Lockdown week four

It’s week four of lockdown and the young people are desperate, absolutely desperate, to get back to school. “Is it STILL lockdown?” asks daughter two every single morning before groaning and going back to sleep when informed that indeed it is.

I’ve tried to find a quiet corner to do conference calls in, but have decided that the only way forward is the judicious use of the mute button or putting up with the dulcet tones of Annoying Orange in the background. And boy is Annoying Orange annoying. I’ve enlarged the number of hand gestures I can use to signify ‘I’m on the phone’.

My partner – who is on leave – has exhausted every telenovela on Netflix and manages to get logged in well before the teen brigade get up circa some time in the afternoon and complain they can’t access Netflix.

Occasionally people agree, after much persuasion, to do something together, such as playing a board game, but only if I play, which I can’t if I’m working. I consider a board game success, though. It feels nurturing, even if it is the cut-throat competition of Monopoly.

I got daughter three a jigsaw puzzle on eBay. I thought it would be fun and potentially educational. It’s of a Van Gogh painting. It came from China so took a while. The problem is the pieces are absolutely minute. Even more fun, I said. Daughter three looked unconvinced, but I think that by week five she may succumb.

The thing is they have food and a garden, which many don’t, and they are healthy. When you watch the news or hear about friends and colleagues who have lost relatives, have been ill or still have the virus you realise how lucky you are, at least for now. I’m not sure, though, that watching the news is helping the kids. I’m trying to focus on the fact that this will eventually be over.

But we all know that there is no going back to before. Grief is all around and, even though everything seems in suspension, for those who have lost loved ones, there is no way to turn the clock back.

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