This week I have been making face masks, and was being driven mad by the stitching on my sewing machine, which goes all loopy underneath. This happens every time I sew anything, no matter how I adjust the tension or the stitch, and has done since the machine was about a year old. I googled to search for ideas to remedy this stitching problem. And it seems that my needle wasn’t sharp enough. I replaced it with a new one and now it works perfectly, and I have made face masks for us all. Some have a thick strip of elastic which goes around the back of the head. Others have elastic loops which fit over each ear – although the girls and I all have floppy ears and the loops just seem to flip off them after a while. The masks I have sewn using the pattern I was given on You Tube all seem a little small, although the elastic ear loops are too big. Not sure whether we are a family with massive faces and small ears, or whether our facial dimensions vary so greatly that a generic mask is not right for us. So I have customised them for each of us, and they are fairly comfortable to wear, and although a little hot, they are better than nothing, and at least we will be ready if we need to use them.
T and I went to B and M for some urgent supplies last week and wore them for the first time. They were ok and nobody laughed at us, which I think was what I was expecting to happen, as they do make us look like foxes (quite pointy around the nostril area), and they are lined with bright contrasting fabric. I felt very self conscious, and I didn’t like it that people around us seemed to be quite cautious, and that they couldn’t see our mouths, so it was difficult to convey a smile. I used fabric and elastic accumulated over the years. Two layers of cotton, with a third inside lining made from some anti allergy pillowcases I bought from Morrisons. My thinking is that the weave of the lining, if sufficient to stop dust etc from getting through, will hopefully prevent nasty bugs from reaching my mouth/nose, or will prevent them from coming out of my mouth/nose and infecting others. Mr C has been researching face coverings and has found that although they may not be successful at preventing germs from reaching us, even home made masks are highly effective at keeping our germs in. This means that their effectiveness is reliant on most people wearing them, so I am becoming an ambassador for the facemask and encouraging others to use them too, with this in mind. I will only wear one when I am going to be in a confined space such as a shop.
L is in year 10 and very excited at the prospect of returning to school on June 1st. We have talked to her about this, and she realises that it is unlikely to be school as she knows it – there will apparently be opportunities for face to face meetings with teachers, but it seems as if initially these will be one to one, to assess the students’ learning and to identify gaps, and to enable the teachers to formulate a customised learning plan with strategies to help support the students. The school have emailed a questionnaire to all parents, in which they have asked whether they intend to send their kids back to school on June 1st, or if it is dependent on being satisfied with safety measures, or if they are simply not yet ready to return. They have also asked what parents would like to see put in place to enable the students to return safely. It is a very open questionnaire, and I hope that it is helpful, as they have a very difficult job on their hands. It would seem that the virus will be with us for some time, and if not this one, then its successor. I am not alone in thinking that there will be new ways of life, and that the freedoms which we have always known may be restricted to within our groups, and that outside those, we will have to be more careful and adaptive.
I can see few benefits of a post-Corona world, although there certainly are some, such as reduced pollution, carbon emissions, consumerism and hopefully a swing towards appreciation, empathy and kindness. Not all families have more time together, but some do. We are spending less, although not on food, in my house at least. And it seems that many families and friends are coming together in new ways – using Zoom and Teams and House Party. We are regularly meeting up to take part in quizzes or celebrations, and although it’s not as good as the real thing, it is much better than nothing. We are being more careful in how we plan our journeys, more thoughtful in how we shop, and sharing what we have with our families and neighbours. And the sun shine makes it all much easier.
I am still feeling fortunate in having my children back home, although they are enjoying it less. I don’t think they realise just how lucky they are. Their lives revolve around mealtimes and they have the dogs on hand to love and appreciate. They are enjoying walks in Crowfields, they are reading more and spending time together. However, having them home is making it more difficult for me to work, as we have all had to shift along to make room for H. So my den is now inhabited by Mr C, whose office has reverted to being H’s bedroom. I try to write in the kitchen, but this is T’s allocated area for the daytime watching of all of the reruns of Midsomer Murders. So I am banished to the garden, where there is no Wifi and my papers blow everywhere. But it is so quiet, apart from the birds, the sheep (if the wind is in the right direction) and the occasional lawnmower. Hard to believe the illness and hardship that so many are suffering so close by. It’s surreal, but I understand that it is just luck, and that there but for the grace….
'NoPoo' Update
I still haven’t washed my hair, and have lost track of how long it’s been since I did. It might be 5 weeks. And it looks fine. It feels much thicker, and more like it did when I was younger. The girls were begging me to wash it multiple times a day last week, but this week the only one to have mentioned it has been L, who said yesterday that it didn’t look quite so bad. I am changing my pillowcases frequently, and perhaps adopting pigtails and spacebuns more often than usual, but otherwise, little has changed. I am going to continue with the experiment for a little longer, although I will probably change my mind if I ever get to meet up with anyone ever again.
Mr C and I are missing Southwold. At this time of year, we would usually be spending as much time there as possible. The pace of life is so much slower, the air is fresh and clean, and I love the light and the sea and sand. There is no power in our caravan, so we entertain ourselves by reading and playing cards, and we walk everywhere. Mainly the pub and the beach, but if you’ve got a pub and a beach nearby, why would you need to go anywhere else? Instead we are spending time in our little garden at home, playing rummy and enjoying the sunshine. It’s no Southwold, but it’s enough for now.
Socials Update
I had a message yesterday to say that a fake Instagram has been set up using some of my photographs and just differing from mine by one letter. I think I have traced it back to hashtagging Killing Eve in my last blog. I won’t be doing that again! Stay alert kids! My daughters think it’s hilarious, and L is a bit impressed, as if it’s a badge of honour. They made me go through my Instagram friends on my three accounts (I have a writer’s one, a book one and a personal one) and forced me to weed out the followers who looked as if they might not be genuine. I was very sad to say goodbye to the handsome medical doctors and army captains, but I can see that they might have been a little suspect. The fake account has now been closed down, but I am reluctant to change my settings to private as I am trying to drive traffic towards my site, in case I should ever get close to being published.
And the writing – I have written two alternative endings, which I have sent to my beta readers, and am waiting for their views. They have all been very constructive, providing great feedback, which has enabled me to work on areas where it was required. I have made so many revisions to the original book since I started it, and am too close to it, making it harder for me to spot mistakes in continuity or gaps.
It is taking so long to get it ready to submit to agents, but I think that perhaps that’s where I went wrong last time – I submitted too early, before it was properly ready. Fingers crossed that the new shiny revised manuscript will be ready very soon, and I can once again begin the submission process. I keep thinking that I am almost there – but it is such a long process, and I so want it to be right. So don’t go looking out for ‘Magpie’ on the shelves in Waterstones just yet.
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