Global confirmed cases: 2,658,387; total deaths: 185,434 (JHU)

UK confirmed cases: 138,078; total deaths: 18,738 (DHSC)

Scientific advisers to present findings to government today on whether public should wear masks

Government’s furlough scheme sees 387,000 applications covering some 2.8m employees

Nurse who treated Prime Minister Boris Johnson in ICU says he “absolutely needed to be there”

We had to do it. I mean, everyone else has been doing it for ages. And just because we had a suspicion it wouldn’t go quite to plan, that didn’t mean we should miss out. I am, of course, referring to family video calls. We’ve never done one. Frankly, I’m surprised anyone thought it would be a good idea to ever do anther one, but we’ve decided that they should now be weekly for the foreseeable future.

Let me explain. I usually get submissions like this from my dad for the blog (‘submissions’ is completely the wrong word as it’s not school, but hopefully you know what I mean):

‘Photos for the Pog blog Pog.
A repeat of Saturday’s photo of the Sweet Peas and what they look like this morning, guarded by two friendly rabbits. At least somethings are doing well! ‘

• 

• 

So it might appear that there is the usual sensible-ness going on. What you dont see so much is when I get messages like this:

‘Pog – Mummy would like your advice on the correct way of wearing the things you sent to her in the post……’

Accompanied by a photo like this:

I had to confirm that:

1. They were headbands not face masks
2. They were therefore best worn on the head
3. I’d made them both for Mum, but yes, if Dad wanted to style it out in one, he was very welcome…

So yes, we did a call. Which involved the usual ‘can’t see you’, ‘is your video on?’ ‘I’ll log off and rejoin’….but eventually we got there (Sister 1 who got the screen shots might want to turn her screen round next time so she can see dad too):

We did have a slightly weird conversation when one Sister asked the other if they were breaking up and a sloghtluy confused Dad went into a monologue about the fact that schools cant break up as they are closed….you get the idea.

Then for no particular reason, a song was suggested and Sister 2 re-wote ‘I’m a little teapot’ to ‘I’m a little kettle’…: With actions:

You probably had to be there. Be really happy that you weren’t though. And even though mum couldn’t hear anything and had to have Dad (sitting next to her, watching the same screen) repeat everything, even though I don’t think we actually managed a proper conversation and even though Mum told me off for getting sunburn (I don’t), It’s been a while since I cried with laughter. Mum and Dad genuinely repeatedly moving the angle of their screen or their own heads so they could see further into our videos was one of many highlights.

Roll on next Thursday :o)

Stay safe, you lovely people. x