I had a fruit corner dessert and then a glass of wine after I'd done all the chores listening to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles and we watched some Mock the Week and Taskmaster.
Friday 28 August 2020
Isolation Journal 94
I had a fruit corner dessert and then a glass of wine after I'd done all the chores listening to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles and we watched some Mock the Week and Taskmaster.
Thursday 27 August 2020
Isolation Journal 93
I woke up fairly early and read some more of The Midnight Library as I really am excited by what I'm reading.
I had some cornflakes and coffee for breakfast and had a morning of sorting out of things and a few teams meetings. I'd also prepped for a lunch and learn I was delivering with a colleague on Mental Health Awareness for managers.
Alan made a pasta bake for lunch which was really nice and I then delivered the session with my colleague. One of the questions asked annoyed me basically "How do you know someon has a genuine mental health problem?" it annoyed me because people assume some people claim to have mental health problems and don't and my view is that if someone is that desperate...they are likely to have a real mental health problem!
The afternoon is fairly productive, I had a bit of an issue in that our forecast for the team has gone backwards it's been quite frustrating and a fairly difficult month, although I did sign off on the final part of a retainer which is a better way to end the month. I picked up another job for another colleague which was good.
I finished up work around 6.45pm and then went for a walk with Alan and we spotted Qubit as we were leaving hanging out in the field near the road with cows in it, we tried to call him in, but he wouldn't come so instead we went for our walk and chatted and saw beautiful sunlight over the wheat fields and saw someone parascending and we walked back through the public footpath through the fields. We saw Qubit again and eventually managed to encourage him into the house.
We needed to get home before the Tesco delivery at 8pm and so we made sure we got back and Qubit went back towards the door and started to hassle Fudge and Smudge from number 5, so I had a chat to Kirsty and said that I could feed the cats when they are away on holiday and told her that I'd return "Little Fires Everywhere" and would lend her "The Midnight Library"
I made Hello Fresh for tea, a premium recipe of steak with black garlic butter and mash and a salad and I had a fruit corner cheesecake yoghurt for dessert and a Rowntrees fruit pastle lolly.
We watched storage hunters and then tried hard to feed the worming tablets to the cats, I got one into Maya with cheese, but she wouldn't take the other half and Qubit we had to team up to get it down his throat.
Tuesday 25 August 2020
Isolation Journal 91
I woke up after a reasonable night of sleep, but still felt really quite poorly with my stomach. I got logged on an Alan kindly made me a coffee. I tried out a belvita as they were good for a poorly stomach in the past, but it was best before 2017 and really soggy. I later on tried some Skyr and granola.
I started with a call to catch up with everyone, but then it was a morning of mostly sorting out issues and niggly things. I was distracted and not very focused.
I did pilates at 12pm and I definitely needed the streching and workout. Alan went out for a run and put on some sausages and potato waffles on and I cooked some chard with garlic and we ate lunch.
I then had a team meeting for work, but someone forgot to turn up, so we then rearranged for tomorrow and then I had a meeting with a client that 100% could have been an email.
I worked away until around 6.45pm and still didn't really get as much done as I'd wanted. It was a sunny day so I was really keen to run, although I'm still not feeling 100%, but I managed to do a Lumby loop of about 4 miles and then I finished off dinner which was saffron paella and monk fish and serrano ham from Hello Fresh and it was delicious, we had some fizz from Naked wines and it was sweet and delicious. We watched a bit of Storage Hunters.
I then had another go and cutting Alan's hair and it didn't go well - I followed the same video as last night, but his hair was way longer and my shoulder was hurting so much to try and do some of the cutting. Alan was upset and cross and we almost looked like it was going to need to be shaved off, but fortunately we managed to rescue it.
We realised Qubit had itchy ears and found some lice/fleas/bugs in there, so groomed them out and then we put some spot on drops on both him and Maya.
I hung out a load of washing and cleaned the kitchen while Alan had a bath.
Sunday 23 August 2020
Isolation Journal 89 & 90
Two in one entry today as I was away for the first time since March yesterday evening.
I woke up yesterday and checked my phone and had a negative Covid result from my test on Friday so I decided to go with my plan of visiting my parents and my brother. I'd packed my stuff mostly the night before so I had some cornflakes, packed up the rest of the bits and pieces and set off just before 10am.
