Well. It was a fun summer, right? You would think with my background to have improved, I would have handled all the life changes and alterations brought about by COVID-19 with aplomb, would not you? Guess again.
Complete downpour
I can only describe the last few months as being in free fall, not only without a parachute, but continuously plunging down through an infinite wormhole without the view, at any point, to land that is rapidly becoming visible.
At least if there was an impact, you can dust yourself off, pick yourself up and start with the next thing. With life in a pandemic, the uncertainty seems endless: too many unanswered questions, too many mixed signals and confusion everywhere we dare to see.
No one makes it worse
Of course, we should all be grateful that we are in Denmark. Sure, I’ve made this pillar into a temple of lamentations: a chalice where I have poured out my fears and frustrations at being a British expatriate living in Copenhagen, but right now I’m bloody happy that I’m not home. .
The UK remains a mess, with companies collapsing every week, schools still far from running, the psychological impact of living months under lockdown taking its toll and no concrete guidance or coherent leadership from a shambolic government more akin to those effervescent hyenas from ‘The Lion King’ – only with fewer qualifications and poorer hair.
Moonwaker
Although Denmark was not entirely perfect in its response, it acted relatively quickly against coronavirus and with clarity and confidence. The worst thing that many of us parents had to endure was the frustration of trying to work with the kids at home, which basically involved hiding behind doors for Zoom meetings and trying to pretend that no one else on the call could hear the sound of Screams from the living room when one child fights the other with a Brio train track.
Handling children under lock and key was exhausting and confusing, but it was far worse in countries like the UK, where my friends had to work in shifts, as one half of the parent unit often did not start their work day before nightfall when their wild children had left. bed. If you think you had a hard time this summer, trust me, you could have had it a lot worse.
Playgrounds are forever
We took three weeks off, as is usual here for the summer holidays. We did not have the luxury of renting a holiday home – the real symbol of Danish status and opulence – because we left it too late and they had all been hijacked by their Danish owners or invaded Germans. So our summer vacation felt, 21 days later, more like a long weekend, tied like we were living in Copenhagen.
We went on a couple of times to see some of the traditional Danish summer camps – desolate cornfields, haunted pig farms and scary villages with a net that still uses the old logo – but by and large we made the city our playground. Fortunately, there are enough actual playgrounds and cool city dumps to keep the kids entertained.
No time to die
Now that my two spawn are back in kindergarten and kindergarten, respectively, myself and my wife are back in offices interacting with other people, socially distant of course, and a certain appearance of normality has returned. That’s until the inevitable peak of flu season, and we all have to go back to hiding under the table.
Of course, the chances are that you are still separated from family and loved ones. I feel your pain. So let’s go ahead and lift a glass to return to normalcy in all its splendor. Tomorrow, after all, is another day.
Source: The Nordic Page