Coronavirus continuations
16th April 2020
The last few weeks have been filled with plenty of ups and lots and lots of downs. Nimbin Street Nursery turned into the Nimbin St Nightmare, with both Huon and I unable to navigate the change of roles throughout the day, and he increasingly rebelled against engaging with school work. I was left feeling frustrated and unable to effectively deal with the other responsibilities on my plate, like the other two children and housework. Things deteriorated to the point where were decided to take the alternative strategy of placing him in the bedroom with Leighton to sit and do his at a little table.
Thankfully Easter arrived and not a moment too soon, and has given us the opportunity to have a little break from banging heads hopefully it will give us a little reset. Huon is not missing his studies and it is nice being able to do things all together again. We've been playing lots of games (My First Carcasson, Squatter, Queendomino), doing the odd puzzles, walking to the Narrabundah wetlands, riding bikes, and lots and lots and lots of car play and the ensuing fighting.
Easter was good, I took a bit of a back seat with the kids as I needed a bit of a spell. We did some egg dyeing, had a great easter egg hunt, ate hot cross buns, the boys went riding to stromlo and played games. We missed not going to Mallacoota and seeing family, but everyone the world over is in the same boat, so I guess there is no point complaining!
Coronavirus seems to have been slowed here in Australia, and the sense of threat and heightened vigilance seems to be reducing, for society as well as for myself. When I go out now, I don't have the overwhelming feeling of risk that I once did, which feels like a load has been removed. ACT has not reported a new case in a few days, so it appears that the virus is not spreading quickly through the community and the chances are low of catching anything for now at least. It is nice being able to walk the streets and feel confidant, and not panic when the baker takes my bankcard when it fails to tap, and not worry as much when someone runs past a little too close, or feel concern when sitting down in public and wondering if someone else had sat there not long before. All that said, things might change, but for now there is a sigh of relief and the talking heads are starting to talk about the way out of the current situation.
We really have been quarantining quite hard here at No.8. Leighton is working at home in the front room, no school/preschool, the kids do not leave the house other to go for walk/rides in the outdoors, which is more or less the same for us, with our only outings being going out for grocery shopping which I have cut down to roughly once a week, supplemented with trips to the local shops for top ups of milk/bread etc. There have been the odd hiccup, namely when we run into people we know with the kids, though that is fairly rare given we can count the people we know in Canberra on one hand. The children do understand that we are supposed to keep our distance, but when they see a friend they rush up, like when we ran into a school friend Lucia at the wetlands. That said, the adults do remind them to not touch and the harm is minimal. Another mistep was when I took Jethro and Beatrix on the ebike to a takewaway coffee hut on the lake for a muffin hunt. I thought it'd be ok to grab a takeaway muffin, but it was a very sunny day and the paths were jammed with people and there were small crowds of people stopping for a coffee. It seems that other people are a little more relaxed about this situation than we are!
In reality, our lives have not changed greatly in some ways. Here in Canberra we do not have a social circle, or raging social lives, and the only way things are different is that boys don't have school/preschool, and Leighton doesn't have a commute. I guess I can't break up the day with a trip to the shops, or a visit to a playground, but it really, compared to other people's lives ours are not dramatically different. It is a bit of a pressure cooker with Huon and school, but hopefully we will get on top of that since term 2 is online!
Leighton had a hard week last week as he was asked to take a voluntary 20% pay cut for three months, which does affect us as we are single income with three dependents, paying a lot of rent and have bills that don't go away. He did decide to agree to the cut, but then regretted it, though if he hadn't he would have regretted that too. To top it off our fridge stopped working the other day, and we were looking at a $280 fix, but luckily Leighton did some digging around and discovered the thing was choked with ice, so a bit of defrosting and the thing is up and running and not spoiling our food any longer. Anyway, we felt a bit of relief at not having to fork out that additional money!
The pandemic in the US is proving it may be as horrendous as was forecast, and the UK is not doing well either. I've been keeping an eye on Canada, and cases really took off a week or two ago in the east but seem to be levelling off again. BC has been holding its own with cases slowly rising, but all things considered, doing fairly well. As unhappy as I am in Canberra, I guess I'm glad we are in Australia, as to be on the other side of the world from family at this time with no way back would be very hard. Silver linings and all...
