Diary of Spain in Lockdown - third week completed

Friday 3^rd April – third week of confinement completed

We’ve been in lockdown for three weeks now and after so much time in confinement, the days become rather a blur. The children have become a bit wild, mealtimes kind of erratic and personal hygiene among some members of our household, well, the less said about that perhaps the better.

Mr A and I try to set standards, we get dressed, almost, as if we were going to work. In my case it’s from the waist up; I try to make sure my hair isn’t too greasy, put on some make-up, earrings and a presentable top. (My students don’t need to know I’m wearing leggings and trainers from the waist down.)

For the girls, however, pyjamas have become the new clothes, for Laura her bed the new classroom and unfortunately for all of them 11pm the new bedtime. Even if I try and give them dinner at a more English hour, start the whole process earlier, they’re just not tired. Not going out at all during the day, not running around at school, not doing sport, what to do with all that extra energy? And the clocks going forward haven’t helped us either.

Thankfully today is Friday, which means fire, telly and cheese and wine for Mr A and I, and over the weekend a slight respite from the endless onslaught of schoolwork, both for me and the girls,

But there is one thing that is unrelenting, the washing. How is it when we are all indoors, doing very little physical activity the pile of dirty clothes seems to grow bigger than when we’re normally out and being busy. Wearing school uniform certainly keeps a check on what’s dirty and what can be worn another day or two, but with casual clothes everything seems to go straight into the washing basket after just one wear. That is, if it gets picked up off the bedroom floor at all. Needless to say, when I suggested they wear uniform on school days to help me out, that didn’t go down too well.

On a more sombre note, America has recorded 1, 169 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number by a single country since the outbreak began. And Spain has seen more than 900 die for two days in a row. Many poor families are losing loved ones. We, at least, just have to do one thing, Stay at Home and do nothing, so I’d like to share this video that made me laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxjrFuC5BhU