Week 100: They have very small noses and are not compliant

August 1, 2020

Week 100!
The Covid-19 test arrived on Monday. It had to be posted at exactly 4:30pm in a specific post box. This gave me an excellent idea for guessing how many people around me think they might have corona virus. Post box stakeout!
As other people have said - it is quite complicated. As nobody has said, it is pretty difficult to get a swab from a 2 year old. They have very small noses and are not compliant.
This week, the Tom Hanks movie we watched was The Post. L’s review: “This has a lot of actors in it doesn’t it” (yes). It has that man from The West Wing in it.
Balls-deep-in-tomatoes rating: Mid calf.
I made a really really good raspberry ice cream. It’s from the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream book. The other ice creams we’ve made have been pretty good, but this is the first one that’s been better than something I could have bought in a shop. Did you know that Ben off of Ben and Jerry is anosmic, which is why their ice cream has so many chunky bits in it - so that Ben can tell what the flavour is.
Whoops. I’ve gone and published these a 6 days early. Ah well - stop by on Saturday for the completed version ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Really seeing how the sausage gets made here, as a little week 100 treat.
The Covid-19 test results came back negative. (OF COURSE THEY DID!) I’m thinking, given the frequency with which 2 year olds get temperatures, maybe just order a job lot of tests for efficiency purposes.
In the middle of this week I relocated my mojo. Somewhere between the pandemic, being pregnant, having a baby and having a toddler I had lost all energy and enthusiasm for doing anything except watch Netflix and eat ice cream. Last week a local parent messaged me about hanging out and I thought “god no, I cannot subject you to how unhappy I am right now.” But this week, the idea of doing the washing, or bleaching all the white things that have gone a funny colour, or planning the meals, or starting a sewing project, or taking all the things to the charity shop, all suddenly seemed quite appealing. Like maybe it would be nice to achieve something, even something very small. So that’s what’s happening. Small things to make me feel better because I’d like to aim slightly higher than “hanging in there”.
Relatedly, I’ve started to lever myself back into what I must cringingly call “self care”. In the pandemic / work from home / be pregnant / have a baby / look after toddler thing I stopped bothering with any kind personal grooming or skincare. This week I thought it might feel nice to spend 5 minutes a day trying to improve my skin which has many problems, all of which are post-partum related.
I got a haircut this week as well. My hairdresser thought my pandemic hair was so funny he took a before and after photo. To get the haircut I had to go into central london, which involved getting a train and bringing C and his dad along too. We took a train into charing cross and then walked because I hate getting the tube with my kids, I just picture their tiny little lungs filling up with all the dirt and dust down there. We walked through covent garden and it was eerily quiet. The absence of crowds made me want to go into every shop - what an opportunity to visit all these places while they are tourist free!