Day 17 of lock down in Italy: Another cold and wet day. Thermals and woollen jumpers. Miss S has had a successful day of schooling including a lesson with her Italian teacher using TeamView - certainly progress from WhatsApp. Getting 12 Italian children to be quiet at the same time though proved to be a challenge. We successfully made banana bread using frozen bananas and a pie tin instead of a loaf pan. Next I have to come up with a recipe for the frozen oranges in the freezer. If our blender hadn't died I'd make a whole orange cake. Suggestions are welcome.
I've spent the afternoon/evening teaching via Skype. I think the students really look forward to the lessons as they are all waiting on Skype well before I initiate the class. I guess it's a break from the boredom, because it does seem that most of them are struggling with staying at home.
COVID-19 news: 578 deaths reported in the UK to date. The UK is in lockdown but its Deputy Chief Medical Officer is encouraging people to take up exercise and go out and get fit.
Half a million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed worldwide. The actual cases must be well over a million with limited testing in a number of countries (including Australia and UK) due to criteria. Italy reported more than 6 000 new cases, taking the total to more than 80 500.
What happens when you lock people in their own homes? Crime rates drop. In Italy crime crates have dropped 64%. Yes, 64% for the period 1-22 March. Last year during the same period there were 146 000 reported crimes (imagine how many went unreported) and this year only 52 000. I wonder if the 52 000 crimes included the 120 000 people cited for breaching lock down rules ....it doesn't seem like it.
The Italian government has just issed the third version of the self-certification form. Very much a work in progress.
The headlines are reporting a possible peak in the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy soon. Soon is hard to define though. And of course if the outbreak moves from the northern provinces to the south there will be another explosion and the curve will bounce up again.
Indonesia appears to be on the edge of a major outbreak of COVID-19. "The country has the world's highest death rate but is testing the least amount of people, with fears a lack of stringent lockdown measures will mean half the nation - the fourth most populous in the world - will soon be infected." Social distancing doesn't seem to have impacted on the way of people are interacting.
Australians continue to be confused about what the can and can't, should and shouldn't during this time. Why hairdressers are still operating baffles me.
Gigi is huffing and puffing as he tries to reboot his computer. I'm not sure we can survive a second dead laptop at this time. If you're into that sort of thing, pray for us please.
Thank goodness it's Friday tomorrow. I'm very much looking forward to the weekend. Maybe a picnic (in the lounge room) or a stroll around (the hallway). Ahhh, ,the simple life.
Day 18 of lock down in Italy: the cold, wet weather persists. At least the lack of blue skies and warm, inviting weather makes it seem a little less of a chore to be indoors.
As I write Miss S is in the shower listening to Meghan Trainor. Every morning this girl comes out from her bedroom, sleepy eyed and warm, with a good morning and a hug. And she's changed again overnight. I thought the changes happened fast when she was a baby, and then a toddler. I assumed it slowed down, and I guess it did for a while. But this preteen phase is bursting with development, pushing boundaries and curiousity. It's hard to be pushing boundaries though when you're not allowed out of the house.
It's important to note that she's a great kid to be stuck in lock down with. She's independent but has adopted that very Italian preference of having someone keep her company just for the sake of it. Her father does the same thing. She loves playing board games, but will easily invent games to play by herself. She's creative and active but also loves to phase out in from of the TV given half a chance. She wants to learn, likes to challenge herself and understands that she has to be very adaptive especially under these circumstances.
Yesterday Miss S spent a good deal of time learning how to play the 'Happy Birthday' song on her keyboard. We then Skyped her Italian grandmother to wish her a happy birthday. There are millions of people around the world celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and other events who don't get to share it with their families at this time. I'm pretty sure we'll still be in lock down for my 50th at the end of April. Not the birthday celebration I was planning.
Miss S tackled her final piece of Australian English work for the term - complex sentences using similes, metaphors and personification. She chose a monkey, kittens and puppies as pictures to support the work and made a gorgeous PowerPoint presentation. She also completes her maths assessment. Kicking goals.
I’m rewatching “The Crown” on Netflix and worked on another mosaic page.
The internet has been a bit sketchy this evening resulting in my final class only going for an hour. The video dropped out every thirty seconds at one stage so I abandoned the class. That's really the first time I've had problems with the connection.
The most intersting piece of COVID-19 news today is the report that the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has tested positive for the virus.
Sadly the death toll in Italy and Spain surged again today, with 969 people dying in Italy from COVID-19 today. That's a sobering number.
In Australia the decision to close schools has been left with the individual states.
In local news we've been informed that a local nurse from a medical clinic and her family have COVID-19. They live in a small village in the vicinity of our village and surely shop here. We minimise our interractions with other villagers and only go shopping when we really need to. It's a waiting game. The ultimate test of patience, of taking appropriate measures and crossing of fingers.
Oh, and Gigi is almost completely clean shaven.
Happy thoughts for the weekend.
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