One Year and One Day

Day 366...

So March 19th last year was my first day in 'lockdown', my first day working from home and my first day assessing what the impact was going to be on me, my family and my work.

And March 19th 2020 was when I decided to use this blog, that I had set-up in 2012 primarily to talk about my love of all things Disney, to instead record the world according to me during a pandemic.

I know I have said this before over the last few posts but I honestly did not think a year later we would still be 'dealing' with this pandemic and I would still be writing daily posts. But here we are and there is very little I can do about any of it apart from get very frustrated and angry at the position we find ourselves in...and to keep on writing.

Reading my posts from a year ago it is humbling to remember how worried we all were about something that none of us had ever experienced before in our lifetimes. The sense of panic that prevailed fueled by the doom and gloom of the media is palpable when reading those early posts and that stayed with me for quite a while.

When faced with the situation we were we had to assume that those in power had more information than we could possibly have, they had access to scientists who knew what they were talking about and were taking in data from all over in order to make sure that we did the right thing at the right time. But now with a year gone by and apparently little or no progress made through draconian measures I'm not so sure those assumptions were correct. Just because someone has the power does not mean they know the right answer to everything. Do not put them on a pedestal, instead expect them to question, to seek out opinions, to weigh up the options and to make mistakes but to admit to them when they do. They are human (supposedly!) so they will not get it right first time, or even every time, but surely it is better to admit a shortfall and to move on better informed...or it would appear apparently not!

But back to today, it was a Friday and a Friday like most others. A full day in work which was taken up with the usual sort of admin tasks, issuing invoices, amending contracts, updating the banking and sorting raffle tickets for our upcoming Easter raffle to be conducted 'virtually'.

Once home it was time to stop, enjoy a coffee and chill for a short while before jumping back online to do a little more pre-school work. I was also chatting with Molly via direct message on Twitter because for a short while WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger had all 'gone down'!! Crikey a bit of technology doesn't quite work as it's supposed to and our whole world stops!

But now it is time for wine, chocolate and another new Marvel TV series to get engrossed in!

Take care, see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 365 - A Year On

Day 365...

So today marks one complete year of writing blog posts.

March 18th 2020 was the day I made the decision to close pre-school ahead of any official government announcement. We had fewer and fewer children turning up each day and parents who were understandably concerned, confused and didn't know what was the right thing to do.

At the time, a year ago, the 'panic' around COVID was mounting and with horrific scenes coming out of China and then Italy of overcrowded hospitals and with death rates abroad spiraling the whole nation was gripped in a state of fear and disbelief. What should we be doing? When should we take action? Is the response too slow?

In the preceding weeks the message from the scientists and government officials had been in line with the World Health Organisations approach to pandemics. Protect those most at risk, place some sensible social distancing measures in place, work from home if you can, wash your hands but otherwise carry on with our lives. The words 'herd immunity' were used and for some reason this seemed to stoke the fear levels even more, despite the fact that achieving 'herd immunity' was what had to happen with any virus outbreak.

The day after we closed our doors at pre-school the government announced that all schools and childcare settings across England would be closing from the following Monday. We felt justified in our decision to close our doors and settled in for a few weeks away from pre-school...perhaps we would return after the Easter break or worst case early June. We could not have predicted how this past year would have turned out and how our small, charity run, pre-school would have been affected.

But here we are one year on. England is in it's third full lockdown and we have a supposed 'roadmap' of how we will attempt to get back to 'normal'. We have experienced a tier system and for a short while over Summer a little bit of 'normal' had crept back in but it was a 'normal' that was conditional on masks, social distancing, booking in advance, hand sanitising, temperature checks and more.

Pre-school re-opened in mid-June to a limited number of children and then since September we have been open pretty much as we would have expected to have been. Yes, we have extra measures in place and a few of our routines have changed but essentially the end service we offer to the children is the same...just with more hand sanitiser!

