Chronicles of 2 years of Corona pandemic (part 1: the pandemic outbreak)

I was recently reflecting on the pandemic and it's funny how quickly we forget all the things that happened and in which order and how it affected our lives. So for my own chronicles and memory I've tried to list 2 years of Corona pandemic.  (I might have forgotten some details which I potentially add and modify later on).

Making this list now, does not mean whatsoever that I believe we are done and over with Corona.  Frankly, I anticipate new waves, especially in winter times, but let's hope that the impact gets smaller each time thanks to the vaccination level and scientific progress. 

2020 January:    

There was an item in the news about a virus in China. I did not pay attention...literally far from my bed...probably something like the Zika virus in Brazil a few years ago etc...not something that concerns me very much. 

2020 February : early

We watch in awe the news about big hospitals getting constructed in China in 10 days time and a city getting "in lockdown" to fight the virus there...what a strange world over there. Those Chinese are weird. 

2020 February: end 

Jan's firm is quite active in security management for its global personnel. For the slightest security incident in the world (eg a knife attack in a specific city,  an earth quake, ...) they get updates or instructions. 

We hear about cruise boats in quarantine not allowed to dock anywhere.  Jan gets travel restrictions to parts of Asia. That is very stressful since he had his volunteering dive expedition planned where they'll map different oceanic species... This is quite a lifetime opportunity to get to do this through his job.  Tropical diving while volunteering for a good cause, can it get any better?  But now he can only go through with the trip in personal time off and not through company volunteering time anymore. We spend evenings reading and checking insurances and cancellation policies etc etc.  We get updates from the dive boat where a crew from the global world will come together about splitting Europeans and Asians on board etc... It's all so confusing , we are in doubt and yet it seems so unreal and far fetched. 

We start hearing about the virus in Italy and hotels and 6 mountain towns in quarantaine.   That's my biggest fear: Jan will leave, someone in the facilities where he crosses will be catching this new virus and he'll be locked up in the hotel for multiple weeks over there.  I am not really thinking about potential impact in Belgium yet.  

In the carnival vacation, I spot the first people with a face mask in Leuven...they are Asian. Other than that live is as always and many friends/colleagues left on ski vacation. 

2020 Feb 28th. We gather with the entire family in the west of Belgium to celebrate my father-in-laws 80th birthday with a VW minibus trip.   Because of the early start, we sleep in a hotel hotel Bruges and it's the first time that we are greeted by alcohol gel and requests to desinfect our hands.  

We were on the lookout for potential Chinese/Asian guests but didn't spot any. 

2020, March 1st

It's the last day of the carnaval vacation and I'm hosting Beertje's birthday party at home.  While I'm in the midst of a bunch of 4 year old's my HR responsible gives me a call on a Sunday (!) to ask whether there are people in my team that took vacation to go skiing in Italy.  If so, they were not welcome to return to the office on Monday but were forced to work from home.  

Also Jan gets warnings from his work about Northern-Italy and Spain and some French departments. 

2020, March 3rd?: 

People that went skiing in the Pyrenees are not welcome to return to the office either, according to our local policy. 

I am stuffing our freezer that I was emptying again for the coming weeks.  I want to have sufficiently things at home in case I'd get ill while solo-parenting the children in the next weeks.  It's hard enough to manage all the errands when alone with the children, so extra pasta and sauces and bread/vegetables/meat in the freezer never hurts.  And yes, I had seen the first posts on FB from friends in Canada and in Australia about panic buying so I did buy 1 package of toilet paper also.  Just one.  There were no signs of hoarding in Belgium yet at all...not yet.

2020 March 6: Jan leaves after all on his wonderful scientific volunteering dive trip. We feel he'll be safe since on a boat with a restricted group all the time...so if none of them carry the virus upon arrival, they basically live in a sort of quarentaine. Just the last non-diving before flight day has to be spent in a hotel. I'm stressed.  I have a fear I won't see him for the rest of the month, rather than the intended 11 days. 

