Day 84 - Thursday 11th June

I'm not feeling too great today. I haven't been sleeping well and the atmosphere in the house has been tricky recently. Hubby is clashing with both our son and I; I think the continued lockdown is beginning to take its toll now. It's calmer in the mornings when both are still in bed, although they have both been trying to get up earlier. I'm steadily working through my to-do lists but making less progress than I would like.

Early afternoon we have a zoom call with our daughter in which we mostly discuss our plans for the weekend. Prompted by her, and following a conversation with our son, we're going to consciously relax the distancing rules around our grandson. He is due to return to nursery on Monday and, although she's not planning to send him, he would be allowed close contact with the nursery staff despite our daughter having no idea how well they are observing social distancing. Yet his close family aren't allowed near him even tough we're being scrupulous about not meeting others. When they visit us this weekend she doesn't want us to have to back away if our grandson approaches us; she's worried that it will start to become normal to him and is concerned about the effect that might have. We agree that we'll need to check in frequently to make sure everybody is still happy and that if anything changes we'll need to recalibrate. It feels like a sensible approach to managing the risk, especially since we don't plan to do many of the other things that are beginning to be made possible, like visiting non-essential shops.

We're having pizza tonight so hubby makes the dough and the tomato sauce before going out to meet his friend in the park. I prepare some sourdough for baking tomorrow then get the toppings out ready for later.

I attend an online meeting convened by Thames Valley faith leaders to bring citizens and leaders together; there are a number of people from Reading present including some close colleagues. It's the first of these I've attended and I think the first time this group has been convened, although something similar has been taking place in Milton Keynes for a while; they are extending its reach. I mostly listen, although early on I'm suddenly catapulted into a break out room with a single student, which I find surprising from a safeguarding perspective, and have no choice but to make conversation. Later break-out groups are larger and are asked to discuss specific questions, and the meeting closes by putting four requests to the Police and Crime Commissioner around living wage, misogyny, climate change and another topic I can't recall. He's very defensive and dismissive and, frankly, misogynistic towards the woman who is given the task of making the requests on behalf of the group.

We top our pizzas and cook them - it's a favourite meal and the atmosphere around the table is good. Tonight I am grateful for less stressful mealtimes.