Photos: dyed eggs, egg blowing; easter egg hunt; outings to lake and pinnacle nature reserve
The last few weeks have been filled with plenty of ups and lots and lots of downs. Nimbin Street Nursery turned into the Nimbin St Nightmare, with both Huon and I unable to navigate the change of roles throughout the day, and he increasingly rebelled against engaging with school work. I was left feeling frustrated and unable to effectively deal with the other responsibilities on my plate, like the other two children and housework. Things deteriorated to the point where were decided to take the alternative strategy of placing him in the bedroom with Leighton to sit and do his at a little table.
Thankfully Easter arrived and not a moment too soon, and has given us the opportunity to have a little break from banging heads hopefully it will give us a little reset. Huon is not missing his studies and it is nice being able to do things all together again. We've been playing lots of games (My First Carcasson, Squatter, Queendomino), doing the odd puzzles, walking to the Narrabundah wetlands, riding bikes, and lots and lots and lots of car play and the ensuing fighting.
Easter was good, I took a bit of a back seat with the kids as I needed a bit of a spell. We did some egg dyeing, had a great easter egg hunt, ate hot cross buns, the boys went riding to stromlo and played games. We missed not going to Mallacoota and seeing family, but everyone the world over is in the same boat, so I guess there is no point complaining!
Coronavirus seems to have been slowed here in Australia, and the sense of threat and heightened vigilance seems to be reducing, for society as well as for myself. When I go out now, I don't have the overwhelming feeling of risk that I once did, which feels like a load has been removed. ACT has not reported a new case in a few days, so it appears that the virus is not spreading quickly through the community and the chances are low of catching anything for now at least. It is nice being able to walk the streets and feel confidant, and not panic when the baker takes my bankcard when it fails to tap, and not worry as much when someone runs past a little too close, or feel concern when sitting down in public and wondering if someone else had sat there not long before. All that said, things might change, but for now there is a sigh of relief and the talking heads are starting to talk about the way out of the current situation.
We really have been quarantining quite hard here at No.8. Leighton is working at home in the front room, no school/preschool, the kids do not leave the house other to go for walk/rides in the outdoors, which is more or less the same for us, with our only outings being going out for grocery shopping which I have cut down to roughly once a week, supplemented with trips to the local shops for top ups of milk/bread etc. There have been the odd hiccup, namely when we run into people we know with the kids, though that is fairly rare given we can count the people we know in Canberra on one hand. The children do understand that we are supposed to keep our distance, but when they see a friend they rush up, like when we ran into a school friend Lucia at the wetlands. That said, the adults do remind them to not touch and the harm is minimal. Another mistep was when I took Jethro and Beatrix on the ebike to a takewaway coffee hut on the lake for a muffin hunt. I thought it'd be ok to grab a takeaway muffin, but it was a very sunny day and the paths were jammed with people and there were small crowds of people stopping for a coffee. It seems that other people are a little more relaxed about this situation than we are!
In reality, our lives have not changed greatly in some ways. Here in Canberra we do not have a social circle, or raging social lives, and the only way things are different is that boys don't have school/preschool, and Leighton doesn't have a commute. I guess I can't break up the day with a trip to the shops, or a visit to a playground, but it really, compared to other people's lives ours are not dramatically different. It is a bit of a pressure cooker with Huon and school, but hopefully we will get on top of that since term 2 is online!
Leighton had a hard week last week as he was asked to take a voluntary 20% pay cut for three months, which does affect us as we are single income with three dependents, paying a lot of rent and have bills that don't go away. He did decide to agree to the cut, but then regretted it, though if he hadn't he would have regretted that too. To top it off our fridge stopped working the other day, and we were looking at a $280 fix, but luckily Leighton did some digging around and discovered the thing was choked with ice, so a bit of defrosting and the thing is up and running and not spoiling our food any longer. Anyway, we felt a bit of relief at not having to fork out that additional money!
The pandemic in the US is proving it may be as horrendous as was forecast, and the UK is not doing well either. I've been keeping an eye on Canada, and cases really took off a week or two ago in the east but seem to be levelling off again. BC has been holding its own with cases slowly rising, but all things considered, doing fairly well. As unhappy as I am in Canberra, I guess I'm glad we are in Australia, as to be on the other side of the world from family at this time with no way back would be very hard. Silver linings and all...
Photos: dyed eggs, egg blowing; easter egg hunt; outings to lake and pinnacle nature reserve
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