The Isolation Diaries – 24th and 25 March 2020

tuesday 24th march 2020

I woke up in a terrible, horrible mood today. I felt like everything I was doing and touching was just going wrong and that I just wanted to sit and cry.

I went into Ross’ room to record my radio show but, because I was still in my dressing gown, I just didn’t feel comfortable. Instead, I went off upstairs to get sorted to see if it would make a difference. It didn’t really. I recorded my show but my heart wasn’t in it.

doing something fun

I decided that this was a morning for cake-making and a bit of fun. We still had a Paw Patrol cupcake making set in the cupboard which Ross had bought a couple of months ago so I sat down with Rex to make those. Then I decided to have a go at making a cake using chickpeas (a Slimming World recipe I had seen) and Grace made herself a smoothie after helping me.

We then went outside for some fresh air and sunshine which definitely helped. We listened to Ross’ radio show together. Ross carried on clearing out the garage. Then, we went inside for some lunch.

back at my desk

After Rex went down for my nap, I went back to my desk for some more work – which was later than planned. I am still getting some work in so am doing it where I can.

I am still so undecided and conflicted by Slimming World. I really do feel that they have tried to rush it through before letting things settle. I flit between understanding what they are trying to achieve and anger for pushing it too much and being over-animated (especially in their letter to the members which I shared this morning in our Facebook group).

Ross took over making dinner this evening and we had some left-overs. After Grace went to bed, Ross and I played a movie trivia game and, whilst Ross played the XBox and one of his favourites – Slime Rancher – I listened to the news. I really must stop doing that!

WHAT WE ATE

• Breakfast – yoghurt
• Lunch – Spaghetti Carbonara
• Dinner – Jacket potato with mince from last night

IN THE NEWS

The UK added 1,427 cases today and now has reported a total of 8,077 positive cases of COVID-19. We had in total tested 90,436 people as of 9am this morning. We have lost 87 more people to COVID-19, we now have a total of 422 losses of life.

The total number of cases worldwide is 340,408. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 14,573. Already 97,571 have recovered.

wednesday 25th march 2020

a more positive start

Today was a MUCH more positive start. I felt more in control of my emotions. I was grateful for that because I could see that Grace was already struggling today. I tried to make sure I gave her some attention and lots of cuddles.

some DIY

I recorded my show as usual and then went upstairs with Rex to get him dressed and then decided I would try to put up a curtain rail in his room. He currently has a blind which sticks to his window and it has been like that since he moved into his room when he was 9 months old. It is about time he had a normal one and I want to get it done before the clocks change this weekend.

I marked out all the holes but when I came to drilling them, Rex was scared and in tears. It meant I had to stop. At least I have the holes marked out now so I will carry on with that when I can.

I also made a start on cleaning my kitchen!

some fresh air

The weather was even more beautiful today and I actually ventured out without a coat on (unheard of for me before April!). Because our front drive looks so beautiful now, Grace and I hung some string across our fence and strung up some of our solar light bulbs. It looked fab.

Rex and I raced some cars down our drive. He is enjoying singing ‘Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush’ and ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’. He is also playing Bear Hunt a lot and pretending to make all the noises like ‘squelch squerch’ and ‘splishy sploshy’ like in the book.

a picnic lunch

We decided to have our lunch in the garden so I popped indoors with Grace to get some baguettes in the oven and bacon under the grill. I also put together some crisps and some jaffa cakes and a jug of squash. We sat and listened to Ross’ show and ate together.

work, work, work

Thankfully, I had more blog work come through so carried on with that. I have also been looking into the Slimming World situation a bit more and having lots of chats with Ross about it. This has really helped and I feel much happier about the whole thing. Netflix and Sky are still charging after all!

A walk to the post office

Grace and I walked down to the Post Office so I could send a couple of gifts to my sister for her birthday. This included the Silent Pool Gin Gift set. I was going to keep this for myself but her needs (and her 40th birthday) means hers are greater than mine right now! Plus, I sent her a board game called Spinergy which is great for actor types. On top of all this, we have organised her a cake and a hamper full of goodies from Fortnum and Mason. I also designed her a card via Funky Pigeon.

As well as sending my sister’s parcels, I sent one of my Slimming World members a recipe book I owed her. We also got a few essentials from the shop (yes, this did include chocolate!).

I come back to more work and Grace prepped the potatoes for the Thatched Pie I was going to make.

Ross amused Rex. Grace then had a bath with him whilst I prepped the dinner. I then went back up to say goodnight to Rex and came down to finish the dinner and set up our Zoom call so we could play Online Bingo.

online bingo

Thanks to Laura at BlogOn and 34SP (who were providing the prizes), I joined 37 other blogging families to take part in online bingo via Zoom. Grace and I had decided we wanted to play a bit earlier in the day so we had our bingo cards sent to us so we sat down with a pen and had a bit of fun. The prizes were a £10 Amazon voucher for one line, £15 for two lines and £25 for a full house. We didn’t win but we had a great time and agreed to give it another go the next week. We were also up for the Quiz Night on Saturday.

Afterwards we had dinner with another episode of the first series of The Heist. Grace went up to bed and Ross and I had some down-time.

what we ate

• Breakfast – a ‘fend for yourselves’ job! (I had yoghurt)
• Lunch – a picnic of baguettes with bacon, crisps and jaffa cakes
• Dinner – Thatched Pie (turkey)

in the news

We added 1,452 cases today and now have reported a total of 9,529 positive cases of COVID-19. We had in total tested more than 90,500 people as of 9am this morning. We lost 43 more people to COVID-19, we now have a total of 465 losses of life.

The total number of cases worldwide is now 464,683. The number of people who have lost their lives worldwide to COVID-19 is now 20,942. The number of people who have already recovered is 113,802.