Lockdown Week 6 (Tues)

TUESDAY

I’m trying a new incentive today: penguins.

Edinburgh Zoo has a few live webcams. Some of them are a bit boring - no disrespect to koalas, but they don’t really DO much. And the tiger is far too cool to allow itself to be spotted, a bit like Shere Khan. 

The penguins are totally watchable though, so I decide to use them as currency: one hour of good work = five minutes of joyful penguin-watching.

It works for the first hour, and the penguins put on a fabulous show. After that I think they may have lost their spark.

Just before 11am, I summon everyone into the kitchen to pay our respects to the 100+ NHS workers who’ve died from the virus. The 15-year-old and 12-year-old understand straight away, but the eight-year-old needs clarity. I don’t want to frighten him, though - he’s already asking when we’ll next be able to visit the grandparents.

At the end of the school day, I decide to walk rather than drive to collect Bertie-Wooster’s special cat food – the usual vet is closed, so we have to go further than usual. I ask who fancies coming along, and to my surprise the 15-year-old agrees.

We stroll through the eerily deserted town centre and out the other side. I may have been a bit vague about the actual distance – mea culpa – but it feels like we’ve done some proper exercise when we return 6.4 miles later with sore legs and blisters.

Bertie-Wooster is waiting in the kitchen to be fed; I explain to him that I’ve just carried his 3.5kg bag of food on my back for hours and hours. He looks unimpressed by this heroic feat, and starts licking his bottom.