The roads weren't too bad, I had only planned to stop once for a toilet break and I always aim to get to at least Leicester Forest East Services on the way down and if I get to Watford Gap or further I'm over halfway and feel happy. I got out at Watford Gap, tried to charge my car, but it wasn't working so I headed to the toilet. I had no interest in stopping for food really as it was too busy and I felt uncomfortable and social distancing wasn't great. I got back to the car, texted my brother and my parents and then carried on. I had been listening to the Archers and then I swapped to some more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles.
I ended up driving only for 3hrs 40 and ended up at my brothers around 2pm. I had a protein bar and a banana for lunch on the go and he did offer me some lunch, but he'd already eaten. When I arrived at my brothers it was just the 2 oldest girls Beatrice and Florence and they were very hyper and excited to see me. My brother's wife came back shortly after with the two youngest boys Lenny and Winston. They were also quite excited and Winston was doing ok after a couple of trips to hospital this week as he'd cut his hand and they weren't sure if he'd need it stitching, but fortunately he didn't. They drew some pictures on the patio in chalk and then I headed over to see my parents in the garden. I managed to curb my alloy wheels when I was parking the car and I really need to sort out my insurance claim to get them fixed up.
They've done a lot of gardening during lockdown including planting melons, aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, cauliflowers, nasteriums, cucumber, lettuces and sweetcorn. We sat outside and chatted and I gave them some malbec and some prosecco as well as a rag wreath I finished off under lockdown.
We went for a walk around the recreation field at the back of the house, it was a nice walk, but it's sad that at the back of the garages people have just dumped mattresses, fridges and other rubbish. I used to think that the street was a really nice area, but some of it with my eyes these days just looks a bit tatty.
I texted my brother to find out what to do for food that evening and suggested I bought them a takeaway and he suggested I come back for around 7pm to read a story for the girls. By the time I'd moved a few things around in my car it was five past seven and Beatrice told me off for being late.
I read them Andy Pandy and Hansel and Gretel and made up a story about some cats stealing a fish, they were very excited and out of routine and I felt a bit guilty as it took them a while to fall asleep and they tried hard to convince me that I should sleep in their room!
I went downstairs and we chatted whilst Steph fed Winston and he fell asleep and then we ordered a curry from the Raj using the Uber Eats app with a code that gave me £20 off and my brother a £15 off voucher. By the time we'd faffed around the food was ordered around 9.30pm and I ordered some poppodoms with dips, Tom Yum seafood soup and a vegetable thalia and a portion of lemon rice which was way bigger than I'd expected so there were a lot of leftovers.
We ended up chatting until around 1.30am discussing holidays and indeed lack of holidays as kids, something that seemed to bother my brother more than me, the fact that they still have a Range Rover in the garage and my brother worked out it was last taxed in 1995 and could be worth a lot these days - I said that when the time comes, he can deal with it.
I eventually fell asleep around 2am and woke up a few times, as I was quite warm and there were a few odd noises, but I was fairly comfortable on my sleeping bag on the sofa. The kids initially woke up about 6.30am and came downstairs around 7.30am and I had cornflakes for breakfast and a couple of coffees as I was knackered! The kids did some more chalk drawing in the garden and played with the bubble machine when it turned 9am and screamed a fair bit! I had a shower which I desperately needed and then headed over to my parents for around 11am and we chatted in the garden some more and then had lunch of ham, cheese and salad sandwiches including home grown yellow tomatoes. I went to the toilet in their house in my mask and sanitised before I went in and sprayed down the toilet after I left. We went for another walk aound the field and I tracked it and it was just under 1K - they could make a parkrun there! I managed to find a green parakeet feather by my parents house as they hang out there, there was also a nest in their kiwi bush and I couldn't work out what bird lived in it.
I set off home about 1.30pm and my Mum gave me fabric for some masks, some soap and some lemon drizzle cake Naked bars and an aubergine and nasterium. The satnav gave an ETA of 6pm and it was a bit slow on the M25 and then there were some slow sections on the M1 with roadworks, but nothing stationary fortunately. I chatted away to Alan for a big chunk of the journey and really missed him when I was away. I then listened to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles - it's a very very long audio book! I got to Leicester Forest East services just over half way and went to the toilet and it was a lot less busy than Watford Gap yesterday and so I braved the Waitrose and bought sushi as I'd been craving it as not had any for ages as well as some pepsi max and kefir.
I drove for another hour, but ended up stopping at Woodall as I started to feel too tired, so I went to the loo and emptied some rubbish to get a bit of a walk in and some fresh air. Then my sat nav said an hour to do 35 miles, but it included a bit diversion through some South Yorkshire villages and so I was quite slow.
I was home for 5.45pm and about 3 hours 45 driving time and 20 - 25 mins stopping and break times.
