Isolation Journal 34

A fairly productive day, very groggy when I woke up again - about 6 hours sleep as Alan was quite late coming to bed, although I think that he slept relatively well.

I had 2 coffees and cornflakes for breakfast.  A few teams calls to fill people in on what I'd had from a meeting last week and sort out a few admin invoice type issues.  

At 12pm I had a pilates class, I really think that it's helping me avoid injury to do Pilates and working form home means it takes less than an hour to complete at 45 minute class as I just wear comfortable clothes and walk into the lounge a minute before.  

I quickly made some lunch with the brown mushrooms, shittake mushrooms, salami, cream and parpadelle pasta from Delifresh and ate it in front of the computer.  Alan seemed to appreciate it.

I had a productive afternoon at work and I even managed to book some tickets to see Dizzee Rascal and The Lightening Seeds at an airport nearby.  It's only 5 miles away and they are drive in events so we can stay in the car or get outside in a little area next to the car - It's nice to have some live music to look forward to.  

Alan made tea early so he could get on Zwift and also do some work on recording a video for the app that he's developing.  It was Morrocan Beef Stew with Hello Fresh.  I did a Zumba class with my friend Gui online, I'd not seen that it was his last for a while so I'm glad I had a chance to sign up, it was really good fun even though I'm still very uncoordinated!  Even after 45 mins of pilates and an hour of Zumba, I'd only earned 3 Vitality points, so I went for a 30 min run up and down the drive again listening to more of "What Alice Forgot".

I had a bath and faffed around on Facebook and then came down and Alan was prepping strawberries and added some icing sugar and I put cream on and made a Gentleman Jack and Gingerbeer and we watched Scrubs and I was a geek and did some of my online training for work on the new Salesforce system that we are getting soon.  I was a bit disappointed that I've been taken off "superuser" training as I know I'll get asked all the questions anyway.  It does look amazing - I think it will make my life so much easier!  I'm actually quite excited.

Isolation Journal 33

I got up and fed Qubit around 8am and then finally properly woke up at around 10am.  I had coffee and cornflakes for breakfast and we put on a film after watching a bit of Scrubs.  I've never watched Silence of the Lambs so we put that on, it was a really good film and I didn't know the plot twists despite it being around since 1991.

I didn't do very much today, I was feeling quite down and frustrated, probably some of the things running around in my head from yesterday as well as I'm guessing probable PMT looming.  

We had chicken salad for lunch with Sriacha Mayo dressing and I added in some extra ingredients like radicchio and heritage tomatoes.  

I then did hoovering around the house, took the bin out and mopped floors and cleaned the bathroom as the house was just a bit smelly.  I took all the cardboard recycling out and got it blown around and also took the bin and the compost out which helped with  the smell.

I then finally got organised and went out for my run and dropped off my dance fee payments for yesterday along with a little Hello Kitty coin purse.  I ran 7.2K and would have run a bit further, but it was so windy and rainy.  I listened to a good few more hours of "What Alice Forgot" as I tidied and went for a run.

When I got back Alan was on Zwift and so I did a bit more tidying and polished the dining room table.  I then ordered some dark wood polish as it's going a bit white.  Alan did most of the cooking for tea and made a Hello Fresh oven baked risotto.  We had crumble and ice cream as two separate pudding dishes!  I also naughtily snacked on salami and mortadella and 2 chocolate biscuits earlier.

As we sat down to dinner we watched Hannibal and weirdly I remembered at least one scene even though I've not watched it before.  

We then put Mock the Week on for something a bit more light hearted than cannibalism.  I also then got into a slightly stroppy debate with WW who I had trialled in December to try and lose weight as I'd hoped the "free food" scenario would make tracking what I ate easier than myfitnesspal.  The trial was via Vitality and was 6 months, but they gave no notification email that they'd be taking £21.45 out of my account.  I did manage to block the payments via paypal so they couldn't take anymore, but I had no response to my cancellation email and request for a refund.  It's not loads of money, but for something that made me so cross for a week I resent having to pay.  They won't respond to emails currently and instead sent me to speak to a WW coach... they managed to cancel my account, but can't process a refund.  I need to call up which is irritating.  I also got the worst non apology "I'm sorry you feel like that" which coupled with PMT meant I was truly riled!  

Isolation Journal 31

Alan really didn't sleep well last night, I could tell by the way that he was holding his breath as he was sleeping, I'm not sure why he does this, but I know if he's doing it, he's not had a good night of sleep.  I got the milk and orange juice in.

I had another tasty breakfast of yoghurt, granola, apple and homegrown raspberries and blackcurrants and today was a 3 coffee day with 2 in the morning and one at 3.30pm.

We had a briefing call from our MD today and he had some slides on it and it occurred to me that all the way through the daily briefing they kept saying "next slide please" but never actually had the ability to click a button, seems quite inefficient.

I put a load of washing on, hung it out and then put the dry washing away.

We had another Delifresh order arrive at 12.09pm, the order was emailed to say it would be 12.07pm, I'm amazed they can get it so close!  I unpacked everything - love how it's plastic free with just the odd thing in a paper bag.  Everything was a bit covered in condensation as it was so muggy today.

Alan made a tasty lunch from some of the order - a gnocchi, tomato and pepper pasta bake with two types of cheese - it was delicious.  I then had a busy afternoon at work with a candidate interview on Zoom and a client meeting on teams where I picked up a lot of new jobs and had 2 interview requests to arrange for Monday.  I then had a further 4 interview requests for Thursday and Friday!  i also was on a mission to sort out my emails and got them down from nearly 400 to less than 200, If I get on top of them I feel more focussed and I make more placements.  

I had an amusing scenario where I was talking to a client discussing the weather as usual chitchat and mentioned how hot it was, she mentioned that it was thundering where she was (around 8 miles away) and then 2 minutes later I heard it, the rain she had then followed 2 minutes after!  I remembered as I was on the phone to one of the candidates and had to climb the ladder in the bedroom to shut the skylight and got a facefull of rain.

I tuned in to my friend Lauren's friend Lorraine who does an Instagram live of cocktails and comedy and sorted my emails until 8.15pm.  I had though Alan was asleep, but he'd had a bit of a snooze and was watching TV, I offered to sort dinner and went down to the local pub The Queen of t'owd Thatch or the Thack for short as they had reopened yesterday after being closed for a bit to work out what they wanted to do with all the challenges of being a pub at the moment.  They had arranged a fish and chips Friday takeaway, usually it's all preordering, but they had suggested in Facebook that there was enough left to just turn up so I went and got two portions of fish and chips with garden peas, curry sauce and a bottle of prosecco.  I also reminded Annie one of the owners that I owed her £2 for some mashed potato I'd got back in April to go with Alan's birthday meal.  I wore my facemask as I got there inside as I wanted to make sure that they were all safe.  They are finding it hard to work out how to reopen as they have so many pinch points in the pub layout as a cosy little building, they were quieter yesterdy than they'd hoped which makes me sad as I'm really keen to keep this good quality, friendly and local business going through this very difficult period.

