Coronavirus Diaries Week 16 day 452.

Just kidding its day 106.

The days are really starting to bleed together now. Today recorded the lowest number of deaths since lockdown which is awesome news.I’m in this strange twilight zone at the moment. Torn between desire to see normality resume and trepidation at what might be around the corner. For lots of the nation normality is resuming. People are back at work and shops are open. But we still have this virus hanging about and there’s the constant worry of a 2nd wave. Plus those of us shielded are still essentially in lockdown.

I have an appointment with my surgeon this week so will have a chat with her about it all. This hidden enemy.

An invisible enemy. Either easy to ignore or scary like a ghost you can’t see but know could make you jump if it catches you.

Still no bread flour available in the shops !! The magic ingredient yeast is as rare as a Unicorn. Literally none to be found anywhere. Who on earth is buying all the yeast that makes its way to the stores & omg why 16 weeks in haven’t they figured a way to resolve this supply issue. 1st World problems I guess. A nation locked indoors have become a nation of home bakers all comfort eating. Time to learn to make soda bread. You make your own yeast for Soda Bread right?

Typical British summer has finally arrived. In 3 days we have had force gail winds that almost blew the trampoline over and bright sunny blue skies with intermittent cats & dogs from the heavens.

My daughter homeschooling helped us learn about idioms last week so her language is now peppered with expressions that don’t mean what they say like its raining cats and dogs meaning raining hard.

Knew we were winning at this homeschooling thing. The teenager has reverted to a Vampiric existence and is seen almost as rarely as yeast. Usually surfacing only to be fed.

We played family Bingo on Friday night which was great fun. The teenager even attended. He secretly loves family game time. Not sure the kids were super impressed with Bingo. Have no idea why.

There were some lovely positives this week. I received some personal post / parcels from real people. As opposed to parcels I have ordered that is – self confessed Amazon addict. There really is something special about getting real post, real letters that someone has sat and taken the time to write. Since technology enabled immediate communication we seem to have forgotten the art and joy of real letters.

A good friend sent me a personalised hug cushion which I just love. I do not usually get things with my name on as it’s not a common name. I received two letters on lovely cards. It was so nice to actually hold a real letter to me. I mean really really nice. I hugged both letters for ages. It somehow made me feel a tiny bit closer to both these friends. I think I read both letters at least twice. Real letters make people smile. I started writing letters to people at the start of lockdown. I had secretly hoped some would write back.

We had a lego building day. A haunted house that comes with an app that makes the characters play a haunted story. That blend of old school lego building & modern technology is pretty cool and I thought the kids would be fascinated. Guess whose gotleft building the lego… the things we do for our kids eh. Good job I like lego. Later that day the kids ended up playing Minecraft in the pit and I was still playing/ building lego.

For the first time during lockdown my sleep pattern is knocked out. I really need to get an early night. I keep snoozing the alarm and sleeping late. Find myself watching whatever netflix throws at me till 2am. The warrior nun…no really a holy artifact arse kicking order of nuns! Don’t judge it was actually surprisingly fun.I have manged some work mind you. I’m not just sat on my arse doing nothing every day. Though if you are then I am not judging.

I actually relaunched my website this week. (Just so you know – any posts prior to Day 100 Coronavirus post were all retrospectively added. My domain was stolen off me last year & my website removed. It’s taken a while to prove ownership ( luckily its literally my name) and rebuild. I also started updating my SEO skills ready for a project I’m working on. Working in software and technology skills you are constantly updating your skills. My own website might seem mildly narcissistic buy the site has always been something of a testing site to play with technology and website design and development. It’s part of my job and having a real place to practice skills and indulge in a bit of blogging is both practical and fun. Let’s face it my life has had quite a bit of shit happening & I always felt if my story helped someone else then it was worth it. It’s great to finally get access to my email address too. Its the little things right.

There have been plenty of tea sessions this week. I do love proper tea. It’s the ritual & the comfort that appeal as much as anything. Good way to relax.

Well let’s hope we see continued decline in coronavirus cases & deaths and the successful return of society in the UK to life. I also hope the rest of the world gets to grips with it too because sadly some places seem dangerously overwhelmed. What an insane mad awful world we live in right now. On a positive note I’ve just run a hot bath to sink into and I have cake for treat afterwards. Always positives.