My 10 Weeks In Lockdown

My 10 Weeks In Lockdown

• May 31, 2020

It has been 10 long weeks since lockdown in UK. Restrictions are starting to ease off from today but I can barely believed that we've endured months of social distancing now. It has been incredibly hard and traumatic at times, but I am most grateful that my nearest and dearest have managed to all avoid getting ill.

I've been reflecting a lot of what lockdown has been like for our family. It started off being unbearable, but as the days and weeks went on, we've adapted to our new normal and dare I even say that we are now thriving.

The 1st Week
Looking back right to the beginning of lockdown, I'd picked Isaac up from nursery like any other weekday. It was Wednesday 18th March and I had no idea that it would be our last day in nursery for the foreseeable future.

The teacher had said to me during pick up, that nursery was now only open to children with parents who were key workers, a phrase that became a part of every conversation very quickly, and on the same night the announcement that all schools were to close on the following Monday set everything in stone. Along with the rest of the UK, I sat stunned by the new reality. Emotions washed over me, and I very nearly broke down. I felt terribly sad for Isaac who would no longer be able to go the nursery that he loved and to see all his friends. He sobbed his heart out when I broke the news to him.

Despite seeing lockdown first hand affecting all my family and friends in Hong Kong back in January, somehow, I didn't think that would be us in UK. Silly right?

I didn't know what to do with myself at the beginning and I had zero motivation to do anything. I wasn't going to be able to go to work at the weekends like I usually do and all my other self employed work had completely dried up. Worrying about finances and suddenly having to look after my own child full time again was quite a shock.

Social media and Watsapp were going crazy, throwing out idea after idea on how to entertain your kids, along with all the overwhelming baking posts that was the apparent thing to do. It was simply exhausting to engage with my phone! I was completely hooked on reading the news day and night, scouring for more information and keeping tabs on cases and deaths in the UK as well as around the world. I'd be reading the news until 2-3am, knowledge of this terrifying situation was the only thing that could ironically keep me sane.

But I had to snap out of all this, I had a 3yro to entertain so we busied ourselves with making a ton of crafts, and during this time, I had the absolute pleasure of finding out that he was brilliant at drawing and his artwork is now displayed proudly in our hallway.

The New Normal
Slowly but surely, our new normal fell into place.

From feeling the pressure of needing to give Isaac something educational to do every day, it slowly turned into letting all of that go and allowing him to choose how he wanted to spend his day. G spends his weekdays working from home, but as there is now no commute into the office he has been able to see so much more of Isaac.

I started to enjoy our lazy mornings with no nursery runs to stick to, and watching Isaac develop skills I never realised he had. From drawing to maths, to phonics, to spelling, to memorising the whole solar system on his own and to him gaining more confidence to speak Chinese. He surprises me everyday with the knowledge he has for a 3yro.

These days, Isaac and I bake a lot. It's become our new thing together and I love it. He's developed a new interest for food art and likes to make food into artwork, somethings he's discovered for himself.

I've had a blast making 'fake' McDonalds for Isaac and G.

Isaac and I always make the classic Chinese bakery items together, and he's a little master chef with shaping dough! Dough work has always scared me but with endless time in lockdown I'm glad I've overcome my fears on this and produced some really great bakes! We've made pineapple buns, sausage buns, ham and spring onion buns, egg tarts, walnut cookies and banana rolls.

There's been some dim sum items too, since I have had mad cravings for dim sum again. One of the things I am most looking forward to when restaurants can reopen again. We made ham sui gok glutinous rice dumplings, jeen dui fried sesame balls and pan fried pork baos.

There's been lots of Japanese cooking and baking from rice burgers, to soufflé pancakes, cotton sponge cake, a matcha Yoda cake for G's lockdown birthday and of course I followed the Instagram hype of making dalgona coffee which is delicious!

Accomplishing To Do Lists
When weekends pop round again, G looks after Isaac whilst I head into my home office to work through my to-do list. I've completed tasks that I'd never manage to do, tasks that have been written down for months and even years - it feels so good to finally get through the majority of it.

I also utilise the weekend time to work on my blog, my Etsy shop, and I've been busy relearning how to use my sewing machine to make face masks! This was completely unexpected but exploded after I made a few face masks for friends and their friends etc wanted to order from me. So far, I've made over 100!

Having the weekends to feel productive has got me feeling so much better mentally and I like that I've got something to show for my time in lockdown. There's still quite a bit to do on my to do list and I'm going to enjoy this quiet time at home without the daily distractions of 'normal life'.

But once the world is free from this situation, I cannot wait to travel again and enjoy every minute of being alive.

Stay safe everyone xx