We ate our tea outside on the picnic chairs as our usual bench was soaking wet and we watched 2 of the neighbours (Kirsty and Chris) looking at where to put a fountain they'd bought and chatted to one of the other neighbours (Becci)  about Donald Trump and Greek mythology and we drank the prosecco and chatted until it was getting dark and there was lighting in the distance, we finally wen tinside at 10.30pm and I had an ice lolly and cleaned the kitchen whilst listing to "What Alice Forgot".

Last night I started reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens for the Uni of Leeds Alumni bookclub that I've joined.  I might try and read some more tonight if I'm not too tired, I'm so pleased to be actually reading books again.

Isolation Journal 30

Alan had a really bad night of sleep as it was really warm, I didn't do so badly as I slept completely not under any covers and I was pleased that I finally finished reading a book and read the last story of Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks before I went to sleep.

I had a coffee and granola, homegrown blackcurrants and raspberries and granny smith and yoghurt.

We had a few teams meetings and I had a few niggles to sort out from the day before, but I managed it.  I also had a difficult conversation that I'd been dreading for weeks with a client, hopefully I've offered a solution.  At 12pm I had a Pilates class online again, it was very warm!  I then made a quick chicken salad with Sriracha mayo dressing and a couple of small jacket potatoes with marmite and butter.

I had a fair bit on in the afternoon and tried to multitask logging onto another interactive webinar on our Unity group.  One of the topics discussed was how people really dislike the term BAME as it doesn't account for the fact that Black and Asian experience is very different.  

We had a quiz at the end of the day which I won and it was all about facts about other people in the team, it means that I'll have to get one together for next week.  I managed to cook a prawn stirfry from Hello Fresh and eat it before the guide meeting at 7pm.  The meeting went well, we played a game of counting to 10 without interrupting each other, then we did a couple of UMAs including guessing who wrote different statements and then thinking about guides in the future.  I used the Whiteboard function and got them to draw which was fun, but a bit chaotic!

I then went out for a quick run and pushed my effort a bit more and did 6.5K in about 35 minutes.  I got back and chatted with my neighbour and watered the plants from yesterday and had a quick shower before having a big hunk of chocolate cake that one of the other neighbours had made with some cream, it was delicious.

I then watched Big Brother and Alan had a bath,

Isolation Journal 29

Another "not" day off for me today.  Alan got up as normal and logged on for work at 9am, I faffed around on social media before getting out of bed around 10.15am and made myself yoghurt, granny smith, granola and home grown raspberries.  Only one coffee today.

I got straight into my run kit as I wanted to get a run over and done with and I put on a load of washing and took out the recycling and chatted to the gardener who mows our lawn for us.

I had planned to run for about an hour, but it was about 28 degrees so after a fairly fast 5km I decided to head back as it was just too warm and did just over 4 miles!  I listened to more of What Alice Forgot which is such a good audio book! I had an ice lolly when I got back and felt a bit light headed so sat down for a bit.  I was due to take little Alex (not so little anymore) out for a walk, but he had heatrash so wasn't heading out, so I had a long bath and then headed downstairs and made a salad with sriarcha mayo dressing and a couple of small potatoes with cheese, butter and marmite. I had another ice lolly.  Some herb plants that I'd ordered arrived and I planted out some mint, coriander, parsley, chives and nearly pulled up some seedlings that I then realised had grown from a tomato I planted 3 months back, so I replanted them!

I did a bit of work email stuff and Alan suggested we head out on the bikes and so I got my bike out and didn't get into biking gear, just the shorts and t-shirt that I already had on.  We cycled to post a parcel and then went to Fairburn Ings via Lumby and locked up our bikes and went for a walk and did some more mapping using the inaturist app.  We then cycled back via Ledsham just under 10 miles in total, I was surprised to get some cycling strava segments not clipped in or in proper cycling gear.

I've also been trying to sort out re-letting the studio flat that I own in the centre of Leeds, I'm not sure the agent I've been with since I bought it in 2017 are being very proactive so I'm considering whether I change agents.  It feels wrong to have it vacant, I wouldn't mind reducing the price especially if it could help a key worker.

We chatted with our nextdoor neighbour and I cleared up some feathers from a bird that the cats had clearly brought in.  Alan then made some chicken Laksa for tea and we ate outside and watched Chris from number 5 on his sit on mower cut the grass and Alan watered the plants and the lawn for us and Denise at number 4.  I had a Gentleman Jack and Ginger and we had ice cream and cream for dessert.  I then had a rose wine with some ice and came inside to watch some Catfish and plan my guide meeting for tomorrow as well as write a session plan for run club.

Isolation Journal 28

Yesterday I was feeling really motivated and productive at work and weirdly I had more sleep than the night before, but today felt much less productive.

I had another breakfast of granola, homegrown raspberries, sliced granny smith and yoghurt.  And today was a 3 coffee day.

I'd teed up a tweet on behalf of my friend to Leeds City Council, the CEO of Leeds City Council, Richard Burgeon (MP) and the Valuation Office Agency.  She's had a ridiculously tough 18 months being diagnosed with heart failure last year aged 40, having a house fire at the end of November and spending the last 7 months including lockdown in a small flat with her husband and 2 boys whilst the repairs to her very fire damaged house takes longer because of the Doncaster floods and then Covid.  Her house is not fit for human habitation, but the council have told her that she needs to pay two lots of council tax on her two properties.  Her MP (Richard Burgeon) tried to help, but they pushed it onto the Valuation Office Agency to delist the property, but they said as she was having it repaired it wouldn't be classed as derelict and so not exempt!  It's crazy and her husband found out today as he was with his mum in a hospice with hours/days to live that he's being made redundant so they don't have money to spare.  It takes emotional energy to fight these things and so I wanted to help her, fortunately the CEO got back in touch and asked me to email him, so I did.  Hopefully he'll be able to cancel this demand as it's just not fair.  

At lunch I needed to go to the pharmacy to pick up my Omaprazole prescription so I decided to walk down for some light and fresh air.  It was really warm and I played Pokemon Go for the first time in ages and noticed some new pokestops and a gym had been added in the local area.  I queued up at the pharmacy and picked up my prescription and I also listened to some more of What Alice Forgot Again - it's a captivating audio book!  I felt bad when I'd got back from the pharmacy as I realised that I'd not worn a mask.  I literally stood in a doorway and picked it up from a distance, but I feel that I should have worn a mask.  I'll put one in my bag next time.  By the time I'd walked back Alan had made lunch which was more of what we had for tea last night, I ate outside in the hot weather.  I also had an ice lolly.

The afternoon was more productive and I watched a bit of the daily briefing and I finished at 6.30pm and signed straight onto a guiding webinar which used the most inefficient and complicated method I've seen for online stuff so far!  I didn't really get much from it, apart from a game of counting from 1 - 10 without people interrupting.

I made dinner as I listened and it was a tasty soft taco and minute steak Hello Fresh dish.  We ate outside again and Alan had made me a ginger and Gentleman Jack.  There was lots of farm machinery noise in the field next door.

I then settled down to watch more Big Brother and Catfish, tidied the kitchen, had a couple of glasses of rose and fed Qubit when he came in at 10.30pm.  He was promptly sick and then kept meowing loads.

Isolation Journal 27

Mondays I usually find extremely challenging in lockdown as I am a person who gets their morning energy from seeing people, and not through a screen!

I had a much healthier than usual breakfast of yoghurt, homegrown raspberries, granola and a granny smith cut up with the magic slicer thing!

This morning I managed to kick off well and sent a shortlist to a job as well as catching up with people I'd not spoken to for a while.  At 12pm I went down and did my online Pilates class that was challenging, but just the right level of challenge.  Alan had made Eggy bread and fruit compote for lunch and I just cooked my slice of bread before eating it in front of my laptop.

I managed to do a load of washing and hang it out whilst catching up with a candidate.  All good for multitasking today.  I had 2 coffees in total today and one cookie as a snack.

I finished work around ten past 6 and joined Alan for a run of about 5K and used the new app that I'd downloaded inaturalist to find out what different plants in the fields were - pineapple weed, burdock, onion (we foraged some!), some hares that I took from a big distance and zoomed in my phone camera and it even recognised Maya!  I asked Alan if I was the geekiest person he'd ever gone out with and he said yes apart from perhaps someone he was with who was really into pylons...

We came home and Alan finished cooking tea that he'd prepped before we went out which was okra rice and a carribean lamb curry, it was delicious.  I had a whisky and ginger and a lime cheesecake as treats!

We watched Catfish the film which was far weirder than any of the encounters he has in the show, it was really odd.  I then watched some more Best of Big Brother.

Isolation Journal 26

Alan woke me up at around 9am today as he'd booked a Tesco delivery (amazingly we booked a slot for early this morning yesterday, we were surprised, we didn't even need to do click and collect)

I felt better getting up at a reasonable time, yesterday I felt like I really wasted the day.  We had peacan plaits and coffee for breakfast and watched a bit of Scrubs and Best of Big Brother.  I'd planned to take my friend's son Alex for a walk, but she'd not put two and two together that it was father's day and so they headed off to the coast, which I totally understood because as a chef her husband is usually working.  I'll hopefully head over on Wednesday instead.

I mopped the house and hoovered upstairs to tick off another post it note I'd put together.  

Alan made bread and burgers and cooked them on the barbecue outside along with some artichokes from the garden cooked with garlic and rosemary and also I dug out some corn on the cobs that we'd had for ages.  As he cooked I sorted out some compost from the compost heap as I'd put in some wool lining from the bags we get in Hello Fresh as they say compostable, but it does take a lot longer than everything else!  I also planted out two of the lavendar plants at the back next to the wall and one at the front.  I hope they grow well.  Alan also picked me some raspberries for me and I'll have them for breakfast tomorrow.

After lunch I spent some time sorting some emails and working out how I was tracking on my 20 things in 2020 goals.  I then ordered some more facemasks as I had an idea that I wanted some with bees on them and I found one supplier on Etsy who use fabric with puffins and bumblebees on and donates £2 per mask to a children's centre in West Yorkshire - perfect!  I also listened to a panel discussion on Hay Player from 2018 with Candice Brathwaite and a few others about motherhood.  I had one of the cookies that Alan got from Tescos.

I gave my Dad a call for fathers day and had a good chat, it's hard not knowing when I might see my parents again, I don't tend to visit and they don't tend to come up all that regularly, but not knowing and feeling restricted does make it seem a lot harder.

I then made some dinner an Aubergine Curry a Hello Fresh recipe - it was delicious! And we watched the IT Crowd and I did a bit of work for an urgent role that I need to shortlist for and my anxiety about not finding the right candidate/missing candidate was calmed a little bit as I went through 215 candidates and found very few that I had perhaps not already covered.  I wish I'd been able to do this all on Friday or even yesterday as it would have made my weekend less anxiety ridden.

I then went out for a run at about 9.30pm - I am sad that from now the nights will start drawing in earlier as I love having the scope to run in the light until past 10pm at this time in the year.  I was feeling a bit nervous as it was a bit dark and also a woman was attacked about 3 miles away in Fairburn earlier this week so I did hill reps and listened to What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty that I'd started listening to yesterday and also listened to during cooking - it's great!  I ran just over 4 miles in about 36 minutes and added it to my (not) parkrun times weirdly the same best time this week of 26.39 so I have something to work towards next week.

I had a shower in the bath and then came back to finish off my blogging updates and also cleaned the kitchen and enjoyed some Haagen Daas Praline and Cream and debated with Alan how to say Praline.  I also watched a bit more Big Brother and Alan went to bed after a bath with a bit of a cough and I made him a honey and lemon and he's going to sleep in the other room.  I hope he feels better by tomorrow morning.

20 things in 2020 update at the nearly half year point!

I've finally (at nearly halfway through the year!) had a look at how I'm tracking on my 20 things in 2020 goal... some are slightly more challenging given the substantial issue of a global pandemic which I'd not really considered when I wrote my list, but interestingly some of them I've completed more easily given our lockdown situation.  I've now made a spreadsheet to track things a bit more closely...

1 - Complete 20 parkruns - an "easy" one as I've averaged more like 40 per year since I discovered parkrun in 2014. This seemed like an easy one when I set the target as I did 49 last year...20 as a number was purely arbitrary to fit in with my theme, how wrong I was!  I'm currently sat on 10 (I missed two on New Year's day because I was too hungover and one on the day we flew to Barbados), I'm not sure that it will actually be possible as parkrun is only just restarting again in New Zealand.  I have just started logging "not parkruns" so maybe that will be my workaround if I need it...I really hope parkrun starts again soon (as long as it's safe!)

2 - Donate to charity / recycle 20 bags or boxes of stuff - living in a house with no storage is great in some ways as it forces this issue, but recently I've definitely accumulated too much and a sort out would be useful.  This is certainly one that I need to focus on more, although donating to charity in terms of stuff is hard at the moment because of charity shops being closed and things like shpock being harder to use with social distancing etc.  I'm currently on 2...I need to up my game!

