Week four. Let’s do this!
Since my last post, I think for a lot of us, the reality of the situation has really started to set in. This was never going to be a two week affair. Spring is in full swing, and during this phase we’ve already had two celebrations pass us by; Mother’s Day and Easter (plus anyone unlucky enough to have a Birthday). I’ve got a nice little family unit to keep me occupied, and although, at times I’d love a bit of me-time, instead of the constant barage of “Mum?… Mum?………………..Mum?” I am really happy to have people to share this weird-ass time.
I didn’t leave the house for two weeks. Not even for exercise. PE with Joe is still going strong, 9AM pronto each weekday. And I’ve been back on the grind, nailing the treadmill as often as I can, getting back into the swing of maintaining a running routine - what a time to start you say? Well, I had to miss Run Norwich last year, so signed on as a personal aim in my C-section recovery, and even though it’s been pushed back til October, it’s feeling good just to get the miles in.
Ivy hit her 3 month milestone recently, and until her first set of immunisations - she was sleeping like a trooper. That all went out the window with her first lot of jabs, and none of us are getting much sleep. Prior to lockdown, I’d spend most of my days walking the city, seeing people (Oh the days of photo-walks and coffee!) All reminiscing aside, this meant that Ivy would sleep for a few hours a time ‘on-the-move’ - BUT NOT ANYMORE. She’ll do a good half hour at home (if you’re lucky) and it started becoming a bit of an issue. It’s meant I’ve spent a lot of these quarantined days being screamed at - until the daily exercise came calling. Leaving the house with the kids for the first time were tough first steps. I know a lot of routes around the city from road-running, so looked at a map and tried to conjure up a lap or so in a mostly HUMAN-FREE-ZONE. I didn’t want to venture too cross-country because I wanted to take Ivy in her pram (she’ll be too big for it once all this is over, so I need to make the most of it).
The first day we ventured East, walking just over a 5K lap of mousehold without venturing into the woods where a lot of people seemed to have headed. This was great because it feels like youre walking a lot further, and the winding road back into the neighbourhood is always a treat. Next we headed north, as far as Catton and back, we didn’t see too many people at all, and the good thing is, strangers have already become accustomed to this new way of life where space is a vertue. I can’t express how meaningful these walks became; an outlet, a form of escapism, even though they are streets I’ve traveled many times before. And as long as we stayed safe, I felt they were doing us the world of good. During our third and final walk before the Easter weekend, we followed the river as far as we could without bumping into other walkers. The weather is beautiful, and I remember wishing for this kind of heat and light for months…
So '“F YOU VIRUS” I’m going to enjoy this one…
The sun is shining, and if we weren’t housebound for the best part, this is one of my favourite parts of the year, and 2020 was meant to be no different. I had many plans of outdoorsy activities, I wanted to cram a lot in before a new work schedule set back in. I had a number of jobs booked in, all on the back burner at the minute, either cancelled or postponed for the time being. It’s not all bad though, on the plus side, a huge positive to this episode is being able to spend more time as a newly restored mum, and having Sonny home aswell. And although it’s tough at times, all being cooped up inside, it’s reminded me that this is a rare, if not special time, we should all be cherishing, if we have health on our side - if it weren’t for the world closing in on us from outside anyway… Researching the essentials in this time has been my approach, I won’t let myself become victim to the media’s coverage of the events. Learning of the best ways to look after ourselves and STAY SAFE / STAY HOME is the best I can do with a newborn and a minor, while Brandon still works.
Easter weekend is usually a time for family and friends, and as the sombre tone hits, and we facetime relatives, the severity to the loneliness hits home. The milestones we might be missing out on begin to appear. Society sits in a whirlpool, and I can do nothing but watch it unfurl. I feel fairly useless at times, many of my family members are key workers, and I’m the one stuck, stationary during all this. Even if I weren’t on maternity leave, my job is in lockdown-limbo, no productions are currently underway, apart from livebroadcast, so many of my colleagues are in furlough, or worse. Key workers are being pushed to their absolute limits, far succumbed of most of their job roles, and I can’t see how it’s fair? I’ve heard horror-stories of the way shop workers are being treated, it’s like people are sitting back with the cards they’ve been dealt and a new heirarchy has become the temporary norm. Well, we’re all in this together, and I feel disheartened at my fellow brothers and sisters on the frontline without the complacency of society, stockpiling themselves into oblivion.
And I’m not pidgeonholing society here, I’ve felt deeply rooted in my local neighbourhood since this began, staying in touch with other mums, being voyeur to the communal spaces of our terrace and taking hope, one rainbow at a time. Last week, we used technology once again, to boost our interaction with the streets outside, Sonny facetimed his friend, and giving him some space to chat, I could hear the yearning for friendship in the kids’ voices. It hit me, in that moment, the pressures not only placed on keyworkers, but our own children, and how their worlds have been affected just as much as ours, without even the hint of a warning. Covid-19 completely blows the excitement of a snow day out of the water! It’s important to shield your kids from the horrors in the world, but in all seriousness, the effects of the looming virus are really starting to creep into to the daily lives of these kids. Solitude is now part of their everyday, no matter how short term it may be, so stretching the rules of quarantine by utilising communication is a great way to alter their levels of wellbeing.
We moved to Norwich almost eight years ago now, hesitant in making the leap from London, but I’ve never looked back. Even in these tough times, NR3 is a great place to be, the NHS clapping echoes through the streets on a weekly basis. Without much sociaI interaction, these times can seem somewhat bleak, but I try to see the beauty in the everyday, and you don’t have to look far before you see the messages of others all around you, voices of those you may never meet. If you walk behind the back of Anglia Square, at the graffiti carpark (you can see it from the road) a giant STAY POSITIVE message-in-art jumps off the walls, courtesy of a recently discovered artist called Knapple. Sonn and I stopped for some portraits, it really drew a line under these 3 weeks gone by.
I muster the energy to bring some joy into the Easter weekend, fully aware of the external issues, but doing our best to help, by doing nothing. I bought some cheap easter eggs during my weekly shopping trip, and the egg hunt on Sunday was a quick fix, as we worked against the heat of the sun! Melted choc or none, we had a good time. And reflecting on the weeks gone by, I’ve realised the importance of boredom, of the downtime we’ve found ourselves in. Colouring, gardening… and cleaning! It’s all added to the experience of extending the home, to a schooling environment and back again, and nothing rings clearer than ‘the three marker challenge’ and a colouring book screaming GOOD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN.
