Wednesday 1 April 2020

A sentence a day in March


'Mad as a March hare' - that's what they say, and it does certainly feel as if the world has gone mad this month.   Let's have a look at the month in which, worldwide, everyone's life changed dramatically ...

Day 1 Started the month off with a fun family dinner as an early celebration for our son's 30th birthday 



Day 2 Bit of a damp, miserable day - was supposed to have a gas and electricity 'Smart' meter fitted but they cancelled at the last minute

Day 3 Almost acquired a new pet - when we went to collect Leo from nursery, the school cat jumped in the bottom of Rosie's buggy




Day 4 Actually got to do a bit of gardening this morning, until I filled the brown bin and had to stop pruning shrubs, I do have a tendency for getting carried away with the secateurs.

Day 5 Our son celebrated his 30th Birthday today - (he thinks it sounds old, little does he know!) and I had a manicure that perfectly matches the hyacinth bulbs flowering in my kitchen.




Day 6 Warm and sunny day today, dry enough to mow the front lawn for the first time this year, also went to a local pub to listen to The Beatniks - a brilliant acoustic duo who play mostly 60s and 70s music.

Day 7 Bright and dry again today, mowed the back lawn in the afternoon and went to friends for a curry night in the evening.

Day 8 A lazy Sunday started with a lovely dog walk around the lake where we noticed that two swans have appeared in the last week




Day 9 Met up with my sister for coffee in town in the morning, then popped over to see our grandson Max in the afternoon

Day 10 Childminding day - pretty exhausting now Rosie is walking, she's so quick, if you turn your back for a moment she is half way up the stairs!

Day 11 Paul went in for day surgery to remove a gastric polyp, felt pretty groggy for the rest of the day, not to mention very hungry and he wasn't allowed anything but fluids for 24 hours.

Day 12 Had a 'smart' energy meter fitted in the morning, and met up with three friends for a meal in the evening, went to Cote restaurant and had salmon on a bed of ratatouille, delicious!

Day 13 Coronavirus is on all the news reports, but the supermarket this morning was not as busy as it had been last week, and the shelves were better stocked too.

Day 14 Another birthday celebration, this time for me - celebrated with a lunchtime Thai tapas meal at a local restaurant, it was delicious!




Day 15 Sunday lunch for the whole family at Rachel's - what a treat!




Yes we went out for a walk in the rain, the two littlest family members needed naps!

Day 16 The latest advice in the Coronavirus is ambiguous to say the least, avoid unnecessary social contact, don't got to pubs, theatres or restaurants ... good job I got my birthday celebrations in when I did!


Day 17 Childminding day - news about this virus goes from bad to worse, I think this situation is going to last longer than any of us thought.

Day 18 I had my 3 yearly mammogram appointment, I was surprised a bit surprised to hear that they were still keeping appointment schedules, I had envisioned it being cancelled in light of the crisis at the moment.

Day 19 My last Zumba Gold class for a while - oh how I will miss this hour of uplifting dancing but my instructor is investigating offering an on line class.

Day 20 Schools closed for the foreseeable future and Rachel has decided that she does not want to risk us looking after Leo and Rosie on a Tuesday 'just in case' - that is going to seem REALLY strange.

Day 21 Coco had a well needed hair cut - I had wondered if the groomer would still be working but it is run from her home and she is operating a strict 'one in one out' system with no human contact - dogs handed over at the door!




Day 22 Mothering Sunday - and no one was allowed to visit their mothers - social distancing is taking its toll

Day 23 The day it all changed - the UK went into lockdown, only allowed out for grocery shopping and exercise, no groups of more than two, 2m distance between everyone if you are in a shopping queue.  But it is a nice day so time to wash and polish the car!

Day 24 My Zumba teacher has devised an online class via the Zoom app, so I was able to do an hour dance in the privacy of my own lounge this morning, it was so good to dance out a bit of the stress.




Picture shows my iPad wedged onto the mantlepiece of the fire, instructor is in the main part of the screen and that little square in the bottom right is me!

Day 25 Baby Max had to go to hospital as his lips turned blue and he ran a very high temperature - blood tests came back ok so he was sent home.  As he had a temperature they were rushed through the 'red zone' with staff masked and gowned and only one parent allowed in at a time.

