I was going to call this post - ‘When Covid comes to call’ but thought that would be misleading as I'm pretty sure we don't have it. I also worried that calling it that might drive away any potential readers - as if saying the word or reading some words about it would instantly transmit the virus.
I’m not trying to make light of a life threatening condition but I do feel that if I so much as sniff these days, I’m a modern day leper who should be ringing a bell and calling ‘unclean’!
You see, me and the kids have had a cold this week, the first one of the year. Because I mentioned the word ‘cough’ when I rang the school to report their absence on Monday, I was instantly informed that they would have to be tested for Covid-19 and found to be clear before they were allowed to return to school. As it’s been reported in the news it has proved impossible to obtain a Covid test so we’ve been trapped in the house with two hyperactive kids. They are now almost fine, I feel better - unless *self pity is one of the recognised symptoms of the virus…
I understand the school's stance - they have to be extra vigilent. But we are still trapped in limbo. Can they go back to school when they couldn't be tested but have passed the quarantine period? Is this situation going to keep recurring throughout the term? What if it's not just a cold?
It made me eat my breakfast very mindfully the other day. I interrogated my taste buds - could I taste my banana, yogurt, honey and granola combo? I could and it was delicious! The roasted almond in Tesco Finest** granola is one of the nicest things in the world, so nice that I added it to the gratitude journal the other day when I was scrabbling around for things to be grateful for.
A friend has recommended vitamin drops for the kids to protect them against the inevitable barrage of coughs and colds that will assail them at school from now until next April. It was no different when I was at school. My Mum used to break a Karvol capsule onto a tissue for me and I’d dab my red, chafed nose against it at various points during the day. We went into school with coughs and colds just to keep up the merry proliferation of that virus, obviously nowhere near as dangerous, in its many strains, as Covid-19. The Guardian helpfully reproduced this NHS chart:
Onto cheerier things, ever since I read of Agatha Christie's writing routine I've been longing to go to the same hotel on Dartmoor and write! And take solitary walks on the moor after lunch and act out my dialogue! This is what I need to do! I mean, I’m not saying that it is my constant fantasy to run away at the moment or that any harsh word that gets thrown at me this week is making me want to weep but….you know.
We stopped off at Dartmoor on our way to Cornwall in August and tramped across the misty Moors. It was a wonderful feeling to traverse the expanse with only the sheep and cows for company.
One day I will go to a hotel there and be comfortable in my own company and take solitary lunches and write, one day...
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