• 🦠 This week was all about Covid. Locked at home, on mandatory isolation after the positive test. Days One and Two. Days Three and Four. Day Five. Days Six, Seven, and Eight. We made it. It wasn’t easy, but also not too hard. We’re lucky.
• 🍿 Midnight Asia, not brilliant, but we’re suckers for Asia, so we’ll take it. Also Ozark, amazing, as usual. Laura Linney is incredible. She goes from sweetie pie to devil in one second! Mr Bateman is brilliant. The kids are great, but Julia Garner is… awesome! Two days was all it took to binge the whole season. We also started The Girl From Oslo. It has some moments, but not totally on board with it. Movie count (and quality) very low: Rising High, Get the Goat, The Brothers Grimsby, and Not a Game. Not a good weeks for movies (but I guess I’m to blame by picking the worst ones available), and a great week for tv. Ozark made up for the whole week.
• 🐦 I celebrated my 15th anniversary on Twitter. Still enjoy it, so maybe I should just say celebrated. I still get a lot out of this site.
• ✏️ Micro Camp was announced! This year I’ll be one of the presenters, and it’s causing me a bit of anxiety. I’m sure it will be fine in the end, and there’s a note on Ulysses with thousands of characters in it, so there’s that.

A Pinch of Yellow

Went out, got the latest Hemispheric Views episode going, and found a ton of new stickers.

Not a bad way to start the day.

tinyMovieStar, again, woke up at 5:30AM. The usual “tell me a story” routine. She goes back to sleep, we’re not so lucky.

daySix

4PM

Head feels a little light.

tinyMovieStar went back to kindergarten, the bigger movieStar sat at her computer and worked, and I thought I could get away with a little photo editing.

It didn’t last long. As I’ve read before, some find it harder to concentrate after/while dealing with the virus. Obviously I couldn’t be left out of this part…

I did manage to watch a movie in bed, but even then I had to stop every 15 minutes.

Today is also the day I can request my new vaccination certificate from the national authority, since a couple of weeks have passed since my booster shot. Or, being an infected person, I can pick from that one and the “recovered” certificate. Decisions, decisions,…

daySeven

8.30AM

We went to bed yesterday at a regular time. The little one was exhausted from spending the day running around at the kindergarten, so she fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed. We had time to watch an episode of The Girl From Oslo before heading the same way.

Today we started a little earlier, when tinyMovieStar decided 5:30AM was a reasonable time for stories&playtime.

Coughing hasn’t gone away, it’s getting a little worse in fact.

Body seems to be close to full recovery, less tired than before.

Too early to know how my brain is handling things. Seems fine, but…

It’s 10AM, and my dad is driving over with another load of supplies. I told him movieStar is out of her isolation, capable of going to the supermarket (3 minute walk), but he doesn’t care. They were going to their supermarket anyway, so picked up an extra ton of things, and we’ll soon need a bigger fridge! Of course we’re very thankful.

Also got a call about an assignment, and had to turn that one down. Covid is making me lose money. I’ll probably be ready to work again next week, but these two weeks, unexpectedly, would have made me very happy.

dayEight

1:30PM

We’re good!

Flu-like symptoms, and a mild one. That’s all we have left.

8:30PM

That’s it. We’re done. Tomorrow we’re all allowed outside, and it’s just a matter of feeling normal again. We can get back to our daily routines.

The Light

It wasn’t the darkest tunnel, but I’m still glad to see the light at the end.

Tomorrow I’m off, to the street!

Final day in isolation. Tomorrow I’m allowed to go outside, a beer has already been scheduled.

Still feeling like I have a cold, but a mild one.

Micro Camp 2022 is coming! 🎉🥳

Micro Camp 2022 Dates and Call for Presenters

Proud to be one of the presenters this year!
No idea what I’ll talk about. Ideas? Please??

Dumpster Fire

Thanks to the lovely generosity of Jay Holler, I have received a cool sticker on the mail. One that went straight into the laptop.

A very special thanks! It’s amazing. It’s also today entry on sticker spotter!

The little one is off to kindergarten today. movieStar had to take her, I still have to be locked inside for a few more days.