I unpacked the car and said hello to Qubit who was hiding in a box and then had a cuddle with Alan and then a quick tea and sit down watching some cricket.
I decided to go for a run around 7.30pm and do about 8K and take it steady. I listened to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles and did my Lumby Loop circuit and then as I got towards the end my stomach felt really odd and I had to run in and go straight to the toilet. I then had a shower and Alan finished making tea of Carribean beef and courgette rice, I quick hung some washing out and we ate and watched Storage Hunters UK. I prepped some strawberries and cream and then cleaned up the kitchen.
Friday 21 August 2020
Isolation Journal 88
I read some more of the Matt Haig "The Midnight Library" last night - it's such a good book.
I got up early as I needed to go to the Covid Test centre and so I was awake at 7.15am and left the house 20 mins later. I got to the site around 8.10am and was done with a self test really quickly, it was the same as last time and I defintely gagged and so I hope I did it properly.
I then got home and made breakfast and emptied the dishwasher and made breakfast granola, Skyr and coffee, today was a 3 coffee day. I also had a worry message from a friend on Facebook to say that the block my flat is in was flooded, so I rang the letting agents, although they couldn't get hold of my tenant they seem to think it's ok.
I had a quick call with Matt as everyone else was on holiday and then cracked on with work and had a reasonably productive day, arranging interviews for Rachel, sorting out a few nigglying things and hopefully picking up an exclusive process with a charity.
For lunch we cooked sausages and I made some salad with some of the kohl rabi from the veg box and I also used carrot, cabbage, coriander, red cabbage and tomato and the leftover potato wedges.
I worked through until around 7.30pm as I had a lot of emails to shift and a proposal to write and a few linkedin searches to do.
I made tea and chatted to my brother and the kids who were getting into bed and discussed going back tomorrow. I didn't have my test result, but I'm pretty sure I don't have Covid as my only symptoms into the app were a sore throat and my temperature is only 36.8. I didn't feel like running though so I've only run twice this week!
We had pork and apple burgers with salad and wedges from Hello Fresh for tea, I had my gu cheesecake for pudding.
We watched Peep Show and Alan went for a bath and so I watched Catfish.
Thursday 20 August 2020
Isolation Journal 87
Today has felt hard, I woke up ok and got signed on for work and went straight into a public sector meeting. We were also doing a BD day so lots of things to organise, calls to complete. I had coffee and then I had skyr and granola for breakfast. Seeing my Mum sharing an ignorant post on facebook set me up for a day of feeling frustrated basically "I don't care if you're gay, but don't rub my face in it" I pointed out that if it wasn't for suffagettes protesting quite violently we wouldn't have the vote as women - she's not replied.
I had a morning of sorting out lots of issues rather than being able to be hugely productive, but then I had a meeting with the other Mental Health Champions and discussed some of the things that we were seeing people experience and discussed concerns about going back to the office.
I made burgers and salad for lunch and Alan had ordered an Amazon Echo Dot clock to entertain us. I then headed out shortly afterwards to have a smear test at the doctors, I ended up there 10 minutes early and so I had to wait in the car and took a call about rolling out some MH Champions stuff specifically in the North.
I went into reception at my appointment time and had to then wait outside, the smear was a standard test, I just made sure that I'd worn my mask. When I got back the veg box order from the Organic Pantry had arrived with carrots, kohl rabi, cabbage, potatoes, yellow courgettes, apples, potatoes, satsumas and bananas.
I had an ice lolly when I got back and then worked through until around 7.30pm and Alan made aubergine tacos from Hello Fresh for tea and we ate at the dining room table.
We went for a walk of about 2K and 30 mins and then I watered the plants and was a bit sad that the potato plants had slightly swamped the carrot seedlings and I'm not sure if they will have survived it. The tomatoes I planted from 1 cherry tomato at the start of lockdown are now doing really well.
I came inside and tidied the kitchen and sat down to watch some TV - South Park and Storage Hunters. My throat is feeling sore, I feel a bit naseous and tired and so I booked myself a Covid test for 8am tomorrow. I realised today I have 15.5 days of annual leave I need to take still, but Alan only has about 8.
Tuesday 18 August 2020
Isolation Journal 85
12 weeks and one day of journaling every day, I wonder how long I'll keep this going for? Today I woke up early again as we'd made it to bed at a reasonable time and had read a bit of Matt Haig's - The Midnight Library - it's really good! I had nearly 8 hours of sleep and I went back to sleep for an hour and then got up for a quick shower.
