Hullo, Normal my old friend – Sandra 58

 

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Sandra episodes like this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Normality was edging a little closer. Actually, thought Sandra, this was the actual new normal. The much touted new normal, heralded for over a year but actually elusive, constantly obscured by another layer of change being slapped across its features, or suddenly undermined as a sink hole of new weirdness opened up without warning. This new normal was a shady character, was still featureless and was mainly shrouded in shadows, but at least it was visible and appeared to be moving in the right direction. As long as it wasn’t suddenly mugged by a new variant.

It was new normal because under the old normal Frankie and Rob and their kids had an intricately arranged timetable which meant that they needed little help from Sandra in their everyday lives. A timetable of after-school/nursery care, friends, neighbours and the occasional grandparent meant the adult could pursue their own careers without having to endure too much disruption. 

That was then. Now, unfortunately, while some of the support system was still there and operational, the connections between each part no longer matched up. Shorter school days, smaller nursery classes, friends working from home at specific times and friendly lifts from people who were just happening to go that way anyway meant the system no longer worked. And since the system no longer worked they needed help. They needed Sandra.

Even as a full-time employee Sandra still had flexibility in where and when she worked. The new normal came with a fancy new term ‘the hybrid workforce’ which mean you could could both from home and from the office (at different times of course) and your employer didn’t mind. In fact they quite liked it because it showed how up to the minute they were. Sandra called it Covid Flexi Time, but didn’t share this with anyone.

And so it came to pass that under the new normal she found herself looking after Sukie and Freddie on a Monday afternoon while also juggling emails and phone calls for work. Frankie was in her studio, but didn’t have any callers. She just needed space in order to design interior spaces for others. Sandra was sure there was irony somewhere here but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. 

By this time in the pandemic year(s) any suggestion that there were certain rules by which the kids should be looked after were long gone, belonging to a dim and distant old normality. Frankie herself had decided that as long as the kids were happy everything was OK and the kids had decided this meant jam sandwiches as soon as they got home from school followed by chocolate biscuits and the TV and a fight over who had the iPad today. (Over the past six months, Freddie’s vocabulary had improved marvellously to include the word ‘screen’ which could be uttered over and over again at an increasingly high pitch, as well as some choice words gleaned from the frustrated talk of his parents).

Frankie, and by extension, Sandra, was fine with this. There were times when childcare was essentially about passing the time until you could reasonably say it was bath-time and then hit the routine for stories and sleep, so if that time passed with a discussion over who had what screen for how long, then so be it.

Unfortunately, today’s discussion between Sandra and the kids was interrupted by a series of phone calls from Sandra’s work. It was a series of calls because she could see Bill was trying to get hold of her, over and over again. She only answered it once.

“What they hell is this on the app?” he weighed in.

“What’s what?” said Sandra, and then: “Sukie put Freddie down, it’s his turn on CBeebies - respect the timetable! Sorry, Bill, what’s what?”

Bill had found the Easter Egg. The bit where viewers effectively stumbled across a secret part of the app which featured ‘real life’ accounts of working as a truck driver.

“Who are there people?” Said Bill, “Where did they come from and why wasn’t I told?”

“It doesn’t matter what he’s saying it’s his turn!” Said Sandra.

“What?” Said Bill.

“Sorry it’s the kids,” said Sandra.

“You have kids?” asked Bill.

“No, they’re my sister’s and...  For the last time Sukie you’ve eaten your share of biscuits. Go and watch the TV. That’s what it’s there for and you know how the remote works so stop moaning.”

“I would call you back,” said Bill...

“Good idea,” said Sandra.

“But it’s been hard to get hold of you,” he said. “I need a full report on this. I need to know how it’s happened, why it happened and why I wasn’t involved. And then maybe we can sort it out.”

Sandra considered pushing against this but then decided to agree. The move ended the call which she really needed to happen if she was to stop Freddie dipping the iPad in jam. She was also confident the report would be fine. On the whole, she thought, as she found the ergonomically designed place Frankie kept their J-cloths, real life work people were dead easy to handle after going two hours with kids.