The Coronavirus Diaries – 28th July 2020

I have decided to write a weekly diary of our time through the Coronavirus pandemic. To keep for the future. It’s such an unprecedented time and full of so many mixed feelings and events we have never encountered before it is hard to process it all.

The Coronavirus Diaries - 28th July 2020

21st July

Another day out for us today, this time to Chiltern Open Air Museum where my sister works. All of the indoor exhibitions are closed, but there is still lots to do outside. We met up with my Mum and niece and nephew, it was so nice for the children to play with their cousins instead. Social distancing in the museum was great, but between cousins was a little tricky at times. It really is such a hard concept for children.

I still socially distanced from my Mum and sister but I did relax it a little between the children, there were bans on hugs and things like that but I tried not to wince if they got closer than 1m away. I have to remind myself if they have been back at school, they would have been in a bubble of 15 children.

22nd July

Tonight I had a meet up with friends in one of their gardens. The friend moved in lockdown which seems very tricky! But she has also been shielding. I really feel for people who are shielding as it such a long time to be locked away from the world. And I think, even harder for people with young children too. It was, as always, so nice to catch up with people and makes me really appreciate simple things like chatting in the garden with friends.

24th July

Masks have become mandatory today. People on social media are really not happy. The mask versus no mask arguments seem to be getting more prolific. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to just put a mask on for the 10 or 30 minutes that you’re in a shop.

On a more positive side, we had friends over for a play in the garden and garden picnic. We got the paddling pool out and the children had so much fun. It perhaps wasn’t quite warm enough for the paddling pool, but with short wetsuits on (which mine have for the beach) they were fine. Although I did actually manage to catch the sun!

Having time this week to go out and play with their friends has made such a massive different to my children’s mental health. I can see how much they were missing socialisation. For myself too, I feel freer and so much more like myself. Less anxious. I know this virus is out there and I am worried about a second wave in the winter when the temperatures plummet. Which is why I think we need to get these activities in now to fill up our buckets so to speak.

After the children went to bed, I finished the day off with a couple of cocktails in the garden with my friends, and it was all in all such a great day. Even if into the night Bo had me a up a lot with a headache!

25th July

I have spent a lot of today catching up on my workload I have fallen behind on with our day trips this week. It was worth it, but it’s tiring. I have some more days out planned next week and I am already looking forward to them.

I also popped to the shops to run a couple of errands. There is such a marked difference to last week. With everyone wearing masks, compared to the few last week. A couple didn’t quite seem to know how to put them on and had their noses uncovered, but other than that everyone was masked and courteous.

27th July

We were meant to be meeting my sister and children at Cliveden a National Trust site today, but the weather has been pretty poor. So we decided to rearrange until later in the week. Instead, I took them to the library.

The children’s side of the library is closed. So you had to call in advance and tell the librarian what sort of books your child likes and then they put together a surprise bag of books for them. This actually kind of added to the excitement (my kids love going to the library), and then when they got home they had a good rummage through their bags to see what book goodies they had.

I also got them a little notepad and multi-coloured pen to play with which made their day. So it wasn’t too bad a day in the end.

1 thought on “The Coronavirus Diaries – 28th July 2020”

  1. Sounds like things are going well. It is a bit of ups and downs, but sometimes it’s the small things that help make their day. Sounds like you are getting some days out fitted in x

    Reply

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