Breakfast was cornflakes and it was a two coffee day.
Kicked off at 9am and then had a meeting with some other colleagues at 9.30am and then a client meeting/interview with a really great candidate at 10am that went on for an hour and twenty minutes. I had calls and emails from my boss whilst this was going on with "are you in today?" but obviously I couldn't respond.
I then had to prep 2 candidates for interviews that afternoon and prep for a national meeting, I was glad I prepped as they asked for my update first and I'm not sure I did a very good job, I hope I did ok.
I realised at 3pm I'd not had lunch so quickly made a sausage sandwich with lettuce, tomato and some cucumber with mayo and sriacha. Alan is still feeling poorly and so he just had some toast.
I finished work eventually at 7pm, it was a long day and I really wanted to try out my new trainers that arrived and they were great - I ran my first KM in 4 minutes 19 and my first mile in 7.08 and they felt so good on my feet! I did 5k in 24.34 which is my fastest for a very long time. I listened to more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles.
Alan made Hello Fresh for tea and it was a pasta bake and there was enough to save a portion for tomorrow lunch. I tidied up the kitchen, lounge and dining room and set off a load of washing.
We watched Peep Show and then I had a shower and filled the bath for Alan and then got distracted when he came into my office looking at beds as he wants a more comfy bed and so we tried to find a good storage bed that is Super King Size.
We then started to have ideas about loft beds in the spare room that would give us more storage space so we wouldn't need a bed with storage space...
Monday 17 August 2020
Isolation Journal 84
Alan woke up at least an hour earlier than we needed to be up and so he went downstairs and I snoozed for another hour and listened to headspace to get back to sleep. I had two slices of toast and marmite for breakfast and 2 coffees. Alan is still feeling bad with his ear and lack of sleep, but the GPs are being really careful with who they'll see.
We had a kick off meeting and it was quite productive and then I caught up with Rachel as she was in the office today, but couldn't get logged onto the call. Alan was on a call and Qubit brought in a mouse and put it in his shoe, so I had to rescue it for him.
I booked a good candidate meeting for tomorrow morning and then I dealt with some of the work for Katie who is off on holiday. It was a busy day and I made a few calls for myself and then got downstairs and did pilates online. I've still got the leg nerve issue and so I was taking it easy, but it wasn't too painful.
We had reheated Chinese leftovers from Friday evening for lunch and then I had a peach as a snack a bit later on.
I had a few more MS Teams meetings and managed to land an offer for Katie which was good news. It got sunnier later on in the day so I opened the window and Maya got out on the flat roof and then climbed next door and tried to get in Ally's window, I managed to encourage her back with some more treats.
As I finished my last MS Teams meeting I then realised I'd picked up another 16 jobs, although none for me, it seems to be a trend.
Good news is that the government has u-turned on the A'level results and so hopefully a lot of the affected students will still be able to go to their chosen University.
I worked through until 6.30pm when I loaded up Zoom and we logged on for a team building activity of a virtual escape room. I'd chosen one with a rogue CEO who was being investigated, I'd selected "Advanced" and it was really hard! It took about 2 hours and I had a glass of fizz and Alan cooked dinner which was a hello fresh meanball sub.
I then watched more Storage Hunters, cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floors and had a bit of cheese and a chocolate ice lolly.
Isolation Journal 83
When I got back Alan had made pancake batter and so made us some pancakes with apple sauce with maple syrup. We watched some UK Celebrity Storage Hunters and then I tidied and hoovered a bit before having a bath.
We then went over to see Alan's brother and the kids and had pizza cooked in the BBQ oven which was delicious. The kids were quite hyper and excited to see us and did a lot of running around. Winston dog was also excited to see us. I had a glass of prosecco as Alan was driving us to and from. I also gave some of the spare bedding plants to them as I'd run out of space to plant them. I ordered some Amazon Prime Now whilst we were chatting as I figured I needed some ibuprofen gel and ibuprofen for my leg, hopefully it will help.
Sunday 16 August 2020
Isolation Journal 82
Alan I think had a bit of a sleepless night and moved around a lot and I ended up waking up around 7.30am and then slept a bit more until 8.30am and then woke up and went in the spare room to mess around on my phone and read and I had a message from my Mum as she was worried that the weather would be poor and as we'd be meeting in the garden we worked out that it wouldn't be as much point. So I decided to drive down next weekend instead. My Dad also posted a highly irritating post on facebook about basically people not working shouldn't be getting benefits and that you can't tax the poor into prosperity - he's been retired for 23 years and worked for 33, my Mum probably only worked full time for about 7/8 years and then stopped to have children and didn't really work much other than a part time role when I was about 13 and another that went full time when I was at unin, but our generation are likely to have to work until around 70 years old and I don't feel this way. As Alan pointed out, people can work extremely hard and earn less than millionnaires or indeed billionnaires as wealth isn't a clear indication of work ethic and especially not fairness.
