Life in Lockdown - Week Four

Bit late in the week but in lockdown we are on Fiji time a little bit. The theme today is sports documentaries, inspiration and birthdays with a hint of home schooling. There has been an increase in time for reflection for families with a lack of travel and a need to find new and creative ways to keep the family on track.

We had Charlie's 11th birthday. A definite Star Wars theme emerged. He absolutely loves it. He now has been in possession of four light sabres and desperately wants a "real one" so that he can cut us in half when angry with us like Darth Maul in one of the shows. I really should know which one as I have now "seen the whole thing" three times and had it quoted at me on a nightly basis since christmas! Charlie also managed to snap his beloved cricket bat in half just before the lockdown period so has a store credit that he is "itching to use" but with no non essential travel allowed he has to wait probably until closer to cricket restarting to replace his weapon. It is a bit like holding Willy Wonka's golden ticket for a cricket tragic but having the factory temporarily closed! As an aside, we also have nerf guns. Charlie took to getting us to shoot nerf guns at him so that he could use the force to bat the disks away by "using the force" with his light sabre. The most surprising thing was that he actually worked out how to hit them after a little bit of practicing. He must have secretly had yoda as a master.

Speaking of cricket tragics, have readers had a chance to watch "The Test" on Amazon Prime. I find it hard to put myself in the shoes of someone who didn't spend their childhood with footy in the winter and cricket in the summer quite honestly. That disclaimer aside, do yourself a favour and get on board with this one. It is spectacular. We have at least one and possibly three cricket tragics in our house so have watched the entirety of "the test" in a week and are now onto "Forged in Fire" to go even further back to the glory days of Lillee, Marsh and Chappell leading into the Allan Border Era to complement the very proud Australian cricket history that Justin Langer refers to in "The Test". Justin Langer - what a guy - the man is a walking inspiration. I had a week at the cricket academy as a 17 year old when Justin was the scholarship coach before attending for the full year the following year. I still remember being blown away by the sheer force of personality that JL has. I would love to get him to speak to our businesspeople on managing crisis, finding strength and resilience in dark times and coming out the other side. He loves a challenge, eats a cricket ball for breakfast and would be a winner in any chosen pursuit with his single minded determination... love it.

In what I would call "the Oliver effect" we are now up to 11 in our push up period. From a starting point a couple of weeks ago of 64 push ups a day, we are now on 121. He has written himself up a training program for his ball skills, physical preparation and pathway to turn the lockdown period into his own pre season training camp. The self motivation and drive is fairly impressive, even to me when I would consider myself quite intrinsically motivated. Charlie is on board as well. As always he has a variation on the theme supplementing his push ups with burpees that are truly cute to watch. Something about a power surge in a little body that looks playful rather than exertion driven.

Sarah had a tumble running yesterday hitting a speed bump in one of her runs and taking some bark off as she slid down the road. Charlie very cute (bike riding support) coming to her aid but rubbing her freshly grazed back. Sarah described trying to be happy that he was being so supportive but firm in suggesting maybe to leave the sticky graze alone young fella it hurts!!

Then onto home schooling. Anyone finding it tough... my perspective on this is the self motivated will be unaffected and/or possibly thrive with the less self motivated slowly or quickly being left behind. How long will matter in the outcomes. Short term, just keeping them balanced, happy and healthy and don't worry too much about it is a good recipe for sanity I would think. If it goes for a year... two years... I suspect a different story emerges.

Until next time, hang in there everyone and remember to smile.