Life in Lockdown - Week Two

As the global cases go over the million mark and the death toll stubbornly remains at or around 5% I thought I would reflect on our week just been. We have had to get creative in our exercising of mind and body this week with the home becoming the place of business and place of abode for most of society. We have seen businesses mobilize in nimble and innovative ways to remain open for business and government take extraordinary steps in a socialist direction to cushion the Coronavirus economic blow for Australians.

To set the scene, our house is a Victorian era cottage with four bedrooms at the front of the house, one long narrow walkway through the centre to an open living back area with island bench in the kitchen and family area beyond that. I have taken over a bedroom as my "office" to minimize disruption with phone calls and zoom and various videoconferencing pretty well dominating my daylight hours.

Up the other end of the house, Sarah and my two very busy, very active, very loud boys have had to improvise in their daily routine. On the physical exercise front it became apparent that either a routine be set or the couch and TV become a default crutch. Sarah is a dedicated yogini, has her mind set on running a marathon and has become very proficient in nutrition and health following some paediatric challenges in our family.

The boys have jumped on board as anything breaking up the day is good for them. The family have begun a daily run and bike ride routine. We allow bike riding where fatigue or delayed onset muscle soreness is apparent. The distances are not yet all that great, 5km here, 8km there but the regularity will lead to rapid escalation I would imagine.

Early afternoon sees a yoga class. The computer hooked up to the TV shows the routine, the breathing. The ambiance is typically broken from your normal routine by Charlie's regular squeaks and laughter when he can't manipulate his body into the desired pose. Oliver is learning the ropes slowly but surely to complement his foam roller activity (an exercise in self induced pain for any not familiar in the interests of rolling out any tightness through the legs and lower back) and the dedication to cricket nets that was occurring daily as well before we moved to stage 3.

The nourish nook is a business I can recommend to any looking for inspiration (Jo and Rob can be found at thenourishnook.com.au ). Wellness industry will be crucial through this prolonged period of lockdown. Rob and Jo Hodges run an innovative business running twice daily virtual classes where a qualified instructor can take you through the moves and spirituality that is yoga, pilates and other wellness activity.

Late afternoon involves "the resilience project" which we attended late last year run by Hugh Van Cuylenberg. A brilliant resource journal asks daily questions around gratitude, empathy and mindfulness. At times I have found tears, group hugs and a huddle and thought something was wrong only to find that a particular piece of writing had "touched" one of them... often Sarah!

I emerge from the bedroom office at some point depending on the day's activity. 7pm press conferences are not great for the leaders of advisory business to distill before the next day activity ScoMo... just so you know! Being the new entrant I am typically finding some elevated level of conversation directed my way as all three seek to break the monotony. The "how was your day" conversation is a touch stilted when they have all been in the same room in the same house for most of the day!

By night, to keep technology off and to connect as a family post David winning Survivor, we have begun a deep dive into what you do on "tour" when it is raining or you are otherwise forced indoors. Charlie in particular has taken an obsessed liking to cards. We have been teaching the boys "500" this week along with "prediction" which is a variant where you predict how many tricks you'll win with 100 points for getting what you predicted and 10 points per trick. As many of you know, learning the Jack of the same color being the third highest card is the main thing to "get". The rest falls into place fairly easily for those who pay attention and have a grasp of maths. At this stage, Charlie "gets it" and Ollie is hilarious as he struggles with whether the Ace is the best card or the Jack. I'm not sure if he is taking the mickey out of me as I take my cards very seriously. Having Brad Stacey as a partner in my early years and then playing for a few years with Glenn Ward I find it hard not to remark when beaten that "you had to renege to do it". Needless to say, Ollie and Charlie don't know what renege means, but have worked out it usually means you haven't followed suit at the appropriate time and in Ollie's case, he seems to have the jack of the same color but not recognize it as a trump in every second or third hand! You will notice I am not using the jargon of left and right bower... far too hard to explain to a 13 and 10 year in my opinon. Only Trent Walerys has had more fun at my expense at the card table over such a short space of time but that is another story.

Becoming "elite" at cards is another step in the boys cricket journey. Don't tell Sarah that as she would argue it is a variation from the conversation that magically returns from any source back to cricket. The boys can work cricket in from the most weird and wonderful of angles. When talking about the beauty of the morning sun rising over the horizon somehow the moment moves to "no rain, that's good, we'll be able to go to the nets in an hour or two". If talking about what music to play in the background somehow we are informed, "I like xyz song because I heard it in the car on the way to the ground on the day I made 50".... and that is just from me! You should hear the boys.

After fun and frivolity, we are finding it somewhat difficult to get the boys off to bed. Last night, we decided to mix it up. Sarah and I went to bed and left Ollie to turn off the lights, put the dog out, lock up and make sure Charlie also goes to bed and stays there. The only thing he complained about was jurisdiction over Charlie!! We retire with a cup of tea as routine to check on the daily stats of who is infected, how many are dead and how crazy the world is getting. Overall I reckon Australia have done a great job in these unprecedented times. The cruise ships remain a significant political football and source of mass infection. I fear for that industry beyond May.

Until next time, that is the week that has been in our household.