My son went back to daycare a couple of weeks ago so now is as good a time as any to take stock and look back over the last 4 months. It started with that moment on the 17th of March when, flanked by his chief medical and scientific advisers, Boris Johnson stood at that plinth with his hand on his head, looking for all the world like he was saying God help us all. Until that point, the UK had been fairly flippant about coronavirus and the dangers. Herd immunity was the first of several new words or phrases that would enter the common vernacular. I woke up to a new WhatsApp group for work accompanied by an opening message that included something like “…following what has happened overnight…” My first reaction was “what the hell has happened overnight?” given that every time the BBC News notification sounded on someones phone it was more bad news. My second reaction was to type a message into this new work chat informing my colleagues that instructions for my role of paying staff were in a shared folder, should anything happen to me. I was really afraid but trying to stay calm. There was a genuine fear that this was going to kill a lot of the human race. My wife Emma and I had already been instructed to work from home by our respective employers before the government or the devolved government in Northern Ireland confirmed we should. As parents, we were forced into staying at home because schools were using training days so children couldn’t be sent in while everyone waited for the government to catch up and take this seriously. We’d cancelled a weekend in Dublin over St. Patricks Day as there had been a gradual and then very sudden realisation that this virus wouldn’t be like SARS from the early 2000’s which didn’t make it’s way this far west, coronavirus or Covid 19, to give it it’s scientific name, was marauding its way through Italy, Spain, France and now the UK. As an island off an island, we hoped it wouldn’t hit us as badly. Reluctantly, I watched some news, the British Government had decided herd immunity was a terrible idea and social distancing was the only way to stop this but at least 20,000 people would die. This seemed like a huge number and of course it is, as each one of those is the life of a father, mother, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt, son or daughter but it was also less than 1% of the UK population. The plinth at which Boris stood delivering this shocking news would become synonymous with the daily updates, a kind of modern “bring out your dead” scene. To complicate matters further, we were also watching news and announcements coming from down south as An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, put the Republic into lockdown with a firm but more reassuring message. He spoke of the surge in cases and deaths that would come, the economic impact that would be felt for years and how so much would be asked of so few within the health service “This is a St. Patricks Day like no other…Tonight, I know many of you are feeling scared and overwhelmed, that is a normal reaction but we will get through this and we will prevail”.
What it did do was trigger whatever it is that makes us look out for our neighbours. There’s nothing like a humanitarian disaster to bring out the humanity. We had been trying to get a new shed and artificial grass in our back garden, in time for summer, in the month or so before the pandemic (as it also became known as) arrived. With tradesmen trying to get paid for as much work as they could before everything stopped, we were informed at short notice that our shed was ready and would be put up in a day with the grass to follow at a later date. I informed our neighbours that their view would be obstructed whilst also offering my phone number if they needed me for anything. Through this, I discovered the neighbour behind me, Kate, is a Publisher of poetry books. She posted a card through our door when the shed went up saying how much she liked it. The card was of a book of poetry she had published by Mel McMahon, who was my English teacher at school in a town 30 odd miles away. The next time I saw Kate, I asked her about the card and she told me it was for one of two books of poetry they had published by Mel and she very kindly gave me a copy of each. Small world.
Even before the official lockdown we weren’t travelling great distances or going to visit parents. I asked friends on WhatsApp where was the worst place in Northern Ireland, a place we could go for a drive and get out for a walk and there would be no one there. The answers came back “Lisburn!”. That’s where I live, assholes. Emma had already made this joke. Next worst - Lurgan, Craigavon and Portadown. In the end we drove up White Mountain, above Lisburn, parked the car and walked across an empty field to a spectacular panoramic view of Belfast and surrounding areas. When Boris finally announced lockdown with no unnecessary journeys and half an hour outside for exercise, we were already in that mode. There was a sense throughout of the government catching up and prescribing what most people were doing anyway. Zoom calls with my friends started the week of lock down and have continued since. At times like this, you want your family and friends. Working from home, I was as busy as ever so getting out with Arlo at lunchtime and at the end of the day was all that was available anyway. One of the best things that has come from this was watching him learn to ride his bike. We had attempted it last summer but he wasn’t ready. I was against idea of a balance bike until we got a lend of one this year and that did the trick. After a family walk one Sunday, he tried the bike with pedals and almost had it. The next day at lunchtime he cracked it and hasn’t looked back since. The tyres are almost worn out on the bike now. Our living room is work and our kitchen was school. In the evenings after work and school, we all went outside and played kerbsy which is a game from our youth - Two people stand either side of a narrow road usually in a residential area with footpaths and crucially kerbstones. Each player takes a turn at throwing a football at the other persons kerb. If you hit the kerb you can run out onto the road, taking care of course and collect the ball so you get closer and closer, making it easier. It’s first to hit the others kerb 10 times but if your opponent hits you with the ball before you get back to your side, you lose all your points. We started playing it most evenings and then noticed other neighbours and kids doing the same.
