Sunday, April 26, 2020

VR or not VR

Monday:

Earlier this year my husband was offered a Voluntary Redundancy at work. The government can't just fire you for no reason, so if they want to cut staff they have to offer money as an incentive to leave, and the amount increases the longer you've been employed. He's been there more than 10 years so it seemed like a good deal, with his Long Service Leave payout as well he'd have a while to look for another job. He likes his job but it is a long commute, and with no prospect of further advancement. We'd practically decided to take it, but then Covid-19 happened. Now we're not sure how long it would take him to find another job, and I'm also out of work. So I guess he's staying where he is. He's lucky to have a secure job in these uncertain times.

Term 2 of school starts tomorrow, still at home but they are talking about phasing back into classrooms, one day a week so they can have less students there at a time. Lockdowns probably easing soon. Australia still has only 60 deaths total. Jasmine has been working really hard but I think it will be a relief for her to get back into a proper routine with teachers on hand. Aiden sleeps until nearly noon and it's a struggle to make him do his school work so it will be a relief for me to get him back into proper school! He is very smart but not the most conscientious so I would worry about the long term effect on his grades if the school-from-home went on much longer.

I've been eating too much, doing a bit of gardening, learning the piano, but mostly playing computer games (World of Warcraft). Not great for my health.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Delay

Thursday:

As I expected, my colonoscopy has been delayed indefinitely due to Covid-19. The hospital said I’m still on the waiting list, but they don’t know when it will be.

We had a quiet Easter at home, of course. Lots of chocolate.

We’ve offered to do the grocery shopping for my father-in-law, but he goes out more than we do. Haircut, hardware store, he doesn’t hesitate to leave the house. We can’t force him to stay home. Ah well. Infection rates in Australia remain low. There is talk that kids may be back in schools in four weeks. We’ll see.

Stay well.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Home

Tuesday:

Has it only been two weeks home with the kids? Feels like longer! Jasmine acts as though she’s at school, dividing her day into subjects, chatting online with friends who are in those classes, and taking breaks at regular school times. With homework, she is working 9-5 or longer (she’s in Year 11). She is a little worried about how it will affect her final High School results next year, but overall seems fine.

Aiden, by contrast, sleeps for half the morning and plays computer games the rest of the time. He only does school work when I stand over him with a whip. Maybe an hour a day. I don’t think he’s being given as much work as Jas is, but he’s not devoting much time to what he does have! We go into school holidays next week, which will be easier, but we probably have months of school-at-home  to come.

Tim is still working, his office has gone to two shifts and they are completely segregated so if one group gets sick the other won’t catch it. He works afternoons, and is home about the same time in the evening he was anyway, so he is quite enjoying having mornings free. He drives into the city to avoid public transport, now that the roads are less clogged.

I am spending way too much time playing World of Warcraft instead of being productive, but I have started learning piano. My birthday present to Tim was a fancy new keyboard to replace the one he had since he was about 14, and I’ve started using Yousician to learn how to play it. I go grocery shopping twice a week, most things are back on the shelves except toilet paper and pasta, but otherwise I stay in the house.

Australia is still overall pretty safe and healthy, I think we’ve had only 38 deaths compared to hundreds or thousands elsewhere. A big proportion of our cases have come from one mind-boggling incident (now under criminal investigation) where people were allowed to walk off a cruise ship without testing or isolation even though many were showing symptoms.

I hope you are all safe and well.