The Lockdown Types

Me: Grantham, UK

Him: Grantham, UK

F: Grantham, UK

Home, lives, friends, work, wonderful nanny: Nairobi, Kenya

Distance: 6776km

Last week I made the mistake of thinking it would be inspiring to listen to a Harvard Business Review podcast on being a working parent during the lockdown. It wasn't. Apparently the mistake I am making is that I am not willing to get up at 4am to get 4 hours of work in before spending the morning home-schooling and getting back onto email again in the afternoon. This follows a certain, ridiculous narrative that seems to have sprung up around the lockdown - thou shalt be productive at all times. Which got me thinking of the many different 'lockdown types' we have seen develop over the past few weeks, and this (together with some very repetitive runs around Grantham) has inspired the below grid. A modern take on Myers-Briggs for these lockdown times, if you will.

If I would score myself I would say:

1. B. Although I do love a good meme, especially at the moment.

2. B. I have a new appreciation for the 'hills' behind my mother-in-law's house. The 'Grantham Drakensberg' as Roo and I refer to them (we had wanted to be in Lesotho this Easter...).

3. C, but with aspirations for B. I've donated a bit to a couple of organisations and plan to start writing letters for Age UK to distribute to unwitting ill people at hospital. This may or may not actually help them.

4. C, but again, with aspirations for B.

5. C, and not in the slightest bit apologetic. Grabbing 'The 7 Factors of Resilience' as we packed up our home in Kenya to fly back and stay in not-our-home for an indefinite period of time seemed like a good idea. It wasn't. What would have been a good idea is more than two pairs of trousers and my flip-flops.

6. B. Although I reckon Flynn would rock curtain lederhosen.

7. B. Although the only thing that stopped me from C was the fact all my clothes are still in Nairobi.

I hope you and yours are all well, safe, and - as importantly in my mind at the moment - mentally healthy during these difficult weeks. As with the rest of the world, I am having good days and bad moments - but fortunately the good days outpace the bad moments. Just remember, as long as it doesn't get so bad you write a play as miserable as King Lear, you're one up on Shakespeare.