Our next door neighbours gave us some seedling kits from M&S and they turned out to be very entertaining. It’s something I’ll get into from now on. We grew and ate basil, radishes, lettuce and what we thought was a carrot but turned out to be a giant radish also. They started off in Mr. Men cups from McDonalds and then I had to buy a window box to put them in. The carrot/radish had to move to it’s own plant pot in our new shed and I brought it in and out as the weather dictated. The artificial grass was laid soon after Boris vaguely announced that anyone who couldn’t work from home could return to work but must social distance. The only time I left the house other than exercise was to go to Sainsbury’s to do groceries on a Saturday morning. It was quite shocking to begin with, queuing all the way round the perimeter of the car park then going in with a cycling scarf mask covering my mouth and nose and seeing other shoppers going with various types of mask, although most people didn’t bother. I wore disposable gloves to begin with too. It did feel like a bit of a military mission the first few times but as the weeks went on, I looked forward to getting out of the house for an hour and a half (including queuing). Liquid soap, pasta and soup were difficult to get. Toilet roll was always available. It was 6 weeks before I was able to buy Dettol wipes! I heard stories of people cleaning their grocery shopping with wipes when they got home. That’s probably why there was none, people doing shit like that but who knew what we were supposed to be doing? We were only using ours for normal wiping down of surfaces.
Handwashing became a bit of an obsession to the point the skin cracked on my hands. Arlo had already been taught at school to sing happy birthday to himself every time he washed his hands and while it began slow and clear, more recently it became a speeded up, abbreviated version “ha-ber-t’you, ha-ber-t’you, ha-ber-t’Arlo, ha-ber-t’you”, so we made him do that version twice. Our half an hour of exercise usually involved a walk around where we live.There are about 200 houses here with some quite big grass communal areas so we could also kick a football about, hit a hurling ball or cycle around on our bikes. You have to feel for the people who were stuck in tower blocks during this. We are lucky. We live on the edge of a town, a mile from the countryside and we made the most of that when it was really hot in May. One walk was nearly 4 miles. I’d love to say we kept up this tradition but neither the weather nor the inclination was there. A daily ritual from the start of lockdown involved me having to learn how to draw Chibi Marvel Avengers characters. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body but as with most things, we can be tutored by Youtube. I now have a Tony Hart style gallery of over 30 characters I drew and Arlo coloured in. We got quite good at them as well, if I do say so myself. We’ve started reading him Dr Seuss books and I can see why those stories have stood the test of time. I got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, years ago, having played Wii Sports Golf in a friends house. It hadn't been out for a long time but it has had a renaissance during lockdown. I bought an extra controller and a few new games from Amazon, whose share price must be through the roof at this stage, including Mario-kart and an Olympics game featuring Mario and Sonic characters. Arlo loves it. His favourite game is Cars 2 from the movies with Lightning McQueen. He is obsessed with these films and collecting the cars from Cars. I’ve had to learn to draw a few of them too.
