2020 dawned, with people full of positivity and wishes for a good start to the new decade. But just as soon as we had got over our hangovers, and Christmas food belly’s, we started seeing news from China of this flu pandemic, the corona virus.
To cut out all the rhetoric you already have read, heard and experienced, here we are now: Week 12 into this decade, and we are living lives that we never ever expected.
Anton has been working from home since March 13th; the day after president Macron announced phase 3 shutdown, the day schools closed for an indeterminate period. The instructions were to restrict movement as much as possible, and to try avoid large groups of people. Gatherings of more than 50 were cancelled.However, all business, including restaurants, was still operational.
And the sun shone with clear blue-skied brilliance.
And the country fell out into the parks and enjoyed that sun.
And then we got new directives.
Total shutdown for restaurants and all shops that didn’t sell food were told to close.
We had had South African friends for dinner on Saturday night. The French, Afrikaans and English chatter murmured across the table as glasses of wine were filled again and again, plates heaped with the aromatic smell of <braaivleis> that we all enjoyed so much. And then our phones started pinging the news alerts, the news that restaurants were to close, and that we were instructed all gatherings of more than 10 were essentially banned. Dinner didn’t disperse as quickly as I thought it would, and I continued on with my wine, knowing that having a hangover the following day meant nothing, given I no longer had a job to go to.
This in itself has been a little hard to swallow. Since I work for an Irishman who owns the business on his own, you can only imagine the toll being taken his revenue- after all, it’s St Paddy’s week, one of his biggest nights. Granted, government will be covering salaries and have cancelled loan repayments for the time being, but in general, this little gremlin virus is going to take its’ toll on the entire world in general.
By Monday the news centres started reporting that full on lockdown would be called for, and sure as nuts are nuts, we have not left our apartment since Tuesday.
Obviously, if you have a job that doesn’t let you work from home, you can move about for that purpose. For food and exercise, we write our own permission slip and carry it in person each time we leave home. We cannot go out as a family, and trips to the shops are for food and food alone. Failure to comply (and get caught) will invoke a fine of 135euro fine.
My new daily routine now consists of waking up at 6am so hubby can get some cycling in before he starts work at 9. Beth is the first one on the computer at 7. Her work is all Word based documents, and we realised it would be better for all of us to simply do it directly onto the computer. She finishes by 8h30 to allow Alex online to attend to her work and classes online if any. Having this opportunity has proved to be a good thing in one respect, that the girls are learning to use the computer in a (hopefully) systematic manner. Beth has learnt how to send an e-mail with attachments, and I am teaching myself how to type on a french keyboard. (Does the drinking game slogan “never ever have I” spring to mind?)
Alex’s school work, however, has initially been somewhat catastrophic. Our middle schools (and up) all use a web based site to correspond with, one multi-purpose space where Alex’s teachers place her work and marks, where, as parents, we get a glace at her day to day schedule, whether she’s not arrived at class (if that happens), and we can communicate with her teachers (since they don’t give out their email addresses or other contact information.)
However, Day 1 of homeschooling saw the entire country’s 11-14 year old (and parents) log onto this website, and crashed it completely. Lessons that had missed deadlines to submit work, online teaching courses, sharing one computer with both girls, it has taken 3 days to find a schedule that works for us. Naturally, my own ability to speak French means I cannot help the girls with much success, so we will have to see the end result. It will, however, allow them to start teaching themselves, because I AM that battle axe mother breathing down their necks.
The other aspect to self-confinement that Macron spoke about last Thursday was his appeal for the Frenchman to not visit their elderly family. As hard as that sounds, the reality of this virus has hit the elderly more than anything, and it’s best for them to stay away from the public. Macron did suggest that instead of visiting elderly family, it is much better to simply phone them. This makes perfect sense, and there’s also so much to be said of reaching out to one another as well. I know, we all mostly have households of kids keeping our minds active and we don’t need to reach out necessarily to know the rest of the world is okay, but still, here I am, saying hi, know that I am thinking of you.
It was through this manner of connecting virtually with one another that a neighbour sent me a WhatsApp on Monday suggesting I should offer recipes to anyone interested that has provided me with some form of my own <télétravail>.
In these long days while watching my kids belt out and dance to the same Taylor Swift song 1000 times a day, I will happily take any chance of a chat with someone else on the social media platforms. Isn’t it ironic how, after being instructed by experts to stay away from our phones, that they’re addictive and we should live in the moment around us, as opposed to the strangers on the other side of a glass screen, that perhaps now is the time when we CAN connect with eachother through our phones?
As a result, between the homeschooling and cooking dinner, I am trying to type up recipes of our meals that I can send to families who are looking for some other types of inspiration. Bear in mind, this is not my fortè, speaking to video cameras is my idea of hell, and always at the back of my mind is that my cupboards may have a different variety of ingrediants than your average household. Since we’re not allowed to just pop out for some extra onions or a chilli pepper, these recipes may fail in their purpose.
Nonetheless, let me try. Who knows, this may launch a new career for me. In the mean time, stick around for some of my ‘go-to’ choices
My Mum used to make these for her Church tea duty, but they are my kids favourite for Sunday breakfast. They’re a little time consuming, but if you’re at home, with no chance of leaving home realistically, just go for it. We serve them with defrosted raspberries and creme fraîche, bananas and peanut butter, cheese and jam, Nutella, maple syrup, cinnamon and sugar!
Anyways my friends, hubby needs to use my laptop to try figure out why Windows has not been activated, so this is me signing off for now.
Stay safe, listen to government instruction to stop being social. Stay home. (Flatten the curve as I can hear in the background :-)…)
Sending all my love and wishes,
Gaenor and family.
Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals 