Even in a normal year, there is never a huge amount to look forward to in January. Once you’ve drained the last joy from the festive season via Women’s Little Christmas, and bid a fond farewell to a mountain of waste once the three Wiser men, following a Greenstar in the east, arrive at your crib bearing the gift of a trash compactor, the rest of the month is when we just put the head down and get on with some quiet sobbing.
Among the few events to look forward to in the immediate advent aftermath are two things your first payday of the new year, and the kids going back to school. This year, obviously, is different. We are fortunate in that payday will come, but like everyone else, the return to school is less certain. The news breaking in our house that school reopening was being delayed was greeted with cheers (them) and weary sighs (us) because this places us under a de facto house arrest again, trapped with our kids, very much like Ripley was trapped aboard the Nostromo wi