Self Isolating Week One

What It’s REALLY Like to Self-Isolate with your Family!

The first few days feel a bit like a holiday to be honest.  Mr T normally works away during the week so he was delighted to be able to be with Mrs T 24/7.  Miss T and her partner, Mr L, normally work abroad so Mr & Mrs T were looking forward to spending more time with them as well.

So, how are they faring after a week of all 4 of them working from home and living together under the new “lockdown” rules?  Well I’m happy to report that they are all still on speaking terms and productivity is still at a reasonable level. 

Mr & Mrs T are ensconced in the dining room, where there has been some “discussion” on the fair division of space allocation of the dining table as Mr T has a pc, 2 screens and a huge pile of drawings, whereas Mrs T has a laptop, diary and mobile phone on what she describes as her “postage stamp sized office space”.

On the whole things are looking good so far!  One thing that has come to light, however, is that everybody is noticing little “habits” in each other that were previously unnoticed.  For instance Mrs T has discovered that Miss T doesn’t like it when her breakfast cereal biscuits touch each other in the bowl as this interferes with the even milk saturation (yep – that was an actual conversation!).  Miss T, of course, has countered with the fact that Mrs T likes to give Mr T a running narrative of everything she does during the day.  Apparently, Mr T hasn’t noticed!!

Mr L and Miss T share an upstairs office space, where it has been noted that every 10 minutes or so, Mr L reaches over and lovingly caresses his electric guitar. 

So it would seem that we all have some quirks and habits that went hitherto unnoticed – and we have concluded that it is highly likely that this is the case in households up and down the country.

On a more serious note, Mr L has pointed out that we have all slipped into the habit of drinking more alcohol.  That’s not to say that we are getting legless every night, but under normal circumstances none of us would drink alcohol during the week.  We would share a bottle or two of wine over the weekends but none of us would partake Monday to Friday.  It’s not unusual, of course, for people to use alcohol, or other crutches, to help them through difficult times.  As light hearted as this blog is, the whole country is under stress and everyone is trying to adapt to a very different way of life.  As a family unit, we all check in with each other every morning and evening to see how everyone is coping, we all feel comfortable enough to discuss with each other if we are experiencing overwhelm or anxiety.  However, not everyone has someone to share with, or feels able to do that.  So, please remember that nobody should be shouldering this alone and that it is perfectly fine to reach out and talk to people about your worries and fears. 

PS. Mr T eventually noticed that Mrs T is wearing a crown today (apparently she is dressing to suit her mood!) and a collective decision has been made to strictly limit alcohol usage.  Oh, and the office dog, TP, has asked for a pay rise as she now has 2 offices to patrol!

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