New Normal

I've now reached the stage where all this feels normal.
Like it's my new normal (what an annoying term that is).
At some point during the past couple of months, my new normal has crept up on me and I suppose I've got used to it. In all the initial panic, I have adjusted.

The weather has been tan-tastic which has helped. We had our first trip to the beach since lock down. And it was amazing!
We are lucky that not only do we live quite close to the coast, my mum lives by the beach, so we get to go quite a lot through the year. We've even made snow castles in the past!
But that morning felt like life was momentarily put on hold or something.

"Momma's Beach" as we call it, is a beautiful sandy beach. So clean and so deserted. It was the hottest day of the year, and yet just us three and a surfer shared the whole beach, the two either side of us and the one past that to the right (I didn't bother checking any further up the coast line). So it meant we didn't have to worry about social distancing and we could relax.
We built forts, dug trenches and then filled them with tiny plastic soldiers, tanks and home made flags the boys had bought along.

After a slice of malt loaf, with thick butter of course, we braced the sea. And it did feel like we were on holiday! We had a lovely swim. It wasn't exactly planned. Archie fell in. Apparently he trod on a wave (!?!) But you know what it's like - once you've got your shoulders under..... So swim we did.

What a morning.

Just a shame Momma and Grandad couldn't be with us. They always come to the beach with us. But unfortunately my mum's strict isolation rules won't allow it.
We will get the chance again though. In the not too distant future. I'm sure of it.
We went and said hello before having to say goodbye.
We sat in their back garden, whilst they stayed inside. Something that's becoming another new normal for many families and friends now.

Weird isn't it?
The lack of skin to skin contact is really weird. It's something most of us have had since being a newborn. The simple touch of another.
And it was later on that evening when I was thinking about just how weird that is, that my hazy holiday bubble burst.

It was the same feeling you get when you've been away on your holidays, had a dreamy time and then come back only to realise you return to work the next day. That sicky dread feeling - for absolutely no reason whatsoever!
And I realised at that moment (and this is hard to admit, so I shall say it quickly) Ifeelanxiousaboutgoingbacktowork.
Phew. I said it.

The longer this bubble continues, makes it harder and harder to consider returning to our old normal. Working in an office environment all week some how now feels claustrophobic. Paying someone else to drop the kids off at school seems unnecessarily indulgent. The thought of dancing around each other down the corridor as not to break the rules of social distancing, seems so antisocial and down right awkward. And then there's the feelings many of us may be hiding of 'am I even really needed any more if I'm still being kept on furlough?'.

I suppose none of us really know yet how the workplace will adapt to the proposed long term social distancing. Or if work place flexibility really is all that possible. There is a balance to be found of employee well being, productivity and ultimately profitability.

I'd better sign off now as there's a queue for the cafe. It started as an exercise to learn about money, but now every day I produce a menu board for lunch. And the boys make careful selections about what they can afford with their £3 (of course the unhealthy options are pretty pricey!!!).

Strange making the kids pay for their lunch - at home - in the kitchen, and yet some how perfectly normal.

I do love fried hair. Naughty but nice.

yep, just about to trip up on that wave.