Covid, Cats & Power Cuts

You know those days that just slap you across the face repeatedly with one disaster followed by another and another? Last week I had one of those days.

The day started like so many others, slightly chaotic / verging on full scale antagonism that is the school run. It twas a day where both myself and the Mr were working so we had the usual mildly manic ‘gotta get the kids ready and out the door, to get back and start work on time’ vibe. These days are always balanced on a knife edge, a single wrong move and one of us is losing their shit too readily. The tightrope of parenting is always a precarious one on any day, but more so on days like these. This morning you have to add the tired factor. We are fast  approaching the end of term, the end of an exhausting year both physically and mentally and the kids could not be readier for the summer holidays full of lazy days, gaming and sunshine. This dream is still 2 weeks away so Osama ( that’s me apparently according to the Mr!) Is cracking the whip and getting tetchy AF getting all these suckers out the door. 

We manage it they get to school and nursery and we both get back in good time to start work. High fives all round right? WRONG. 11:17am I get the text of dread ‘There has been a positive PCR case in your child’s class – PLEASE COME AND COLLECT YOUR CHILD IMMEDIATELY’  We were so close to the end and COVID strikes again effing up my plans! Now bear in mind I have two very different kids in this school. The text I received does not specify which child’s class this is affecting. One of them I know will love being at home hiding from the unbearable heat, the other will hate every second and it will be 10 days from actual hell. Right now its a 50/50 roulette and the tension is very real! There will be no confirmation until I turn up and collect…….

At the school gates I get handed the child that will LOVE being at home for 10 days (phew) the only thing he says when he sees me is ‘it’s switch time’, ignoring the head teachers assurances that there will be online classes, right now it’s all about the hours he can game! 

So we face 10 days isolation for child one, but children 2 & 3 go about their school and nursery as normal. I need to get no.s 2 & 3 to their destinations all whilst assuring that child 1 does not leave the house for the next 10 days…easy right? Oh logic how I miss you during these pandemic days!

By the evening we are so ready for our takeaway which goes without a hitch (thank you Shin Korean Cookery!) As we are tidying up, all the electrics blow. We try to re set the fuses they still trip. We go between thinking the fridge is faulty to the boiler, to literally everything that is electrical and plugged in. Everything keeps blowing, its Friday it’s 8:30 and if we can get an electrician at that time on a weekend then I am Gandalf (I’m not FYI). We quickly realise that the Fridge is not the fault BUT we can’t plug it back in because all the kitchen appliances keep on tripping and will therefore have to be left off. We live in a first floor flat and have access to the shop below, we decide that we must decant the contents of the fridge and get it plugged in downstairs until we can resolve the situation. It seemed like a good idea at the time and although I have been working out a bit recently it is quickly apparent that I am not as strong as I think I am! 

We make it, the fridge goes on, nothing blows in the shop, our suspicions of the problem not being a faulty fridge are verified. By this point we are all exhausted and ready to sleep, we will face this hurdle of no electricity tomorrow. 

Saturday is a blur of phoning every electrician we can to get the problem solved and we find the nicest guy who has the patience of a saint and spends ages on the phone with us attempting to diagnose the fault. If you have ever been in this predicament then you know its a case of trial and error, unplugging and re-setting all your plugged in devices and appliances until you can find the fault. If its not an appliance then you know there is a problem within the circuit. You never really realise how much shit you’ve got plugged in until you play this game. It is long, it is tedious and it is frustrating. We had actually resigned ourselves to paying the weekend call out fee to just get someone else to deal with this absolute cluster fuck when suddenly, a light bulb moment goes off: ’we haven’t tried the extractor fan’. Of course it is the extractor, and the vivid memory of my cat climbing on it and the front part disconnecting to be left hanging by the wires suddenly comes flashing back to me. It was even me that repositioned it, and naively thought that would be the end of the matter!

As soon as we unplug the thing everything fires back up on the re set and we are cooking! Hurrah the panic is over, but now I find myself facing the prospect of dragging the huge fridge back upstairs, which fills me with utter dread. And so this ends my day of doom (or 36 hours ish) 

If it’s not the kids, it’s covid or it’s my damn cats.