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Friday, 14 August 2020

My Quarantine Diary - days 9 to 14 - the End!

 Day 9

The excitement of passing the halfway point has passed and been replaced with the realisation of a whole day isolating without work to provide a distraction!  Luckily, it’s a nice day, so a fair bit of time was spend relaxing in the garden.  Today is Fathers’ Day in Brazil, so I got a call and some messages on Instagram, though to be fair, we already had Fathers’ Day (the UK version, when I was in Brazil!)

 

Day 10

I can almost smell freedom!  It’s another work day, so plenty to keep me busy, but not long to go!  My new mobile arrived today, just a week after ordering it!  I’m getting used to things working like they are supposed to!

 

I picked up the hobby of making sourdough bread last year, just in time for our lockdown in Brazil!  It was great to buy a few bags of flour then make bread throughout the week to save continually buying bread.  Oh, and the pancakes, can’t forget the pancakes!  So I decided to start a starter while I’m in quarantine.  It takes 10 days to get it going, so giving it a bit of attention in the mornings and evenings (with a mask and sanitised hands of course) means I’ll be able to make some bread and pancakes while I’m here and then take it to Oxford.  The tradition is to give your starter a name, so, in honour of Forres, I’m calling it Macbeth (or if I’m feeling superstitious, the Scottish Starter.)

 

Well, that’s enough excitement for one day, time for bed.

 

Day 11

Another day, another step closer…

 

Day 12

It’s Wednesday, mid-week and after today, only two more days of quarantine.  This morning the news has been going on about how the UK is in the biggest recession on record – no shit… Half the country not working, no one going out, buying only essentials for nearly five months, no one saw this coming…  On the plus side, it’s kind of a business-as-normal news report, going back to having kittens about the economy and recession, it’s a brief break from all the COVID talk (which is still going on in Scotland, after players from Aberdeen and Celtic broke the rules.)

 

Today was the day the Scottish schools started after summer/lockdown, hopefully everything goes smoothly, not least because that number includes my nephews and niece!  It gives me hope that the English schools will return as normal, although it seems like every day there’s someone on the news suggesting that schools take a one week on, one week off approach to schools, to keep the class sizes low.  While that would be fine for social distancing, I can’t see it being that good for the kids’ education. Better than no school at all of course…  I don’t think that will happen; the powers that be seem pretty determined that schools will return fully in September. 

 

Day 13

Penultimate day of quarantine!  Just one more day to go and I’ll be free to do things like go downstairs without wearing a mask, go outside, go to shops, get my hair cut!  That last one is urgent; after 6 months, my hair is just massive!  Hopefully I won’t have to wait ages to get an appointment and then my head will be free from all this excess hair!  Then there’s the more mundane, but necessary things I need to do, such as changing my address at the bank, renewing my driving licence… exciting!  Well, after 2 weeks of quarantine, it almost is!

 

Day 14

That’s it!  Done!  After today, my quarantine will be over!  I can’t wait to make breakfast without a mask, or hang around downstairs without assuming I’m unclean!  Obviously, once I can go out into the big, bad world, I’ll be taking precautions, wearing a mask, washing my hands etc, but at least home will go back to being a safe space!

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