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    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
    That’s how I’ve always imagined Ton Ton

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      If I watched Up at the moment, I'd probably break down altogether, the opening is a fucking nightmare.

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        Day 61. Tuesday 19th May. Two full months of lockdown completed. I have no idea how Spanish families survived 42 days with their kids not being able to leave the house. It's tough enough even with the option of going to the park every day.

        Husband made the kids egg and cheese paninis for breakfast. I was a bit slow off the mark. I set the kids up doing a Gruffalo yoga session then went and had a shower.

        Morning home-school activities included: watching two videos of Superworm and doing a Superworm colouring sheet (son). Sorting words into whether they need to double their last letter before adding -er and -est or not e.g. hot, hotter, hottest, vs long, longer, longest (daughter). Watching a video about Sikh gurdwaras and completing a worksheet about sharing and equality. When my son was age 2-3 years old we used to go to the local gurdwara once a week with a Sikh friend and her similar age son, but they've now moved to a different town and my children don't really remember the gurdwara. They did amazing vegetarian lunches and had a big box of toys for the boys to play with in the dining hall.

        Left the kids watching an episode of storybots about how planets are formed while I had another attempt at pasta alla norma for lunch. Last time I made it too salty, this time not salty enough. Everyone ate it though with a big spinach-heavy side salad.

        After lunch we watched videos of the space shuttle and the Apollo missions launching. Then made mini 'mouse rockets' and had a go launching them in the back garden by balancing them on top of empty 4-pint milk bottles and then squeezing the bottle hard to shoot the rocket up with air pressure.

        My husband had a work call at 3pm so I got the kids out of the house ten minutes before and we went to the park with one leaf hunt worksheet and one bug hunt worksheet. Daughter managed to find holly, birch, beech and rowan leaves. Son managed to find a bee, a fly and a butterfly. I did a bit of litter picking. We found one more animal carving from the nature trail (a woodpecker) and three more painted rocks. It was very warm so we sat in the shade eating our fruit, cashew nuts and fig rolls. There were more people doing obvious picnics today, with blankets and folding chairs. We would have stayed in the park longer but my husband rang to say that our Iceland delivery had arrived two hours early and he couldn't put the stuff away because of his work call.

        Back home I had to do quite a lot of rearranging to get everything to fit in the fridge and freezer but just about managed.

        My daughter's latest edition of National Geographic kids magazine arrived so we did all the quizzes and competitions and activities in that while I cooked a stuffed crust pizza for the kids and a slimming world vegetable biryani for me. Their favourite activity was a maze where each time you went past a star you had to choose a silly action like "balance a book on your head for 30 seconds" or "say the alphabet backwards". Son did the spot the difference. Daughter did the wordsearch. We read all the jokes (marsupial themed, what do you call a lazy baby kangaroo? A pouch potato).

        Husband is now watching The Hollow with the kids and cooking burgers and setting the smoke alarm off.

        Tomorrow my husband is running webinars all day long, so I have to stock the lounge by 8am and there will be no respite. Fun times.



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          Husband got his days muddled. The full-day webinar isn't until Thursday. Thank fuck for that. I can spend tomorrow prepping and getting the house in a much more liveable state.

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            Thank you for restoring this Snake Plissken

            I've just downloaded all my entries on this thread as a backup as well.

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              Day 62. Wednesday 20th May.

              Son spent most of last night in our bed which always means I don't sleep well and wake up fuzzy headed.

              Home school included making a parachute to land an egg safely from out of the back window and making origami whales from 'the snail and the whale'.

              Burgers for lunch and veggie sushi for dinner.

              Went for a two hour walk in the park on my own in the afternoon to clear my head and managed to have a whatsapp call with my aunt.

              Husband made lots more kimchi.

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                What ingredients does he use in his version of kimchi?

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                  We seem to be in meltdown day today. Two members of my 4 person household have lost their shit and broken down in tears already. The one who has had the genuinely stressful day (that;s not me) has actually been fine

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                    Originally posted by Sporting View Post
                    What ingredients does he use in his version of kimchi?
                    Not sure of all the ingredients, but he likes to have salted cabbage as a base, will add loads of other random veg that needs using up, preferably hard veg like celeriac or turnip or carrot or radish. There's loads of chilli flakes, raw ginger and garlic thrown in. Lots of vinegar.

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                      Day 63. Thursday 21st May.

                      The homeschool days are long when I have to be up at 7am and my husband is on a webinar.

                      We've done: exploring a 3D website of Mars from the curiosity rover and making a word bank of descriptive adjectives about Mars, my mum reading The Smartest Giant in Town via WhatsApp, scooping foam letters out of the paddling pool with slotted spoons and sorting them by colour, making felt mice, bird spotting, numbots, geography labelling the continents and oceans, guessing games about rhyming words, watching the Zog the dragon film, Andy's Wild Workouts, had to plait my daughter's hair twice (it's really silky smooth and hair bobbles fall out of it sometimes).

