My days in self quarantine

After a few years back in the UK, deciding where to live, what job to do and just putting one step in front another, I decided to move back to Portugal and start a new job as a Drama Teacher at an International School near Cascais. This was in July 2020, when flights were being cancelled and everything seemed completely scary! This was a crazy time to move!

But, alas, we arrived into Lisbon Airport, met with masked faces and social distancing rules. I said to myself, we can give it one week and then we will see if we can find an apartment! In that week, one landlord allowed us to move in (as my salary seemed too low) and my man with van and stuff was waiting for us near Coimbra! This was a risk and also a bit crazy but with Brexit looming, I thought it was now or never!

We didn't have Covid symptoms and we were safe! I unpacked our house with my seven year old and within hours the apartment was full! Our summer, was filled with park trips, picnics and a drive to a beautiful village called Sabroal to visit a Portuguese friend from my home town Chester.

On the last week of August, we started work mode at our new International School and my two boys (seven and three) began enjoying the relaxed pace of school, outdoor time, vitamin D and new friends. Getting my head around a new full time job after living in Chester with family support, part time work was a bit of a shock!

So, September flew by and we got through it! So many changes at school and the hours of work being longer meant we had little time to wonder but we did miss Chester and our flights getting cancelled in October showed us that Christmas may not be spent together with family. We continued making new friends, seeing old friends ( had lived here previously for five years) and just getting all the paper work done for living in Portugal.

Then, in November, I started to feel a cold coming on, bit hot and cold but on a Saturday evening, I sat at the table to eat dinner and I could taste nothing! Oh dear, i spent the next few days chasing a Covid test and finally got the result on Tuesday...Positive!!! Being a single mum, with two young children and unpredictable contract at work, this was my worst nightmare!

But, I found my school was quite supportive (delivering food to my apartment), I could do some online classes (when I felt well enough) and I got through two weeks of self quarantine - having lots of soup, vitamin C rich orange juice, sleeping and getting through this awful virus!

What will January bring? Let's hope a feeling of safety and freedom again!