Two Weeks in Quarantine: Day Two

I have decided that the way to get through these two weeks in quarantine is to be disciplined.

Being confined to our hotel room for two weeks it would be all too easy to become languid and while away the days through sleeping, eating, drinking, reading and watching mindless TV. But no, that is not in my (or Lois’) nature, so a clear routine is called for, along with a defined set of achievable (but stretching) tasks.

So far, allowing for a minor jet-lag effect, we are on track.

The plan:

• Get up early and listen to the (world/UK) news with a cup of tea
• Spend some time in prayer and contemplation
• A 40-minute slot walking round the pool-deck exercise yard
• Breakfast
• Spend the morning on academic pursuits
• Mid-morning excursion to the lobby to indulge in a barista coffee (brought back to our room for consumption though)
• Continue my academic work
• Lunch
• Cup of tea and a siesta, preceded by jointly reading a chapter of To the Land of Long Lost Friends (Alexander McCall Smith’s latest Mma Ramotswe novel)
• Some more gentle academic reading in the afternoon
• Mid-afternoon cup of tea and a puzzle or two
• Write and publish the day’s blog
• Watch the evening (New Zealand) news with a pre-prandial glass of wine
• Supper and a glass of wine
• Short excursion to the ground-floor exercise yard
• Relaxing evening playing a game of Ticket to Ride/Bananagrams or watching a Brit-Box or i-Player film/documentary/comedy (with another glass of wine for good measure)
• To bed and fall asleep reading the latest chapter of my novel (currently The Plague by Albert Camus – very topical!)

We’ll see how it goes – watch this space!

(PS hopefully Lois’ expectation isn’t too much at odds with this!)