus on some of the positives of this new pandemic. One is that the Chinese wet markets have been banned. Although this is only temporary for now their very existence has come into focus and discussion. Wild animal markets like this force animals…
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Let the battle begin
We had a nice afternoon at the allotment today planting some tatties and spreading lovely soil from the compost heap over the garden beds. There’s something very satisfying about getting your hands stuck into a heap of compost and spreading it around. The kids were initially very bored and complaining until Ben suggested they plant…
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