3 - Go to 20 yoga or pilates sessions. - This has possibly become a little easier as I find it hard to leave work on time or do much in lunchtimes, but since we've been in lockdown I've been doing pilates 1 - 2 times per week online as well as doing one yoga session with people in a class (wild!) at the start of the year, I'm tracking well on 14 sessions at the moment.

4 - Write 20 letters or postcards - I probably should track this a bit better as I've probably made more progress, but I've done a few multiples and want to push myself to do more letter writing.  I'm on 7 different iterations, but with a few multiples.  

5 - Complete at least 20 crafting sessions - either alone or even better with friends - I was doing quite well with this at the start of the year, 2 Artnights and a sewing session with Sam, but it has got a bit harder, so I might need to do more independent or zoom sessions as I'm currently on only 4

6 - 20 sessions of creative writing / blogging entries - I didn't expect to, but lockdown and my friend Lauren has really inspired this in me, I've done online flash fiction classes, I've kept an Isolation blog, and a couple of mental health blogs and even this one - so this is completed with more than 20 done, but I'm enjoying it and will happily keep going!

7 - 20 sessions of mindfulness - Ideally I'd do this everyday, but I'm not great at always remembering, so this is a nice achievable target. - I'm only on 1 as I'm not counting using Headspace to get to sleep - I must do more of this as I think it would really help me.

8 - Today having a stunning walk around Fairburn Ings RSPB nature reserve I realised this is one thing that makes me really happy and so I want to do at least 20 walks or runs around beautiful nature locations. - This is a bit hard at the moment as I know we can travel further, but we are very cautious, so I could count all my lovely runs, but for now I'm just counting the ones that I've got as far as nature reserves and so I'm on 5.

9 - Leading or backmarking at least 20 run club sessions - Again a hard one at the moment, not sure when I'll be back to normal on this, but whilst we've been in lockdown I've written a few session plans for people and run zoom sessions for #runandtalk and so if I count those then I'm on 13.

10 - Volunteer at least 20 times - If I count Guides then I'm on 16 as we've kept the meetings going via Zoom which actually feels more important even though it's not quite the same as meeting in person.  I hope we get back to that soon.

11 - Meet friends for coffee/lunch/catch ups at least 20 times - Again another coronavirus impacted activity, but if I count some of the zoom catch ups then I'm on 11 and hopefully will meet people for some socially distanced walks soon.

12 - Read 20 books - I'm really struggling to read, even before Coronavirus, my attention span was terrible, I'm nearly at the end of my first proper book and I'm going to be easy on myself and count audio books too, but I am trying to improve my book reading as it is good for my brain and my mental health and I have a big stash of great books to get through.  I'm currently on only 2 audio books completed.

13 - Watch 20 new films - I'm sure I'm further along with this than I've tracked as from what I can recall I'm on only 6, but I'm not sure I've written them all, so I need to track it a bit better, I'm sure I can catch up well during lockdown though - this is what I've noted down so far.  I think I'd have hoped more would have been in a cinema setting...

• 1917
• Starter for 10
• Hunger Games
• The Voices
• Hidden Figures
• Arrival

14 - Spend 20 hours learning something new - I'm not sure how to best count this as I've got 2 hours so far from my flash fiction course, but I've listened to lots of lectures online and so I might give this a bit more thought.  I think I'd thought that it might be more hands on.

15 - Get at least 8 hours sleep 20 times (this is a challenge as my regular 11daytime sleep is only 6.5 hours) - before lockdown I only managed to do this 7 times, I'd be getting up at 6.20am and not in bed often before midnight, it was a challenge, post lockdown means that I'm now at 40 in total.  So this one is now complete.

16 - Visit 20 new places (not countries, just different places that I've not been before, whether a restaurant, or a nice place to walk) - a bit harder to do this one post lockdown, but I'm tracking well with 13 at the moment.

17 - Visit the gym at least 20 times (pretty sure I didn't manage this in 2019) - I was tracking ok....I'd managed 3 sessions I think before lockdown, I might count the online zumba sessions that I've been doing with my friend Gui which would add another 5 including a HIIT session and put me on 8.

18 - Plant 20 "things" whether seed bombs or vegetables. - I need to focus a bit more on this, but with seed bombs, lavender, mushrooms, potatoes and raspberry cuttings I'm on 8.

19 - Watch at least 20 live music acts (should be achievable as we are least going to Blue Dot festival again and hopefully might still get tickets to Glastonbury in the resales - fingers crossed!) - This is a tough one, we had one festival and one gig booked, but we're now postponed, I may have to have a rethink...i'm on 0!

20 - Get to work without driving at least 20 times (I'll cheat if needed and include working from home!) - this is complete as I've only driven my car about 4/5 times since March!  It is more than 20, but I've not counted!

So out of a possible 400 at the halfway point I'm on.... 182 so not doing too badly, I think I'm on track with most of them.

I also set myself a challenge of not buying any new clothes in 2020 other than underwear, lockdown has made this more achievable as I've not had to worry about outfits other than leisure wear, active wear and decent camera workwear.  I've so far only bought a swimming costume and a sports bra and a second hand coat to replace one that was broken.

Isolation Journal 25

It was fairly late by the time I got into bed last night, probably around 2am, but I didn't expect my first open eyed "this is a new day" realisation to be at 11.50am!  I'd missed the chance of logging into the parkrun zoom call and it was lunchtime.

I made some black pudding sausages and scrambled eggs with sriracha for brunch (or lunch!) and we watched some Scrubs.

I'd planned a few things I wanted to do over the weekend on my post it notes and I did a few of them like tidying the lounge, dining room and kitchen and I managed to hoover a bit later, but still need to mop the floors down.  Alan cleaned the bathroom and after nearly 14 weeks of black marks post lush bathbomb we have a white bath again!

At 4pm I realised that it was nearly time for my 5th dance class with Eliza, so I watched Catfish and ate leftover curry from last night (not the best way to prepare for a dance class) before the class at 5pm.  I was awarded star of the week and we learned that our dance teacher had interviewed and recruited her sister to do all the admin for her (her mum hoped writing invoices and posters would encourage her in her writing) with a payment of not playing loud music at least 2 times a week.  I do enjoy the sense of entrepeneurship she has demonstrated.

My friend Gem came around to get me to sign a form for the guides for gift aid and it was nice to see for a catch up with her daughter and husband Chris, I also saw both the neighbours from number 2 and number 5 as well.  

Alan went for a run and then after he'd returned told me that he thought that I should cut his hair for him.   Last time was quite stressful, but I'd watched a video from Brad Mondo which seemed to have a better method and so I shared it with Alan and we watched it and used it to cut his hair, again he put it live on Facebook, but I'm more pleased with the end results even if it took 40 mins!

