Lockdown 3 – Volcano!

These days, if anything slightly interesting happens then we jump right on it. We watched the Fagradalsfjall volcano for most of Sunday. We set up the screen & projector so we could watch it as big as possible. It was amazing. I love volcanos. My family watched it together during our Sunday afternoon skype meet up. Later Gav and I watched it while listening to the Freakzone on 6music and it was perfect for Sunday evening.

11K people from all over the world were also watching the stream. At one point a couple of men did some work on the camera and it was funny seeing their faces with waves and words of thanks coming from the chat of the stream.

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Lockdown 3 – Busy Social Life

We set up a Shouty Cafe in our garden and ever since we’ve had a constant stream of visitors. The most regular are ‘The Shouties’ – a gang made up of Robin, Wren, a pair of Great Tits and a pair of Blue Tits, and recently a couple of Dunnocks. They come at the same times each day and we often eat our lunches together. The Magpie couple who live in the tree nearby and Blackbird call by sometimes, and for the last few weeks the Wood Pigeons are constantly picking up the dropped seed from under the feeder. Sadly, Old Pigeon may not be with us much longer as he can barely walk. Cheeky Squirrel Nutkin comes and eats the food from the cup feeders that are hung in the hedge.

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Lockdown 3 – Gav’s School

For four afternoons a week for a month two boys came to our flat for ‘Gav’s School’. During lesson times I could overhear what was going on from the safety of my cupboard/office and it was a joy to hear a six & seven year old get so excited by learning. They learned spelling, maths, telling the time, all sorts of interesting science and nature facts and they made a plasticine stop annimation film. In between every class there was a ten minute break and I joined in pillow fights, hide & seek and ‘home taping is killing music’.

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Lockdown 3 – Outfit for Work

I panic bought furry leggings and fluffy slippers at the start of Lockdown 2 so that i would be ready for the winter. I look horrible in this outfit but I don’t care because it is warm. I don’t want to pay to have the heating on all day so I wear warm clothes while I work from home. I wear a rotation of tops so on daily skype meetings it looks like I change my clothes.

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Lockdown 3 – the dance

When ‘our song’ comes on the radio we have a dance. We’ve made our own dance routine. I doubt that we would win Strictly with it, but it’s fun to do and when the pub opens we will do it at the pub disco. (‘Our song’ changes depending on the BBC 6 music radio playlist, currently it is Juniore Un Jour Ou L’Autre)

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Lockdown 3 – Mogwai in our living room

Mogwai played an online gig in our living room. It was our first online gig. It was great. We got the screen and projector out for it and hooked up the sound to the stereo. In between each song I clapped and Gav whooped.

the pros of online gigs – no one talked through it, no queue for the bar or toilets, I wore my PJs, no journey home afterwards.
the cons of online gigs – the atmospehere wasn’t as great and it wasn’t as loud as it should be (I’ve got upstairs neighbours so can’t put the sound on as loud as a usual Mogwai concert)

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Lockdown 3 – pizza night

Things that we get up to in Lockdown 3.

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Glastonbury

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I’m a bit late putting this one up… my favourite Glastonbury for years.

21st May – 1st June

21 May: Foggy on Shetland, it was difficult to see which was a puffin and which was a seagull (Gav kept calling them pigeons)

22 May: Pyjamas and cleaning day followed by a bad choice of film (i’m barred from picking a film for a while)

23 May: Woke up to good news!

24 May: A Very British Eid.

25 May: Gardening Day

26 May: Everyone is angry about Dominic Cummings, Gove says that he’s also gone for a drive to test his eyesight. Does anyone believe that our government is doing a good job?

27 May: Surely NO ONE can still believe that Johnson is a good leader?

28 May: Doctors protest outside Downing Street while the Tory MPs who have shafted them ‘clap for the NHS’. The new ‘Track & Trace’ app is launched, but doesn’t work. Matt Hancock laughs on TV.

29 May: The final Trunk Of Punk from Craig Charles on 6 Music

30 May: A rocket went to space and I didn’t do pilates.

31 May: Sushi!

1 June: Lockown eases. The end of this Corona Diary. The book has run out of pages.

11th – 20th May

11 May: We watched Dirty Dancing and decided that we should practice our dirty dancing moves in case they ever made a follow up film and needed some new stars for the film. We were not feeling Alert, but we tried to Stay Alert.

12 May: Gav had the lockdown blues, Damaged Goods did a mail out about the Rabies Babies record, which was sort of sad because I am really missing having gigs and band practices. We went to bed early and listened to Gideon Coe’s show on 6music.

13 May: Work stuff.

14 May: I had to cycle in to work to take my back up.

15 & 16 May: ill again

17 May: A bit better, did cleaning (of me and the flat) and we tested out the inks for the screenprinted sleeve for the Rabies Babies record.

18 May: Slow internet and social distancing visitors.

19 May: Puffins!

20 May: The contrails are back ruining the sky.

Corona Diary – 5th -10th May

Corona diary 26 April to 4 May

The last week has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. I’ve felt sad and grumpy, then was ill for a couple of days and then felt very angry at our government and then I was grumpy again and today I feel OK again.
The absolutely best thing about this week was coming across the Shetland Islands Cliff Cam 3. Every evening we watch the puffins. It is the highlight of the day.

Lockdown birthday

It was a lot more fun than i expected… we danced til 2am.

Lockdown Diary 14-22 April

 

Corona Diary – Tues 7th to Mon 13th April

The week was tough. The reality of working from home has hit. We are at home, in a crisis, trying to work. Lots of my colleagues are furloughed and the ones left are trying to keep it together. It sucked last week, I hope that this week is easier.

Lockdown Diary 6 April

Monday blues. I just couldn’t concentrate on work.

Lockdown Diary 5 April

Gardening and family skype.

Lockdown diary 4 April

Saturday 4th April.
I got really bored with lockdown so i pretended that it was Christmas Day. We drank weird drinks from the leftover xmas booze and we watched Planet of the Apes on telly.

Lockdown Diary

Thursday and Friday.

Lockdown Shopping Bingo

How to play:
1. Write a list of things that you would like to buy, things that are usually always in the shops.
2. Go shopping.
3. See how many you can buy off the list.

I played with Gav. We both wrote lists and he went out to the shops. We both scored 8 out of 11 items.

CORONA LOCK DOWN DIARY

Sunday to Wednesday. I had a wobble on Tuesday. I read on Twitter that we are not working from home, we are at home in a crisis, trying to work.
On Wednesday we invented Lockdown Shopping Bingo, which makes shopping more fun.

Corona Lock Down Diary

I’m doing a Corona lock down diary to help me stay sane and so I can remember what me and Gav got up to. We’re eating better than ever because there’s so much time to cook meals and I think that the food in my Brexit box will last another few weeks (I  panic bought my tins and pasta two years ago when my biggest fear was Brexit), when the Brexit box is empty then the memory of these nice meals might be comforting, already I am rationing the Cheddar biscuits.