Handle with care #lockdown

Crevette loves swinging on the swing in the playground.

I only recently discovered this thanks to the amount of time we have spent at our local park recently (about 500% more in the past 5 days than in the previous 8 months). It is usually early morning, we are usually alone, and we have usually biked there, passing runners of varying abilities who mostly drop their heads in lieu of a cheery 'good morning'.

When I glibly wrote about making corona when you've been given limes, I hadn't truly appreciated that over half the world would shortly be in lockdown, or that over 25,000 would have died from covid19, or that we wait now with breaths held for the impact of the virus in Africa to become evident. We are speaking now about long term economic consequences, of social changes both good and bad, of the opportunity of a new world order, or the worst recession to hit us.

Whatever happens, the world will never be the same. Our house will probably never be the same either. Toys EVERYWHERE. And moments of intense stress trying to juggle paid work, homeschooling, some resemblance of housework, more work, and anything that doesn't involve the kids sitting in front of the tv all day. Hence, the swings.

It's actually gone ok (and El Puma has contributed his best data points to OECD graphs), but it will go much better if work requirements weren't so...immediate. But both El Puma and I are still very lucky to have work, incomes, semi-full supermarkets, a garden, and bike lanes close by, as well as friends over the garden wall and Oma just up the road. We are still planning for the future - both professionally and personally, and assuming that this will soon be over.

Hope you all stay safe and well xx

When life gives you limes #makecorona

Two months ago, we didna ken,

yer name or ocht aboot ye,

But lots of things have changed since then,

I really must salute ye,

Yer spreading rate is quite intense,

yer feeding like a gannet,

Disruption caused is so immense,

ye've shaken oor wee planet.

Corona used tae be a beer,

they garnished it wae limes,

But not it's filled us awe wae fear,

These days are scary times.

But dinny think yell wipe us oot,

Ayre true, a few have died.

Ye might be gallus noo ma freen,

As ye jump fae cup tae cup,

But when we git oor vaccine,

Yer number will be up.

Things have changed very quickly (and seem to still change every 24 hours or so), but what we can safely say, it that covid-19 is most definitely upon us. And I know many people have been talking about selfish hoarding, isolation and going slightly nuts, but I have found some sort of community spirit appearing...people checking in on each other, teachers posting offers of help, families sharing their daily schedules (apparently, a schedule is key, which is like preaching to the choir for me), and some of the memes going around facebook have been hilarious. Every cloud...and all that.

This is what I say to coronavirus

But if you're going to be in quarantine, you better have beautiful hair, as I never say. So crevette got her first hair cut and Fingerling received her most layered, grown-up look to date.

The schedule:

 The upside:

 The hoarding (Scottish version)

Someone's going swimming anyway, virus or not.

Merrily we roll along #3weeks'worth

Quite honestly, I don't know where the time goes sometimes!

The end of the half-term break also marked the end of my garden leave, and on Monday 24th February I began my new role at Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI) as a Principal, which involves being a Project Director for 3 projects. DAI is a private development company founded in 1970 by 3 graduates of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. It has worked in 160 developing and transition countries in the areas of water and natural resources management, energy and climate change, governance and public sector management, private sector development, economics and trade, agriculture and crisis mitigation.

I've actually known about DAI for a while now, thanks to my dear friend Nandi's role as Head of the Economic Growth team (and now my boss, although we both agreed to never call her that). I will provide leadership and support to the Trade Capacity Building Programme for the Southern African Customs Union + Mozambique (SACU+M) which provides technical assistance to support growth in trade, improve gender equality in the trade arena and allocate poverty across SACU member countries (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa) and is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Global Trade Programme (GTP) under the UK Prosperity Fund, a cross-government development assistance fund.  The second project is again closely linked to the GTP but is more about policy development and interaction, and finally I am Project Director for a Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation project working with Mozambique's government to increase farmers' incomes in the region through the Innovation for Agribusiness project, which promotes the development of inclusive and sustainable market systems (also known as Making Markets Work for the Poor).

Well that probably explains where all my time has gone.

But that just makes the weekends all the sweeter.

A couple of weeks ago we found the only window of sunny weather to climb the Wallace Monument with our good friends Scott (from here) and Alesha, who now live in Norway. And lunch at Corieri's. Truly going local.

 

There has been a LOT of rain:

But that also loaned itself to different adventures, like the National Museum of Scotland:

Drawing!

And mummy drying hair after baths!

My first day of work also coincided with Small Fry being off school with tonsillitis which lasted all week, and his sister joined him, during my first trip to London (of course)

Thankfully, not Covid-19. 

Although it seems to have made people reassess some aspects of their lives:

Then of course there was a special birthday with an even more special cake (becoming a bit of a #thing #feelingtanned.

Birthday cuddles with my niece were extra special. Like auntie like niece...

And I can't miss out Pancake Day, which is a special day in our house. And the last day before lent. Which El Puma has gallantly committed to (no alcohol, coffee, sugar) and I have half-heartedly (broken all 3 already).

And if that were not enough of a feel good post, I'll leave you with this:

 https://youtu.be/76CohRBZpuY