Staying Home: Day 44

I have been working and studying at home for years, but while I always used to work at a desk in the days when we just had a PC, since having a laptop I have drifted into working downstairs on the sofa or upstairs with my feet up on the bed. With more people around during the day I now use the bedroom both as my workspace and my need-to-be-somewhere-quiet space, and after six weeks I have realised slouching on the bed for several hours a day is not ideal. (Sometimes it takes a while for things to sink in!)  Last night I decided I would organise myself a pop-up mini office, using a small folding tray table and a desk chair which was TG's during her pink phase but was had ended up in the garage waiting for us to find a new home for it. The colour scheme is a bit interesting, but this is now my workspace ...

Both M and H came in while I was working this morning and laughed at me for looking as though I was working at a child's table, but I was actually perfectly comfortable and although the table is small it has plenty of space for my laptop. The chair is a cheap and cheerful IKEA plastic one, but the shape and height is pretty good, and with a cushion behind my back my work position is actually better than when I'm at my desk at work! I have ordered another similar table from Argos which should arrive tomorrow, then this one can go back downstairs as M and TG both like to use it for TV dinners. There is a corner in the bedroom where I think the new table will fit when folded, and when work is done I wheel the chair through and park it in the study. 

M's workspace is the smallest bedroom, which after R moved out got turned into a study. He finds this chair ideal for his back (he suffers from scoliosis) and has all his stuff set up on the iMac. As well as working in there he uses it to watch catch-up TV while we are watching Disney films downstairs (not his thing!) and for Zoom chats. As lockdown has gone on the study has pretty much become his man cave. 

Meanwhile, the girls like to work together in the dining room. They both prefer having company, and often have music on while they work. We are very lucky to have enough space to spread out during our working hours, and that we each have a laptop or PC we can use to work on.

As you can see, the morning was industrious all round. M got started on a new job which came in yesterday, while I finished the last one. H is now on the last push with her uni work, which will be finished by early June. TG spent the morning working on geography, French and maths, then did the last two colours of the rainbow for her photography project this afternoon. We had a discussion about how she feels school at home compares to actual school - she says in a lot of ways the learning isn't much different, except that there is no group work and no immediate feedback from the teacher when people ask questions. She has noticed that the amount of work required has kicked up a notch this week with the start of her new courses. However, TG is exactly the right sort of child to thrive learning remotely - she is quite self-disciplined about getting the work done, bright enough to understand what she is doing without needing extra input, and when she does have questions there are people around to answer them. I'm sure there are many children who will be finding this far harder.

The weather was miserable again today. H went for a run first thing this morning, before it started to rain, and M and I went for a short, slightly damp walk this afternoon. We watched Nightmare Before Christmas - a bit out of season, but we wanted something short as I had a band committee meeting by Zoom at 7pm, and H needed time to cook dinner (prawn massaman curry - delicious!). I have to say I don't do well with Zoom meetings. I find it is great for quizzes, where most people are muted most of the time, and I can cope with small group chats, but once it goes over 3 or 4 people I find it overwhelming and either tune out or miss cues and start interrupting everyone. Fortunately I don't need to do it very often.