Life in the Time of Coronavirus 2

Every day is pretty much the same at the moment. Get up at 9am and have breakfast with N and L - then into the office (on our second floor) to work on our extra quizzes that we are streaming to try and keep friends, family and our Interference players busy and distracted while stuck inside.

Our Lockdown Schedule

We have lunch together at 1pm and then L and I go for our daily government sanctioned walk outdoors. We can only set off from the house - you are not allowed to drive somewhere for a nice country walk. We are exploring the streets of Wolstanton, the deserted golf course and the marshes where dog-walkers and small families play.

One nice thing that kids are being asked to do (to keep them occupied) is to paint or draw a rainbow - add a positive message and display them in their windows. It is something nice for everyone to see when they go for their walks. Another scheme is for people to put bears in their windows so that kids can go on a bear hunt like the book by Michael Rosen. It is sad to hear that MR himself is in intensive care with Covid19 himself and very poorly. Hope he pulls through.


The three kids next door to us have made us 3 rainbow pictures to put in our window - above our Paddington bear. Natasha next door asked us if they could do some for us as it would keep them busy! I said it would be fine - we could pt them up and then wash our hands afterwards like we do after handling post. They say the coronavirus can live on various surfaces - so it is the safest way.

The afternoon is sometimes watching box sets or doing jigsaws with L. We have dinner together with N in the evenings then watch films or play board games together in the evenings. We even played Pandemic (ironically) and managed to save the world. We took heart from that! It is nice that TV companies are putting lots of new stuff onto keep people occupied and willing to heed the governments instructions to stay at home. We have started watching the films of Studio Ghibli which Netflix have put on. I am enjoying The Split with Nicola Walker (BBC) and Sex Education with Gilliam Anderson (Netflix)

N is often up in the office all day as he is working from home and has all his company's equipment up there for that too. He's quite enjoying that as he can keep in touch with his team via Skype and get on with work without phones ringing or people coming by asking him stuff. I think it works quite well.

I get official emails once a week from the theatre - at the moment they are putting together a new schedule starting in September and may bring out a new brochure - but there is no guarantee that they will be allowed to open by then. Government are saying when we can ease the lockdown it will be very gradual. Can't imagine gatherings of over 300 people will be allowed right away. Everything is very uncertain!.

I get phone calls from Pete my line manager - to check up how I am.

Rather inconveniently I have had a bit of a health scare just as all this was starting. I had an MRI scan on my shoulder due to some pain in my left arm. This showed up something on my left lung so my GP decided that should be investigated with a CT Scan. I had that about 3 weeks ago and was waiting for the results to come through - I was rung by the hospital and asked to go for a PET scan. I asked why - and they said that Mr Hughes had asked for it to be done. I have no idea what the CT scan showed. I had that last week and this week I was told I have an appointment with Mr Hughes next Monday. (27th) so I may get to the bottom of all these scans and everything.

I have been being extra cautious during this lockdown in case I have some lung condition that may make catching Covid-19 even more hazardous. So, N has been doing our once-a-week shop and I only interact with L and N. Fingers crossed that all is well - I feel fine but given my history of CUP (Cancer of Unknown Primary) anything could be happening in there!

Watch this space!