Project 366 :Photo Diary Week 11

Well, what a week that was ! On Thursday night, President Macron announced that from Monday morning, all schools and universities will be closed "for at least two weeks, possibly longer". As a teacher, I can say that there was absolutely no warning whatsoever. Now, most people's instant reaction is "ooh you lucky people, you're on holiday" but it's actually way more complicated than that because we have to put our lessons online, get work out to the kids and collect it back in and, when we left school on Friday afternoon, we still weren't too sure how that was going to happen ! We have an online thing that we use for doing school reports and the register every hour, so we'll be working with that. Could be interesting !

Sunday 8th March - A lazy day, sorting out the washing, clearing some of my marking and actually chilling out for a while. Juliette started tidying her room and having a dejunk, so that she could rearrange it and set up the new mat and the mirror that we bought yesterday.

Monday - Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of Madhouse Daddy's death, and today I went, along with two other teachers, to the funeral of the father of a couple of pupils from our school. Luckily it wasn't in the same place. At the end, the boys looked really pleased to see us and gave us a big hug, so I'm glad we went. I had never even thought about it from the kids' point of view, but my own kids were really touched by the presence of some of their teachers at their dad's funeral, as they were there just for them, so I'm glad we went. I finished lessons at 4.30, then had to wait for a meeting that was starting at 5.30. I was expecting it to last an hour, but we finally left school at 7.45 ! It was pitch black as I was waiting for the bus home, as you can see from the view in the port. Then I got home and still had to cook dinner *sigh* !

Tuesday - Another full day at work. After the blue skies and sunshine of last week, we were back to grey, rainy and very windy weather today. Not fair - I keep telling myself that spring is on the way ! Loads of rushing around in my hour off before lunch, photocopying tax papers, putting together papers from each of the kids' schools and getting bank account details from the cash point then going to drop off the whole lot off at my health insurance, so that they keep paying me the "orphan's allowance" for the kids. They need exactly the same thing every year and nothing changes from one year to the next so it all seems like a bit of a waste of time, to be honest.

Wednesday -  Headed back into town, jumping off the bus just opposite this building, the Bains Dunkerquois or Dunkirk Public Baths, which are meant to resemble an oriental building. It's actually a really pretty building but needs some serious TLC to sort it out. Time to finish off the paperwork, this time going to the CAF (the benefits office) because they had emailed me back in January, asking me to tell them how much I'd earned last year, so that the kids could get their "orphan's allowance" from there too. My declaration went through fine, but when I had to put in Sophie's (as she'd turned 18), the computer told me I'd already sent through the declaration. I emailed them and finally got a reply, telling me to go back online and fill in the form - the same thing happened, so I went to the office. Normally, there are huge queues but there were only two people in front of me - the one bonus of the coronavirus, I suppose ! I literally had one box to tick on the piece of paper, to say that Sophie had no income - pfff ! All done again, until next year !

Thursday - Well, the weather's still pretty cold and windy this week, but the trees agree with me - spring IS on the way, as these buds bursting into new leaves show. Yay !

Friday - After Macron's speech on TV last night, I headed into school to find out what happens next. The buses have now stopped using the front doors and the front area of the bus is cordoned off with tape, to protect the drivers and provide a one-metre distance with the nearest passengers. At school, they informed us that the pupils are the risky element, because kids can pass on the virus without ever developing symptoms themselves, so this is why schools have been closed. We can still see their parents and pupils who can't be looked after (if the parents work as nurses/doctors or, as is the case in our school, if they come from the local children's homes) will be kept at school as a temporary measure. All of next week's after school meetings for the end-of-term - one per class, where we discuss results, progress (or lack of) and where the final year students want to go next year and whether that fits in with their results - will still go ahead and the parents are still invited to take part.

Saturday - We decided to go for our usual Saturday lunch at McDonald's, combined with a little shopping trip, maybe for the last time, depending on how things develop. Pierre used some of his pocket money on a crane machine, which made us laugh because he kept missing - luckily it's a "prize every time" one so he just kept going until he finally won one ! There were hardly any customers in town compared to usual. Afterwards I headed to Lidl for the weekly shop, determined not to buy any more than usual. There was no toilet roll, rice, pasta, pains au chocolat, flour or soap but everything else seemed to be there in its usual quantities. I bought a bit extra, compared to usual, as me and the kids are all at home all week, but I'm not giving in to the crazy panic buying. I'm actually looking forward to using up whatever is in the cupboards and having a good clearout !

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