"The world will be different when you return", I tell him when we say goodbye. "We'll probably also already have a 100 cases in Belgium when you return.". 

On FB I posted the remark "I didn't know Italy was such a popular ski destination"  which is my first reference to Corona I think.

I attended my high school reunion,  but I had asked for my sister's approval first as we'd stay overnight at my mother's place. There's already warnings to take care of people at risk.  We assume it's fine and go ahead.  When I arrived in the school, I realised the reunion has many hundreds of participants and I feel uneasy (reunion 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5 , 10, 15, 20 and 25 years of 2 schools).  A huge hall is filled by a crowd. I doubted that this was a good idea, but too late now, I was present.  With hindsight, it was madness already but all we did, was try not to sit next to someone coughing.  I had the intention not to embrace anyone but when other's approached me, I didn't have the guts to refuse.  Most didn't seem aware yet at all about any potential risks.  It was still life as it had always been. 

2020 March 7: In order to beat my jealousy for Jan's diving trip in the Maledives, I had agreed with friends to join them on a party.  We didn't hug anymore but went out for dinner and had a great dance...my last social activity for months but I had no clue. 

2020 March 9: We see on our company Yammer a film posted by the Italian country manager...how streets are deserted in Northern Italy, how he's allowed to go to the store by himself and queue outside.  A frightening and strange view of a world we can't imagine.  The news that milions of Italians are "locked up" in their region with movement restrictions is shocking. 

In France sport games need to take place without public...but besides not shaking hands, no coughing near people and washing our hands more thouroughly, life is as it's always has been in Belgium. 

2020 March 11: My mom's came to help with the children in Jan's absence.  While I'm in the office, we get the announcement that we are closing the office for the safety of our colleagues and send everyone in homeworking.  The official guidance was now to avoid big gatherings and by not having colleagues in the office, we reduced the risk of spreading the virus to their families. I was busy all afternoon closing off, posting a sign for the mail man where to drop of the mail, water some plants etc... It was very weird to close off, wave goodbye to the colleagues not knowing for how many days we'd sit at home.  A part of me was looking forward to working a bit cosy at home but the glooming news didn't gave it a very good taste now.  But I also felt proud of my employer who took responsibility and did what was possible in their measures to slow down the spread of this new virus. We can work from home...so if at least we weren't gathering anymore, we weren't little domino stones in the contaminations. 

I drove home absent-mindedly and managed to get a traffic fine ...(ironic, knowing I wouldn't drive for many weeks to come).  

When at home we've received a letter from school with some advice that they'd restrict to teaching tasks and in order to follow the government's recommendation to avoid gatherings, all extracurricular activities would be cancelled for the rest of the month. 

2020, March 12: 

While my mom brings the children to school and then does some sightseeing downtown , I try to work from home.  

We get a new letter from school: it is recommended not to ask grandparents to pick up children from school since they are in the risk category of this new virus.  My mom and I talk and decide that given the new changes, she can't help much anymore and she will return home sooner.  

In the meantime, I knew that the city of Leuven had just closed the museum and some public buildings an hour after she had visited them this afternoon. Also the sports centre around the corner decided they close the doors for the coming weeks.  A bit later, some big commercial chains decide the same and send some newsletters.  The incoming mails feel heavy and ominous. Clearly commercial firms and cities take the lead in the introduction of social distancing measures. 
When my mom's packed up to go home,  I try to manage her expectations and try to warn her without panic. I told her I might not be able to visit in the next weeks. She leaves without a hug.  

I close off all media and internet really early to avoid all updates that now seem to come in every 5 minutes and go to bed very early.

2020, March 13: 

I woke up with an exploded telephone.  78 WhatsApp messages overnight.  I had missed the security council and the decision that the schools would close as off next week for 5 weeks (3 weeks closure and 2 weeks of Eastern vacation).  I feel paralyzed at the news, but I'm relieved that at least I slept through the other parent's panic.  How on earth can I work from home and parent the children?  I try to hide my stress while I prepare the children for their Bednet Pyjama day at school.  When Kabouter has clear symptoms of stomach flu, I decide already to keep him home. 