                      Lunch was tomato and mascarpone pasta and salad.

                      That took us up until about 3pm.

                      Then I took the kids out of the park for the part of the webinar where my husband was presenting and needed total silence. We did litter picking. We sprayed each other with suncream. We fed ducks (I had to defrost our three bags of gourmet home-made duck food because I needed the freezer space. Fortunately we found a whole family, mum, two dads and seven ducklings). We played football. We did the rest of the nature trail and found the final three animals with a bit of help from another family we know. My son spotted the last blackbird which he was thrilled about. We did a bit more archaeology. We ate fruit and cashew nuts and biscuits.

                      Once home I let the kids eat mini milks and made brunch for dinner (eggs, beans, garlic mushrooms and spinach, frankfurters, spaghetti hoops, toast for the kids).

                      We played some Animal Crossing, played pictionary via House Party with one of my daughter's friends, clapped on the front lawn, fed the kids more pancakes, and sent them off to bed.

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                        Good news: The spray paint for the body of my remote control car arrived!

                        Bad news: Everything else, horrible children, too hot, work grinding, tempers at hair trigger on everyone, fucking morons assembling in packs because the lockdown is over, fucking Tories, fuck everything.

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                          For the second day in a row, I got off the bus early and did a long walk home through the gorgeous wooded paths of Jesmond Dene. Saw a bullfinch for the first time since I was a kid which was a nice bonus.

                          Much quieter than the shitshow yesterday which saw very large groups of people (not distancing) on the green while getting extremely pissed up. It's a good thing that I know the quieter paths and escape routes from all the madness.
                          Last edited by Arturo; 21-05-2020, 22:49.

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                            Drove up to Del Mar today to pick up a farm produce box plus ingredients for a couple of nights' meals from a restaurant. And went to a physio appointment earlier. There's loads more traffic on the road than last week, and probably 10 times what there was 6 weeks ago. What is not happening so much is the evening rush hour. The traffic is heavier at previously empty times of the day, and heavy but not clogged at rush hour. I suspect schools being shut is part, but not all, of this. I think people working from home now go out in the middle of the day, and fewer people are commuting in the in peak couple of hours.

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                              Day 77.
                              Had second lock down shave last night, kept a Robert Perez style chin strip facial hair experiment on. Gonna have second lock down hair Cut shave tonight. Possibly a number 6 as MrsNSwasn’t overly keen last times number 4.
                              Newly made pebble garden looks beautiful after rain. Quite chuffed with it I am. Pushing MrsNS to allow two more.
                              Injured back digging a vegetable patch in garden last week and it’s still not 100%, try another dig todayThat’s also blocked my jogging for the week. “Couch to 5k App“ coached by Michael Johnson Week 5 and I’d just started clicking on the smiley face part of the app to indicate how good you felt after the run. I’ll drop back to week 3 on Monday. I can’t recommend the App enough if anyone’s thinking of jogging. You never have to even do 5k it’s just to get you to the stage where you could over nine weeks. MrsNS hasn’t jogged since the mid 80s and she’s now doing 35 mins solid jogging every other day.
                              Aquarium should arrive today. Antique Victorian cabinet to house electrics etc arrived a while back. I’m gonna build a shelf/bridge over it to support the actual tank. We’ve very hard water 360ppm/20dh around here so choosing fish is difficult but i think I’m sorted. Annarch at either end with equal fish numbers and who needs the football back eh?

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                                Our lockdown week took an unexpected turn when we took someone in for a couple of nights due to issues in their household. At one point I had social services in the house and was having a socially distanced conversation with them while on mute on a work call. Probably gave the neighbours something to natter about if nothing else.

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                                  Originally posted by White No Sugar View Post
                                  Day 77.
                                  Had second lock down shave last night, kept a Robert Perez style chin strip facial hair experiment on. Gonna have second lock down hair Cut shave tonight. Possibly a number 6 as MrsNSwasn’t overly keen last times number 4.
                                  Newly made pebble garden looks beautiful after rain. Quite chuffed with it I am. Pushing MrsNS to allow two more.
                                  Injured back digging a vegetable patch in garden last week and it’s still not 100%, try another dig todayThat’s also blocked my jogging for the week. “Couch to 5k App“ coached by Michael Johnson Week 5 and I’d just started clicking on the smiley face part of the app to indicate how good you felt after the run. I’ll drop back to week 3 on Monday. I can’t recommend the App enough if anyone’s thinking of jogging. You never have to even do 5k it’s just to get you to the stage where you could over nine weeks. MrsNS hasn’t jogged since the mid 80s and she’s now doing 35 mins solid jogging every other day.
                                  Aquarium should arrive today. Antique Victorian cabinet to house electrics etc arrived a while back. I’m gonna build a shelf/bridge over it to support the actual tank. We’ve very hard water 360ppm/20dh around here so choosing fish is difficult but i think I’m sorted. Annarch at either end with equal fish numbers and who needs the football back eh?

