'It's Tuesday! Or, as we now call it: Day'

Weird, weird day. We're having to put some of our staff on temporary 'furlough', one of the many new words suddenly appearing. Along with 'coronavirus', 'self-isolation', 'social distancing', 'Facewine'. Brave New World. I don't know why I feel so tragic about this. It's really ok and amazing that the company is actually supporting staff as much as they are. They're even paying 20% on top of the government's 80% coverage of salaries, so no one will have to take a paycut. All promotions and payrises are halted, which really really REALLY sucks for my team. Particularly one member of it, who I also can't quite work out how/if to put on furlough. Otherwise she is going to end up covering for everyone else who gets a fully paid holiday. She's on so little money and it just doesn't seem at all fair. But I can't figure out how else to do it.

It's ridiculous really. I mean it could be so much worse. I'm just worried that I've got it wrong, that I should have fought better for some books. And it's only short-term. I'm just so bad at scheduling things. What if I've missed something obvious?

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Wrote this on the Tues 6th April I think - it's now Good Friday so NO WORK. We've had all the furloughing chats and it was ok. The next six weeks will be tough but we are also so lucky to have the option of doing it at all - in the US they're just going to have to let people go if things don't pick up. Lockdown continues and is looking likely to do so for another few weeks. It's Dad's birthday today - always an odd day somehow. Not painful - I find the month where he actually died (October) tricky, but also it's just a tricky month I think - but his birthday just makes me a bit drifty somehow and quite anti-social. Luckily my going out options are nill, so I'm sticking to reading in the garden, cooking scallops for the first time as my housemates had never tried them and I wanted to try doing cooking them as I never have (https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/scallops-with-chorizo - good, but next time much hotter pan as they didn't get properly caramelised on top). We've been watching LOTs of Masterchef and I've lost two bets meaning that I'm now meant to be weeding the front garden and cleaning the top cupboard and have reinforced my determination to never go to Vegas.

Wherever you are Dad, I'm thinking of you. I feel as though - before getting ill - you'd have embraced this lockdown. You're basically not that sociable and think you'd have been very happy with jazz on, watching football and not moving very much! I wish you were here and could do that while Mum yells at you for not being outside in the sunshine.

In other news, we're down to three bottles of wine, which is UNCONSCIONABLY low and shall not stand. Am going to order some wine immediately.