QP#6 Quarantine, Day 6

I sleep through the night. I wake at 6:00am, feeling rested for the first time in months. While we were in Canada, I experienced periods of vivid dreams. Recurrent themes included travel in strange places, getting lost, making unexpected discoveries. Some of the dreams I’d had before we went to Canada proved prescient. I experienced the same kind of déjà vu as I’ve had during other intense and stressful periods of my life. 

Last night I dreamed I was driving the children to their new school. We were running late. I was worried about exactly how to get there. Part of my mind was busily trying to work out which side of the road I was supposed to be using. I ended up driving through the school’s driveway and being told by someone that I wasn’t allowed to be there. I promised never to do that again. In the next scene, I was hoping to accompany Wizard to his classroom and meet his teacher. He and I were on the ground floor. It was busy. Suddenly Wizard is gone. I look up and figure out that he’s had gone up a tiny hatchway to the first floor. He climbed up a ladder or a set of stairs too small for an adult. Yet I knew there must be a way for an adult to gain access to the next level and began asking people for directions. 

My emotions following this dream are completely optimistic. I am suffused with the sense of a new place, new possibilities, and looking forward to getting to know the school and the other families. I feel like we are in a good place. I also connect this dream to the physical activity we are practicing every day, and an improved level of fitness. 

Contact with the outside world means talking to people on the phone. Never my favourite activity, but at long last, I call the provider and select a new number. I get my mobile working again. Hooray! Now I’ve no excuse not to talk to people. 

The Dads call us, with Granny and Mr Mack (their son). We chat for what seems like a long time to me. It will be so good to be able to get together in person, explore the farm, be licked by the dogs, meet their chooks and ducks. 

I retreat to the desk in the other room to compose a blog post. Brown Owl facilitates a video chat with the Kitty Cat 3 family. After the children have chatted, I half listen in to Brown Owl’s conversation with one of the parents. They are talking about our Tormentor. 

I haven’t been thinking much about our Tormentor for a couple of days. When I catch up with Brown Owl after this conversation, I decide she needs another epithet: Tormented. Not by me, not by us, not by our children, but by her mind, and an intense need to be seen as OK. It must be exhausting to be her. I’m ready to move on now. I leave her to her own complicated life. 

We start talking about the dog we’re going to get. I cannot resist quickly looking to see which rescue dogs are available. Maybe it’s silly to look, because of course I see one that looks ideal… We are committed to getting a dog, but we have a long way to go. Jack suddenly turns adamant that he will be responsible for walking our dog. All. The Time. It’s not so much that he wants to be Chief Dog Walker, as that he does not want Wizard to be. As I say, we have a long way to go before we are ready to bring a puppy home. I overhear Brown Owl telling her sister that the boys have decided their Mums are the Chief Poo Picker-Uppers. Um. No. That’s not how it goes. 

I download an application form for the puppy I like, and we have an ad hoc family meeting to discuss our collective answers to some of the questions – all hypothetical of course. I’m acutely aware that Brown Owl was not keen to have cats in the bed when we moved in together. She needs to feel comfortable with how we bring another animal into our family. 

Quarantine continues to drag on, but the days are not too long. We have a week to go. We follow the same general pattern of activity, with small variations here and there. 

The hotel sends everyone a bag of goodies for New Year’s Eve. It contains 2 small bottles of Prosecco, 2 bottles of Berocca, 2 bottles of green smoothies, 4 cylinders of fancy chips, glow sticks and Kit Kats. Brown Owl rings down and purchases me some gluten free chocolate and chips, so I don’t have to miss out. 

After dinner, (which for me is a delicious lamb shank), Jack and Wizard shower and we get ready to ring in the New Year. We put towels across the bed to catch the crumbs. We manage to choose a movie to watch, and we settle on the bed in front of the big screen with our snacks. It’s an Australian movie called “Go”, and we all thoroughly enjoy it. 

At the end, in lieu of Prosecco, Berocca or green smoothie, I serve us each a wine glass of milk. We wave our glow sticks around for a while. There are no fireworks to see but looking out over the dark city is endlessly fascinating. By nine o’clock or so, we put ourselves to bed. Another day down, and tomorrow it won’t be 2020 anymore.