                                  I did a bit of a double-take there when you started talking about Mrs. NS!

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                                    Much better today. Less screaming, less being hit by my son, having a more fruitful work day (getting Charity Commission approval for a client's application at 4.59 was a good way to enter the weekend), chatted on the phone to no great effect with an IFA contact to get over half an hour of Business Development chalked up, weather much cooler.

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                                      Day 64. Friday 22nd May. Last day of home school before "half term" which basically means I have to come up with my own entertainment ideas for the next nine days.

                                      In theory my husband had promised me a lie-in this morning as we stayed up late watching the end of the second season of The Expanse last night. But as it turned out, he was knackered and I was awake earlier.

                                      Pancakes and fruit and Nutella for the kids for breakfast. Daughter did some quite tricky maths challenges this morning, algebra and problem solving. Son watched the animated version of Room on the Broom with me and did some colouring.

                                      Husband made veggie bolognese for lunch and managed to successfully sneak blitzed courgette into the sauce. The kids helped me make "witches' wands" for dessert (breadsticks dipped in melted chocolate and smashed smarties then left to cool in the fridge).

                                      In the afternoon we watched a theatrical version of Room on the Broom while eating the witches' wands and I started suggesting the idea of the kids acting out their own version. They found this quite exciting and started scouring the house for props and costumes.

                                      Tiredness hit me later in the afternoon when my son was being very whiney, so my husband spent an hour teaching them how to play Civilisation 5 (he downloaded it for free this week on one of his gaming platforms) while I escaped upstairs and folded laundry in peace.

                                      Kids played in the garden for a bit then husband took them out to the park to play football while I tidied up.

                                      Husband made fish finger and chip butties for the kids for dinner (we ate leftover bolognese jealously) while I narrated the "Room on the Broom" play for them. My son played the role of the witch. My daughter was all her various animals, cat, dog, bird, frog, and the scary dragon. I was quite impressed actually. They'd found a broomstick and a wand, made a cauldron, learnt all their lines, decided how to portray the broomstick snapping in half, practiced fainting. I kind of wish I'd videoed it but I was using my phone to read the narrator's lines.

                                      And now a bit of Animal Crossing before bed.
                                      ​​​​
                                      Last edited by Balderdasha; 28-05-2020, 18:06.

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                                        Monday is Memorial Day and this is normally the official "beginning of summer" for tourist-related businesses, even though ?YC schools are in session for most of June. It is also sunny and in the high 60s (about 20C).

                                        That seems to have occasioned a notable increase in both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, especially among the elderly and infim (part of this may be that home health aides may have Monday off). So, the queue for the market was longer than it has been and the number of people out and about as high as it has been in any weekday during the crisis. The care home across from us now features a Heroes Work Here banner above the entrance.

                                        The good news is that virtually everyone continues to act responsibly.

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                                          I'm imagining the coast near here will be packed - as you say, it's Memorial Day and the temperature around the Bay Monday is supposed to be in the high 80s.

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                                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                            even though ?YC schools
                                            Very AZERTY typo, somehow.

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                                              Day 65. Saturday 23rd May.

                                              I got a lie-in today. But since then have been in full Stepford Wife mode. If I try not to think and just keep going, I can sort out a lot of the house in one day.

                                              We did a roast dinner for lunch (husband does the meat, I do everything else). I've done four loads of laundry, four loads of dishwasher, swept, hoovered and mopped the kitchen floor, stripped all the sheets off the beds and put clean ones on (which includes clambering up onto the top of a bunk bed twice).

                                              During this, my daughter was prancing around the house singing a song she made up which she wants us to record and put on YouTube. Yesterday it was called "I wanna get rich". Now it's called "Superstar". She was so motivated to do the video that when I told her that she needed a clean environment to do it in, she voluntarily tidied and hoovered the lounge.

                                              This week I asked the kids which of the lockdown activities that we've done so far would they like to do again and they picked the indoor swing, so my husband set it up in the kitchen doorway again.

                                              They played in the garden a bit, played some Animal Crossing, 'helped' my husband play Civilisation 5.

                                              Kids had toasted cheese sandwiches, cucumber, mango and melon for dinner, followed by chocolate banana pancakes. Me and my husband ate all the leftover roast dinner.

                                              We watched Space Jam and read Asterix and Cleopatra before the kids went to bed.
                                              Last edited by Balderdasha; 28-05-2020, 18:06.

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                                                Another better day. Pottered around in the morning, took the kids to Hertford and parked at work so they could frolic in the castle grounds as a welcome change of scenery and spray painted the car (badly). Just a few details to paint and then the decals to hamfistedly apply and it will be done.

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                                                  I'm onto day 15 of my baseball card blogging project. So far I've managed to post every day. I do this by batch writing a bunch of posts and saving them in draft. I'm working on some more tonight. Am already sorted up until Tuesday.

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                                                    I just worked out that it is now 66 days since I have been in a motorised vehicle of any type.

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