Juliet, Holloway, 28 March 2020

In a frustrating twist of fate, dad has also developed a bad cough that’s given him two bad nights and a bit of breathlessness. Neither of us think it will be covid but we can’t be 100% sure and he might need antibiotic treatment. He’s not bedbound or anything, but it’s still debilitating.

Mum is still doing well, but won’t be discharged until next week now. It seems to be a thing: if you’re still there on Friday, no one with any authority to discharge you sees you until Monday. As things stand she’s in the safest place. I can’t bring her home until we know Dad won’t infect her.

Feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place, so asked Richard to help out by phoning 111 and asking for advice. I think we need to get dad tested and seen to ASAP. In the meantime I’m going to brave a trip to Sainsbury’s…

Jack, Sevilla – March 26th Day 11 of the Quarantine

Good news today! It looks like our hard work over the past 2 weeks has paid off and all of our clients have agreed to keep having English classes until August. Hopefully by that point things will be back to normal (I have holidays booked and a wedding to go to!)

Today was also pay day for me, usually I would have a big night on the town to celebrate or go shopping. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I have nothing to blow my money on so looks like I will have to save it.

Hours Worked: 6

Albums Listened to: Hall & Oates – Hall & Oates

Netflix Summary: The Shield (2 episodes)

Juliet, Holloway, 27 March 2020

Just called mum’s ward. She’s medically fit as far as the coronary care team are concerned. Problem is she still needs a little oxygen and the physios are concerned about her mobility.

The nurses and I agree she’d be safer out of hospital but if things were normal they’d definitely keep her in another day. Will call back later to see if I can take her home. Otherwise it will mean shunting her to another ward…

In other news, cousin Jem and Hayley’s daughter Beth (does that make her my second cousin?🤔) managed to make it back from South Africa and landed at 9 am this morning in Heathrow. They’ve all gone back up to Yorkshire to self-isolate. Hayley said Beth was one of the lucky ones who got a seat. There was chaos at Joburg airport with a queue for standby.

Weather is still gorgeous but getting a bit colder. Have been enjoying discovering old haunts, including the footpath we used to take to primary school. No Chelsea tractors at the school gates in those days!

Also came across the old rocking horse we used to play on in the playing field over the road from our first house in Lea. It’s been retired to act as a kind of weird countryside art installation.

While the evenings stay fine, have been enjoying happy hour with a G&T in Dad’s back garden. Lottie enjoys taunting Chloe by pinching her toys and tearing round the garden, begging to be chased.

Jack, Sevilla – March 25th 2020 – Day 10 of the Quarantine

Hot water was back to normal today, happy days! Just in time as I was beginning to get quite smelly. After a long day teaching today I decided I wanted to have a nice curry, something that can be hard to come by in Spain at the best of times. El Corte Ingles (like Spanish M&S/John Lewis/Waitrose) stocks curry sauce so I decided to go there, I thought that it would be a nice treat as it’s a bit further away than my regular supermarket.

The walk there was fairly eery, this was the furthest away I had been away from my house in almost 2 weeks and the streets were completely empty.

Once I got to El Corte Ingles it was like something out of a horror film. Most of it was cordoned off with barriers leading you down to the supermarket. It felt like I had stumbled onto an abandoned department store after an apocalypse.

The was a police man at the top of the escalator down to the supermarket who handed me some gloves and motioned me downwards. The supermarket was pretty well stocked, it seems that during hard times people are less likely to splurge at fancy supermarkets. I managed to get in, grab my curry sauce and a few other things and get out within about 5 minutes.

Hours Worked: 6

Albums Listened to: Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon

Netflix Summary: The Righteous Gemstones (4 episodes) The Shield (1 episode)