But what a year we have had, a year where we seem to have leapt from one panic to another and with very little rationale behind the actions taken. We have been led down a very blinkered path and anyone who dare raise their head above the parapet and suggest a different theory or approach has been shot down immediately. Those of us who believe in a scientific and evidence based approach find ourselves with little hope for anything assembling a sensible solution and can only see a future that is filled with restrictions and caveats. But I am sure as the days, weeks and months move on I will be able to capture our 'roadmap' to wherever through my blog posts.

Only today we received in the mail a letter and leaflet from our local member of parliament chastising us for not doing enough to get us out of lockdown. Commenting that figures in our local area were not as good as they could be and therefore we, the people, must 'do' better!!  Forgive me for being cynical but first how much of my taxpayer money has just been wasted on producing colour, glossy leaflets and posting them to the tens of thousands of households in my area. And then don't even get me started on the testing of asymptomatic individuals and the risk of false positive rates.

But today was Thursday and today involved work this morning and an afternoon at home. Work was pretty much the usual stuff with prepping invoices and updating banking and sending emails. This afternoon was tackling the mountain of ironing that had built up whilst chatting with Molly via WhatsApp and making coffee to keep me and the boys going.

I received a letter today for my next mammogram in a few weeks time, this will be my second since having my surgery for breast cancer two years ago. I was a little surprised to get the letter as last year's mammogram that should have happened in April got delayed to June because of the pandemic so I had presumed this year's would be in June. But, it is quite comforting that the appointment has fallen at the 'correct time' when there is so much concern about how lockdowns have been detrimental to other health aspects like cancer care.

Simon and I still have sore arms from our vaccines on Tuesday but otherwise we are fine...although I was a little concerned that my sore arm was impacting my ability to pour out a glass of wine earlier...but that will get easier the less wine there is in the bottle!!!

Well, with said glass of wine poured, it is time to stop writing and head off in search of RuPauls Drag Race UK final!

Take care out there.
xx

Closed for the Day

Day 204...

Well...where to start with today?

So last night I received word that one of the pupils who attends our pre-school had tested positive for the dreaded virus. I had to make the decision late last night to close pre-school today as it was too late to contact the necessary powers that be.

So once up this morning it was on the phone to our Department of Education helpline and while I did have a little wait to get through once I was through the whole process was handled so well and clearly and with care.

Thankfully the outcome was that because the child hasn't attended pre-school in the couple of days before the COVID symptoms appeared we were given the green light to re-open, which we will be doing tomorrow. And hopefully I should be contacted by the UK's 'track and trace' system, which will be interesting to see what their advice is!

We find ourselves on the edge of an area that has seen a drastic increase in cases over the last week and there is talk of much stricter restrictions coming into play over the next few days. As a result we seem to have become aware of more cases locally that are causing various school year groups to be sent into self isolation. Unfortunately this affects the daughter of one of my staff, for the second time, and means she will be in self isolation for her 18th birthday as well which is so sad.

So as I spent my day at home today I still managed to get work done...maybe not the work I would ordinarily have done as most of the day was spent issuing and responding to emails and keeping parents, staff and committee informed of the days developments. I also managed to complete the online part of my first aid course that we are all completing at the moment; a requisite of childcare is that we have to take a first aid qualification every 3 years.

In between the emails and the first aid course I was able to get a few odd jobs done around the house, find time to have a coffee outside with Simon in between rain showers, we had a lovely chat with one of our neighbours and then later on when my dairy delivery arrived I was able to catch up with one of my older neighbours and have a good old moan about the current state of things!

So we enter another period of uncertainty. We have possible new restrictions and a new alert system coming in...possibly...maybe...sometime next week. Why do we have to wait for a seemingly random date for these restrictions to come into place. If we need to do something surely we need to do it now, and not wait for a future date?

I think this is where the problem is at the moment, and as it has been throughout this virus, the messaging and guidelines that we are issued with not only keep changing but are never straight forward or simple to understand. We seem to be in a perpetual state of questioning what we should be doing, where can we go, who can we see, how many people can we see at once and does this apply to everywhere or just where I live? The more questions we have over what we 'should' be doing the more problems we are going to have. How can the public expect to do the right thing if we are struggling to understand what that right thing may be?!

