In this article we want to give you an update on how the Coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent Government restrictions have affected all aspects of our lives. This is Part 1 of what we expect to be a series exploring our Coronavirus journey!

Miss Way’s Work 

As a peripatetic music teacher travelling around many schools, Miss Way’s work has changed beyond recognition! 

When the Coronavirus situation first developed in the UK, the Government issued advice that pregnant women should stay at home for 12 weeks. The risk was unknown, but it is thought that there could be a very small increased risk.  

We both decided to immediately minimise our contact with others.  

For Miss Way, we initially thought this would essentially mean stopping work entirely! We considered whether she should take early maternity leave, changing our well made plans.  

As the situation developed, Miss Way decided to give online teaching a go. This is not easy when you teach full classes of pBones! 

So far it has been a success, with both full class and individual lessons carried out numerous times a day. This means Miss Way can continue to earn most of her income, while also looking after her health.  

Mr Way’s Work 

For me, the work situation has been bizarre. The Directors of my company have shown a total lack of leadership throughout this whole Coronavirus journey so far.  

As mentioned above, we took the decision fairly early on to minimise our contact with others. At this point, my company had still failed to acknowledge that the virus was a potential threat.  

When I mentioned early on about the possibility of working from home, it was laughed off with a response of “we can’t trust people to work from home!”. 

The final straw for me was the Government advice on Monday 16^th March advising pregnant people to isolate for 12 weeks. That evening I spoke to a Director about working from home. I was basically told I was over-reacting and there was no need!

After further discussions with Miss Way that evening, I went into the office on the Tuesday morning and demanded a PC to work from home asap. I left by lunchtime purely through my own determination! 

Working From Home

At this point, I’ve done nearly 2 weeks of working from home. It’s great!! My productivity has actually increased massively. There are no constant distractions of other people’s phone calls/conversations and I can get my head down and do my stuff.

I’ll admit I miss the contact with my colleagues, but that’s the same for everyone right now. I really hope I can use this as a chance to prove to my Directors that working from home can be a more viable long term option. 

I’ll provide a much more detailed post about my company’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak in a separate post. There are some comedically bad moments which I think you’ll want to hear about!! 

Aside from the working from home aspect, my work has been mostly positive. A couple of projects have been parked for the time being, but I’m also working on a couple of NHS projects which are full steam ahead. I should have enough work for the foreseeable future.  

A big downside to this whole situation is that my impending promotion has been kicked further down the road. This was why I was so angry when I first missed out on the post – you never know what’s around the corner! I’ll keep fighting…. 

Baby Way 

As you know, we’re expecting to welcome Baby Way into the world in early July. 

What a time to have a baby!! 

This is one of the biggest causes for concern in our Coronavirus journey. We have no idea what the situation will be like by then, but it looks as though things will be very different to the ‘normal’ birthing experience.  

Risk to Miss Way/Baby Way 

There is a slightly increased risk of complications for pregnant women with Covid-19. As soon as we heard this, we were convinced to do everything we could to reduce our risk of contracting the virus!

Appointments 

Unfortunately, we have already seen a decrease in Miss Way’s planned midwife appointment schedule. 

Miss Way is currently 26 weeks pregnant. and at this point, the appointments were meant to ramp up to one every couple of weeks. This week’s appointment has already been scrapped with more likely to follow! 

While we don’t mind too much, it would be nice to know everything was OK! 

Antenatal Classes 

We had booked an antenatal class to allow us to meet other, local parents to be. We don’t know what will happen with this! It might be carried out online which will be nice but not quite the experience we were after. 

Birth at Home?! 

Before this situation arose, we had discussed Miss Way giving birth at home as a possibility. If the current crisis persists into July, this will become a very attractive option.  

Not only is birthing at home a much more relaxed option, but it will also avoid our contact with potentially ill hospital goers!  

Family & Friends Visiting 

A big downside to the Baby Way situation is that we may not be able to introduce family and friends to them as soon as we would like. If social distancing measures are still in force, it will just be the 3 of us for a while. This clearly has its benefits, but will also be sad not to share their first days with those we love (in person at least). 

Finances 

The bit you’ve all been waiting for! What financial impact has our Coronavirus journey had on us? 

Income

My income remains intact for the time being. As above, this should continue but with the way my company’s ran, who knows?! 

