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lnrThis week last year I came back to work, after a few weeks of escalating strike action.
After only 3 days back the Wednesday was my last day in the office, and I took my laptop home, and here it has remained almost entirely ever since. I've been into the department twice, once on the rota to help fix things (I set an alarm off and had to get security to turn it off!), and once to get my laptop back when it went in for repair.
Matthew had 2 more days at school, his birthday party was due to be on the Saturday, but we cancelled at the last minute, as schools were declared to be also closing 2 weeks before the Easter holidays. He didn't go back to school in person until September, and was off again from the Christmas hols until last week. School-at-home combined with work-at-home has been hard.
Mike had a month of furlough last summer, and a week each month through the rest of last year, but has been back working-from-work as usual mostly since then. Though he's managed a small amount of admin/writing up at home at times.
In the summer, when rules relaxed a bit, we took a week in Thetford in a tiny holiday cottage, and did lots of outdoor walking and cycling and Go Apeing in the forest. We went by train, but only very short journeys. We were supposed to be in Wales, but public transport was still only for essential purposes there, so we postponed that until this year (fingers crossed!) - we didn't manage to meet up for family birthdays in August, because we just couldn't feel safe spending hours on trains and buses to get there, so I haven't see mum and dad since February 2020, Mike's parents since December 2019, or my sisters in longer!
In January last 2020 I started a diabetes prevention course, which was initially in person, and then moved to phone-conferencing instead. It obviously wasn't terribly successful, as I finally got blood sugar tested again at the end of November and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This put me into group 6 (clinically vulnerable, ie higher risk than most my age but not *high* risk), I was vaccinated in group 6 in mid February 2021, but have since been re-assigned to the clinically extremely vulnerable group, so am technically now shielding, and have to send Mike into shops and chemists for me, rather than popping in myself. (We've had the bulk of our groceries delivered as normal throughout, with only a couple of weeks near the start of lockdown when it was hard to get orders booked).
Matthew is back at school, I'm working at home, Mike is working at work, and this is the new normal, for now. I should get my next dose of AZ vaccine in early May, and be more protected after that, but until then I don't expect much to change really, although whether I'll still be advised to shield after 31st March (the date given for now) is unknown.
In the meantime we've had new floors and carpets in much of the house, done some decorating, bought and destroyed a TV, ordered solar panels, played lots of Minecraft, gone for walks and bike rides, and decided two takeaways a month is not unreasonable if we're not eating out. It'll be good when that's possible again, but we can wait, and we've had it a lot easier than some, and none of us have been ill.
After only 3 days back the Wednesday was my last day in the office, and I took my laptop home, and here it has remained almost entirely ever since. I've been into the department twice, once on the rota to help fix things (I set an alarm off and had to get security to turn it off!), and once to get my laptop back when it went in for repair.
Matthew had 2 more days at school, his birthday party was due to be on the Saturday, but we cancelled at the last minute, as schools were declared to be also closing 2 weeks before the Easter holidays. He didn't go back to school in person until September, and was off again from the Christmas hols until last week. School-at-home combined with work-at-home has been hard.
Mike had a month of furlough last summer, and a week each month through the rest of last year, but has been back working-from-work as usual mostly since then. Though he's managed a small amount of admin/writing up at home at times.
In the summer, when rules relaxed a bit, we took a week in Thetford in a tiny holiday cottage, and did lots of outdoor walking and cycling and Go Apeing in the forest. We went by train, but only very short journeys. We were supposed to be in Wales, but public transport was still only for essential purposes there, so we postponed that until this year (fingers crossed!) - we didn't manage to meet up for family birthdays in August, because we just couldn't feel safe spending hours on trains and buses to get there, so I haven't see mum and dad since February 2020, Mike's parents since December 2019, or my sisters in longer!
In January last 2020 I started a diabetes prevention course, which was initially in person, and then moved to phone-conferencing instead. It obviously wasn't terribly successful, as I finally got blood sugar tested again at the end of November and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. This put me into group 6 (clinically vulnerable, ie higher risk than most my age but not *high* risk), I was vaccinated in group 6 in mid February 2021, but have since been re-assigned to the clinically extremely vulnerable group, so am technically now shielding, and have to send Mike into shops and chemists for me, rather than popping in myself. (We've had the bulk of our groceries delivered as normal throughout, with only a couple of weeks near the start of lockdown when it was hard to get orders booked).
Matthew is back at school, I'm working at home, Mike is working at work, and this is the new normal, for now. I should get my next dose of AZ vaccine in early May, and be more protected after that, but until then I don't expect much to change really, although whether I'll still be advised to shield after 31st March (the date given for now) is unknown.
In the meantime we've had new floors and carpets in much of the house, done some decorating, bought and destroyed a TV, ordered solar panels, played lots of Minecraft, gone for walks and bike rides, and decided two takeaways a month is not unreasonable if we're not eating out. It'll be good when that's possible again, but we can wait, and we've had it a lot easier than some, and none of us have been ill.
