Slowly unlocking

Lockdown is continuing to ease, although very slowly. Scotland is about two weeks behind England in lifting restrictions, which seems to have been the right decision because there are far fewer deaths in Scotland now I’m glad to say. The number of deaths has dropped in England too, although not so markedly. I emailed our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, a fortnight ago, to ask if Chanel could come here from England; she and Davie are in close touch by phone and video call but I know that they are missing each other very much. My idea was that she could self-isolate at Grandma's house for an appropriate amount of time; I offered to buy food for her and leave it on the doorstep. I got a pleasant but firm reply from MSP Clare Haughey to say that this would not be allowed. I was very disappointed; hopefully travel from England to Scotland will be permitted soon. 

Our young folk are continuing to work and study hard in our house, which I know is difficult for them. Ally and Cat both say that they find it more effective to work in an office; it is isolating for them to work at home. Davie misses being able to do his research in a lab; he has had to analyse a set of results provided for him by the University. Davie's back got very sore from working for very long hours at the computer, so I bought him a proper office / gaming chair which supports his back and he said that it made a huge difference. (Ally and Cat are ok with their chairs so far.)  James and I are pleased that we have been able to assist Ally, Cat and Davie by providing a private work space for each of them, as well as food, comfortable bedrooms and living space, and we are all lucky that we have a good-sized garden for outside breaks. It has been such a strange time.