Handwashing became a bit of an obsession to the point the skin cracked on my hands. Arlo had already been taught at school to sing happy birthday to himself every time he washed his hands and while it began slow and clear, more recently it became a speeded up, abbreviated version “ha-ber-t’you, ha-ber-t’you, ha-ber-t’Arlo, ha-ber-t’you”, so we made him do that version twice. Our half an hour of exercise usually involved a walk around where we live.There are about 200 houses here with some quite big grass communal areas so we could also kick a football about, hit a hurling ball or cycle around on our bikes. You have to feel for the people who were stuck in tower blocks during this. We are lucky. We live on the edge of a town, a mile from the countryside and we made the most of that when it was really hot in May. One walk was nearly 4 miles. I’d love to say we kept up this tradition but neither the weather nor the inclination was there. A daily ritual from the start of lockdown involved me having to learn how to draw Chibi Marvel Avengers characters. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body but as with most things, we can be tutored by Youtube. I now have a Tony Hart style gallery of over 30 characters I drew and Arlo coloured in. We got quite good at them as well, if I do say so myself. We’ve started reading him Dr Seuss books and I can see why those stories have stood the test of time. I got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, years ago, having played Wii Sports Golf in a friends house. It hadn't been out for a long time but it has had a renaissance during lockdown. I bought an extra controller and a few new games from Amazon, whose share price must be through the roof at this stage, including Mario-kart and an Olympics game featuring Mario and Sonic characters. Arlo loves it. His favourite game is Cars 2 from the movies with Lightning McQueen. He is obsessed with these films and collecting the cars from Cars. I’ve had to learn to draw a few of them too.
Joe Wicks looks like he will be doing well out of this and his “PE with Joe” sessions, every morning, definitely kept me going in the beginning. Tim Burgess should get some sort of recognition for the part he has played in keeping the worlds spirits up. As the R number went up and the daily updates issued digits that didn’t seem to represent the horror of all this #TimsTwitterListeningParty became a great distraction and something to look forward to. You listen to a scheduled album and the band tweet about each song. The Charlatans front man also released a solo album - I love the new sky which is brilliant and I have listened to a lot. It has been my soundtrack of lockdown and will forever remind me of this time. Similarly, the tv show, Normal People, seems to have really struck a chord and who knows if it would have attracted the same audience without the public being forced to stay home. I am not a fan of BBC drama. I am a film fan however and when I heard Normal People was part directed by Lenny Abrahamson, I decided to give it a go. Let’s just say I’m still not a fan of BBC dramas. All the while my football team, Liverpool, were being denied the chance to become league champions for the first time in 30 years. It looked like we were set for yet another twist of fate in our quest to become champions of England again - Roy Evans team finished 4th in a two horse race in 1997, we were “10 games from immortality” according to Houllier then won nothing in 2002, Rafa took on Fergie at mind games in 2009 and lost, Gerrard slipped in 2014 to end Brendan Rodgers title charge, Klopps team secured 97 points and still finished second in 2019. In 2020, we were 25 points clear and needing only 6 points from 9 games to end a generation of pain only for the season to be ended with no one sure if it was temporary or permanent. Every day there was a story about the season being abandoned only for a different story to come out the next day suggesting the league would begin again. It became very predictable as the anti-Liverpool fans celebrated null and void one day, Liverpool fans celebrated a resumption the next. Spain, Italy and Germany put plans in place to return while Holland, Scotland and France ended their seasons with the leaders given the title. It became absolutely clear that money would dictate what would happen. The Premier League eventually began and you can read about it here.
One of the first activities to restart, as lockdown eased, was fishing. I’ve had a fishing rod for about 20 years but have probably only used it about 10 times. I had been longing to do a bit of angling again for a while before this so when fishing was announced as something to do, I went online and read up about what permit I needed then went out and bought a new rod to let Arlo have a go too but when we got to Hillsborough Lake the new rod, which I had rigged before leaving the house, had got completely tangled up. Between that and Arlo running about close to the waters edge, it wasn’t the relaxing, father and son bonding session I was hoping for. It did get better and we caught a few rudd which are inedible fish from the perch family. At least we caught something but the main inhabitant of the lake, trout, would avoid my hook everyday for two weeks. After the first few outings, Arlo was more interested in watching my phone than catching fish. It was a good excuse to get outdoors though, especially after long days working and doing school work in the house. I’ve enjoyed working from home. I had done it a handful of times previously when the school was off. I hope to be able to do a lot more of it, if and when we get back to normality. Probably the best thing about all of this is the time we’ve spent together as a family and watching Arlo learn to read and write first hand. That’s not to say it wasn’t very difficult at times especially after Emma returned to work from furlough and we had to share the school side of things whilst also having MS Teams calls and general daily work to fit in, but we did it. As Leo Varadkar said, we got through it. Arlo had a few video calls with his friends that started off with lots of excited shouting over each other but soon fizzled out to the point of us wondering whether he missed them at all. When it was safe to do so, he met up with them and that was a completely different story. He was absolutely elated to see his friends and be able to play with them albeit at distance. It’s hard to know what sort of impact this has all had on a 5 year old. He’s acutely aware of the germ, why school was closed and why he couldn’t see his friends. So much so that on the eve of returning to summer school, he was gauging whether it was safe enough to go back.