Day 26 Back to hospital for Max as temperature spiked and he seemed really listless - you worry just as much about your grandchildren as you do your children.  Checked over and sent home again.  Paul did a supermarket shop and hopefully that will see us through to the middle of next week.

Day 27 A day of long dog walks, meal planning and a bit of gardening.

Day 28 Am becoming obsessed with food; cooking food, planning meals, suspect my waistline is going to suffer!

Day 29 British Summertime officially begins - I felt a bit anxious today, I wish they could give us an indication of how long this lockdown period will be lasting so I could mentally tick off the days- in other news, for some reason my son decided to shave off his beard today, he looks so different!

Day 30 Felt sad today when I realised that we probably won't see Max at all in the crawling stage, or maybe even get to celebrate his first birthday with him in July.  Also dismantled the high chair we keep here as by the time Rosie can come back for us to look after her she will be much too big for it.  Reality is setting in.  Started decorating our bedroom.

Day 31 What a glorious day for a dog walk, I'm feeling slightly less apprehensive today as the news last night was that social isolation is starting to show benefits.  Signs regarding rules and regulations have been displayed at the entrance to our lovely park and it felt like I was the only one there this morning apart from the ducks (I think that may actually be true!)



We all know what comes next - here's the visual version of 1 Second Everyday




I honestly can't remember when everyone else is posting their sentence a day posts, I suspect I'm early, but if I am please do pop back at a later date and see who else has linked up!

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10 comments:

Patio Postcards said...

March Madness is one of the truer statements of the month. It was wonderful to see that March started out so social & light for you - oh how quickly things change. Glad that Max is better. How frightening to see his lips turn blue!

Let's cheer on April to being the month we come out again ...

Ruth said...

It's really quite sobering to see all the details and information laid out in your daily sentences ... It sometimes still feels all a little surreal, doesn't it?
I'm glad that you were able to pack in all your social gatherings at the beginning of the month - we managed to see the family on the Saturday before the lockdown.
Take care!

Susanne said...

My son turns 30 this week. The rest of your month sounds all to familiar. I hope the decorating of your bedroom provides a needed distraction. My Pilates studio is offering online classes for free too; I just have yet to be that motivated.

alexa said...

Your sentence each day really captures the growing sense of unease and finally the restrictions - looking back, it's almost hard to believe, so it's great that you have the evidence for it in words and photos. I can hear the sadness about Rosie :(. That's a very lovely cake!

onceuponatimehappilyeverafter.com said...

I don't know what day of the week it is!! So when I saw your SaD post, I determined it is Tuesday. Then realized, after a minute, that it is Friday. But you wrote this several days ago, so maybe that was Tuesday. Oh, heavens. I am so mixed up.

Thank you for the email today. I opened it and skimmed through to be sure you were okay and will go back to reread tonight after dinner. Will give the Zumba a go. I did a online exercise class with Sue Loncaric through Zoom last night. Do you know Sue?

I feel like my baby grand Cami won't even know me when I can finally hold her again. I haven't held her in a month. That's a third of her life that I have been away. I can relate to how you are feeling about missing your babies' milestones.

Glad you were able to enjoy your birthday celebrations before all the restrictions were put into place. My birthday is Monday. We are not allowed to be with anyone other than the people with whom we live. So PC and I will have a lot of cake to eat. Just what I need!!

Natalie said...

Deb, I'm glad you had your birthday and your son's birthday celebrations beofre the lock down. Stay well! #sentenceaday

Joanne said...

I'm glad you got in a few last celebrations before all the craziness started. Poor Max, it's always so hard when they're so little and feeling so poorly.

Deb's World said...

Hi deb, lucky you got your birthday celebrations and outings done before the lock down. It is very hard not seeing your grandchildren and then the little one was sick, how scary! I was due for my mammogram too but they have put them on hold here until things improve. It's always good to read what you've been up to over there. Hope you are well and enjoy that spring/summer weather as we go into autumn here. Take care.

Barbara Eads said...

My favorite this month is your lovely manicure that perfectly matches your hyacinths! I love that 1 second video recap too.

Natasha said...

Your manicure is delightful! And yes, I too wish that we knew how long this was all going to last. I could handle it if I knew how long and then I could count down. It's the uncertainty that makes this all so much harder for me.