Day 39 of lockdown
I decided to self-isolate on the 17th March (I wasn't feeling well and had shortness of breath), on the 18th we took our kids out of school and the family went into isolation, so counting from the 17th, this is the 39th day of lockdown for us. Officially, the lockdown only started here at 16:00 on the 20th March (at least, that's when the schools were shut).
Today was a pleasant day. We took the sprog and the dog for a' walk to the beach near Saint Davids. The dog wasn't as keen today as she was yesterday, yesterday we took her to the beach near North Queensferry and possibly she's still tired, this lockdown has not been great for our general fitness, or for the dog's apparently. We're fortunate at the moment in that we're allowed out of the house once per day for exercise. In the old country, they've locked down completely, people are not even allowed out of their houses. The weather was beautiful.
Earlier this morning I played some of Assassins Creed IV on the XBox360. Shortly before the lockdown was officially announced, we could see where things were headed, so I went to CEX and bought a lot of XBox360 games (cheaply). I've played Assassins Creed IV before on the PC, but it's so much fun, and this time I'd played through the earlier ones so the story is more familiar. I've still got plenty of games to keep myself entertained after I've finished Assassin's Creed IV.
We had a really nice Sunday lunch and then I played Advanced Squad Leader with my Italian friend online using VASSAL. We had some connection issues, but it was weird, because normally it's the voice on Discord which gives a problem, but this time the voice was fine, just the board game itself wasn't synching properly. I suspect that the issue is on my side. I know the sproglet has been trying to download Dragon Age Inquisition, and that's been killing our bandwidth. I found that the linux client for Discord is a bit flaky on my laptop, so I use discord on my phone, and that works much better. It's really cool that we can play these games online, normally I'd see Valerio every 2 weeks or so at DWARF. We've certainly both learnt the game a lot more recently, barely needing to consult the rules anymore. Of course, this is still Starter Kit #1 we're playing, but it's quite fun. I felt a bit sorry for him today, the dice were against him. I made some serious errors, but he wasn't able to punish me for them because the dice rolls were terrible for him, great for me though.
Afterwards I skyped with my parents. They're in the old country and fully locked down. They're taking lots of precautions which is good. They're still going in to the office once a week, though without anyone else there. They told me that they're actually finding working from home quite nice, and in some ways easier. They were looking healthy and cheerful, so that's good.
All in all, at the moment, this lockdown is more of a nuisance to me. I'm fortunate in that I've been able to work from home myself. I miss skating and even just going in to the office. In many ways though I'm in a very fortunate position, for which I'm very grateful. This week is my last week working for the clients before my contract expires, so from the week after I'll be back with my company. I'm not sure yet if I'll be working or furloughed (possibly, they're not sure either). Hopefully there'll be work because it's always a bit nerve-wracking when there's no work. If I'm furloughed I'll study something.