What a Surprise

We could see it coming right? I am not alone with this thought am I? Apparently I must be because even the top dog apparently surrounded by his experts couldn’t. Except I believe he could but rather than hold up his hands and be honest with the public he continues to waffle on sharing the information that he decides we need to know whilst making false promises. Is his opinion so low of the general public that he continues to convince us that this is now an unprecedented situation?

Let’s be honest, this has been going on so long now that its ignorant and, quite frankly insulting that he is using this as an excuse. There have been two previous lockdowns, we are now in a third and every single time that decision has been taken it has been too late. Knob…enough said on that.

As you can tell lockdown life is going really well…so well, in fact, that I took part in my first Yoga session yesterday. Admittedly it was gone 10pm by the time I was able to start but I still tried. I rather enjoyed it and hopefully it will provide me with a gentle way to exercise and take care of myself. PE with Joe is great but it can be a little tough on my old knees who have taken a fair beating over the years. Good on Joe Wicks for picking that up again, even if the public enthusiasm is not at the same level as it had been previously. The truth is we have been in lockdown more than not in the past 10/11 months and the novelty has worn off.

There are few things that have remained as they were. On the 1 January 2021 I took over possession of an allotment. I was full of excitement and plans about what I was going to grow etc but to date I have not had any real opportunity to do any of the necessary work there. It needs clearing and the ground needs to be prepped but it has not been the weather to take the children with me.

Apologies, this is becoming a moaning post. I am bored of moaning all the time. I am sure you must be bored of reading my moans as well. So what else can I write about?

The problem is there isn’t much to write about. I went shopping with my Mum over the weekend and she had a freezer shut on her head by a shop worker…that was quite funny. She is fine, no damage done, do not worry yourselves.

My husband cut the boy’s hair which looks like a cross breed hairstyle. If the bowl cut and a mullet were lovers and had babies, that is what is now on top of my son’s head.

I still need to vacuum my house, it is at the stage now that I am making friends with all of the dust bunnies that have accumalated. So far I have met George, Mimi and Ed, they promised if I am nice to them they will introduce me to the rest.

Day to day life is so mundane at the moment. There are only so many times you can say to yourself tomorrow is a new day, tomorrow will be different because it very rarely is. At least there are no surprises hey.

I haven’t found anything new to watch in the evenings to occupy my mind. I have reached that point where its a struggle to derive pleasure from anything, I am numb to the situation and the circumstances that we are facing. That is when you are in danger of losing yourself, especially when you have been working really hard to claim back your identity. I am losing that grip on who I am. We are all just another number at this stage.

Maybe that combined with the weather is why lockdown is that much harder this time round.

Ours is set to become a lot more challenging though. As of this weekend we will be trying to replace and repair our kitchen. Hopefully we may find some comedic relief in this endeavour.

I watched a programme on demand last night. It was a programme about the career and impact of the comedy legend that is Billy Connolly, including an interview with the man in question. So I was watching and listening he said that life is always bearable if you can find something to laugh about, or something to that effect, and he is right. If you can find the humour in any situation that you end up in then it loses its power over you.

My husband and I have always been big fans of Billy Connolly. One of the first times we met we sat up all night watching Billy Connolly greatest hits (on VHS-that’s how bloody old we are!) laughing hysterically from beginning to end. The first time I was sick due to over indulging in alcohol, Billy was there (on DVD this time). I had been put to bed watching Billy and Albert, fell asleep quickly, threw up about halfway through, was cleaned up and put back to bed just in time for the joke about condoms- again cried with laughter.

Today I have been trying to find the funny element, so far I have not found it. I may well discover it in retrospect but I have nothing to share to make you smile at this moment and for that I am sorry.

Having said that I will leave you with this. My son is a math whizz compared to me. He is also 8 so he obviously knows everything. I am beginning to think he should move out now while he still knows it all. Anyway, the techniques used for teaching change over time which means the way our children are taught things are not the way we were taught. Maths for example or English. At the moment in Maths we are learning about fractions. I know about fractions, I know that I know about fractions, but I find myself doubting whether I actually do know anything. There I am, day after day, using my method to work out if he has done the calculations correctly while he is trying to teach me the technique he used to reach the answer.

In English we are learning about newspaper reports. Fantastic thinks I, I am going to blow your little mind with the knowledge I am going to share with you my boy. What a fantastic idea to get the children writing, show them an example article and let their imaginations run away with them. Watch out Lois Lane, there is a new reporter in town and all that.

What does the teacher do? Give them the headline. The most boring headline possible, something like “Girl blows bubbles in her drink” or “Boy puts his socks on correctly”. Then the children need to write about it. Way to engage the minds of tomorrow, I’m an adult and I am bored just thinking about the opening line. We have all heard of a slow news day however, even on the slowest day I think these headlines would struggle to be published.

I wonder what tomorrow’s headline will be… it could be something like “Tears of Joy as Child completes Homeschooling Tantrum Free” or maybe “Mother Completes to do List in One Day”. Who knows. Stranger things have happened.