10/05/20 - A Roadmap

Today I had a day off from art and blogging because the children had a Board Game Marathon planned for their weekly treat. We played quite a range of games from E's first choice of The Strictly Come Dancing board game to F's old favourite The Bus Stop game. We also had a few rounds of The Yes/No Game which has an old fashioned bell to ring whenever a player uses the word yes or no. The bell is the highlight of this game for F as it is fairly hard to get either myself or R to say the forbidden words! We play hard and don't like to be caught out. It takes concentration and skill. We also played Scrabble Trickster which is a modern twist on an old classic. I love Scrabble and managed to win this fun version. F came second so he was chuffed with that. R oversaw a game of Othello between E and F which is a game R remembers from his childhood and spending time with his grandparents. It is another game of skill but there can only be one winner and our children definitely need to hone their coping skills when it comes to losing as I touched on in my Lockdown poem.

This evening we had an update from Boris Johnson about the roadmap for coming out of lockdown. It was frustrating that he wasn't clear on how things would actually work in practice such as how people will get to work if they aren't allowed to use public transport. He also failed to mention how people would return to work if there is no childcare available to them and also why on earth did the government think that sending the youngest children back to school in June would be doable? It is surely impossible for teachers to keep 4, 5 and 6 year olds socially distanced. There was no mention of whether over 70's should continue to shield themselves or if we should be using face masks when out and about.

What was clear was that Boris suggested anyone in manufacturing or construction should be encouraged back to work tomorrow (11/05/20) and that as of Wednesday we are allowed to parks for recreation for longer than one hour (as long as we like it seems) with the option of meeting one other person, so long as we remain 2 metres apart. We are also permitted to travel by car to other destinations for exercise or leisure.

There are lots of questions unanswered following this address by Boris and lots of people are quite rightly upset and anxious about what has been put out as the new slogan to keep us safe, moving forwards...."Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives". Interestingly, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all chosen to stick with the "Stay Home" message and have no intention to send children back to school in June.