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Day 5 - Calm Before the Typhoon

The weather certainly seems to have been on our side since the Lockdown came into force. Saturday was another glorious day.
     Going outside to hang out the washing, I was pleased to see that Cleo was getting some fresh air down at the bottom of the garden.
     "What you up to?"
     "Nothing! Why do you always presume that I'm up to something?"
     "Sorry.  It was just a turn of phrase."
     "I'm walking about, taking some exercise.  The government hasn't banned that yet, have they?"
     "No. Not even your father has banned that yet. Come on - give me a hand with these clothes!" Cleo reluctantly took a handful of pegs from the pot and started hanging socks on the opposite end of the clothes line. "It's tough for you teenagers. I realise that Cleo, I really do. God, when I think back to what I was like at your age, I think that Grandma and Grandpa would have had to tie me down to stop me from going out. Your Auntie Rosie would have been down the drainpipe like a bat out of hell."
     "Yeah. It is pretty shit!"
     "Alright.  There's no need to swear, Cleo. I'm trying to be understanding here."
     "Hypocrite.  Yes it is a rather unfortunate state of affairs mother."
     "Smartarse! You must really miss Callum especially."
     Cleo shot to my end of the clothes line.  "Ssh Mum!  Keep your voice down," she hissed.
     "Sorry babe.  But look - there's no one around.  I was just ….."
     "You're SO embarrassing!" she snapped and stomped off inside.
     What did I say this time???

The day passed pleasantly enough. As I pottered about in the kitchen, not really achieving an awful lot, I considered what I'd usually be doing on a Saturday - running the twins around to their various activities, doing the weekly shop, cleaning the house, visiting my parents.  Often weekends were more hectic than work days, driven by the pressure of having to fit everything to do with actual life into 2 days, before the crazy cycle of work and school started back up again. Without the guilt of homeschooling today, everyone seemed to relax.  Even Cleo was chilled enough by the afternoon to go back into the sunshine and read an actual book!
     By the evening however, it became clear that this was highly unlikely to last. Evidence supporting this conclusion:

  •  John spoke to his self-isolating mother on the phone who told him she was down to half a roll of toilet paper.  Having reliable intelligence (WhatsApp groups) that there had been no toilet paper spotted on any shelves in our area for over a fortnight, we braced ourselves for a dawn raid on Tesco Express, which could possibly involve ambushing the delivery lorry. John was furious of course, saying that she must have been being too frivolous with it as he had made sure that she had a four pack two weeks ago, just before she went into isolation.  I told him that I seriously doubted that were in the position to be able to sort her out with a couple of rolls either, as I was starting to have grave concerns about our own situation in that department😬

  • My friend Karen, contacted me and told me that they are now self-isolating because her husband Dave, had developed symptoms.  I am dreading telling John and will put it off for a day if I can. He will undoubtedly become hysterical as he knows that I bumped into Dave last Friday (literally).  I was walking along the high street when he came lumbering (as he always does) out of the bakery, scoffing a Chelsea bun. John laughed when I told him, as I embellished the story a little, having Dave choking on his bun and me nearly falling into the billboard belonging to the Deli next door.  There's no doubt that when John hears about Dave's symptoms,  this will go from being an amusing little anecdote that we shared over a cup of tea,  to the prelude to some horrific family disaster. This will do nothing to ease any anxiety that I've been working so hard to suppress.
  •  I made the mistake of opening work emails and saw that Olivia had requested another stupid video conference on Monday morning. Just the thought of facing her and Antonio after the previous day's fiasco was enough to turn my bowels to water, but as if this wasn't enough, she also mentioned that the company director, Victoria, might 'sit in'. Ffs!


   

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