I then took my opportunity to go for a run and did 6.5K in 35 mins and watched the sunset.  Felt a bit sluggish, but was very pleased to be out.  Dinner was ready when I got through the door and so I had a pork stir fry with rice from Hello Fresh and we opened a bottle of Cava and watched Hidden Figures as my friend Mark mentioned it earlier.  It was a really good film, although my attention span for films is very challenging at the moment  

I'm now running a bath and I've very naughtily opened a bag of Cadburys treatsize chocs that I ended up getting for free as they were incorrected sold as weighing more than the catalog, but 8 weeks later they've not asked me to return them, but I have to say after very little chocolate in the past 3 months, I'm eating it, but with less joy than I thought I'd experience.

Isolation Journal 24

This nearly didn't happen as I managed to fall asleep on the sofa in front of Dirk Gently.

Slept ok, woke up ok, although with massive anxiety about a job that I was matching at work today that I wasn't as far along with as I had hoped.  

Had some cornflakes for breakfast - the milkman had been.  I planned on making a quick coffee before work, but I managed to spill the drip tray everywhere whilst I was refilling the hopper with beans.  Took me 10 mins to clean up.

Today was a 3 coffee day and Alan made some rice and we had leftover bolognase from yesterday and ate in the garden whilst it was sunny.  Qubit got into the next door neighbours bush and meowed and then we picked some raspberries, I cut down some nettles and Alan cut down the elder that was growing in the wall at the back.

2 meetings on Teams today with clients/candidates that was quite productive and some good calls, but just need more candidates for this particular role, it's stressful sometimes when you know there must be another candidate out there, even when you have looked pretty hard.  I had some shortbread as a snack.

I finished later than I'd hoped at work, but managed to download a couple of songs and Alan and I djed for about 2 hours and got thrown off a few times when it detected matching music content.  He used his app a bit which seems to be working well.

It transpires that Katie Hopkins has been permanently banned from twitter today for inciting hatred, I'm not surprised and I'm a bit confused about people complaining about lack of free speech.  It's not that she can't speak and say the same things, but a service provider has chosen to no longer allow them to do it on their platform.  It's like if you were invited to a party, starting upsetting other guests and were asked to leave, it doesn't mean that she can't say these things anymore (although I wish she wouldn't!), but it means they don't have the AI and audience to spam it out to millions of people.

I'd had a rum punch whist DJing and finishing at 9pm neither of us really fancied cooking so we ordered our first takeaway curry since lockdown and our first ever from Saffron on the Just Eat app.  It was really good and it was supposed to take 45 mins so I headed out for a quick run.

I was just going to run up and down the driveway, but the sunset was so beautiful that I ran half a kilometre up to the start of Gorse Lane to take some photos.  The delivery driver arrived as I'd only run about 2 miles and for 20 mins so I took the delivery and went inside.  I left my watch running to tick off 5 vitality points as it only counts workouts if they are longer than 30 minutes.

We watched Dirk Gently and then I fell asleep.

Isolation Journal 23

We had a bit of a rubbish night of sleep as the next door neighbour's had an alarm go off around 1am so we had about 20 mins of trying to check they were ok, we wondered if it was a CO alarm and tried to wake them to make sure they were ok.  They were, but we texted, and then called and then we finally got a text back after wandering around outside for a bit.  The main thing is that they were ok!

This moring I was a bit groggy, but had coffee and banana bread and my first MS teams meeting and then moved onto another MS Teams meeting where I was sharing some knowledge around how to use a particular spreadsheet.  I had a busy day for the rest of the day, but it went by in a bit of a blur, but I did manage to get through all of my job applications that are hugely up compared to previous months.  We also recorded another update video and I did some research into things that have happened in light of Covid that we might see as positive and want to keep such as the fact that working from home as a more common scenario would mean that people with mobility issues are better placed to access some roles that previously might be solely office based and that if offices are refurbished they may install automatic doors to limit touch points and that would also improve accessiblity for people.

I had a pilates class at 12pm which was challenging, but good and as the class started the guys who were coming to look at our roof as we'd had a leak last week arrived about 10 minutes in, so Alan had a chat with them and they started work on the roof and seem to have fixed it for us.  I roasted the leftover chicken thighs from earlier in the week and made a sriracha mayo dressing with some grated carrot, iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumber and mixed it together, I was really pleased with how tasty it was.  Today was a 3 coffee day.

I snacked on a bit of banana bread and some hot cross buns a bit later and had a delivery which was some of the plants I'd ordered from Gardening Direct 3 lovely lavender plants that smell lovely.  I need to work out where to plant them.

I finished work and faffed around on the internet for a bit and realised it was time for guides.  Gem had run the meeting and we had a bit of a scavenger hunt and then another activity for our UMAs and presented some badges.

Alan was doing a lecture online and then cooked tea which was ready as guides finished.  We watched some more Dirk Gentley and I had a glass of malbec and had a pasta bologanase for dinner.

I suggested a walk with Alan to get us out of the house and actually despite all the rain it was a lovely fresh evening with loads of amazing woodland smells.  We walked up to the bench that we can see from our house and that looks down to where we live and chatted about lots of things.  We wondered how in such a short space of time we went from "hug and hoody" to where we are now politically.  We walked back home and it was quiet and there was birdsong.

Isolation Journal 22

It was a day when I wasn't fully signed on at work, so I didn't set an alarm and so naturally work up at 9.22am...only Alan also hadn't set an alarm and so had to leap out of bed and get logged on for work.

I sorted a few emails for work, arranged to pay my service charge for my flat and arranged a meeting with a client for 11am on MS Teams.

I had crumpets for breakfast and made some for Alan and used the coffee flavoured spread on two and meant to do a plain buttered one for Alan, but accidentally put marmite on it and so then made him an extra plain one and I had 3 crumpets for breakfast.  I took the compost out and picked some raspberries for a snack.

I then had my client meeting which was useful and got into my running kit.

I decided to go for a 19KM run as my run club has been doing a run challenge to run or walk 19KM in 19 days in June, but I knew that I'm not having trouble getting out and doing some running, but that I am having a bit of a challenge doing longer distances so it seemed like the perfect challenge as why else would you choose a random figure of 19KM.

I had been planning to go for a walk with my friends son afterwards, but the timings unfortunately didn't line up.

I ran to Fairburn Ings again and this time further along around the first lake that I got to and then towards Castleford following the river, I was going to take a peak at the Kingfisher hide, but it was just a bit too busy so I went back to a less popular route.  At 9.5K I looked around and took a little video and then ran back.  I didn't pause my watch to get an accurate time (although I did for 10 seconds when I got confused and saw a frog!) and it took me around 1 hour 57 to do the 19KM.  I took my camelbak with some shotbloks and had about 3 to keep me going.  I listened to the end of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck as well as a bit of the High Low Podcast.

