Day 6 - Tuesday 24th March
I wake a little later than usual after a disturbed night - surprisingly, I've been sleeping relatively well for a chronic insomniac - and feeling a little tearful. Sleep deprivation always affects my mood, but this feels like a delayed response to yesterday's announcement. When I enter my office and open the curtains the bright spring sunshine lifts my mood and when I turn on my PC I read that the lockdown in Hubei province is being lifted - a welcome reminder that this, too, will pass.
Today I'm due to judge the local Young Enterprise competition which normally involves a big event but this time requires me to mark online submissions and then have a conference call. It's always inspiring to see what the young people achieve and it provides me with a boost today. It's hard to stay focused though … the temptation to keep half an eye on the news is almost overwhelming. I want to see how well people are observing the new restrictions, and sadly it seems that many are still flouting them. It's hard to understand their motivation.
The weather is beautiful today and it's tempting to be outside - I'd love to plant the vegetable beds but I have lots of indoor work to do. Hubby mows the lawn, though, a job he normally hates but I suspect he secretly relishes after so much time indoors.
I've managed to confirm delivery of a veg box for Friday but it's actually very hard to observe the government's advice to order groceries in if possible - none of the supermarkets have released any new slots since yesterday. We're not likely to run out of food any time soon, but we are running short on some items which will reduce my ability to cook a varied menu and one of my coping mechanisms in any time of crisis is to nourish people with the best food I can cook. Fortunately I'm pretty good at improvising, so I'll just have to stretch my creativity.
Tonight's dinner is ramen - a great way of using up the stock I made from the chicken carcase and some of the smaller pieces of meat I salvaged from it (for the carnivore) and the starting-to-look-a-bit-limp veggies for the rest of us. I haven't reached the point of needing it yet, but the "bootstrap cook" Jack Monroe is running a wonderful lock-down larder Twitter event daily at 5pm, advising people what to make out of the random ingredients languishing at the back of their cupboards.
In the post today I received two beautiful cards for Mothers Day, from my daughter and my grandson. Having become reliant on the internet for most forms of communication, I had forgotten how fantastic it was to receive social mail (as opposed to the usual bills and junk mail!). So today I am grateful for postal workers.
Today I'm due to judge the local Young Enterprise competition which normally involves a big event but this time requires me to mark online submissions and then have a conference call. It's always inspiring to see what the young people achieve and it provides me with a boost today. It's hard to stay focused though … the temptation to keep half an eye on the news is almost overwhelming. I want to see how well people are observing the new restrictions, and sadly it seems that many are still flouting them. It's hard to understand their motivation.
The weather is beautiful today and it's tempting to be outside - I'd love to plant the vegetable beds but I have lots of indoor work to do. Hubby mows the lawn, though, a job he normally hates but I suspect he secretly relishes after so much time indoors.
I've managed to confirm delivery of a veg box for Friday but it's actually very hard to observe the government's advice to order groceries in if possible - none of the supermarkets have released any new slots since yesterday. We're not likely to run out of food any time soon, but we are running short on some items which will reduce my ability to cook a varied menu and one of my coping mechanisms in any time of crisis is to nourish people with the best food I can cook. Fortunately I'm pretty good at improvising, so I'll just have to stretch my creativity.
Tonight's dinner is ramen - a great way of using up the stock I made from the chicken carcase and some of the smaller pieces of meat I salvaged from it (for the carnivore) and the starting-to-look-a-bit-limp veggies for the rest of us. I haven't reached the point of needing it yet, but the "bootstrap cook" Jack Monroe is running a wonderful lock-down larder Twitter event daily at 5pm, advising people what to make out of the random ingredients languishing at the back of their cupboards.
In the post today I received two beautiful cards for Mothers Day, from my daughter and my grandson. Having become reliant on the internet for most forms of communication, I had forgotten how fantastic it was to receive social mail (as opposed to the usual bills and junk mail!). So today I am grateful for postal workers.
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