Will miss her terribly.

dayFive

Went to bed yesterday exhausted. It was a little later than usual, we binged Ozark for a little longer than we should.

Other than coughing, this is the thing I’m still very much aware of. I get tired. A lot, and easily.

It’s the strangest thing. I feel fine, like my battery is fully charged, I do some minor task and all the energy is gone. Usually I can feel the energy depleting and manage that, now it’s more like 100% to 1% in a matter of minutes. Like my body is running a very buggy new OS version.

It’s now close to 9AM, and we’re all in bed. Girls sleeping.

The worst is surely behind us.

Vaccines are AMAZING, and that’s that.

Still, after her seventh day in isolation, movieStar still had a positive on her test today. We were expecting the opposite by now. We were right when we decided to keep the little one at home for a day or two over the recommended week. Still have to test her, but trying to push that ordeal as far back as we can.

1PM,coffees have been drank a while ago, it’s time to have lunch. Today we’re cooking a juicy steak with boiled potatoes for tinyMovieStar, complete with yummy soup that grandma sent yesterday.

For the grownup couple in the house we’re ordering Chinese from a local dim sum place that we’ve heard good things about. It’s called Macau Dim Sum, and we’ve had great experiences with dim sum in Macau, so why not?

A bit after 5PM. Lunch was ok. Just that. I guess we will need to go to Macau again after all…

As far as Covid goes, no big change. We’re still here, we’re still tired. Maybe coughing a little less.

9.30PM

Nothing to report on the Covid front.

tinyMovieStar seems fully recovered, if we take her energy level as indicator. She refuses to go to bed, and is acting like she just woke up. She had a huge dinner, and keeps asking for food items, that are prepared, and left uneaten. Then it’s off to story-land. One I have to repeat at least a dozen times, and then it’s not good anymore. We try to find a suitable one on her growing bookshelf, but none are good. Drawing. Ten monkeys and a couple of Snoopy faces, and we’re done. Time for a diaper change that turns into poop hell….

Ordinarily this would be a pain. When we’re still fighting the exhaustion, it’s very tiresome.

I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe.

Ozark. Damn!

When Christmas vacation was on we couldn’t wait for kindergarten to open again. This time I don’t want tinyMovieStar to leave! We might just keep her in the house forever and homeschool her until she’s 40! She’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen! Strong as hell too!

dayThree

Hello, hello,… What time is it?

5:30AM

Nose still blocked. I guess I’m a mouth-breather now! 🤣

Also, SO thirsty. It doesn’t matter how much water I drink, the thirst never fully goes away. Thankfully, I LOVE water.

9AM

Woke up. Still feeling crappy, but manageable.

10AM

No fever, for now.

Coughing a little more, and I now have the sick taste. It’s something I feel when I’m about to get sick, I can feel the disease when I cough. Please tell me I’m not alone on this one. movieStar has no idea what I’m talking about.

Anyway, coughing is no longer dry, and the nose is running a little as well.

Back pain still very much present.

1PM

Cooked lunch for the little one.

Spent some time going around the supermarket’s app, taking screenshots of the things we need, and sent those to my brother. He’s doing the shopping today. Supplies should be here soon.

We’re very fortunate that we have part of the family living close by, and countless friends willing to bring us whatever we might need. Others are surely not as lucky, and I wonder how many are going out, during their isolation period because no one is at hand to help them. How many are at the supermarket right now, with Covid?

3PM

Supplies have been delivered. We’re good for another couple of days.

The fever is back. And the chills? God! Freezing all the time.

I can’t tell when I have a temperature, that’s what we’re finding out. movieStar will look at me, tell me I should measure it, and she’s right. Every single time.

Whenever I feel like I’m hot, I’ll grab the thermometer, and never get it right.

My throat is also hurting, it’s harder to speak now.

Brother came over, complete with a N95 mask, tinyMovieStar was thrilled to see someone besides both of us, she did her happy dance! She’s been stuck inside for close to a week, impressive. Usually, she would love to go out, to the park, to the playground. It’s almost as if she knows there’s something wrong, and today was the first day when she started talking about it.

He stayed outside the apartment, but that was good enough.

And I’m not hungry. At all. Can’t even think about eating.

