Day 5
Well the sun is still shining here in Kent, looking out the window there is a lovely blue sky - all appears good with the world - except there is no-one out there. Normally the street outside our house is full of cars, parked up to avoid the in-town car park charges, but now, we don't need double yellow lines, as the street is pretty much deserted.
I spent a few minutes earlier watching out the front window, and only saw a man out walking his dog, both getting their bit of daily exercise, and an old dear, with her wheeled shopper, presumably out to get some supplies! I know the over 70's have been told to stay in and self-isolate, but it must be very difficult when you have no-one to help you, no-one to run errands, and probably worse of all no-one to talk to. Solitary confinement is used as a punishment or even torture in some situations, here it is a way of life for some of our most vulnerable citizens.
Today was the first day where we have started to think, wow, 12 weeks, that's a long time. I have a list of jobs to do around the house and outside (in what the government calls our private space - garden). Clearly though there is no point in doing too much too soon, or we are going to struggle to fill time. So today, my task was to clean the bathroom thoroughly. The wife is the expert when it comes to hoovering and dusting and other generic household tasks, but apparently I am shit hot at doing the bathroom - nice to know that I have my uses, and yes we will have a very clean bathroom for the next 3 months!
Our little one had another good bounce on his trampoline this morning and ran out of steam just after he had his lunch and decided to have a couple of hours sleep - we took this opportunity to do something we haven't had time to do, with a little one about.... yes, we played the Nintendo Switch, the shame! Please, no-one call Social Services.
Another foresight of ours was to order some console games, mainly Lego, as that's our thing - not too violent, not too taxing, perfect for the older generation - hopefully this will be another way to spend/waste some of the many days ahead when we probably won't be able to get out in the garden in the sun - being normal...
To finish our day off, my wife got a message on her phone "we're outside now", it was from my daughter. She, her partner and their little one had been for a walk around the block - apart from them there wasn't a soul around, so it was a good exercise time for them. We had a nice chat, out of the window and dropped a mini milk ice cream out of the window for their little one - the whole thing was totally surreal... Welcome to the new world order!
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Had to add a footnote to today's post. As I have alluded to, our little one has autism and doesn't communicate in any meaningful way. My wife and little man have developed a bit of a routine when he goes to bed, he sits on my lap while my wife puts her hands either side of his face and gently holds his head. It's now got to the stage where he actually takes her hands and places them either side of his head, he clearly loves it. However, tonight he leant in to my wife, put his hands on her face and came towards her, reversing the role - this was a first. He then "kissed" her, well sort of, he did have his tongue out at the time, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day... it was a fantastic way to end the day, and a really touching moment!