I then had a quick bath and had some lunch - jacket potato with marmite, butter and cheese.  

I then went upstairs for a nap and snoozed whilst the Daily Briefing was on.  Then my brother gave me a call because it was my second oldest Niece's birthday - she is 4.  She seemed to like the colouring and drawing books that I'd got for her and also showed me a few other things.  I got to see all 4 of my nieces and nephews, it was a busy video chat!  My brother is convinced he had Coronavirus back in March and said that he was less worried about the two oldest going back to school because of this, but he does work in the NHS so it must be a strange time for him.  Alan was on Zwift whilst I was chatting away.

Alan had a pop up green screen delivered that he'd put up and was struggling to put down back into the container, he didn't appreciate me laughing, but it wasn't what I had expected to see when I'd come downstairs.

I then made dinner - pork and chorizo stew with Ciabatta and logged on for a zoom call with my friends Hayley and Sam and we had a good catch up for 2 hours and then I came downstairs and prepped some strawberries and had strawberries and cream and Alan made banana bread which I had a couple of warm slices of with butter.

We watched a couple of episodes of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and then I watched some Catfish.

Isolation Journal 21

3 weeks of isolation journalling today, it's flown and also not flown, such a strange sense of time these days.

I didn't sleep well at all last night, I got about 7 hrs 11 mins, but it doesn't seem that I felt like I'd slept well at all.  I stumbled downstairs and got some coffee and cornflakes and then logged on for work.

I was pretty busy this morning, I placed someone yesterday and so had some checking to do and a few other MS teams meetings.  Whilst I felt tired I think I was pretty productive today.

I made some pasta with the wild garlic pesto I made last night for lunch, it was so garlicky it was painful!  Alan couldn't finish it!  I guess the roots and seeds are more powerful than the leaves!  I snacked on some chocolate digestives and an orange ice lolly to try and get the taste out of my mouth.  

After work I managed to sign off at a reasonable time around 6.15pm and then I went for a run with Alan, I managed to get him excited about a couple of cherry trees nearby and we found some ripe cherries to pick.  I also dropped £2 off to pay for my online dance class and some spare egg boxes as they have chickens who are laying about 2 eggs per day each.

We ran about 3.5K and it wasn't fast, but it allowed us to pick up some tasty cherries!

I had a wash and Alan made tea - Hello Fresh orzo pasta with lamb meatballs.  I ate dinner and then went upstairs to do a zoom marathon training plan writing session with my running club.  2 people signed on and we had a good chat.  Currently London marathon is rescheduled to October, but the Great North Run has just been cancelled until next year, so it all looks quite uncertain at the moment.  We had a good chat about training load and marathon planning.

I then came downstairs and poured myself a whisky and ginger and watched some Catfish.

Isolation Journal 20

Alan got up earlier today to go to his office and was running around as he'd also agreed to take the go pro back to our his work colleague Danielle who leant it to us when we went snorkling in Barbados (we didn't expect to have it so long)  Qubit came running up the stairs and had caught a baby rabbit.  The rabbit was unharmed (although surely scared) and we managed to catch it (well Alan did, even gave it a little stroke) and put it in the laundry basket and set it free in one of the neighby fields.

I had 2 black coffees and a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast and another day of a lot of teams meetings, 3 lots of internal meetings including one quite detailed one coming up with ideas.  

I managed to place a candidate today which was good news, it's been a bit busier over the last 2 weeks, but since lockdown it's been much quieter than usual.  At least organisations are becoming more comfortable with the prospect of recruiting and onboarding remotely.

I had a couple of small potatoes for lunch with cheese, marmite and butter for lunch and a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber with cider apple vinegar, olive oil and salt dressing.  I had a couple of chocolate digestives and a tunnocks tea cake as a snack.

Alan got back after meeting up with Danielle and opened a small package that was from his Uncle Dez and had some old currency that he'd found in his Mum (Alan's Grandma's) belongings.  I'd watched a bit of the Daily Briefing and it seems really odd that there are no scientists around these days.  I also responded to my Mum's face book post that she'd shared of Boris Johnson writing a whole essay about statues, I really genuinely think that people are more important than things (even if the things are made to look like people) I commented that perhaps it would be better if our "prime minister" spent more time on things like looking at the fact that many children will be going hungry over the summer holidays.  I'm very touched by Marcus Rashford who has donated many meals to kids and is campaigning to get some government policy change on this.  I shared these thoughts in response to the Boris Johnson post and got told by her friend Pauline (who I remember as a child being the kind mum of my friend Peter) "So typical of you and you ilk?" although hasn't clarified what she means by this, but given her previous pro brexit anti social justice replies I'm guessing she is all about the statues..

I tweeted This world is confusing, apparently children are important when they are an excuse to drive 260 miles during lockdown, but not as important when they are hungry needing meals throughout school holidays.  Neither are as important as bits of metal and stone made to look like people

Work finished up late around 7pm as I had a few longer calls this evening and a lot of emails to sort through.  Another win on the day was that I'd picked up a role to refer to our sister company which felt like good news.

Alan had prepped the Hello Fresh for Chicken Tikka Masala from last week, accidentally we'd not checked the best before date on the chicken so I swapped it for some we'd got delivered with the Amazon Prime at the end of last week.  

I ate dinner and we watched Scrubs and then after I'd let the food go down I went for a run, I went a little way along towards Newthorpe and as it started to get dark came closer to home and the last 5 minutes I ran up and down the road up to the gateway.  I did just over 5.6K in just over 30 mins.  I listened to the audio book of Suble Art of Not Giving a... quite useful giving all the social media rage going on.

I had a shower in the bath and then had some cherry crumble from last night.

Isolation Journal 19

Another late rising, I think it was probably around midday before the time I got out of bed.  I had a coffee and some granny smith, granola and yoghurt and then watched some TV before getting up and cleaning the house.

I hoovered the whole house and tidied up my office/bedroom and put up some nails to hang up some art work/paintings.  I cleaned surfaces and the bathroom and did 2 loads of laundry.  I listened to the Archers, the High Low Podcast and With Me Now podcast as I cleaned.