It’s now past 4PM, and I haven’t eaten yet.

8:30PM

Ate something. I had to.

Throat is my main concern now, and I did feel a little, tiny, chest pain when I coughed harder. It’s probably nothing. It has to be nothing.

11:30PM

We wouldn’t be up if tinyMovieStar hadn’t picked today to make it harder on us. She’s fine, but wants songs, and stories, and both of us in bed with her.

We sing, and repeat the stories she’s requesting. Over and over.

She’s been great throughout the whole thing, much braver than I’ve been able to.

movieStar also behaved like… well, a star! She has no booster shot yet, and she had to go through the entire thing with the little one, alone, without me. I would be dead if I had to do it. I’m the luckiest man alive, I can tell you that!

dayFour

Can’t remember if I woke up through the night. It’s probably a good sign.

It’s now 7:30AM, and I’m ready for another day of virus fighting!

I do feel a little better. Maybe even more than a little, but I’ll have to get up before I can be certain.

I got up.

Drank an enormous amount of water. Ice-cold, as always.

I DO feel better! Exhausted from the past couple of days, but better. Maybe the worst is behind me, and now it’s just a matter of getting my strength back.

Still coughing.

Around 10AM, properly caffeinated. All of us are feeling MUCH better.

We can now enjoy the isolation! The three of us, together all day long, as things are meant to be!

Mom&Dad can also breathe again, they were anxious, and miss seeing us. Mom got a care package ready, and Dad drove over to deliver it. Thank you.

We have more than enough food to see us through another full week of isolation without going out. tinyMovieStar should be going back to kindergarten tomorrow, let’s see how that goes. Right now, I would actually welcome another week at home with these two!

11:30AM

Still feel tired. Even the slightest effort will have me looking for the sofa or bed, but that too should soon pass.

Throat still feels itchy.

1PM

Lunch was YUMMY, thanks Mom.

4PM

Managed to watch a little tv while the little one slept (Ozark!), and now we’re back at it: full on family isolation mode!

If it wasn’t the throat, and the occasional cough, no one would be able to figure out we’ve been fighting the virus for a few days.

We thank the vaccines, our (relatively) healthy lifestyle, and our good fortune. Unless things take an unexpected turn, we should be out of this one.

Having said that, and even if we expected a mild couple of days, I must have gone through the list of things we should look for a thousand times, just in case we needed to call an ambulance. Is this cough like this or like that? I hope our fever doesn’t go above X! I hope tomorrow we feel better because the fever should go away after two days…

The anxiety was the worst part.

I’m thankful for the calls and messages we got, from friends and family. Some unexpected, from old acquaintances, and some others we expected at least a token message from, didn’t even bother. I’ll try not to hold a grudge for too long.

7:30PM

Stable. Same as I’m expecting our next days to be: some coughing, sore throats, and not much else.

Feeling a little better. That’s good.

dayOne

I was feeling fine, happy, until the test result came. I was also feeling fine when the test result came, truth be told. Nothing changed, except I now had a positive test, something I had managed to avoid since this whole mess started.

I went out and got a test at the pharmacy, to make sure the self test result was not a fake positive. It was not.

Back home, ready to endure the isolation period. Seven days. That’s how long I’ll have to stay in.

The movieStars end theirs on Sunday and Monday, I’ll keep going for a few more days.

Spent a while texting and calling people I’ve been in contact recently, and let the campaign staff and candidates know I would, very sadly, be unable to join them for the rest of the time.

Still feeling almost the same, we went to bed at around 11PM. Watched a few more After Life episodes before doing that.

Woke up at 3AM, body aches and some shivering going on, but mostly good.

Two hours later, still unable to sleep. No headache, but now I feel VERY hot.

dayTwo

Waking up at 8:30AM. Feeling like I have a monster cold. Still have to get up to find out how is the body doing, ache-wise.

Took me a while to get back to sleep, I should ride this a little longer. I know I’ll be back to bed soon.

Got up, walked around. It feels like a mix of a monster hangover, a beating, and flu. Legs hurt, muscles hurt, lower back pain as well.

1PM

Fever. Yoghurt, some grapes. A pill was taken.

Slept for something like three hours.

