Staying Home: Day 2

It took me all of one morning to learn lesson number one of working two separate jobs at home. Compartmentalise! I settled down to do some freelance work (we write exam questions for various financial services organisations), and then kept getting distracted by my nice shiny new archives webmail. Having half my mind on two different jobs at the same time was not a success, particularly as (1) I was having nasty formatting issues with a file which were making it barely readable, and (2) I  was having a brain-fog day thanks to the wretched non-corona virus that won't shift. By lunchtime I had achieved very little and was not in the best of moods when we went out for the twenty minute walk we are trying to do every day - at the moment that is as much as I can manage, and on bad days like today even that is a struggle. The fresh air did help my mood a bit, even though I came back very tired.

From now on, it is going to be one thing at a time (I just mistyped that as one "think" at a time, which is very apt). I am also going to stick to working my standard two full days a week on my archives work, rather than allow myself to spread out my hours over the week. I am not naturally self-disciplined and I think it would be sensible to impose that discipline on myself. I have also now turned off notifications on my laptop, so that I don't get distracted by messages while I am working.

I forgot to say yesterday that we are trying to get a few things which involve a certain amount of social contact sorted this week in case everything gets locked down for a while and before the virus risk rises. One of these was a  badly blocked bath drain - water was running out, but only just - and our friendly local unblocker man came round within a couple of hours of us calling him and did his stuff. Last time this happened he advised us to tip soda crystals down the plug hole followed by boiling water. Unfortunately two long haired daughters had caused havoc way beyond what soda crystals could deal with. At least now we will be able to enjoy soaking in an unblocked bath while we are staying home.

Today's job was work related. The brass band I play for wanted to recover storage space by donating boxes of its old records to the archives where I work. In the circumstances, it made sense to shift them from the outside (clean and dry!) barn they were stored in and bring them home with me. I met a couple of friends there tonight, boxed everything up, and they are now sitting in our dining room. The plan is for me to properly package and catalogue them while I am working from home, and then deposit them all done and finished when things eventually get back to normal.

We have changed plans slightly and I will be going up to Yorkshire tomorrow to collect middle daughter from university. The original plan was for her boyfriend to collect her on Saturday, but things are moving so fast now that she is a bit worried that a lockdown will be put in place and she will get stuck up there. I think it is unlikely but possible, so for everyone's peace of mind it will be better to bring her home now. I will take our small car so that she can drive back and it isn't too tiring for me. 

Today's major, but unsurprising,  announcement was that schools will be closing from the end of this week. Provision will still be made for the children of essential workers and vulnerable children, who will continue to go to school. I was glad to see that there is also going to be a scheme to ensure that children eligible for free school meals still get fed. Public exams for 16 and 18 year olds are being cancelled, which is a big deal as grades in these exams are the main qualification needed for university places, college places, apprenticeships and so on. The announcement said that these students would still get the grades they deserve but gave no detail - presumably grades will be based on school marks and predictions, but who knows. Very tough on the kids who have been working for these exams for two years. Teen Girl is quite happy to have some time off school, but would rather it isn't too long. She looked a bit glum at the idea that school might be out until after the summer, mainly I think because she will not be seeing her friends.