I then got ready to go running and went out for about 7.5 miles in about an hour and 8 minutes.  The heavy rain a few days ago meant that it was almost tropical feeling with everything feeling really steamed up.  I ran an out and back route down to Fairburn Ings RSPB Reserve which was very pretty in the sunshine.  I also saw lots of lovely red poppies along the way.  I was feeling quite heavy and wasn't particularly fast.  I'd not taken water with me and managed to survive by eating 2 shotbloks at the turnaround point.  I listened to the end of "I am not your baby Mother" by Candice Brathwaite which was really powerful.  The final few sentences mentioned about how it's not all about social media sharing, but it's mostly about what you do when no one is looking which really struck a chord with me.  It made me think very much that I need to make sure that I am doing the right things at work to be a part of positive action and change.  I got back in and necked 2 pints of orange squash and ice with a dash of salt.

I came back and had a bath with some lush lavendar bubble bar and then whilst Alan was on Zwift I mopped the lounge and the dining room.

I then had left over Chinese not realising how late it was and so Alan had to have a snack crumpet and cheese for his tea and made cherry crumble for our "tea" which was delicious.  He also made a lovely rum punch for us both.

I watched some more catfish and then we watched The Night Tonight and some Scrubs.  I also ordered a card on moonpig and a meatbox for my Dad for Father's day.

I also finally sent over the pictures that the guides had drawn for our local Self Isolation Support group and booked in my virtual marathon training sessions.

Isolation Journal 18

I woke up initially with Maya nudging me and trying to get me to wake up and feed her, somehow I managed to get back to sleep and ended up waking up at 10.45am.  I did some morning pages for 5 minutes Alan asked "What are you doing?" and I tried to explain I was trying to write for 5 minutes without distractions...

He got up and went down to make breakfast and had to deal with another rabbit casulty that Qubit had caught, eaten and then been sick.  Luckily not on the carpet this time.  

Alan made me a coffee and crumpets with scrambled eggs and black pudding (I added some marmite to the crumpets and some sriracha to the eggs).

We watched some Scrubs and I messed around on the laptop for a bit.  I then put a couple of episodes of Catfish on.  Last night I was organised enough to order some birthday presents for my niece and some plants for the garden (lavendar, herbs and some verbena).

I made some crumpets (mine with marmite) and cheese, ham and a granny smith in chunks for a late lunch and then tidied up a bit ready for the dance class which was fun!  After 5 I apparently get a badge!

I then tidied up the kitchen, cleaned the litter tray, took out the compost and all the recycling and had a chat with my neighbour Kirsty.  She'd been to the garden centre and bought lots of plants and moved the stones out of the old overgrown rockery - it made me think that I really should do more with the garden.

I went back inside and mopped and cleaned the kitchen floor as well as attempting to make the floor near the litter tray in the dining room not smell of cat wee, it seems to be an impossible battle.

Reflecting on the news is interesting, the BLM march called off and lots of "protestors" protecting statues by fighting with the police and making nazi salutes.  It's really clear how wrong they are, I hope that these people themselves can have a realisation of this and that we can continue to build a better and more just world for everyone.

The Virgin rep from Barbados called me to process the refund for the catamaran trip that we didn't get a chance to go on because we had to cut our honeymoon short.  She was lovely and helpful and said that she hoped we could return.  I hope we can too as we really enjoyed our break, but being overly aware of everything unfolding pre lock down did make it stressful.

Alan and I then went out for a walk at around 8pm and the sun was slowly starting to set.  I managed to grab a last bunch of wild garlic and we wandered around the puddly and muddy Whin Lane before walking a bit of Westfield Lane getting beeped at by an overly aggressive car (we'd moved out of the way and off the road!) and we saw some root vegetable crops and tried to work out what they were.  

We bumped into the neighbours Chris and Kirsty who had just got a Chinese and so we decided to order our own - I got hot and sour soup (which I eat with chips poured in), prawn toast, dumplings, crispy chicken in peking sauce, singapore noodles and mixed vegetables and a bit of Alan's King Prawn and ginger sauce.  I also had a glass of malbec.

We watched more Scrubs and I resolved that tomorrow will hopefully be a bit more productive...Although I did order 600g giant tubs of Marmite for both my Mum and Me as there is a pending Marmite shortage...

Isolation Journal 17

I slept terribly last night, Alan was in the other room and so I read until very late and then as I was drifting asleep at around 2am my laptop started narrating things.  I was feeling really angry and kicked my legs up and down on the bed.   I also felt really lonely as even the cats both decided to sleep in the other room.

I managed to get mysefl awake and logged on for work, I'd hoped to get up a bit early and do some morning pages, but I was too tired, so instead I had coffee and cornflakes.  I brought the milk in from the pouring rain outside - 1 full fat, 2 semi skimmed and 1 orange.  I watched a video from our CEO that revealed some positive news, I had a chat with my director about it and then cracked on with a lot of work.  I managed to arrange 4 interviews as well as sort out a few other ad hoc things and catch up with people.  I also managed to refer 5 - 7 jobs.

Lunchtime Alan made some saffron rice and mixed it with the pork mince from yesterday and I didn't have an allergic reaction...the only difference was the lack of rice noodles.  I can't imagine I'm allergic to rice noodles.

I ended up getting a bit distracted at the end of the day and wanted to make sure I reduced my emails down below 300 to set me up well for next week and so I finally logged off at about 7.30pm.  Alan had already been on Zwift and also had a bath and started cooking.  I still wanted to go for a run so I made sure I got into my run kit and had dinner which was wedges with mince and beans and cheese and waited an hour before going out for my run.  

I got a reminder email on crowdcast about a flash fiction reading and listened to a bit and Lauren and I discussed it and think that we might have a go at entering next week.

It was past 9pm and pretty overcast so again I did lots of hill reps and did just over 6K up and down the driveway.  I listened again to more of I'm not your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite and the birth story makes me grateful I'm unlikely to experience this.  I also gifted a copy to my friend Hannah as I thought she'd find it interesting.

I came back in cleaned the kitchen and helped Alan unload the Amazon pantry order than had arrived and had a bath with a lush lavendar bubble bar and then had some malbec that Alan had had with dinner, but I'd saved for after my run.  

I put Scrubs on the TV because my brain is still better with familiar content at the moment.

Isolation Journal 16

Again another day with quite a lot of meetings, a kick off, a sector, another sector, a client and a candidate and then guides on zoom.  Lots of time spent looking at my face.

I managed to squeeze in pilates at 12pm with West Point Practice which was challenging, but good for my core strength - important when we're all a lot less active at the moment.  Qubit meowed really loudly at the start of the lesson.

Alan made a very tasty pork mince, Chinese five spice noodle dish for lunch and I ate it upstairs catching up on more work.  

For some reason ever since perhaps the first breakfast we had in Barbados I've had random allergic reactions shortly after I eat or drink, not every time and not for weeks at a time sometimes, but today my face felt like it was on fire and my knees, arms, chest and face went bright red.  It died down after about 20 minutes, but made me feel odd.  There doesn't seem to be a consistent obvious cause, but worth tracking I suppose?

