Monday 13 April

Well, we are into Week 5 of lockdown. If it weren't that the strange has become normal, I would say this were pretty astounding. So be it.

Frankly, today has had its own particular dose of weird.

As keen as I was to return to the structure of days in which Manu follows her school timetable, I was relieved to wake earlier and to read, journal, meditate and workout before breakfast. I know, I know, there are more than a few of you that will find my attempts at self-soothing weird.

And yes, you may well have the last laugh. Since immediately after breakfast, as Manu went through the process of logging onto her Microsoft Teams account, she realised that she did not, in fact, have school today at all. The fact that I am announcing this blatant failure of parental competency to you all just shows how far we have all shifted from normal.

Needless to say, Manu does not share my proclivity for early mornings and routine. She happily ditched the laptop in favour of the duvet, snuggling under the covers with her book. I, on the other hand, grabbed a second cup of coffee and headed for my desk.

I responded to some emails, trying to ignore the fact that someone of questionable integrity just brought out yet another self-published book on Amazon, while I am struggling to write anything publishable (even by myself). Then I sat around waiting for my first meeting, watching as the clock ticked 20 minutes past the time in my schedule. It turned out the other person had completely forgotten our appointment (and not without good reason). I tried getting onto my second meeting via the relevant Zoom invite, until realising the date on the notification was for next Monday. The meeting host had changed the date without telling anyone.

I filled the time by watching a video of a friend cutting her own hair, dressed only in her bra. The alternative was to watch yet another miracle of coordinated singing over Zoom, from 20 different locations. Given that every Friday, our family and one other fail miserably to sing one song in anything resembling 'coordinated Zoom time', the self-hair-cut-in-a-bra video was a no brainer. It just made me feel better about my abilities, you know?

While I made all these false starts in my efforts to be productive, Tim recorded and posted a 20 minute video, turned a pretty great bowl from a lump of wood, and made bagels for the first time. I guess it was just his day.

Admittedly, Manu remained under the covers with her book for a good deal of the day. Meanwhile, Keziah made beautiful music, did complicated braids in her hair, and posted super smart book reviews online.

I shared with the family my need for some verbal affirmation to help me rally my mood at the end of this day of thwarted plans and disappointed efforts. The girls were great - they told me I have a great sense of humour it's only that Americans don't get it.

Stranger things have happened.