Jan forwards me from the other side of the world a mail from his work, as reply to my news, that they'll be flexible in time when you need to take care of your children due to school closures.  School closures seem to be happening in all European countries now. 

Most of the day I'm in crisis calls for work, while I desperately try to sign off from all the Breaking News newsletters that all newsapps/sites think they should send me. No I can't take any more...less news, less updates, please!  No more images from Italian hospitals.   

When Kabouter and I go and pick up Beertje from work, I talk to a teacher to say goodbye. When she hears that Jan is abroad in Asia, she jokes out loud whether he'll make it back.  I am so stressed out I cannot take the joke and break into tears. 

2020, March 14: 

Realising I wouldn't reach a hairdresser quickly, I cut my bangs myself.  It's not like it would matter if it's messed up.

2020 March 15, 

I attend the market once more to refill a good stock of food in my fridge and I also consciously bought a lot of flowers to color up the house now that we'd have to spend  a few weeks there.   There was a lot of people and while some people tried to queue,  others clearly didn't respect the new recommended distances.  I threw some angry looks in vain.  

In the afternoon Beertje had another birthday party in the playground nearby where all adults made a big circle with a good distance to talk.   At the end we joked "well nice talking to you...see you , in autumn or so?".   We laughed at such an exaggeration, but we were relieved that the children had been able to play on last time together before schools were closed for 5 weeks. 

2020 March 16,

Honestly... I've hardly been able to work today. I was tracking Jan's planes to see if he was approaching and managed to return home as planned.  ...He approached but it's been a close call. While I always worried for his risk in Asia, in the mean time Europe had turned in the Corona hotspot and the rest of the world  feared us.  When Jan had to transfer in Sri Lanka, he was pulled out of the customs queue when they saw a Belgian passport to be sent to a quarantaine hotel.  Together with some other Belgians it took some discussion. When they could proof they would have left the airport again within 2 hours, they were finally left alone and they could continue...Pheww, what a relief once he was on his 2nd lapse to Abu Dhabi...

The doorbell rang and Kabouter's teacher with gloves on in the sunny weather dropped off a pile of school books at the doorstep.  

My meetings got entertained by the children. Especially Beertje couldn't understand the concept of being home and me working there. If I was home and he was home, it's weekend or vacation, right? 

In my naivity I thought I'd assign them each day some chores.  So when I had to be in a management meeting I told them to clean a few kilo fresh green beens. I tried to ignore the splashing and yelling upstairs until Kabouter came to complain that they had dropped a bean in Beertje's trousers and had lost it.... my colleagues managed to mute me from a distance :p. 
A little later a naked Beertje came to prove their point that they really couldn't find the bean anymore.  Oh well, I guess I could use the smile. 

When that evening Jan confirmed he was boarding the plane from Abu Dhabi to Europe, I felt so enormously relieved that he'd manage to get home. Until then I had always been in doubt whether he'd make it home as planned. I trusted we'd be able to handle this scary changing world together when we were all 4 together at home again. 

2020 March 17,

Jan got home this morning. We are all back together again. 

And yes like I predicted "the world is different by the time he got back".  How insane how everything changed in 11 days.   Belgium did not only have 100 confirmed cases by now, we had over 100 confirmed Corona deaths and the number of cases skyrocketed quickly.  And our stores were all of a sudden empty, because now an official lockdown was announced.  Friends posted on FB how the racks of the supermarkets were without toilet paper. 

I quickly ordered online amusement games, puzzles, craft things for the children and whatever that might keep us busy better while in home arrest for a while. All that while for the first time in our life, people were queuing outside for the pharmacy in the neighbourhood.  Crazy. 

2020 March 18, 

#ikblijfthuis:   We had to stay at home, except for a recommended 30' of (solitary) sport outdoor .   While I was already home for a week, now everybody was at home.  And home was home...not our place in the Ardennes.  Our world had shrunk to the city center of Leuven in a circle of just a few kms of our house.