On Monday, both girls were home, Bunnykins self isolating and Woo on remote learning anyway. I had intended her to stay home as a sensible option, but when I checked my e-mail it turned out that all of year 10 and 11 were asked to stay home for the rest of the week and log on remotely. The incidence of covid in those year groups was so high already, and with the rest of them at home, the school could better accommodate the teachers who were also off and give more space for social distancing for those who were in school.
Woo got on fine with her work. The whole yr 10 timetable was on Microsoft Teams and she was able to just get on with it.
It was a bit of a battle getting Bunnykins set up, and her work was a bit more fragmented, but in the end we got it sorted.
I got on with work, though I was starting to feel a bit rough and had a cough developing.
At lunchtime, the weather was miserable. I still would normally have gone for a walk, but we couldn't. Mark and I put Bunnykins' netball post together, ready for some nicer weather.
We were all on the family chat (well Woo was a little late to the game). Bunnykins was enjoying the gifs, even making one of her own with Frazier...
Bunnykins ran out of beans on her tablet just before the end, so Mark was having a video call with her on WhatApp so she could get the scores for the finale! 😄
On Tuesday morning, I went in to wake Woo, but she wasn't in a good way. She had a temperature and said she was feeling achey. She took a test, as did I. Hers came back positive straight away.
I got ready for work, but 8am I got a call from Test & Trace. It was a bit bonkers, the call went on for ages and there really wasn't much that I didn't tell her in the first 5 minutes, but we went through all the questions anyway.
Then I had a load of stuff I had to organise regarding Woo's positive test - reporting it to the school, and booking her in for a PCR. That along with technical support to Bunnykins' home schooling did make me feel like I was never going to get anything done work wise.
That night we got the confirmation of Bunnykins' positive PCR.
The other thing I needed to do was cancel our holiday to Wales for next week. We were booked in from the Monday, but now with Woo's isolation period that was no longer going to happen.😞
Bunnykins at her desk...
With Woo confirmed as also unwell and me having the symptoms of covid if not the test results, we decided that our self isolation would be communal. We would all be isolating together to the last date, no need for individual confinement.
Woo was feeling better by the Tuesday evening. She had started with a maths tutor doing on-line sessions on a Tuesday evening from the week before. She felt well enough to do that which was encouraging.
Wednesday was the last day of term for the girls. They both got on with their schoolwork. I battled on with my work, the developing pattern being: feeling OK in the morning, feeling entirely drained by the afternoon, then logging off and collapsing on the sofa.
Thursday was my last working day, I had quite a few client calls. With everyone at home, the WiFi is a bit stretched so I spent quite a bit of time plugged in directly to the router. It was a lovely afternoon.
On Friday morning it was so good to have a lie-in. I felt stiff though when I got up and appreciated moving about. I decided to do a bit of pottering in the garden.
All the while I was moving, I felt pretty good. As long as it wasn't too strenuous. So I potted up some cuttings. Planted a few things, potted on some others.
Woo came out to help me and I gave her a few tasks to do, potting on some seedlings.
She then picked the last of the tomatoes
she was enamored with this tiny one 😄
Then she helped me empty out the grow bags into the compost. I was surprised how out of breath that got me given it was slightly more physically demanding. I had a bit of a sit down with a hot water.
It felt like a flomp-on-the-sofa-and-watch-a-video kind of afternoon. The girls let me have plenty of space.
And we went for a classic of a poorly afternoon film... A Room With A View.
Saturday morning Mark made us pancakes to start the day.
We then got on with a bit of work outside. I had ordered some nematodes for the garden to try and deal with the slug issue a bit. They can go down now, but need to get into the soil, so the leaves needed clearing.
Bunnykins came out and had a go at planting some radish. It is a bit late in the season for radish, but I figure that they crop quickly and the temperatures are still very warm so it is worth chancing it.
Bunnykins saw the lawnmower sitting out, so decided to have a go at that. She did a good job, and I was happy to just watch from my bench.
I wanted to sit outside and get some fresh air, but it was hard to be comfortable, even in my lovely pergola. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.
One of the things I had planned (right from when I saw it was possible to order Christmas crackers in the Sainsbury's order) was that we could have Sunday as Christmas day. We knew it was still going to be rubbish, but it was just something silly to make another day go a bit differently.
I had sorted out presents for everyone (including the chocs that Ben had brought along), they were really just little things that I had already picked up for Christmas, but might as well wrap and give out now.
Mark made us pancakes and we had the Christmas Ultra-lounge playlist going. The music itself worked a treat, you can't help but smile with these tunes - one from how silly or jolly they are, but also from how they remind us of all our other happy Christmases.
A bit of a musical interlude...
the guys doing a Christmas conga through the pieces which was a bit cheeky
I was feeling a bit worn out after a few rounds. So unusually it was me who called it a day.
I went for a lie down while Mark cooked lunch for us. We had some Christmas nut roast things, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, peas and veggie sausages.
I had also got some crackers.
Before we started eating, I was given a present, made by Bunnykins with some help from Woo (and with wrapping inspiration from Mark).
It was a lovely pair of green tassel earrings - like Christmas trees. Plus a smaller beaded pair. I popped a pair in and we got stuck into the food.
My earrings...
After we had eaten, we had a play with the toys in the crackers - they were these gyroscopic bug things you could do tricks with. It was all very silly, but made us giggle.
Mark made us Christmas pudding which we ate while watching White Christmas.
We had a few leftovers in the late afternoon, and then joined a family zoom call.
We were all feeling a bit rubbish. Well Woo and I were. Bunnykins and Mark had been fairly perky.
Bunnykins has had a few headaches but very much on and off. She is tired too, but generally hasn't been too bad. Similarly, Woo hasn't been worryingly ill, but I she was really flagging into the evening.
It had been a good day all things considered, a fun thing to do to cheer up what would have been a rubbish day. We are variously suffering with our health in different ways, not enough to be worried about granted, but enough to feel worn out and fed up. We are all aware of how limited we are and how we could have been doing other fun stuff.
For myself, I am aware that it could be so much worse and I am grateful for how lightly it is hitting us. How we have the luxury of space and ability to just order nice things. But I do appreciate how it is harder for the kids to rise above their own disappointment at missing a holiday to Wales and spend that time instead in discomfort doing nothing. Or how for Woo, she would have been doing her Duke of Edinburgh expedition this weekend - but her group was there without her. She has done loads of volunteering and put lots of hours in - as yet it isn't clear if or how she can now complete it. I am sure there is something that can be done, but for her, it is a massive disappointment and something to be understandably grumpy about.
I think that is it, none of this is end of the world stuff, but neither is is fun - it is disappointing, miserable, urgh. It is OK to acknowledge that some weeks are just a bit crap, and even with an impromptu Christmas... this has been a crap week. 😄
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