Carpe diem it is!
2020!!! Less than 3 months ago we were getting fed up with all those positive posts on Facebook about what a fantastic/amazing/
Generally I am quite calm about viruses, flues and other 'light' stuff and ignore all the media around the subject, but last night I found myself wide awake at 3am with my mind wandering in places and couldn't stop it from doing so. I am sure we all stayed awake recently and wondered whatever next. People buying food as if there's no tomorrow, empty shelves, events we were all looking forward to being cancelled, reduced social interaction due to staying home, school closures and most likely a general havoc for many families. WTF 2020?! We had a deal, I know I said you’ll be amazing, asked you to bring it on, was so ready for you, but it was all a façade, it was not the intention to challenge fate. What we really meant is we'll be happy if we're all healthy and our basic needs are met (yes, that includes toilet roll, but may be debatable in a few weeks time), don't need anything else.
I spent my early childhood in a comunist Romania, and all that's happening around us now are causing strong flashbacks from that time. Food was one of the major issues for the people, all the basic food was rationed while the non-basic was almost non-existent. My Mum was working in a shop and I remember the long shelves being most of the time depressingly empty. Whenever there was something available, people would queue up and were only allowed to buy a very limited quantity. Sounds familiar? Sadly yes, and the paradox here is that it's happening in fucking 2020. Anyway, some people were lucky to either work in a shop or know someone who does and they would manage to somehow have access first to all the 'goodies'. Imagine queuing for hours and then someone yelling 'there is no rice/sugar/flour/whatever left'. There were other ongoing issue at that time, apart from the lack of food. People not having the freedom to do as they please. Borders were closed for the general public, there were some places where you'd be allowed to leave the country for a short while and not too far, so the sapiens had to find a way to make the most of these. We lived very close to both Hungary and Serbia (Yugoslavia at that time) and family members would travel there to buy some goods that were not available in Romania. Felt like Christmas several times per year. How ironic and surreal it sounds nowadays. In those years many fled the country to seek a better life, crawling through the ditches and hiding in lorries until they got to Austria or Germany. Many families have left like this from the village I grew up in. If any of their relatives were left behind, they would get in big trouble with the police.
Anyway, enough details about the comunist era. I was 8 when it went down and everything changed for the better, but I now realize how much I do remember. Probably mostly because my parents and those around were voicing their worries in front of me, and years after people would still talk about those hard times. Which makes me worry about how much Ariana will remember, so better keep calm and not lose my head. Most important thing that I remember though is having a happy childhood, in spite of having very few toys and games, extremely limited tv time (the channel would only broadcast for a few hours daily), power cuts being part of our routine (my Dad set up a car battery and an electric circuit with small bulbs so we have some light in the house. That apart from using candles and oil lamps). Ok, seriously, enough with the communist ramble, what I meant to say is that I enjoyed my parents company even without the fancy technology and games, and the mere fact that they were spending time with me and I was being loved was enough.
Children nowadays are so lucky - they have more toys than they ever need, beautifully illustrated books, infinite resources on iPads and Kindles. And now, for a while, they will have parents who are not busy all day and can actually spend quality time together.
This global fucked up situation makes no sense, and yet we feel like we need to comprehend it and know when it will be over. Not knowing drives us crazy. We may feel angry, frustrated, fuzzy, lost, struggle to sleep, to breathe, to get out of bed tomorrow. I guess it’s normal, but it will get better because, if nothing else, humankind is highly adaptable. After a couple of weeks, we'll get used to this new way of living, and some might actually prefer it and will struggle to get back into the previous routine.
I am trying to come up with a plan for my family for the months to come. It is a challenge with a nearly 4 year old (which reminds me that I need to cancel postpone her birthday party) and an 8 year old who will need to learn to cope with all this. My Mum was supposed to fly back home last Sunday but I panicked and decided she should stay here. Plus I couldn't miss the oportunity to finally have my turn of telling her off if she wants to go out and send her to her room. :)) (plus someone's got to paint the shed!) So it will be a full house, with both me and Dan working from home while having the girls around. We decided to not go overboard with organising school stuff, it’s the end of the term anyway and things would have slowed down in school without a doubt. So we’ll try and keep it fun and I will most likely write about how that’s going. Taking each day as it comes - Carpe diem - will do!
I love writing, it’s always helped me, and if reading this helps at least another person as well, or brings them to smile, then it’s definitely worth doing it.
On that note, I will finish this with a funny recent mess up: Last night our grocery delivery arrived with a third missing items (no toilet rolls, so don't ask!) and another third were replacements. But that was actually not the worst thing that could happen. On top of everything happening these days, I forgot to change address for this supplier, so it was nearly delivered to our old address. Luckily I realised it 10 minutes before he arrived there, so I warned the people living in our old house, and eventually managed to convince the driver over the phone to deliver the grocery to our correct address.
(Source: Pixers.uk)
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