The last time I didn’t leave one place for 4 days was when I was confined to Makati Medical Centre after giving birth to my first daughter in 2014. That was a tiny, windowless hospital room. This time I’m in a spacious house with a garden. It shouldn’t be that difficult, but somehow it is. I don’t know if it’s because I know that I can’t go out, or if it is because being stuck in one place makes me a little crazy. It must be that gypsy blood I have.
What was today like? The weather wasn’t great – a bit rainy and cloudy for most of the day. But otherwise, it was more of the same really. But I did have less energy and enthusiasm than I’d had yesterday.
The children still enjoyed their school-at-home day and came up with lots of fun things to do during their downtime. Listening to the rain on their umbrellas, racing a toy car up and down the kitchen and then pretending to be bridges by standing with their legs open for the cars to pass under. For gimnasio we chalked up some road markings on the drive way, along with traffic lights, stop signs & a give way. Daughter 1 even decided to try riding her bike without stabilisers. We still have a bit of a way to go, but it’ll be sooner than I anticipated that she’ll be riding along by herself.
We FaceTimed a friend, which was strangely comforting. I read today that voice calls have really shot up recently. Makes sense I suppose, when you’re not able to meet up in person. I don’t like video calls, but it was better than I thought it would be.
I’ve started sharing this blog with a few people who are not yet in lockdown. I think it’s only a matter of time though, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts about how to prepare for a lockdown.
Preparing for quarantine
We had about a day’s notice that we would be going into lockdown. In reality, as soon as the state of alarm was issued, a number of people took that as the start of the lockdown. Shops didn’t close immediately though. Hopefully you’ll be in the same situation.
On that last day, a Saturday, I went out and did our weekly shop. I also went to our local Chinese store and bought a few bits and pieces. I wish I’d bought more. Especially art & craft supplies to use with the children.
I’ve discovered a couple of things though:
1) Normally we’re all out for most of the week; either at work or at school. So we normally eat lunch out of the house. Now we’re here for every meal, and every snack. I didn’t factor this into my weekly shop. So whilst we are still amply prepared for dinners, we are scraping around a little for lunches. We have enough, but I think I could have planned it better and made sure we had a little more options.
2) There is a lot of time to fill for the children, and they like making things, drawing pictures etc. We’re running out of paper! And we probably will run low on paint before the quarantine period is over. Make sure you have more than enough art & craft supplies.
As I think of more things, I’ll add them to the list. And if you have any questions, please drop me a line at hello@thisisbex.com.
