Myself and the Hubster have been working from home together now for just over a week, although until Monday we were still able to get out and about for our own sanity.
The Hubster has my office in the loft, and we have set me up a second office in one of our spare bedrooms. I have put a throw over my daughters ‘open’ wardrobe, so despite a bed, it looks marginally less like a bedroom – important since it’s likely to be a fairly long term arrangement.
But what is our day looking like now that we are observing the mandatory lockdown?
8am
Yes, I’m setting my alarm a little later now, but that’s mostly since I can count my commute to work now in the number of steps (23) rather than miles or time.
The day starts with my usual cup of tea brought to me by my tea slave Hubster, and then the debate over who is going to walk the dogs in the morning (thus sacrificing our only exercise slot of the day). The poor dogs get a very short morning walk (sometimes), but a longer one later on by whichever one of us isn’t going out for a run/ride later on.
Then it’s time for the long commute to the office – sometimes via the kitchen for a bit of extra exercise – and breakfast.
I have already been taken to task by the Hubster since I’m apparently not pulling my weight on the tea-making duties! It’s amazing what you learn about each other when you are forced to not only live together but work together too. For example, I didn’t know that he’s usually on his third cup of tea by 9am and reaching for good quality coffee by 10.
11am
The Hubster needed some fresh air and a break so went off to our most local supermarket to get today’s ‘essential’ supplies. Always a star, he also came back with wine, scones and clotted cream. That was this afternoon’s coffee break sorted then!
I also found out that the company I work for is going to be switching some of our production lines to design, manufacture and distribute 10,000 ventilators and I couldn’t be more proud.
1:30pm
Lunchtime. Much later than it would normally be for me at work, but since my day seems to have naturally shifted an hour forwards this is most likely to become our normal lunchtime. One of the benefits of working from home, and having a full fridge and larder full of food, is that we now have a great choice of food for lunchtimes. No more rushing to the mini-mart for a meal deal at the last minute. We are eating better quality food at lunchtime, and that has to be good right?
3:30 pm
Afternoon tea – No this isn’t something we do normally, but this is a new reality right? Our work colleagues consist of 2 dogs, 1 sociable ginger cat, and an elusive tortoiseshell cat. So in the absence of water cooler chat at work, we decided to take a bit of time out each afternoon for a sit down away from the PCs to just chill out and chat. We can’t really talk about work as we have limits on that front anyway, so today we chatted over a cream tea – expertly sourced by the Hubster until it was time to get back to the ‘office’.
5pm
Time now to tune into the Government daily CV broadcast, and today the main subject was help for the self-employed. It was long overdue, and I know of a number of self-employed people and sole traders in various industries that have suffered a lot of anxiety over money during this time. For those that had room on their credit cards or savings, they have already been using these to survive. Whilst the package presented was very generous on the face of it, depending on how you took your income from your business, you might not actually receive very much. And there is a 2-month wait before anyone can see any funds trickle through, due to the complexity for the government of setting up the infrastructure to administer the system. The good news though is that when they do payout, they will backdate it to 1st March. Unfortunately, new businesses will lose out and have to rely on Universal Credit or find one of the new temporary jobs created as a result of the Coronavirus. Of course, not everyone will be able to shelf stack in the supermarkets, so please, please, please have sympathy with and check on your self-employed friends, many of whom will have a real struggle for the next couple of months.
6pm
Tonight is my turn for the Turbo trainer and Del is walking the dogs. I’ve been itching to try the RGT Cycling app, so today was my first go. It’s a little odd in that you need to link it to your phone, even if you are using an iPad. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but either way, it was pretty good and easy to set up. I went for a ‘real roads’ work-out and rode Cap Formentor. 13.75 miles with 1666ft of climbing. Since upgrading my trainer the hills felt very realistic, so maybe once we come out of this crisis I won’t have lost my hill legs.
I also came across this story earlier. I’ve no idea if it’s real, but I shared it online earlier and have never had so many ‘likes’. So I hope you enjoy it too.
8pm
This was when the nation applauded our health workers. Our normally very reserved street all opened their windows or stepped outside banging their pots and pans (a very British thing to do). We could hear the horns from the ships in harbour, and at one point even fireworks were let off. It was a fitting tribute to our amazing NHS workers whether they are nurses, doctors, or facilities teams. They are in for a very tough job over the next couple of months and deserve our support. And all the rest of us need to do is to STAY INDOORS, and keep well.
8:15pm
Every Thursday evening at 8pm I host a Facebook live session for students on my Motivating-Mindset Mountain Mover program. I moved it to 8:15 today so that we could applaud the NHS, and also at least a couple of my students are NHS workers themselves. On this occasion, I also raised a glass (of wine) to them on the call, also acknowledging all other key workers at this time that are keeping the country running. The retail workers, bin-men, people in essential infrastructure etc. While some of us sit working quietly at home away from health risks, they are out there keeping going so that we can carry on in our own homes.
9pm
I finally sat down to eat my dinner, only to find that ITV2 was playing ‘Contagion’ and the Hubster had decided we were watching it. It was scarily accurate, apart from the bit when the lockdown was announced and the riots and looting began. Thankfully it turns out we are all more civilised than the movies make out.
Drinking wine – yes I’ve taken up drinking again 🙁
10pm
Hubster asleep on the sofa. It seems he didn’t really want to watch the film after all, but I had been suckered in and now couldn’t turn it off. Whilst it looked like quite an accurate film in terms of its content, at least our pandemic is less deadly and rapid, so it helps to know that we will get through it. However, it’s a very poor quality film to watch, I don’t recommend it.
I decided that I would do some colouring for our windows to cheer people up. No rainbows from me, but wildlife instead.
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