Miss Way’s income is looking good. Although she won’t be able to carry out all of her work since schools mostly closed, her employers have guaranteed much of the income. Due to her online teaching setup, she could actually end up profiting from this situation! 

Spending 

The other side of the equation, spending, should see a big change. 

While we will slightly increase our energy costs and food bills, we will be making significant savings in other areas. We’ll be posting our March spending in a few days’ time which should show the first sign of this impact. 

Investing

The stock market has had an obvious and significant wobble since we started on this Coronavirus journey. For both of us, this is our first significant market wobble since investing, as we started post-2008.  

We’re really pleased with our emotional control during this time. We haven’t once considered selling everything, like one of my colleagues has (despite my advice)!! 

Over the last few weeks I’ve made a few additional contributions to my Stocks & Shares ISA. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to stock up while prices are reduced by so much. 

I do think we’re likely to see even lower prices in the coming months as the full economic impact is felt, but who knows?! All you can honestly tell is the current price. For me, while I was happy investing when the FTSE100 was at 7,600 a few weeks ago, I’d be mad not to top up when it hovers around 5,000 now.  

As I said, I think it’s most likely we’ll see further turbulence, but I don’t see this as a fundamental threat to capitalism and have faith that the markets will win out long term.  

Groceries 

Where to start with grocery shopping?! 

For the last few weeks, the supermarkets have been something akin to Black Friday sales. Instead of high-end electronics, middle aged trolley-pushers have been fighting over….. toilet roll?! 

It seems the whole world has gone mad, especially as diahorrea isn’t even a symptom of Covid-19! 

It hasn’t just been toilet roll as shoppers have panic-bought just about everything in sight. We’re still trying to maintain our usual weeks shop but we’ve had to adapt depending on what’s available.  

Our usual bargain hunting tendencies haven’t been a possibility, instead settling for whatever is available! This has obviously significantly increased our costs. 

Meal Planning

We meticulously plan out our meals each week. This has been a hard transition for us, with many of our favourites unavailable.  

Slower Process

Food shopping has also taken more time out of our days, as we find ourselves visiting numerous shops and standing in various two-metre spaces queues to enter them! 

Fitness/Sport 

We’re both really into our fitness and sport. Being locked at home has had a big impact in this area!  

Tennis 

My tennis has totally halted and the ‘main event’ of the year, the men’s league, has been postponed. I’ve been looking forward to this for months. I’m absolutely gutted! 

On the plus side, I’ve had a bad wrist injury so this is giving me some time to get that resolved! 

I recently became the Chair of my tennis club so the last few weeks have been pretty manic. I’ve made an immediate impact by closing the courts! Not quite what I had in mind when I took the role on….  

Outside of work this has taken up a huge proportion of my time recently. With the ever-changing guidance I’ve had to update our members every step of the way and make some pretty tough decisions.  

HIIT 

Luckily, much of our fitness takes place online. Miss Way regularly does HIIT exercises videos on YouTube which can obviously carry on as normal. We’ve both increased our number of runs too, although Miss Way is really missing her Parkrun!  

This morning we’re even running our own HIIT over Zoom for some of Miss Way’s colleagues. Strange times indeed!! 

Family & Friends 

The obvious area we’ve been impacted is in socialisation with family and friends. This has almost entirely stopped in the face-to-face capacity! 

Online Chat

We’ve been regularly chatting with various family and friends over online video chats such as WhatsApp and Zoom. Because of this, we’ve actually ended up talking to people more often, albeit ‘virtually’! 

We’ve also had a friend turn up at the back door for a chat through the glass!  

Staying Positive 

All in all, we’re trying to remain positive in what is a pretty challenging time. Who could have imagined being in the situation just a few weeks ago?

Our Coronavirus journey has turned our lives upside down. Everything we thought was ‘normal’ has been changed beyond recognition. 

We have increased anxiety levels due to many factors, not least: 

• Perceived risks to Miss Way/Baby Way due to pregnancy 
• Work stress 
• Worry about Baby Way’s birth and meeting family & friends thereafter 
• Tennis club management 
• Food shop related stress 

Despite all of this, we’re doing our best to remain positive and make the most of the time together. After all, there will be 3 of us soon!

We’ll update you soon on any other changed in our Coronavirus journey.

All the best everyone, stay safe!