My first vacation during lockdown

Short note: I 'm lucky enough to live in Switzerland, where we have a partial lockdown (keep social distance, but hikes and being outside is OK). I started a new job in January and I'm still at the start of building up my network, my wife has a secure job and we live in a house with a garden in a small city with lots of green spaces just outside my door. This is my personal experience and I appreciate how lucky I am.

After 4 weeks of telework, I am now enjoying a week's vacation. 

Vacation? 

Long before November 2019, we had booked our Easter vacation in Prague. Hotel and flights were paid for and a refund seems to this day very complicated, if not improbable. So why take a holiday at home after all?

To answer this, we considered :

• The vacation in Prague is lost anyway, so better quickly forget it.
• The children have a two-week vacation. Don't they deserve more of our attention during that time?
• The purpose of the holidays is rest, no need to get away to get rest.

That said, we wondered if a vacation even makes sense during these uncertain times, how to manage the transition from working at home to vacationing at home and what to do all day long?

To make a long story short, we are now on holiday and have changed our routines to enjoy our week off while staying at home. 

You're on lockdown, are you simply going to discover a new room in your home?

Our new routine

I'm an early riser and that doesn't change a vacation. What a pleasure to get up, get dressed and walk around for an hour listening to some podcasts. OK, that's not different from my usual working routine. The big difference during this week of vacation is that I finish my walk by going to the bakery to buy fresh bread (one customer only, Plexiglas separation to keep secure and card only payment. Preparing breakfast for my family and then waiting for them to get up while reading a few pages from one of my books is fantastic.

I also enjoy that breakfast is much longer than usual. Having a second coffee and hatching plans for the day. 

Isabelle likes to take care of the garden (something I hate most of all!). So usually at some point in the morning, she will disappear around the house. During that time, my son Adrian and I go for a ride on our scooters. Adrian jumps, slides, whip/double-whip..., yeah, I'm showing off a bit because after spending time with my son, I've mastered the cool rider's language.

I have to admit, my scooter is rather classic (or according to Adrian "an old man's scooter"), but what a pleasure to discover the region while riding with my son without meeting many people.

Since the beginning of the partial lockdown, my daughter Alexia has started to take care of lunch. Indeed, when teleworking, caught up on Skype and calls, Isabelle and I have several times forgotten lunchtime! 

Alexia quickly understood that the efficient solution is for her to cook the family meal. Now on holiday, Alexia and Isabelle prepare the meals together. This also makes for some rather funny expert discussions to listen to. My role: I'm Mr Greenery - preparing the salad, raw vegetables and preparing the right sauce. Adrian has taken on the role of serving us coffee after the meal (my other role is Mr Grocery).

On vacation, we love to eat outside... right now that translates: I order a Thai meal at one of our favourite restaurants, pick it up and we enjoy our to have our restaurant at home.

Afternoons are now family walks in the woods around our city. Once back, it's time for Uno, Skip-Bo or Backgammon (where Alexia wins too often!). Our children are still working on getting us to play Monopoly with them.

At some point, we split up again: Adrian rides his scooter in front of the house, Isabelle reads and Alexia and I watch an episode of the series "13 Reasons Why" (in English with French subtitles). 

In the evening, a long meal, discussions and then a game, reading or film, depending on what we feel like doing.

So how was the vacation in semi-confinement? 

• Home holidays are very relaxing and above all very different from telework /teleschool.
• We are amazed at how incredibly fast the days go by.
• Watch out for the screens: we've hidden our professional laptops so that we can feel the difference with telework. But smartphones are still too present.
• Our days are not that different than during our holidays abroad. By planning walks that avoid crowded places, we discover very nice areas. Like any holiday in a new city, we admire the local architecture only this time, it's the details of the houses around us!

Next big question: how to manage the return to work? Next Monday, we'll be back in front of the laptop at our telework place. As for the children, they still have a week's holiday ahead of them. We'll certainly have to adapt again.

My selection of podcasts (while making the list, I realize that I'm an addict!).

• 100 Sekunden Wissen from SRF Kultur: a word or idea explained every day (German)
• Azzzap! from Alexandre Zermati: on new ways of working (French)
• Business Wars from Wondery hosted by David Brown: the rivalry between two companies to dominate their market over several weeks (English)
• Choses à Savoir (Culture générale, Economie, Histoire, Santé, Sciences et Incroyable) from Louis Guillaume: a word or an idea explained every day.
• HZ Insights from Handelzeitung: a weekly discussion on important facts about the Swiss economy (German)
• HZ Schöne neue Arbeitswelt from Handelzeitung: on new ways of working (German) 
• Imagined Life from Wondery hosted by Virginia Madsen and Robbie Daymond: the life of a famous person not knowing who they are until the very last minute (English) 
• Le Journal de 7 H from RTS Radio Télévision Suisse: the fresh news of the day (French)
• NZZaS Serien from Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag: a forgotten news item revisited over several weeks (German)
• The Prof G Show from Professor Scott Galloway: a discussion on the world post-COVID-19 (English)
• Wirtschaftswoche from SRF News: Switzerland's weekly business magazine (German)

My books for this week's vacation:

• The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz from the Millennium series.
• Doughnut Economics - Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth.