The MVP helpline for the village has been operating for over three weeks now. After a rapidly changing, chaotic environment initially, we have adapted and now see a bit more structure and stability emerging. We are connected to lots of other groups from Council services to the NHS.

So in March life changed suddenly and drastically. Overnight my job went from one of the most people- orientated, sociable and close contact jobs you can do, to a virtual one. I am an SEND teacher and I LOVE my job. I love working with my students and TAs and communicating verbally and non verbally. I love sitting next to or across from students 1:1 and using pictures and objects to explain concepts and facilitate social interaction and understanding. My students thrive when they have consistency, routine, strong relationships and engaging activities.

Today I looked at my Smart phone with excitement. Like most people I keep my diary appointments on my phone’s calendar rather than in a paper diary and notwithstanding these village diaries, which incidentally are probably better defined as “blogs”, I don’t keep a diary of what I’ve done in my day.

So over recent weeks it has been somewhat gloomy to see the empty calendar which only served to re-emphasise the fact that there are no drinks with friends planned, no cinema trips, no meals out with family.....empty.

I've run a digital business in the village for almost 25 years (in June). We've been through a lot of ups and downs in that time and this probably qualifies as a down. I'm sure that people in the future may ask why a business that specialises in helping other businesses transform their online processes might struggle in a period where online is the only saviour for many businesses? That's a good question and the answer has two parts:

It’s strange how time seems to be so fluid, changing from the time when we used to think we were cash rich and time poor to now, where many of us are time rich and unfortunately for lots of people, cash poor. I used to plan my day around 1/2 hour blocks of time with each activity being allocated a number of blocks..... so as an example; a shopping trip to Reading was 1 block to get there, 2 blocks to buy what I needed and then 1 block to get home, 2 hours in total.Sometimes adding a couple of blocks for some lunch.

Having a birthday during the shutdown

As unplanned Easter breaks go, I had a really good one. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Easter bunny was deemed a key worker and had delivered mini-eggs and a creme egg through my sanitised letterbox - and also left some bunnies at my front door. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely hot, and the bunnies weren't tall enough to reach the doorbell for me to let them in....and so they were casualties of the heat by the time I found them. Mad dogs and English men and all that.....

It’s strange that over the past couple of weeks the one word that so often comes to mind is “beautiful”. This seems all the more strange since we are in the grips of one of the worlds ugliest diseases and we see the horror played out nightly on the TV news programmes.

Of course, I am lucky to have a garden, and we are lucky to live in Mortimer...and we are all lucky, in the UK, to be enjoying some amazing good weather..... but the sky seems so blue, the hedgerows and trees are bursting into life, the bird song rings in our ears.

One positive thing I've noticed about the lock-down is the dog poo. Or should I say, the lack of it. Since we’ve all being squirrelled away at home, we aren't getting a chance to step in any.    

Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld, suggested last week that anyone going out and breaking the rules is not only selfish and inconsiderate but possibly a bit stupid. Why else, he argued, would anyone pass up the opportunity to lounge around watching boxed sets? 

So, I thought I'd do my bit for the community and go back to watching Bargain Hunt..

When the lockdown was announced, our eldest daughter decided she wanted to be locked down with her boyfriend. That meant them choosing between lockdown with us, here, or with his parents at their house thirty miles away. She was very logical about it, figuring that if she chose here there'd be six in our house and only three in theirs whereas the other way around it would be more balanced with four and five respectively.