COVID-19 Musings - Stay at Home

For two months now the directive for those over 70 from the Australian Government, in order to avoid COVID-19, has been to Stay at Home. This directive was extended to all Victorians once the State of Emergency was declared. The only exceptions were need for medical treatment, essential shopping; exercise or the need to go to work.

The second State Library of Victoria Memory Bank (#SLVMemoryBank) prompt is to record what people are doing and learning while Staying at Home. 

Normally we look after grandchildren before and after school five days a week which necessitates having to be home by 3.15 in order to collect the children from school. Suddenly we have this 'free time' with no restrictions except we need to stay at home. Therefore how do we fill in our time?

Reading

Who needs an excuse to read?

This has been a great opportunity to relax and enjoy reading. Of course the public libraries are closed and I soon exhausted the supply of books I had borrowed before the closure. Fortunately we have an excellent bookshop - Dymocks - at Knox City so I have purchased a collection of recent titles to read. When these run out I do have a house full of books to read including many old favourites to reread and enjoy.

In the meantime I have caught up with the latest titles in a number of series including books by Donna Leon, Kathy Reichs and Dervla McTiernan as well as discovering new authors such as Natasha Lester and Pip Williams.

Dymocks and Better Reading have both been providing interviews with authors via Facebook to promote new books and authors.

Short summaries of the books I have been reading can be found in posts in this blog.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Selection of puzzles on National Archives UK page

Years ago I used to enjoy doing 1,000 piece jigsaws but stopped when the children were old enough to 'help' and there was a risk of losing pieces. Many of my Facebook pages relate to history and museums and increasingly I am finding links to online jigsaws. Some of the institutions include National Archives UK (see their Facebook page) and the three Museum Victoria sites. A number of local historical societies are also creating online jigsaw puzzles.

Melbourne Museum online jigsaws
State Archives of NSW online puzzles  
PROV - online jigsaws
Monash University Library - jigsaw puzzles
National Library of Australia - Trouble in Surf  - Canberra - Parrot
University of Sydney - online jigsaws
State Library of NSW - online jigsaws
ALIA - puzzles
Sydney Living Museums - online puzzles

Hawkesbury Library - jigsaw puzzles

Two online jigsaw sites providing a wide range of puzzles:
Jigsaw Explorer
This site allows you to choose the number of pieces you want the chosen puzzle to have.
Jigsaw Planet
 
Films
With all this 'free' time it would be great to be able to go to the pictures without worrying whether they finish in time for school pick-up. However, of course, all the cinemas are closed until further notice.

The week before the closure we did see Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears and we were the only people in the cinema. I also wanted to see Emma but the cinemas closed before we had a chance to do so. 

When the film, Emma, became available for temporary download from Foxtel my husband decided to pay the fee so that we could watch the film at home. It was more expensive than watching the film at the cinema however we enjoyed watching the film in the comfort of our own home. No doubt the film will eventually become available on TV but at least we were able to watch it without interruptions from advertisements.

Family History
Family history research has kept me occupied since, as a teenager, I first discovered that we had a convict in the family. One convict became twelve convicts so there are increasing options for research. With four grandchildren it is now time to begin compiling the family story so the obvious place to start is with the convicts. For many years I have been writing family stories in a family history blog and these will prove a useful source when compiling the family story.

Family Connections

It is apparent that the lockdown has encouraged other people to undertake family history research as I have received many enquiries via my Family Connections blog and from users of Ancestry asking for information.

I would also like to have all of my family history records stored in one room. This will entail moving the furniture around between rooms as well as finishing storing some of the material in boxes to go on the shelves. Having books relating to family history in one room would also be useful.

Future Learn

I have been doing Future Learn online courses for a number of years. Last year I took out an unlimited subscription for the year and have just renewed it for another twelve months. This means that I have access to course material after the course has finished and can go back and refer to it again. Most of the courses that I have done relate to history but I have also done a number of literature courses, some health plus a couple of science and the environment courses. Some of the courses that I have completed are listed in this blog post.

Currently I am doing a course on Shakespeare run by Kings College, London and Food and Mood: improving mental health through nutrition run by Deakin University, Melbourne. Recently London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ran a course on COVID-19. An updated version of this course will be repeated shortly.

Gardening
During the lockdown there has been a variety of weather as is normal in Melbourne, however on the fine days my husband has been tackling our garden. Our front garden is basically a collection of a variety of plants including, on one side, a collection of tall grasses which have thrived. The idea of this garden was that it would look after itself, especially during the hot summer months. 

The grandchildren refer to the front garden as 'the jungle' and enjoy exploring and hiding there. The neighbour's cat also finds it a great place to explore and somewhere cooler to sleep during the summer. 

My husband has now removed the dead fronds and cut back the grasses threatening to encroach on the drive and it does look tidier. In the spring we will plant some smaller flowering shrubs to fill in a few gaps and to make it more interesting when looking at the garden through the windows downstairs.

What has Stay at Home meant?
Stay at Home has made alterations to our life. The biggest issue is knowing what day it is as our normal routine no longer exists.

The grandchildren used to arrive at our home after 7 am five days a week and would have breakfast before being taken to school. They then needed to be collected at 3.30 pm. Afternoon tea, reading and sometimes sport would then follow.

After the children went to school we would go to the gym on Tuesday and Thursday morning - the gym is now closed. On Mondays we would visit my mother. We still go to Knox City on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings to buy a few items but whereas previously we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at one of the many restaurants a couple of times a week, the restaurants are now closed though some are doing take-away. When shopping we always called in for a hot chocolate and coffee at San Churros at Knox City or at Schokolade at Studfield - now we collect take-away drinks to have at home.

Stay at Home has, however, provided more time for activities including reading and family history and introduced me to new activities such as online puzzles. I also continue doing the Future Learn online courses.

My husband continues to do the cryptic crosswords, particulalry the David Astle puzzle on Fridays which can take some time. Each weekday we continue to watch repeats of Letters and Numbers and attempt to solve the puzzles in the time limit. I have the set of Letters and Numbers books allowing me to work out the puzzles in my own time.

There is also more time to think about different recipes to cook, including meals that we remember from childhood. We still go for walks, just the two of us, when the weather is fine and from time to time see other people we have known in the past doing the same. We are also still communicating with family members, but from a distance.

In a way Stay at Home provides time to reassess the things that we normally do plus the time to do things we have been too busy to do previously.

See also all posts relating to COVID-19