Strange days

Hello peeps. How you doin’? All good here; everyone is in good health and spirits, going into week 5 of the lockdown. It’s a strange time for sure, but it’s also strange how quickly one adapts to what is now our new everyday life. We are of course very lucky to live how and where we live, and so we feel grateful for what feels like a pause. And again, I stress how lucky we are to just be able to feel that we’re on pause, and not losing family members or our livelihood (not yet anyway for the latter, but that will hit hard once society opens up again, but there’s no point in worrying about it yet, as there’re nothing that can be done about it). It’s all so surreal, and equally surreal is how strange life just a few months ago seems, and how we just took it for granted. So, looking at these pictures from our summer holidays in France last year now feels like 10 years ago, from a bygone era where holidays were not an abstract concept like it feels like now. These were taken in the neighbouring villages to where we were staying, and weirdly that same feeling of being on holiday is where we are at now, but knowing full well of the nightmare that is going on at the same time out there. Strange days indeed.

Just read this blog post on the Modern House Journal, and I think it perfectly sums up what I’m feeling right now.

All you need is glove

This is what Covid-19 litter looks like - and why it’s only ever ONE glove is one of the universe’s great mysteries.

Bad day/good day

I had my first wobble on Tuesday, as in a bit of a wig out. With all the talk of how one should make the most of this time in isolation, and get on with various projects that you might not usually have the time or the energy for, I’d been slowly driving myself crazy. I just couldn’t focus, and felt like I just floated around, not accomplishing anything. This article, ‘Stop trying to be productive’, in the New York Times, was really helpful in highlighting how right now, maybe being productive was not the thing to be doing at all. So, Mr Famapa, after having made a daily schedule for Oomoo over the Easter holidays (that we are in now), suggested that it would probably be helpful if I made one for myself. Now don’t get us wrong, we are NOT schedule-y parents normally (and there’s nothing wrong with that - each to their own!), but with an only child, and not being able to hang out with friends or go anywhere and break up the day, having some structure have helped making the time pass. At that particular moment I felt particularly low, but as luck would have it, I was due to go and meet my friend D who lives close by, for a walk together and apart, like we now do. It was a gorgeous day, and great to see someone else, right at that moment, and have good chat about everything and nothing. It was so great that we’ve decided that, as part of our new schedules, two of these walks a week would help us both. I’ve almost completely filled in my weekly time table now, and I followed it to a t yesterday, and I felt MUCH better with a proper structure to my day. These tips from Alastair Campbell (of all people!) are bloody brilliant for right now, and if you find yourself feeling low, there are some very good suggestions there of how to avoid the dark days, and how to treat yourself well.

Painting with the moon

Aaahhh, the magic that is light painting with a camera, but this time with a twist! Using the moon as the light - yeeeeeah! So, back in the summer (when we were in France), after having put the kids to bed, we stayed out on the terrace, chatting away in the moonlight. I wondered what would happen if you tried to do a light painting with the moon, and this is the result. Mr Famapa had way better skills, and could actually draw proper things, where as I went for the more abstract style. There’s a super moon on Wednesday, so look out for it!