All I can say is please take care, think carefully about what you are doing; keep your distance, wash your hands and wear a mask.
xx

Day 77

Day 77...

Today Simon and I celebrate 31 years of marriage; not that we can do much to celebrate! Instead we have spent the day in our respective work modes which for me mainly involved responding to emails and collating some paperwork together ready for a meeting I have scheduled for tomorrow with my deputy manager.

Just after lunchtime we headed out and drove the furthest we have been in the past 10 weeks as I had an appointment at hospital. This time last year I was just starting my radiotherapy treatment after having had a lumpectomy for breast cancer and now I was back to have my first mammogram following the end of my treatment. See this post about my journey last year.

I should have had this mammogram back in early April but it understandably got postponed and then just last week I received my letter with my appointment date of today. I have to admit that although I knew exactly what was going to happen today, and the actual act of having a mammogram doesn't bother me at all, I was filled with anxiety. I think all the memories and feelings from last year resurfaced and I fear that having to wait for 2 weeks for the results is not going to be easy.

I will admit to also being a little apprehensive about attending a hospital during the current circumstances so I went with mask on and hand sanitiser in my bag. The appointment was actually at one of the main hospital satellite centres which was very quiet. I was told to only arrive within 5 minutes of my appointment time so when I got to the right department there were no other patients in sight so no sooner than I had checked in with reception I was being taken through for my mammogram. All the administration staff I saw were either wearing masks or were behind screens and the medical staff all wore masks and visors.

The nurse that carried out my mammogram actually remembered me from last year as she recognised  all my Disney tattoos (and clothes) and commented that she was one of the nurses that carried out my biopsy...she remembered that even my shoes were Disney! We had a lovely chat and spoke about the effect of COVID-19 on her job and how she had been deployed to different departments within radiology as the hospital stopped more routine work and concentrated its resources for treating COVID patients. 

Interestingly in response to my general chat about how I knew lots of people who had suffered with bad coughs and colds prior to Christmas and that 'makes you wonder' she responded by commenting that there was a thinking that something had been going around since October...so who knows?!

After a lot of my previous treatments we had indulged in a coffee and cake on the way home but today it was straight home to a home-made coffee instead...and back to some more work! A few more emails, some more printing out and chatting with the landlord of the building that we use for our pre-school while Molly had another karate class via Zoom!

And that was today!

Take care,

xx

Day 41

Day 41...

Well after a few weeks of glorious sunshine the British weather seems to have remembered it's April and has rained all day and turned rather chilly!

My day was pretty mundane today; a mix of odd jobs around the house, a bit of internet browsing (as I have a few birthdays happening in a few weeks time!) and then some actual work as it was pay day today so needed to make sure that I could sort all the wages out for my team.

Simon had another helmet sale to take to the local post office at lunchtime and then we made a point of going out for a walk...even though it was raining. Thankfully it wasn't raining too heavy but we certainly didn't hang about and we did our two miles at a pretty decent pace. Although we both had to change out of wet socks by the time we got home!

Simon and Molly had their first trip to the 'gym' this week while I managed to do a quick body-weight workout. I would love to be able to get back into moving weights again but I am still a little cautious about my left boob! So I will stick to squats, planks and a few lighter kettle bell moves.

My friend Michelle tested positive today for COVID-19, her partner was negative and her son has shown no signs of it. She hasn't been at work and has followed all the stay at home orders and only gone out for an occasional daily walk and to the shops. She doesn't know where she has picked it up from, could possibly be from shopping or she has genuine concerns with regards to neighbours having had friends and family around when they shouldn't have...but who knows?

Just goes to show that no matter how careful you are it is out there and could get any of us at any time. So let's sit this one out for as long as we need to, let's not go rushing back out into the big world until this horrible thing is done and dusted. Let's hope our government begin to get their arse in gear, stop telling us lies, be honest and open and treat us like adults who can handle the truth. If we know exactly what we are dealing with then we are more likely to accept whatever we need to do. Other countries seem to be getting on top of their outbreaks, look at Australia, New Zealand & Iceland so why can't we?!! Makes me so angry that we have to put our lives in the hands of politicians who seem to have other agendas at work. Perhaps more focus on this issue when the first cases started to appear could have saved us all a lot of heartbreak.

