Day 10 of lock down in Italy: Today felt a little tougher. We’re all going to sleep too late. Largely because of the lack of activity. Miss S is really struggling to fall asleep. Getting her out of bed for Italian lessons this morning was a real drag. Almost literally. She’s tired. There were tears, exasperation and impatience.
She pulled it together for the lesson but the lead up to it is becoming increasingly stressful. She then got stuck into her Australian English fantasy novel chapter writing and flourished. Only to then come crashing down again with tears and complaints when Gigi tried to engage her in some Maths.
It was a roller coaster today.
At 5:30pm I took her downstairs to throw a ball, run some laps of the little car park courtyard, play ‘soccer’ and do some skipping videos. It’s still not a substitute for walking to and from school, playing with friends and scootering around the village.
We’re also struggling to find the right replacement device for me. Buying on Amazon in Italy means dealing with an Italian keyboard. Buying one from USA invokes paying import duties and a longer delivery time. Amazon UK is sterling based and with the Aussie dollar at an 18 year low it’s the worst time in almost two decades to be purchasing in Euro, USD or GBP.
Sharing Gigi’s laptop and Miss S’s iPad to plan lessons and conduct Skype sessions for lessons is already becoming tiresome for us all. Gigi is being as generous as I need him to be but it is a bit like Joey in Friends with his “Joey doesn’t share food!” statement.
My parents will be back in Brisbane on Tuesday. With things changing in Australia I had a teary phone call to my sister to see what they were planning. She came to the rescue as she always does organising ferries and flights.
Italy today recorded 475 deaths and officially has more COVID-19 deaths than China. It’s a devastating statistic. Northern Italian villages are losing entire generations.
I haven’t felt much like drowning in COVID-19 news and updates today except to read that the boss of Commonwealth Bank of Austria predicting that the financial impact of COVID-19 will be worse than the global financial crisis. Which is interesting because Australia was the only country that that didn’t fall into recession as a result of the GFC.
Our government is already throwing billions at the prospect at all levels of the community. I’m still not sure what financial measures the Italian government have actually implemented. The talking continues and now comes the insisting that the EU provide billions in support.
Italy has extended the lockdown beyond the initial date of 25 March. Watch his space.
I’m tired. I had two good lessons today with three scheduled for tomorrow. We need to connect with the outside world tomorrow and over the weekend. Get in touch if you’d like to face to face using the ultimate social distancing measures...oceans and thousands of kilometres.
Day 11 of lock down in Italy: It’s been a bit of a battle today. I needed to borrow Gigi’s laptop to prepare a lesson so I rose early to do it while he slumbered and snored. The rest of the day has been a back and forth circus with me having lessons at 10am, 3:30pm and 6pm and he needing the laptop to home school Miss S.
Last night we decided to postpone replacing my broken laptop due to the ridiculous prices for IT equipment in Italy and our falling income. But it’s going to be a challenge.
Miss S literally danced the morning away. She set up a game of Cluedo, insisting that we play. Gigi won by accident. He was teaching her how to play chess when I emerged from my final Skype lesson tonight.
In other news it was Father’s Day in Italy yesterday. It pretty much passed us by. Miss S was given a homework assignment to make a poster and letter for Father’s Day but nobody sent me the memo that it was on Thursday 19th March. I though it was on a Sunday in September like it is in Australia.
It’s also weird not seeing the promotions at the shops for such a day. I wonder if we’ll still be stuck inside when Easter is here. Miss S won’t even know it’s Easter without the bombardment of chocolate eggs and Easter paraphernalia that catches her eye at the shops.
We had spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino 🌶 (garlic, olive oil and chilli ...and parsley and Parmesan cheese) for dinner. Miss S scrounged in the fridge for something for dessert and came up with an apple. Poor kid. I think tomorrow might be a good day to bake.
I’m not giving any updates on COVID-19 today. I just can’t. I just know that nothing seems to be getting better yet.
At least it’s the weekend tomorrow so we can look forward to relaxing at home ...oh wait, we’ve done that for 11 days on a row now!
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