QP#13 Quarantine, Day 13

Tomorrow is our last day. When Brown Owl talked to the cop last night, she said we had only one more day, and he corrected her, saying that it’s actually two more days. Brown Owl replied laughing, – yes two nights, but only one more full day! The medical staff have commenced asking us again about whether we are still maintaining quarantine. As if we would now start getting silly about it. Not bloody likely. 

The boys are happy when they get coco pops and toast for breakfast. Brown Owl is delighted when there’s marmalade for her toast. It’s funny that we enjoy having the same foods over and over. 

We have a conversation during the day about what our first dinner should be when we get home. Wizard suggests all the bough food he’s familiar with – Lulu’s Pizza, Beyond India and the Ghan Kebab House. Brown Owl and I groan, and suggest homemade sushi. 

I overhear Brown Owl’s side of a conversation with my Mum, where Brown Owl asserts that she doesn’t like shopping as much as I love it. I feel it’s necessary to clarify this – I actually hate the kind of shopping where one goes from store to store, seeing what’s there, trying things on, comparing attributes and finally making a purchase. However, I do love being at the tiller of our household ship, considering what’s there and what’s needed, making a list and going to get it all from familiar establishments. I love organizing and sorting and putting it all away. 

And yes, I am laughing at myself – just a little, today! 

I suggest a game of Cluedo after breakfast. In the time it takes to get the game set up, Wizard has selected the who, where and what cards and wants to put them into the envelope. Brown Owl coaxes him down, citing fairness, and Wizard takes the face-saving route of refusing to play at all. But he wants to play, so (ever the innovator), he invents another rule to suit himself. He will play the remaining 3 characters left and roll the dice three times each round. No. We don’t bow to his will. This time. Yes, he may use all three characters, but he doesn’t get three turns to our one. This kind of rigmarole is familiar to us, but Wizard isn’t all that riled up just at the moment, and we end up having a good game, won by Brown Owl, whose lucky guess at who where and what turns out to be correct! 

These are the birds I’ve seen from our windows: sparrows, swallows, one pelican, pigeons, an ibex and the boys say they have seen a magpie. 

Daddy Flippy spends a long time chatting with Wizard and Jack, while I write and colour. They love playing with the backgrounds and filters. Brown Owl and I reflect on how good it is, that our boys have other adults in their lives who aren’t so tired of being with them. 

The bouncing on the beds continues. Jack challenges himself to jump from bed to bed. The throwing of the balls continues. The piggy in the middle and bey blade tournaments continue. Wizard invents a new move where he stands on the bed with the jellyfish ball in his hands, jumps up, drops the ball and kicks out with both legs, landing on his back. This is tricky to coordinate. He doesn’t always manage it, but it’s spectacular when he does. 

We embark on a new 30 day yoga journey with Adriene. We’re going to take it even more slowly than she suggests, and do each day twice, over the next two months. We talk about getting up early to do yoga when school goes back. We talk about doing yoga in The Big Room. With such intention we have a good chance of success. PE with Joe is invigorating, rather than exhausting. I find sitting cross-legged for a long period of time just breathing is painful. It’s all a bit intense and mixed up. When we finally get a dog, I’m going to enjoy walking it. I think walking will remain my favourite kind of exercise. 

We settle down mid-afternoon on the children’s beds to watch The Queen’s Corgi. I’m not too impressed by its depiction of toxic femininity and toxic masculinity. I shouldn’t be too surprised, I suppose, as it’s a mainstream animation attempting to appeal to the lowest common denominator. There are a lot of sly digs at Prince Philip as well. Is it about the relationship between the UK and the USA? 

When I pit in my mind, the President and Prince Philip, neither of them comes across terribly well. Yet it’s not satisfying to compare the fates of those two top dogs (the British Prince with the American President) with Charlie and Rex (the canine top dogs), when one gets everything he wants, (i.e. the restoration of his position as the Queen’s favourite, his own chosen mate, life in Buckingham Palace with all his friends), but the other gets shipped without consent to be mated with the American bitch, thus losing his own self-respect, dignity and the camaraderie he’d been willing to sacrifice in order to gain power over his former best friend. 

I am so tired of crass and boring movies for children. I am so tired of settling for mediocre and needing to battle against media depictions of gender that are tired, dangerous, and violent. 

After dinner, I have a conversation with my sister. We talk about exercise, melatonin, parenting, anti-depressants and being the daughters of our mother. We have each other’s backs. There’s plenty of love to go around. 

Jack and I read the rollicking closing scenes of a John Flanagan novel. I’m listening to Wizard and Brown Owl, and find a stopping place at the same time, which Jack is not too happy about. Brown Owl and I then read for some time, marvelling at how easily the boys have gone to sleep. 

We are so fortunate that none of us got sick. This experience would have been so much worse, if we had. The day after tomorrow, we get to go home at 9:15 in the morning. I feel so excited about this. I know though, that no matter how quickly and efficiently we pack everything up tomorrow, the time for departure is set, and will not be affected. So I just keep breathing and try to stay calm.