See you tomorrow,
xx

Day 1

We are in strange and unprecedented times as the world tries to understand the impact of the Coronavirus, COVID-19...and for some life will never be the same again.

Once through all of this it will be one of those moments in time that I think will stay with us and change us for a long time to come.

So here I am typing this on Day 1 of being at home from work. I took the decision yesterday to close the pre-school I manage; I was fed up waiting for our government to tell us what to do and it was not doing any of my staff, the children or parents any good.

Our attendance had dropped dramatically as parents took heed of government advice to self isolate if they, their child or another family member developed a dry cough or a high temperature. Parents didn't know what to do for the best and a lot decided to err on the side of caution. We were struggling to get some basic hygiene products...yes toilet paper was one of them...as the whole world has gone crazy and decided panic buying is the best strategy. I have staff who have their own health concerns (me included) or elderly relatives that rely on them. Then when I heard that both Wales and Scotland were closing their schools I thought enough is enough...I'm done! I cried. I could cry now thinking about it. Pre-school means the world to me and my staff and to close for who knows how long is a very peculiar situation to be in.

All the parents were extremely supportive and understanding we even got bought chocolates and wine - so thoughtful!!

So that brings me to today and my first day at home for who knows how long. I get the distinct impression from what information I can understand and digest that we are in this for the long haul; this will be months not just weeks, I fear!

But my day started as normal, up early and breakfast sorted so that my eldest could get on his way to work by 7.30am. We are hoping that by the end of tomorrow he will be able to work from home. And then the rest of my day has revolved around work as there is still stuff that I can be doing to ensure that the boring administration and financial side of things are kept on top of. I am also thinking about how we can keep in touch with parents and support them whilst they have their children at home with them. I am happy to do all this as it will keep me busy and I can manage my days as a mix of work and home stuff.

I am fortunate that Simon has worked from home for the past 7 years so he is not affected work-wise but I am also aware that me being at home makes his day 'feel' different and we have already spoke about making sure we still have weekends and holiday time; to have that need for some normality however twisted that may need to be.

I keep finding myself on good old social media and getting dragged down the rabbit hole of various group pages all to do with the early years sector and insurance and funding and closing or not closing and to be frank it's really annoying me now. Lots of people trying to second guess and then moan and not really offer any answers. I wasted too much time on that this morning I will be 'unfollowing' and just relying on the information received from the official sources I think from now on.

Other events of the day...we had a new coffee machine arrive after ours broke yesterday...obviously a must-have to see us through this crisis! Along with a new wifi plug so that we can get wifi in our garage where we have set-up our new home gym equipment. Simon and I have decided to get out in the fresh air every day (come rain or shine) and took a walk into the countryside near us. We are very fortunate to live on the edge of a village with open fields just a few minutes away; we only saw two other people whilst we were out and kept our distance.

Unfortunately the rest of my afternoon was spent dealing with more early years stuff as I tried to establish whether any of my parents fall into the category of 'key workers' and what that means for my pre-school and the logistics and financial implications of re-opening for a few or not. Relying on guidance issued by government and local authorities is not the easiest as the language used seems determined to confuse the average reader.

And all the while I keep thinking that the country really needs to step up its game and just accept that we need to lock down. Close all but the essentials. Batten down the hatches and kick this virus up the butt!

These are weird and scary times. The thought of not being able to go out for a coffee, or visit friends, or do a bit of retail therapy, or go to one of our favourite burlesque shows is a really peculiar feeling; almost a sense of loss. But we have no choice we just have to get on with it, set ourselves some routines, find new things to do, a new hobby you've always wanted to try, catch up on missed TV shows, read an actual book and connect with those closest to you.

Day 1 over and out.