Arlo and I met my brother and his family to climb Slieve Gullion, the highest mountain in Co. Armagh. It was fine to meet up with friends and family as long as it was outside. This was something I had been telling Arlo we would do every week for years when we drove past the mountain on the way out to see the folks. Before he was born I would drive out there on my own and wish I had someone to share that view with. I realised recently that he was what was missing in my life. The scenic drive up Slieve Gullion means there is only about a quarter of the mountain left to climb. It was still steep enough in parts and when you get to the top there is a lake across the other side of the flat top and a view down over Camlough Lake. It was about 2 hours up, across, back and down. It didn’t take a flinch out of Arlo. He was like a mountain goat. My brother Liam had his 7 month old daughter, Evelyn strapped to him so he had more to deal with than any of us. As lockdown eased further we did a few Sunday drives to parts of Northern Ireland I’d never been to before like Ardglass and Coney Island. That drive back towards Newcastle with Slieve Donard sitting majestic in front of us and the Irish Sea on our left is one of the greatest coastal drives I’ve ever done and I’ve done the Great Ocean Road and the Pacific Coast Highway.
Both Arlo’s grandad’s received shielding letters and were not allowed to leave the house or have visitors inside. By default, the grandmothers also shielded. We continued to visit, sitting outside, which was mostly fine as it’s summer so it’s often dry and warm enough. If a second wave hits in the winter we may have to find alternative ways to visit as outside might not always be an option. Necessity has forced my parents and sister, who is also shielding at home, into embracing technology with online grocery shopping and video calls. Recently we were able to form a bubble with Emma’s parents which means we can go into each others houses again. Further easing of restrictions but reluctance to go on holiday abroad led us to do something we had been debating for a few years - buying a caravan. We decided to take the plunge and enjoyed our maiden trip to Co. Wicklow - the garden of Ireland. We’ve been camping before, all over Australia, but that was pre-Arlo and we were only in a camper van and didn’t have to worry about what to do if it rained. If the second wave comes in the winter perhaps we could somehow use the caravan for meeting outside at my parents house. We’ve been to two restaurants this week - one was loosely following the regulations and the other one was following it to a tee, much like how people I know dealt with it. Most did what they were told, some didn’t.
So as you can see, I’ve packed a lot in to this old lockdown. I’ve learned new things, met new people, reacquainted myself with old friends and made more of an effort with the people in my life. I can work from home, my son can read and write, my wife can drive a caravan the length of Ireland, make delicious chocolate chip cookies and teach P1. Our families still have their health and life goes on. We've watched all of The Sopranos again but this time I've had the insight of the Talking Sopranos podcasts to add an extra dimension to the greatest tv series ever made. I doubt we are done with coronavirus but hopefully now we know how to control it and lockdown can be reinstated if necessary until a vaccine is found. Drive In Movies are another means of entertainment that have come out of this. We went to see Toy Story and Cars, of course and it was like watching them for the first time again. The whole covid experience has been a bit like that scene in Almost Famous when they think they are going to die in a plane crash and confess their secrets to one and other in front of everyone only for the plane to come out of turbulence and they all looks a bit embarrassed. HIV/AIDS was the biggest health disaster in my lifetime up until now. It was a disease that was killing people and nobody knew why or how. Eventually, answers were found and medical processes put in place to stall it but there is still no vaccine and tens of millions of people live with HIV/AIDS today. What will happen with coronavirus? Will it be absorbed into our annual flu cycle? I’m still being prompted by an app on my phone every day asking me whether I feel normal or unwell and if I’ve ever had a test. This data is being analysed by Kings College London and the NHS. I’m one of just over 4 million people contributing to to this but that’s less than 10% of the population. The search for a vaccine continues but whether we will get one or not remains to be seen. Covid 19 is one of the best and worst things to ever happen to us. It’s reminded us we are vulnerable biological creatures susceptible to viruses, it’s killed over 600,000 of our fellow human beings but it’s also brought us closer together and put into perspective what is of the utmost importance.
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