Back To Lockdown Level 2

Well dear diary here we are back at level 2.  Shops are open again, we can get haircuts, takeaways are back.  It's been so long since I last wrote that things have changed quite a bit.  I really should have been keeping better tabs on the whole thing, but then again I also think I'm really kidding myself if I'm going to come back and read story upon story of being stuck in our house for weeks on end.  Here's a few of the things that have happened since the last 3 weeks or so when I last wrote:

It was Peter Chat's 70th Birthday last weekend.  We all went over to celebrate, even though that was to some degree breaking the lockdown rules.  He was given the most amazing electric bike for his Birthday, I don't really think he's ridden it much yet because it's pretty big and we think it might be a little uncomfortable for him to get on and off with his hip.  I'm going to go over this coming weekend and go for a ride with him, I think it'll be very helpful to have someone go with him so that doesn't "get stuck" somewhere away from home.   We had a great little party at his place anyway, we were there for a couple of hours and sat outside in the garden at the end of the pool.  The kids all had a good time playing together for the first time in a while.

Because the kids have been so good during lockdown, a couple of weeks ago (gee probably 3 now?) Sarah got them some presents.  Beth really wanted a Scrufaluff and Theo of course wanted Lego.  Theo had been watching the Arctic Explorers video every day for about 2 weeks and was just so, so excited about the "Woolly Mamma" that was going to come with it.  Quite often he'd get his little lego booklet and sit up on the couch and point and talk about all the things that did (and didn't) come with the Lego kit that he'd been promised.  When it did arrive of course boy was he excited, and he did a really good job of being patient AND even putting some of the harder things together.  So now he has his lovely Arctic Explorers kit and he really loves it, of course.  It's just a shame it's so many small fiddly pieces and because it's got a movable grappling hook thing, it breaks off really really easily when he's playing with it which is a source of frustration for him.  But he can put it back together now - "I can do it!" is an oft-heard phrase at the moment.  Though that said, I had to spend an hour last night putting the crane thing back together after it got totally torn to bits on Sunday.  I think because his Cousins were over, or he was getting frustrated with it.  Sadly for him when he's trying to fix one piece he often ends up breaking two other pieces, before he knows it, it's in bits.  But we just put it back together for him and he's happy.

Beth got a Scruffaluff who has been imaginatively named "Scruffy".  The love and care with which Scruff's name tag was filled out!  Scruff woofs and talks and you can feed her a bottle etc.  Fun for the whole family, cough. 

So this week Beth's back at school, and Theo's back at Kindy.  I'm still working from home because work have asked that we do that unless we really, really need to go into work.  Makes sense I guess, I don't mind working from home, it's way better now of course that the kids aren't here with their requirements every 30 minutes.  I'm glad they're back, we weren't the best stay-at-home teachers, it's a great idea in theory but when we've both got work to do there isn't a lot of time to sit down and teach them maths and reading.  Not that I'm worried about Beth's reading, she's fine, but we should probably work on Theo's a little bit more.  Beth could read words when she was starting school, Theo'll be starting in a couple of months and I don't think he's anywhere near ready to be reading words.  He's good with math/numbers though, so each to their own I suppose.  I worked Beth up to School yesterday and today, it's actually nice to walk with her and spend a bit of time.  Yesterday she was talking about getting a pet bird, today the same with what she might name it etc.  And then lots of hugging trees (actually hugging them) because she's thankful for them giving us Oxygen.  Pretty cute.  Theo when he came home from Kindy yesterday was just wrecked, he looked like he'd be dragged through the mud, he was SO tired.  I guess sitting at home watching TV for most of the day, vs running around like a mad thing all day at Kindy are two very very different things!  It was good to see him tired (But mostly happy) though.  Beth seemed to have a good day at school too, it was quite different than normal with all the protocols, 2m apart from your friends etc.  She seemed to handle it really well though and didn't even really have any questions for us when she got home.

Not really heaps else to talk about, homebrew is going well.  I've been doing a lot of running too, I realised my Garmin Watch has a training coach on it so I started that last Friday.  I did a 10km run, then on Saturday I did a 7.5km run.  Saturday afternoon I took the kids for a walk around Anderson Park and then by Saturday night my back was totally stuffed and in pain.  I spent a good portion of Sunday in bed which wasn't fun.  Monday it was still sore and today, it's still a bit painful but getting a lot better.  No idea what I did, I think I must have had strange posture when I was running on Saturday or something.

What else? It was Mother's Day (the same day we went to Peter Chat's for his Birthday), all I could do really was organise some flowers and chocolates from the local florist.  Beth made Sarah a card ~5 days beforehand and was just over the moon with excitement to give it to her.  The Saturday before that we all went down to Ahuriri Beach as a family, Beth and Theo went and had a play in the sea while maintaining distance from everyone else.  We lined up to get Chicken and Chips too, which was nice.  It was a little bit of normality returning, even though all the playgrounds and play equipment was closed and off-limits.

What else? Beth's been doing a lot of drawing.  Sarah gave her the chalk pen and she had a lot of fun on the back windows.  Sarah also got her some watercolours to paint with and she's done some really lovely paintings, I haven't taken photos of those yet but I need to remember to before they get lost/blown away in the wind. Update: Took photos, click back on the link.

The garden has massive Watermelons on it!  I gave up on them when we went away to Australia, I knew there'd been no rain and the garden was mostly dead when we got back.  But somehow over the last 3 months they've started growing and we have some great big ones out there.  I should go and grab some in today. We also grew a bunch of random pumpkins, they just shot out of the compost bin.  Theo helped me collect them and put them in the wheelbarrow, we put them out the front and posted on the Facebook residents page.  They were gone by the end of the day which was good.

Well I think that's about it - I can't think of much else that's been happening.  It was good to finally get takeaways, and it's been nice to see the lawnmower man again.  Oh I heard that Jill from Jillyfish sadly passed away.  We saw her last at the Elton John concert, she wasn't looking great then but it was at least good to see her out and about.  It's sad though, she had a real passion for teaching kids to swim and she was really good at it.  She's partly the reason our kids are so good at their swimming now.  No idea what this'll mean for the swimschool they were planning/building.

Oh, Powderfinger this Saturday! They've already recorded it, but still looking forward to it.  Will have to crack out a homebrew and take over the loungeroom TV.  It only goes for 30 minutes.

Right, that's def it.  Gotta get some work done.

Oh last thing - it was a year ago I did my Marathon!  18th May.  Sadly they've had to cancel this years (not that I was going anywhere near it!!!)

Tim