Straight Outta Quarantine- 14 Days In Blighty
After leaving Saudi and repatriating, we headed down to Devon. Jeannie's parents live here and have done so for about 15 years and when we left the country this was put as our home address for our letters and correspondences. We obviously didn’t know about the impending pandemic when we left 10 months ago but we have fallen on our feet as I’m not gonna lie - it’s a pretty awesome location. The beach is 10 metres away, the hills are nearby and the views of the river are freakin' gorgeous.
The views in Shaldon are spectacular and having the beach nearby is a real boon.
The challenge was to survive 14 days in quarantine, 12 of which would include distance learning with Live Teaching sessions with our pupils as well as faculty and staff meeting on Saudi time, which is 2 hours ahead of GMT. Doing all this whilst keeping our own 2 daughters happy and busy with their learning whilst in a confined space was going to be a challenge. What could go wrong? So, 14 days after we landed and before it was cool to quarantine (and before the ever on the pulse Boris government said it was compulsory, when most countries had been doing for about 3 months) how'd it go?
Well, we had Jeannie's parents nearby but didn't want to infect them so staying with them, as we usually did, was not an option so we were living in an isolated cottage about 1 minute away from where they lived. This way the girls could see and speak to Nana and Grandpa but only from a distance in their large gated garden.
This is the gated garden where we spent much of our 14 days away from the public.
We had some vittles as Jeannie's dad got some for us but after several days we had to venture out to get more food as we couldn't order any food as the wait time was over a month. Jeannie’s parents are both in the vulnerable bracket and so we had to fend for ourselves. We only went out a couple of times to get food as there is no chance to get a delivery which makes me think, what are other people doing to get supplies? Jeannie and I took it in turns to do the shopping, wearing white masks and going out in off-peak times to avoid crowds. Devon had a very low number of Corona cases and we wanted to help keep it that way, not add to it as we could be asymptomatic carriers but not know it. It would be awful to unwittingly infecting people *shudder*. Also, we didn’t want to get Covid either so not dying was a good motivator.
People are very friendly here and many have been welcoming as they know me or recognise me from the constant holidays we've had here over the last 10 years or so, and from my in-laws who have a wide social network in the area.
On the way back from the shop, I saw my white whale, another Asian person like me. Well it was two actually, a mum and her daughter. Asian people are like mythical creatures here in Shaldon, and in my 10 years or so of being here I have only seen a couple. The women’s shawls flapped a little in the wind like unicorn manes, sparkly and vibrantly coloured. My eyes met that of the mother in a moment of understanding and then…. mere moments later, they were gone.
We had a Mifi (mobile Wifi) with limited data as data was expensive, 7 GB was £25. To put it in context 1 hour of Netflix is about 1 GB. However, since we still had school for a week and a half, we didn't stream anything or watch Netflix or BBC iPlayer. However, I had the WiFi pass code for the in-laws house but couldn't get good access from the garden so I had to stand outside their front door, about 3 metres away to download the final season of She-Ra. I love the show and needed closure but wasn't gonna kill the Mifi credit on that.
Whilst playing in the in-laws' large garden we had a neighbouring young girl call over and start a conversation with my daughter. Coming from east London, where people avoid eye contact and talking to strangers at all costs, it felt weird seeing my 5 year old daughter having a full blown conversation with a random stranger. The girl lived over the garden wall and had her sister there too, and so they were discussing friends, teachers etc with my daughter, who was loving interacting with another human who was not family. It got even weirder when the girl’s parents came and actually started to chat to me about lockdown, boredom, BBQs and shopping. Who woulda thought it: A global pandemic is the great equaliser amongst the 'just about managing' classes.
Not having WiFi is a killer. I had to resort to barbarism like watching crusty old dvd like ‘Secret of my Success’ which were left in the granny flat where we frequently stayed when visiting the in-laws. The film is so 80s it's untold. For the uninitiated Michael J. Fox plays Brantley, a business studies student from Kansas who dreams big. He goes to New York and works his way from mail room to leading a multi-million dollar company because he's a Mary Sue (a film term where a character is awesome at something even thought they've had no prior training or practice, think Luke or Rey in Star Wars), and thus has incredible insight into everything just because. The film is so cheesy and the dialogue is hammy as hell but its enjoyable enough fare. In a bit of equity, Fox gets Don Juan'd by an older woman he's driving, who turns out to be his aunt, but good on her for getting hers. Many 80s films don't always portray women in the best light so good on this one. Also that song by Yello, “Oh Yeah” is played a couple of times which is always nice.
I finally got around to watching cult DVDs I'd acquired over the years but never really got around to like ‘Day of the Triffids’ the 1981 BBC 6 part serial or the ‘Singing Ringing Tree ‘ and ‘Tinder Box’ from the ‘Tales of Europe’ DVD set. Y'know , real cult stuff that you pick up from CEX on the High Street but don't think you'll ever get to actually watching but then a worldwide virus forces your hand. BTW the DVDs were great and I'm glad I watched them all, check out my reviews. Eat dirt prestige shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders, and The Wire... You can wait in line!
Playing on a PlayStation when everyone is in bed in a granny flat is not an option. I've reverted to using my Switch on the go and am in the final stretch (editor note: 50 or so hours left) of Skyrim so that'll be another one off the list soon.
My girls have coped admirably with the 14 days in quarantine but I've seen the Disney DVDs of the ‘Princess and the Frog’, ‘Aladdin ‘ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ wayyyy to many times. I think the ‘Princess and the Frog’ is great and was not appreciated upon release, catchy tunes, excellent hand animation, whip-smart dialogue and an appreciation of New Orlean and Creole and Cajun culture. Marvellous! Come at me bro. However, ‘Aladdin’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ are bona-fide classics, no doubt about it.
After Boris gave his confusing message about people maybe being allowed to go out but 'being alert' there was a definite influx of people to the area and whilst many were social distancing, some were not. I had an incident at the beach whilst walking where a woman sneezed and said "I've been doing that a lot over the past couple of days" and her partner sneezed a short while later too and said, and I quote "Yeah, I've not been feeling great myself really". Now my thinking is, if I wasn't feeling well I would not go onto the beach and be around other people. Common sense ain't so common unfortunately.
The girls understood about the dangers of the virus and didn't want to pass on any bugs to anyone. They were very good at keeping the 2 metre social distance when we went for our walks, which were at off-peak times. My youngest talking about the trauma of having the virus (she was car sick on the way down to Devon so she didn't have the virus, at least to our knowledge) but informed several strangers that she had the virus and had vomited in the car. Thankfully they understood the true nature of her ailments and one even said, "I had the virus a lot when I was a little girl too".
So, overall the 14 days of quarantining weren’t so bad and now we have the freedom to get on with our lives by walking about, avoiding people and not enjoying the beach. I’m pleased to say that none of us seemed to have the Coronavirus but we may be asymptomatic carriers so we’ll keep ‘being alert’ for the meantime.
Enjoying ice-cream from the safety of the gated garden.
LINK- Flying Home From Coronavirus
LINK- One Month on From Social Distancing in Saudi
LINK- Life in Coronavirus Lockdown Saudi
LINK- Life in the Times of the Coronavirus
LINK- The Further Adventures of Anjum of Arabia in Saudi
LINK- High Tea and High Times in the Riyadh Globe
LINK- Reflecting on Life in Saudi Arabia After 5 Months
LINK- Life in Saudi Arabia 3 Month On