…And here we are in October.
I don’t get why everyone raves about it to be honest. I guess it’s OK if you like being cold and wet, in the dark.
The whole family has been out of isolation (and the kids have been back at school) for a week or so now, which means I haven’t done an update for ages.
It’s hard, when nothing is particularly funny, to write about things in a way that isn’t eye rollingly dull. In a normal school year there is plenty of blogworthy material – the school runs where it pisses with rain ten minutes before you leave the house, the nits which come home every bastard week, the unending PTA meetings organising the Christmas fair which start in July – but all these things have been rudely overshadowed by COVID.
A second wave of COVID…
Unfortunately the country is now in the throes of a ‘second wave’ of Coronavirus, which has come as a surprise to nobody at all; I don’t know if you remember that month when we were all bribed to go out for dinner and told to get back to work, but I suspect that might have had something to do with.
Apparently the kids going back to school hasn’t had an impact, although having now got two friends who, like me, tested positive while their kids tested negative (despite coughing in my face all night) I am not convinced. However, unlike Dave239752 on Twitter, I do not profess to be an epidemiologist or understand these things in any sort of in depth manner.
Out of isolation
In a ridiculous feat of bad timing, my family came out of isolation the same day that the pubs were told they must shut at 10pm.
I get the idea behind the closures, kind of – although the jury is out on whether the science supports it – but quite frankly I feel it underestimates the average parent.
If you don’t think I am capable of being drunk and over familiar by 10pm then you don’t know me at all, Boris.
Before you think me blasé, firstly IT IS A JOKE (mostly) and, as I see it, I’m as immune to this bastard thing as I’ll ever be and I did quite fancy the idea of going out without feeling fearful of every cough and every slightly-too-close stranger.
It is basically the only perk of having gone through Corona.
(I’ve even offered my blood plasma to the NHS but they’ve not yet taken me up on the offer – I assume they call and you have to go into hospital to donate as opposed to popping it in a bag and post it to them).
Dickheads everywhere
I’ve also returned to the supermarket for the first time since lockdown. I haven’t missed it at all but given a lot of people need online slots now, we don’t know if Doug has had COVID or not, and he now has work to do, it only seems fair.
My takeaway from this experience is primarily: Wow, people are dickheads aren’t they?
If I hadn’t just got over the ‘rona it would make me really tense to see all these old men with their noses hanging out.
My husband won’t go shopping with me any more because I sing ‘put your nose in your mask you’re a dickhead’ to the tune of ‘give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning’ too loudly at men round Tesco.
— Jess Green (@jessgreenpoet) August 25, 2020
We are also back to normal after school activities.
Although normal probably isn’t the word.
Swimming is the same delight of watching my kids getting told off for talking all the way through the lesson, only I get to wear a mask and sit at the poolside quietly sweating into it. It’s a brilliant way to bring out spots, it seems.
Love being back by the side of the pool watching my kids being told off for chatting. pic.twitter.com/pIOXK5jDer
— Fran (again) (@SuperFran) September 28, 2020
Dancing doesn’t have the room for parents to observe, so I have to take myself off and amuse myself for a while, by for instance going to use the loo in the local Wetherspoons.
All of this is shatteringly exhausting.
I was warned about the post-COVID viral fatigue but didn’t pay too much attention, but this week has been a serious struggle.
I am lucky that the symptoms I had at the time were fairly minor; my experience of having Coronavirus was a bit like having a bad head cold. However since then I have been so knackered (more than normal, even) that even little things seem like a huge effort. I took the dog for a walk while the weather was nice and almost didn’t make it back. I’ve had to sack off the Couch to 5k entirely for the time being, which is a bit gutting.
I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had to get up early, commute and work a full day on top of it, I honestly don’t. I definitely don’t feel like I could actually stay in the pub past ten this week, even if I was allowed to.