Routine is gradually emerging from chaos. I set my alarm this morning, admittedly for about twenty minutes later than when I go to work. I got up about 0645, had a shower, got dressed and was working by 0720. Over the course of the day I wrangled my inbox down from over 300 unread emails to just two. I also reorganised my folders to account for the pivot from political change to dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. All that effort came at the cost of not doing any significant exercise today. As of bedtime I’ve only managed about 3,500 steps today, which must be an all time low for a day I wasn’t ill.
Technology or Environment?
Elsewhere in the household Lucy learnt how to use email and Google hangouts with her friends. At one point there were four of them on video on Tracy’s phone and Lucy was typing and email (very slowly) to one of her friends while they chatted and played games. In fact they only stopped when devices ran out of battery. It seems normal to them to play by video call.
There’s a school of thought that stuff you grow up with isn’t technology, but just the way the world works. That’s certainly the impression that I got listening to a bunch of Y3 girls play with each other from their own homes. At one point Lucy went out into the garden to show things to her friends.
The other thing I did today with technology was sort out zoom on the laptop that Lucy is using and also connecting it to the TV. We’ve only got two HDMI ports on the TV and both are in use, one for the virgin TV box and the other for the PS3 that provides us with DVD/Blu-ray playing and also access to smart TV features. This latter is a problem because it’s no longer supported for new stuff, and we want to be able to watch Disney+ on the TV. So this afternoon I ordered an Amazon Fire Cube, which will plug into the TV and play a range of streaming services, including Disney+, prime video and Netflix.
Food
Lunch was pretty hearty. We have a large box of Indian snacks from Iceland. So there were mini bhajis, pakoras and samosas with oven chips. More than I’d usually eat for dinner, but I can’t complain because all I did was turn up to eat it.
It being Tracy’s payday we had dinner delivered from a local takeaway. Partly doing a bit to help local businesses, and partly a treat. Tracy had a kebab washed down with Pimms and I had pizza with a Ruby Leffe. Both the kids had pizza too, although they had an Irn Bru and a Vimto. Tomorrow is the end of another week and I’ve started some pulled pork with another third of the massive pork joint I made yesterday’s pork wellington with. Still not sure what to do with the last third.
With luck we’ve got a delivery of groceries coming tomorrow, but news from friends and colleagues suggests that there may well be gaps in the delivery.
NHS Clap
Bearing in mind that Tracy is a matron in the local hospital, we went outside at 8pm to see if anyone was participating. So we were pleasantly surprised by not only a lot of clapping up and down the street but also bells, pots and pans, and even fireworks let off nearby. It was a pretty positive expression of support for the NHS. Let’s hope people remember this next time we have an election.