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Report transcript in: Emma's Story of Household Upheaval And Family Time in Lockdown
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Emma's Story of Household Upheaval And Family Time in Lockdown
Please Report the Errrors?
OK. Hello, Emma. Thanks for joining me today.
How are you?
Yes, Good. Thank you.
Great.
So, um yeah, if you'd like to tell us a bit about your experiences of the lockdowns
that we've been through recently.
Ok,
um, so going back to the first lockdown, um, we had just moved into our house.
Um, it's myself and my three sons, who are
at the moment 19,
18 and 10. They've all got birthdays coming up, though.
Um, So we we moved into a house we rented off the MOD in devices.
Um, perfect.
I mean, obviously, a month later, the lockdown happened,
and it was perfect because we all had our own spaces
and plenty of room when it came to, uh, things like home schooling.
So we we had to We had a little set up in the dining room, so I had to work from home.
I actually work for the museum,
Um, as a museum assistant.
Um, so I to begin with, I was allowed to bring some work home,
but then I was furloughed completely,
um, and just concentrated on the home schooling. My youngest son, Charlie.
Um, obviously, it's quite difficult to keep keep them occupied and focused.
But, um, you know, after the first couple of weeks, we got into it, we had a,
you know, a nice little routine going on.
Um,
and then we We just plans lots of different activities.
So there's lots of cake making.
Um,
we set up a camp because you we would usually
go on holiday to several camping sites throughout the year,
like every other week. And we couldn't do that.
So we made our own camp site in the back garden.
Um, I sent you photographs of the, uh,
little leaflet that we we did it as a school project as well.
So it was a little leaflet. Um,
and, uh, we made our our
own. Um
oh, a little campsite. So, um yeah, that was quite enjoyable.
It was lovely to see
just to go close to this story.
I actually have my son next to me. He's poking me. So,
um,
just turn it around.
That's Charlie, who was home schooling.
Um, so, yeah, a few few months into it. Like I said, that we were rented off the MOD.
Um, we then got a notice to quit off the MOD. just months after moving in.
Um, it was myself, and about 350 other residents all got the same notice
and about 30 of us devices. So that was a little bit more stressed
out,
you know, every everything going on.
And we have since moved because they gave us six months.
Um, so
that's that. That was fun.
Was that during the pandemic
that was during the pandemic. Um, I did actually go on
the radio BBC, w, uh,
radio.
Just just to sort of give my point of view because, although, yes,
our tenancy said they could give us a moment's notice if
a military family wanted these homes.
Um, in this case, they were just being handed back to the freeholder.
So, um, and at the moment, it's just left empty, ready,
ready for somebody to either buy it or rent it out again.
So, uh, yeah,
so we I I wasn't in the worst situation.
A few people had literally been in their houses for weeks.
Um, before they actually got their
their, uh, notice to quit. Um, and somewhere in the process of moving,
So, uh, yeah, it wasn't very, very well organised.
and it's still going through Parliament at the moment as to what?
What happens?
Ah, so, um
And so So you found somewhere else to move to. Did you?
We did, Yes.
It, uh, Jews park estate, which is I've I've lived in Dubai for about nine years,
and it's somewhere I always wanted to move to.
So when this place came up, it was it was ideal and affordable,
although a lot smaller. So at the moment, with, uh,
two grown up boys and one younger boy, it's It's a bit of a squeeze.
Oh, yeah. So that's a challenging thing to go through during lockdown and pandemic.
Yeah.
Mm. Well, well done for getting through that,
Um,
and would would you like to just a bit more about what's
really helped you cope through the lockdowns beyond having to move places and
and so on Are there? Is there any
anything that's been going on that's really helped you through?
Um, I think just doing little activities with there with particularly Charlie,
my youngest, um,
and sort of the family time we had in the garden because the weather was so lovely.
Um, we'd have barbecues and little campfires.
And, you know, it's just nice to sit around and chat and talk and,
you know, get to know what everybody's feeling.
Um,
personally, I tended to lots of reading. Um, the future learn, uh, courses.
I did a couple of those,
um, and I do a bit of cross stitch, so I made a few bits and pieces as as as well,
Yeah.
And, um, other than having to move house in the middle of it.
Was there anything you found particularly difficult about the lockdowns?
I think it's it's
not being able to go anywhere.
Like I said, we we used to go away camping and we we would go at moment's notice.
It was never, you know, really planned. We might have one planned
camping trip, which was the other side of the country,
but the rest of the time, we just just up and just go.
Um, but that was really frustrating not being able to do that.
Yeah,
yeah,
yeah,
yeah.
So as we move forward and look to the future,
do you think there's anything collectively we can take away from what's gone on
to make it not just a going back to a new normal, but a better normal than it was before.
I think, um I know from our our perspective,
the more the more family time we had together, I think we got close as a family.
And I think that's probably the main positive thing
that we got out of it. Um, you know, talking to each other. And, you know,
that's, uh was positive community.
Um, obviously, there's lots of, you know, people who who needed that extra help,
who needed shopping doing.
I think that that brought the community together. And,
um,
I'd like to see that carry on because not everybody
can get to the shops at the best of times.
And that would be great. Yeah.
OK.
Um, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?
You want
to add
to?
No, I think that's that's about it. Really?
Well, thank you very much indeed for that, it was a really interesting insight.
No problem.
OK,
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