Hope is in the air
Confidence building daily
A shot in the arm
My wife and I both had our first vaccine doses this week. I had AZ whilst my wife had Pfizer today. I had a day or so of fever and a general fluey feeling but supposedly Pfizer has few side affects. It remains to be seen what difference the vaccines actually make against covid, but we will find that out in time I'm sure.
It's hard not to feel the general vibe of confidence in the air though I'm not sure how much the warmer weather has to do with that. I took the baby out for a walk at the weekend and was stopped a couple of times for a chat by some of our elderly neighbours. Their attitudes were almost childlike and they seemed thrilled to be outside and interacting with others. I can understand where they are coming from.
I do hope that this is not a false dawn, and that even though future outbreaks are likely, they remain short and flat.
Also added are a couple of photo's from my walk at the weekend, from Frank's Park, near Belvedere.
I've been watching the closing stages of the World Snooker, and its marvellous to see crowds back in to watch. I don't think I realised, until now, how much a difference it can make to an atmosphere, even watching it on TV. It would be lovely to think that this marked the beginning of things getting back to normal, at least in some capacity. We shall see. But greatest of all is to see the man who always sits in the corner, at the front, is back in his seat again after a year away.
Today's prompt:
And now for our prompt. This one is a bit involved, which is why I’m giving it to you on a Saturday. Today, I’d like to challenge you to make a “Personal Universal Deck,” and then to write a poem using it. The idea of the “Personal Universal Deck” originated with the poet and playwright Michael McClure, who gave the project of creating such decks to his students in a 1976 lecture at Naropa University. Basically, you will need 50 index cards or small pieces of paper, and on them, you will write 100 words (one on the front and one on the back of each card/paper) using the rules found here.
Don’t agonize over your word choices. Making the deck should be fun and revealing, as you generate words that sound “good” to you. The fact that the words are mainly divided among the five senses should be helpful in selecting words that you like the sound of, and that have some meaning personal to you. For example, my deck contains “harbor,” “wool,” “murmur,” “obsidian,” and “needle.”
Once you have your deck put together, shuffle it a few times. Now select a card or two, and use them as the basis for a new poem.
This sounded like an interesting idea to me, however as the father of three young children I was never going to get the chance to cut out fifty pieces of paper, let alone cover them with 100 thoughtful words and then write a poem after that. But I'd like to think that it's something like I'd like to visit in the future.
Instead I used this random word generator to give me some random words and I worked from there. The words I got were Disturbance~Shift~Return. So here's the poem:
Well, at least things didn't kick off too much in America following the inauguration last week. Nothing has been reported anyway.
Back home, the chaos of home schooling continues, with some days extremely stressful indeed. Especially since you don't really know how hard to push or what is expected of your child to be able to do. Although watching them at work does give you a bit more of an insight into their strengths and weaknesses.
Indeed, it gives you an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the class teachers as well and without naming names some certainly have more weaknesses than strengths.
The baby has been awkward over the last week. It's probably another of those developmental things, especially coming in the last few weeks before he turns one, but he's woken up far more in the evenings than he was, meaning less relaxation time and sleep for my wife.
He's walking so much more though (and picking up speed), and his play is definitely getting a lot more focussed. He's started making animal noises when playing with particular one's - bee (buzz), tiger (grrr) - as well as making vroom noises with a car.
I've certainly been fortunate across the last year to be able to work from home and see him develop, something I never really got with the other two. Things which always happened when I was at work, I now get to see first hand. He's also just as happy giving me a hug at certain times, whereas the girls just wanted mummy. They are still a bit like that too and sometimes refuse to let me even try to help me with things.
Peace is a limited thing at the moment, confined to when they're all asleep, or in those brief moments when they are concentrating. In some ways I think the world is like that too right now. We are all getting over Christmas, but when February comes and the awful death toll of Covid and Brexit start to bite here in the UK, and the Trump supporters have regathered in USA, I think things will sadly heat up again.
In other news, it actually snowed today - albeit briefly.
So, the homeschooling began this week. In a positive sense both the kids want to learn, however Isabel wants to do the whole term in a day and gets jealous when Freja gets attention, meanwhile Freja (with her limited vocabulary) needs a bit of extra help with explaining things.
All this is going on with the 11 month old trying to pull everything down, or clinging to us or screeching.
And all this going on with me working full time after having taken a lot of time off over Christmas.
Meanwhile, the Covid situation seems to be getting worse. I've read figures saying that 1 in 30 within London have tested positive, whilst the national figures have topped a thousand for four days running. It's pretty scary really. With the transmission rates being so much higher, I'm amazed that the lockdown is so much more lax this time around.
The local car dealership appeared to be open today when I went out of a walk which amazes me. I mean, who wants to buy a car during a pandemic anyway?
But we're coping despite being exhausted and in a brain freeze. So, here's the first poem.
Well, last year didn't really happen did it...at least it did, but it didn't.
Looking back at my number of posts by year I notice that I managed a paltry two all year and so here I am with a new hope (and yes that is a star wars reference) that I can manage at least three this year.
Last year was tough for us all. I probably had it easy in comparison. I was able to work from home and life carried on a some sort of paraphrased normality all year. Except, that we did welcome child number three into the family in February and so an already confined flat felt even more confined, and with both older children home for most of the year too, and having to actually work from home (something I had never done before) and with a baby, caused a lot of stress.
Not in terms of being under pressure, but just the number of emotions flying around at warp speed (or should I say hyperspeed if I want to continue the star wars theme?)
Things improved as schools opened again in September, however school is two miles away and required walking (or in their case scooting) there and back twice a day. Working from home got easier, and we found ourselves in a routine and it was great to get that sort of exercise and fresh air.
Now the schools are closed again and we'll be back to homeschooling for a while from next week. But it's better to be safe. The current situation is getting quite scary and seems to be far worse than it was last year. It's shocking to think that there has been no preparation for any of this, given the amount of time available - but then test and trace has been a mess from the start so...
Throughout all this I have really struggled to get the words out. I am an introvert, but I am also the sort of person who struggles with words in stressful situations. Mostly speaking them, but also writing them. My brain goes into shutdown. I have tried on a few occasions, but rarely has anything come out which I would be happy enough to even post on here.
But this is a new year, a chance to reset and try again. Anyone who has read this blog in the past may also spot a reset in the colour scheme. There's always a chance to try again (as there is every morning as a parent especially when you've been constantly saying "no" and "stop", you can always try again the next day - kids I've discovered are surprisingly forgiving).
So, hopefully I can get a few more words out this year, and can share a little more of our little niche in the world...
Take care & stay safe
