I’m not feeling myself.
Maybe it’s the wierd day-in-day-out that melds into an unmemorable blur that has me feeling so odd. I decide to switch things up today.
7am- We cancel the routine run, yoga, meditation, and take the dog for a really long walk down the road. I offload all the things I am worried about, onto D. What if schools and universities don’t reopen in September? If tourism is dead until a vaccine is developed, what are we going to do for the next year, or longer? When will we see our parents again? Why does my Dad insist on going to the supermarket? What if Cayman’s food imports dry up? What if a hurricane hits?
8am – Our breakfasts are getting bigger, but I am hungrier with each day. I have regressed to eating marmite. I used to eat loads of this bizarre British spread as a child. I haven’t touched it for years. Somehow, right now, Marmite feels just right.
9am onwards: WFH. Caybrew offers free beer to us industry folk. 💥
12pm: D is poking my ribs with his fingers. He is bored, and wants me to entertain him. This is so unlike D. I give in, and shut the laptop. The working week is over. “Shall we go somewhere nice this weekend?” he goads.
12.30pm : I have failed to provide the household with entertainment. D has returned to his desk. A is on her phone on the couch. B is playing FIFA on the Xbox. Now I’m also bored. Is this what our lives have been reduced to?
12.35pm: My brother in UK shares a TicToc video he has made with his daughter. His moves look very well rehearsed. We are not alone with this time-to-kill predicament.
1pm: I make a hearty vegan 13-bean soup. Am I hungry, or do I have nothing better to do? I don’t actually discover the answer. We eat lunch. (For B, this is breakfast.)
1.30pm; I feel wobbly. Frightened. And tense. Is this Covid-19 anxiety starting up? I try to pick an argument with D about how he should have left me alone with my laptop, and now it’s his fault I’m all out of sorts. B shuts us down quickly, “How cute, your first quarantine argument!” Teenagers are so condescending.
2pm: My son B wants to invite his friend over to our house to play FIFA. I am sure we have been over this already. We have, it’s just that he hoped I would change my mind if he asked again.
2.15pm: CI Gov Press Briefing: No new positive test results. Dr Lee presents analysis of Coronavirus in Cayman, that includes virus bounce-back concern.
3.30pm: The 4 of us play Black Jack using Monopoly’s ‘Oceanopoly’ money.
4.30pm: I am the winner with $250 sand dollars. Both children are now well versed in gambling terms. Double score.
Global news; Singapore has record 728 new Covid-19 cases; none imported. Lessons are learned from Japan’s Hokkaido’s second wave of infections. French hospital staff are to receive bonuses of up to €1,500. USA cases over 700,000. Trump tweets “liberate” against lockdowns. San Francisco to enforce mask wearing. In U.K. Social distancing was not observed during “clap for carers “ demonstration. NHS staff advised to reuse PPE.
5pm: My daughter A goes for a run. I watch musicians/ friends play live on Cayman Compass FB feed.
5.30pm – I run a bath for A. We light scented candles, she sorts the music, we fill the tub with salts, and her last Lush bath bomb. B & D meanwhile have a boys’ FIFA session. D is getting lessons from the expert.
6pm: B now instructing D in ‘Fortnight.’ I walk the reluctant dog. Alone in the hot tub I catch up with friends.
7pm: A has joined me in the hot tub. Out of nowhere a majestic white barn owl glides over our heads. “Hedwig!” calls out A. We savour the moment. And clap for caymans carers. #caymanstrong
7.30pm: “So apparently masturbation causes blindness” informs B around the dinner table. Our conversation topic is on the long-term consequences of drugs, vapes, alcohol, weed etc. The teens are doing the talking, and now masturbation is added to the hotlist. “Pretty sure that’s a myth” I offer. “No.” continues B, with a look he wears when he’s about to prank his sister, “Our GCSE biology teacher, a Doctor from Cambridge, told us it makes you blind. Sometimes it can cause you to grow hairs on the palms of your hands too.” I relish the idea that there is a PhD Doctor of Biology, teaching pubescent males at a posh English School, about the perils associated with a private tug.
9pm- Movie: 🎥 The Hangover
I feel much better after a good laugh.
Good night 😴