Got the message from the Health Ministry, with a very extensive questionnaire. They got my test result, and I’m now a part of the statistics.

Fever comes and goes, chills also.

Central heating is blasting, full power, and I’m still wearing a hoodie, wrapped in a huge fleece blanket, a woolen cap, and gloves. And, thanks to movieStar’s memory, an amazing thing, a bag of cherry cores, that gets heated in the microwave. Brilliant.

No TV today. Not even 8PM, and I’m in bed.

tinyMovieStar joins me, we read a story (something a little more demanding when the fever is this high), and we’re all getting ready to sleep way before 9PM.

The way covid charts look right now are scarier than they’ve ever been to me. I’m aware this latest variant seems milder, and I look at the graphs, they prove that. Most people who are hospitalized, or die, are unvaccinated, and we were lucky to be able to get the vaccines, and the booster shot (movieStar still waiting for that one).

Then there’s a minuscule amount of people who still go to the hospital, and some will sadly die, even after getting vaccinated.

Before, the numbers were all abstract, or sort of, a reflection of a reality that was not mine yet, in a way. But now we’re also a part of that “infections” line, and I would really REALLY love to keep us all out of those other lines.

22:45

Couldn’t sleep, so we headed to the living room again, and finished After Life and Folk med ångest. Both good, but After Life is AMAZING!

Glad we were having trouble sleeping.

The girls are MUCH better, and I’m pretty well too. A little fever, a bit of coughing, some body aches. That’s it so far.

• 📷 Starting with work, since that’s how the week began. Quite early in the morning, as a matter of fact. Rougher neighbourhood on Saturday, and then I had to leave the campaign trail for a couple of days, Sunday and Monday spent on the road, visiting vineyards for one of my other clients. Always fun, even though I don’t drink wine. On the campaign trail things are on overdrive, as the election date is approaching. One more week and we’d done, or so I thought when the week started.
• 😢 Sleeping away from the girls is no fun. No fun at all! Being on the road used to be something I looked forward to, a part of my job that I enjoyed immensely. Not anymore. I end up worrying too much, unable to sleep. We have slept in different houses maybe twice before, but not too far apart. I knew it would take me an hour to get to them. This time I was further away, and with no easy way to make it back.
• 🦠 Of course the first Covid positive in the family had to be tinyMovieStar, and of course, this had to happen when I was away! Of course. movieStar also tested positive, one day after the little one. The timing was bad. I should be home helping out, and this is the one time I had work that forced me to be out all day, every day! Fear not, as the week ended with the three of us locked inside, isolating as a family! I tested positive on Thursday, and that was that. No more leaving the house, no more work, no more.
• 🍿 So happy that After Life is back. It’s a great show, one we waited for with anticipation, and it does not disappoint. Amazing writing, stellar performances, it’s wonderful in every way. Sadly, my work schedule during most of this week, and the fact that both movieStars were feeling exhausted with covid side-effects, has prevented us from bingeing this one. We’re good for another week, I believe. No movies were watched this week.
• 🎙 David Byrne on Smartless. Listened to this one while driving to work this week, trying to keep my brain away from the thought of the positives at home. It worked. Such a great show. The man is a legend. I’ve been listening to his music for decades, loved the interview.
• 🥰 This week my Ulysses theme was finally approved, and it’s now available. If you use the app, and want to check it out, you can find it here: movieStars.

🦠 Oops!

Of course I had to get a photo of this one.

Background art: tinyMovieStar.

(And I already went to the pharmacy to get a confirmation. It’s positive!)

We have a bingo! 🦠🦠🦠
I knew my time would come, today was the day.

Short day at work today, enjoying the girls at home while photos export.

Lying in bed with tinyMovieStar, and it’s just past lunch time! How great is this?

Sitting on the bed, doing yet another covid test before getting up. Girls in the room next door, sound asleep.

Still negative. How long will this last?

Off to another day on the campaign trail. Still negative, girls still stuck at home.

Ok, I’ll do one of these. Only one (promise) and that’s just because I got REALLY lucky 🤣🤣

Wordle 214 2/6

🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Two down, one to go. I’m the only one left with a negative result. Both movieStars are positive, and well.