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The Coronavirus situation in The Netherlands took a slightly more drastic turn in the last week. Already, it has only been less than a full week under the new rules, but it already seems like an age... there are many changes to life as usual, with the weird feeling that all the changes make for a pretty surreal normal. Mostly it feels surreal because there is no direct individual risk like a war or something like that, but all the measures are in place to prevent a harder to visualise society threat to healthcare collapse.

There are really two parts to this post... the large scale impacts to our life for the coming year, and then the small scale adaptations that we have made. In some ways, there isn't a huge change on the home front (well, not as much as other people), as we don't have "normal" jobs anyway... however, on the macro stage... we will be hit pretty hard!

Macro Life Impact

So, the boring stuff first... jump to the next section if you want the more fun read!

On Friday, the Dutch government restricted meetings of more than 100 people for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, this also coincided with one of the busiest seasons for musicians, So, right after a rehearsal that finished that day... I started getting calls and emails, cancelling concerts... even the ones that were on the very next day!

So, from a completely packed travelling and performing schedule over the next month... to nothing! Likewise for the income... OUCH! On the bright side, we don't have a problem with getting the babysitting schedule in order... we had to cancel huge amounts of babysitting... but we paid them half of the cancelled hours (which was as much as we could afford at the moment). This is going to be difficult for everyone, we will do our best to not make it harder for others.

On the teaching side of things... we are migrating everything over to remote lessons for those who want it. All the schools are closed until 6th of April for the moment, and the international schools where we do the majority of our 1-1 teaching are closed for longer. The schools have appeared to put out only written material and powerpoints for the students, leaving them to flounder on their own... so this might be an opportunity for me to pick up more Mathematics and Physics students as I have a great deal more free time (and they don't have to go to school either!).

My wife is finding that many of her piano students are also starting to opt for video lessons as well. She is trying to form some sort of way to get people to send recordings to each other and her, so that they can do a sort of "concert" together!

At the moment, things are not really restricted for moving around. Most people are working from home... but I'm not really sure how that really works as they will have children around if they are families. I have noticed on the school Whatsapp that some parents are really struggling, and that they have no idea what to do without any school materials to guide them!

It is still possible to go outside to the shops and all of that without requiring papers or anything (unlike Spain, Italy and France), hopefully it doesn't get that far... but if it does, we are well prepared as we normally stock extra food and all that sort of thing anyway. In our local supermarket, the things that have sold out are potatoes, pasta, milk, butter, flour and eggs. Like most places, the problem was a demand spike rather than a supply drop.. so, I figure that most of these things will be in stock again in a few days when the shops resupply. No need to panic!

We heard the news that Australia might start closing their borders (or at least international flights) which means that we won't be able to return back to our extended families if something goes really bad back there. My mother has finally been convinced by my brother to take indefinite leave (she works in the ICU and is in a high-risk group due to age), she still has a few shifts left... but we thought it was best that she sat this particular event out on the sidelines, as she might be more of a liability than an asset.

Speaking of medical stuff... my brother said that his group is making preparations to have a "clean" and "diseased" team. He is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist... so, the Gynecology is on hold... but you can't stop the babies!

On the economic front, the Dutch Government has announced some minimum wage support for freelancers (like my wife and I) which will soften the blow a bit. However, it is still going to be a bit touch and go with the finances for a little bit. If I can collect more teaching during the daytime and my wife keeps her teaching, then we will do okay and perhaps better than before! If not, then the loss of the performance incomes from both of us will be pretty hefty!

That said, our personal economic situation is quite healthy... we have relatively low expenses and no debts... so we can survive on minimal income for a while. It's not the same for everyone... even people with higher incomes might find that their debts and expenses sink them over time.

Home Life

More fun to talk about is the home life! We have our little school at home which my wife is trying to keep to a routine and schedule. We are doing some interesting things that they aren't doing at school at the moment, however, we both recognise that our weakness will lie in teaching and exposing the kids to Dutch (neither of us are native speakers)... this means that the school materials for Dutch will be invaluable for us... however, the Maths and stuff like that is a bit meh!

With the Dutch, we will have to make heavy use of translators to find words that we don't know!... and we were told to just keep the kids reading reading reading! We also watch the news (kids and adult versions) in Dutch, and Netflix as well! So, there will still be exposure.

When the weather is decent (ha ha, this is Netherlands...), we can just go out and do some gardening, short bike rides and trips to the park. My wife takes a morning walk every morning as soon as she wakes up... just to make sure she gets out of the house! Me, I prefer to have a bit of extra sleep!

With the older child, we are taking the chance to learn some block-based programming (coding... she calls it gaming...) whilst the little one is learning how to use a mouse and keyboard. The older one is really finding the programming quite interesting, she sees it more as a sort of puzzle to work out!

Most mornings start with a little bit of a Yoga session with my wife led by someone on YouTube. It is usually Frozen or My Little Pony themed... as that is what my little one is crazy about!

There is always time for learning cooking and little things like that.. with mixed results! Of course, there needs to be a sort of division of tasks that suit adults, older kid and younger kid... so that everyone feels utilised and contributing to the final result!

There is also ample time for LEGO building... reconstructing long broken shells of planes and boats to re-decorate the insides. I also have a plan to continue our chess lessons with the older child... and we are playing lots more board games as well.... some of which frustratingly never end!

... and for the non-Dutch schoolwork... we bowl that over in record time! I have a plan to introduce her to some really cool and interesting ideas in Maths and Physics... none of this boring stuff that they have to teach at schools!... really elegant and mind-blowing stuff!

... meanwhile, we still practice our violin and piano and music stuff... you can't really set it aside unless you want to lose your edge!

Conclusion

Life is definitely disrupted... but on the other hand, for us, it isn't that bad (yet). We get to teach more things to the kids... and we don't have office jobs, so in many ways our daytimes are very similar to normal... with the extra complication of keeping the kids going through the day!

Our performing work has cratered for the foreseeable future... but it appears that the teaching side of things will stay even or possibly expand on my side. For a month or two it will be okay, but as we head into summer... well, this could get hairy!

So, morale is still high... our expenses are low, our income took a hit but seems to find a stable point. No-one in our house is in a high risk group... so, things are different... but so far... okay! But things are changing SOOOOO FAST from day to day, ask me again in a week!