Albert and Filipa Plesman have three teenage sons. The eldest is Thomas, followed by Maarten and Frederik. They were all born in Portugal as Filipa is Portughese. Albert is Dutch. They moved to Holland a few years ago because of Albert's work. Filipa went to Central St Martins, the world renowned arts and design college and the two homes she has lived in so far reflect her artistic nature. The boys are trilingual. Here is a page from Filipa's Corona diary
"We live in Naarden, 30 mins outside the city, in a neighbourhood with houses, wide streets and lots of green spaces. I am not trying to show off but I have to explain that there is plenty of space available for what has become a 1,5m social distance, the new normal.
The washing of hands frequently is an easy task therefore the impact of COVID-19 on my life has been minimal. More of a nuisance than anything else. This sounds selfish and that again is not my intention. The devastating loss of lives, the surreal number of patients in the ICU's and the horrendous negative impact on people's lives is an excruciating and painful reality one has to accept. I feel deep sadness for those suffering. This feeling is accompanied by a very clear realisation that I am not in a position to complain. The worry of getting the virus is real of course but I am able to keep my family safe while not living under great distress.
I remind myself of my luck every morning in order to prepare myself for the day ahead, now with a different set of challenges. By challenges I mean new logistic setups that need to be dealt with. This takes time and patience but little more.
Filipa and Albert enjoy a walk during lockdown
Our three teenage boys do online lessons. The first days were all about setting up computers, internet connections and making sure everyone had a place to study. Basically it boiled down to their having to tidy up their rooms, at the best of times not a popular task but there was no getting away from it thanks to COVID-19.
This in combination with the extremely well organised Dutch schooling system made the virtual lessons easy to follow. The boys have one on one virtual meetings with their mentors to make sure they understand what is expected of them and to let them know that there are all kinds of support systems in place if they need anything. To be honest I am really relieved about this because when I talk to my friends with smaller children in other countries the whole online schooling is described as 'pure hell'. They are completely emotionally exhausted.
We are an outdoorsy, sporty family (sorry, correction; my husband and the three boys are sporty). With the "not so strict" Dutch lockdown rules in place we try to compensate for this by biking 100km in a day, going for extra long walks with the dog in the forrest and we also bought a little secondhand boat for the boys. This allowed them to enjoy the outdoors whilst social distancing.
Two of the boys visiting their maternal grandmother, who welcomes them with one of her delicious cakes
One would think that as we live in Holland the weather has been horrendous as usual but for some weird reason it's been sunny most days so these outings felt a little cheeky. We were allowed to go out but also having fun did feel like we were defying the rules.
Since the beginning of lockdown we also had a daily "task". Don't like calling it that as it was done with lots of love and oh so much care but I use this word because we did it everyday religiously. The five of us, usually two at a time, would go visit my mother who lives fairly close. She's almost 70 so under the Dutch lockdown she was advised to stay home. Luckily she lives on the ground floor and has a little garden. We would sit on her terrace table and talk through the closed glass door. Often my mother would bake a cake and place it outside for us before we arrived so we could all eat "together".
It was very important that my mother never felt scared, isolated or worried. The daily invasion of visitors created a safe atmosphere for her.
Another thing I did early on to keep myself mentally sound was to ask all my friends not to Whatsapp me anything about Corona. Sounds a bit harsh and in some cases it was considered so. Well, I felt that I had all my news sources, the ones I needed and trusted. I didn't need any additional information especially if it was biased. Some people have very extreme views, often based on fake data and it annoys me that they share it before verifying such impactful information. These are, in my view harmful messages. Maybe a coping mechanism for many but I wanted nothing to do with it. Sometimes I felt like I had to take sides, stand in full agreement with such one sided points of views.
I also left all the "support" groups created under the best of intentions but to me it felt too intense. I chose not to live in the online Corona bubble.
Looking back, I think this was one of the smartest things I did.
Life has changed of course, the fear of getting a deadly disease was and still is very present but for me the fact that I have been able to keep my family sane and healthy is met with immense gratitude."
Cruising down the river in Naarden
AS FOR ME.... I am enjoying my newfound freedom. The biggest blessing is being able to see my girls and their families. I am trying very hard not to hug and kiss them which is difficult. But I think next week I might go the whole hog. It is my life I am risking after all, not theirs.
I went out for coffee with a friend I hadn't seen for ages. It was bliss sitting there with tables well spaced out as they should be. Why not keep them that way? Profit I suppose. So they huddle us together like a herd of sheep so that we have to whisper if we don't want the neighbours to listen to our conversation. Yet bars are overcrowded. You can see this if you are driving past. It doesn't make sense.
As to masks which I keep on forgetting to put on when I'm shopping, I read somewhere that they don't provide much protection after all. Very soon they will become part of every well brought up girl's trousseau I suppose. Or don't trousseaus exist anymore?
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