I finished work at 6.30pm and dashed downstairs to cook Hello Fresh for tea - duck with plum sauce and mashed potato.  I finished just in time to be able to dial into the guide meeting.  I think Alan was irritated by me rushing around to get it finished, I was irritated that I had to cook before guides and that it was cold by the time I got to eat.  

Guides we did a UMA on privaledge using examples of animals and whether they always had food, a safe place to sleep etc, they seemed to enjoy it and have also discovered the chat function on zoom which was interesting!  We used the whiteboard function which was new and seemed to work quite well.

After Guides I ate my food and then messed around on social media before getting changed and going for a run at 9.20pm.  I also had a call from Ally my neighbour who wanted to borrow some red wine vinegar, I managed to find 1 single sachet and posted it through her door although I think she needed 4 tablespoons.

It was wet and starting to get dark so I did a hills session running up and down the slope that leads up to the gatehouse as it started to get darker and darker.  I really do appreciate this time of year for the extra long nights to give me time to do more activities outside.  I ran just over 6K and was able to tick off enough "activity" for 8 vitality points (I hope!)  I listened to more of "I'm not your baby mother" by Candice Brathwaite whilst I ran and made the monotony less frustrating.

I came back in and washed my hands before cleaning up the kitchen surfaces and was delighted to see that Alan had emptied and refilled the dishwasher.  I put a little bleach and water in the half sink with the clothes and covered with a chopping board to soak overnight.

I'm now running and bath and hopefully will help me get a good night of sleep.

Isolation Journal 15

Today was my "day off" and I felt totally exhausted so I ended up waking up when Alan got up to go to work and then falling asleep until about 10.30am and not getting out of bed until 11am.  I wasn't sure what to do with the day, I knew I needed to do a bit of tidying and wanted to go for a run of at least 7 miles, but that was about it.  I got into my run kit to make sure that I would get myself out for a run and wanted to make it easier for myself.  

I had granola, a granny smith and somee yoghurt for breakfast and a couple of coffees and then watched a bit of catfish after setting off the washing machine and emptying the dishwasher.  I then listened to the Archers whilst I cleaned out the baking cupboard - Alan was less impressed with my accomplishment when he got home. I also took the dead flowers that were from my birthday out to the green waste bins and also some weeds from the garden.  I took some compost food waste to the compost bin.  

Maya brought in a dead bird and it made me sad.  

I then did another load of washing and got settled down in front of the laptop to write up a session plan for runclub.  I went for a pyramid session where you warm up and then run 1 minute at a high intensity 7 - 9 RPE and then have 30 secs of recovery and increase each minute by a minute up to 2, 3, 4 and then 5 before doing down 4, 3, 2, 1 and then cool down run.  

I then finally went out for my run and I'd planned to do around 7 miles and managed a little over this.  It was damp and so I wore long sleeves and leggings and I didn't push myself too hard and it felt quite comfortable.  I borrowed Alan's aftershoks headphones so I could hear well and listened to I am not your baby mother by Candice Brathwaite on audible, I heard her being interviewed on the High Low Podcast last week and I couldn't buy the book as it was sold out and actually I loved hearing her speak so I was keen to hear her narrate her own book.  It definitely made the run go a lot easier.  I also had an idea for a book I could write, something targetting siblings of kids with behavioural problems, I was that child and I read Superfudge by Judy Blume and found it really fun to read, but also really helpful.  No ideas of plots of anything yet, but a concept.

Alan rang me as I was running and I had to be quick as people were staring at me.  I then got back and he was sat drinking tea on the front step and watching the bumblebees.  I had a glass of orange squash and ice and an orange lolly and realised I'd forgotten to have any lunch.

We watched the Daily Briefing again and it's lovely that people who have been living alone can now form bubbles, but the rules around it did seem confusing and I'm still concerned that the death rate is high and that the back to school goals seem to have been abandoned rather than thought through in a considered fashion.

I then got a call from my boss who wanted to fill me in on a few things which was interesting and some food for thought.

Alan cooked hello fresh for tea and it was a really nice sweetcorn and chorizo creamy pasta and we had some naughty ice cream for dessert and then I went up for a bath and came down to watch more catfish and tidy up the dining room and the kitchen.

Isolation Journal 15

I was having a very strange dream when I woke up this morning, I was in the process of adopting 4 cats to add to 6 that I owned already in that dream.  The comedian Rob Beckett was driving a very expensive SUV that had crashed into a barrier - it was a very odd start to the day!

I had cornflakes and two black coffees again and started the day with the first team kick off meeting.  

Today was another busy day with MS teams meetings - a total of 6 which is pretty exhausting.  I had lunch around 1pm which was a jacket potato with cheese, butter and marmite and also iceberg lettuce salad.

I also had to run a BD incentive in the afternoon against a background of lots of meetings.  One that I dialled into was for our Unity work incentive prompted by the very recent events and black lives matters protests.  I wanted to dial in to find out more, see how people were feeling and also to know how I can better support people as an ally.  It was really sad to hear some of the stories of my colleagues that had clearly had an impact, but would be very easy for people to not be aware of, even down to a huge focus on how comfortable they felt with their hair.  It made me realise I definitely need to take notice.  I still feel really sad that it was only a matter of a few weeks into my first graduate job when I witnessed very direct racism in 2001.  I was in an office of about 7 people and there was a lady who was in her 50s and whenever a particular consultant from Birmingham called her she would answer the phone with "Hello my little brown friend" the first time I heard it I must have looked up in disgust/shock and I think that she said something along the lines of "she doesn't mind" and at 21 as a university graduate I didn't have the words to challenge even though I was "educated" and and was privaleged.  I would behave differently now, I would find the words and thankfully I would have a route to raise a grievance along the right channels and feel confident that it would be dealt with.  A few weeks later this person opened up a letter in the middle of the office from HR and the issue was addressed, but I always felt deeply uncomfortable and never felt that I'd done what I should have done in that situation.  I know that not having the words isn't an excuse, but what it does make me realise 19 years further on I might have to be the voice for someone in the room that doesn't have the words.

I worked until around 7.15pm to be able to get through what I needed to and to stay on top of emails.  I had a protein bar as a snack, but i'm thinking I might not bother as they taste awful!  Really dusty!

I contemplated going for a run, but I knew Alan was hungry and tired as was I so I cooked tea.  I made the Hello Fresh Sea bass with breadcrumbs, potato wedges, salad, sugar snap peas and tartare sauce.  I chatted to my Mum and Dad as I cooked tea and they were sounding happy having done some gardening and avoiding noisy green parakeets.  I then listened to a bit of the Archers in Lockdown.

We watched What's the matter with Tony Slattery and then some Catfish.