I stayed in the spare room messing around on my phone and reading "Little Fires Everywhere" until he woke up when the door bell went at around 11.30am and I suggested we should have breakfast or maybe brunch instead. The door was Royal Mail who had delivered the cool mat to us that I'd ordered for him.
I decided to go to Berts Barrow and I bought some milk, cream, bread, sausages, burgers, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumber, cold brew vanilla flavoured yoghurt, broccoli and it was about £25. There was about the right number of people in the shop, I wore my mask and there was a queue outside when I finished.
I made scrambled eggs on toast with sausages and coffees and orange juice. I had marmite on my toast and some sriracha sauce.
Alan introduced me to the very addictive show of Storage Hunters and I watched far too much of this today! We discussed going for a walk and thought about going to Malham Cove, but neither of us fancied driving too far and so we went to St Aiden's where we've run a race at before, but not walked around. As RSPB members we get to take advantage of free parking which was good. We walked about 5K in around an hour and a half and chatted and got rained on a bit which was actually quite nice. Alan has been really tired and lethargic and I was feeling a bit low energy today as well.
It was Jenny's birthday today and I'd ordered her some flowers and also some craft stuff, I think she's finding things a bit challenging at the moment, so hopefully it helped to cheer her up.
We drove back and then watched more TV (more Storage Hunters), and I had some toast as a snack and more storage hunters and Alan went to cook the last Hello Fresh recipe which was fish, but the fish had massively gone off so he made a couple of burgers instead.
I'm sort of glad I didn't go today as I've been feeling tired and have a bit of a sore throat, not sure where I would have caught anything from.
Saturday 15 August 2020
Isolation Journal 81
Alan was up until around 4am doing his exam, so sleep was a bit broken. I had apple, granola, yoghurt and lemon curd for breakfast, but quite late and I also had 2 coffees. I got the milk and orange juice in.
We had a kick off call at 9am and I also then had a handover call with Katie who is off on holiday, so I will need to work out how to recruit marketing people for the next 2 weeks.
Today was very much a sort out of admin and emails day, but I did also have some good conversations with candidates and clients and will be more organised for next week.
The game that I ordered for Alan arrived and we thought about playing it today, but we were both a bit too tired.
I made some pasta, mushrooms, garlic, onion and courgette with cream for a fairly late lunch at around 1.30pm. I set off the dishwasher after lunch. I chatted to my brother as I'd been debating going to see him and my parents this weekend. It's a really long drive, but I'm not likely to see them all that easily for a while and I'd feel uncomfortable going after I'm back in the office again. It seems easier to stay with my brother than a hotel or indeed my parents and at least I know he's had Covid, so it's less likely he'll have it. I'm slightly worried about the flash floods forecast for down towards the south, so I'll have to check the weather warnings before I set off.
I sorted out some purchase order issues and more admin and got my emails down to a more sensible number, re-wrote a spreadsheet and went through around 30 job applications for a remote working job that had over 139 applications. I had to sort through them before I could delete them.
I managed to speak to the letting agents of my flat to find out whether the key had gone missing as they had not got back to 3 emails. Apparently the tenant had moved in ok and there was some works I'd paid out for, but now that it's been done I should receive a statement update soon.
I finished work at around 7.30pm and we ordered a Chinese - I had hot and sour soup, chips, crispy beef in peking sauce and some waterchesnuts and bamboo shoots, Alan had a spring roll, chicken in ginger and garlic and singapore noodles and banana fritters. I am very full now!
I went out for a run and again was fairly fast, even though my legs ache from yesterday and I did 6K in just over 30 mins including a PR on a segment and came 7th overall. The takeaway was delivered about 1.5 hours later, but was good, I had to ring up and make sure it was on it's way.
I spoke to my parents who seem worried about me coming, but happy to see me in the garden. It will be a long drive, so I should really go to bed at a sensible time.
I managed to do a bit more linked in work whilst watching TV, mostly Dave and Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown and QI and a bit of CSI New York.
I also stopped my anxiety, but finally booking the virtual escape room ready for Monday - we're going to try this one Out of Hours
Friday 14 August 2020
Isolation Journal 80
A bit groggy again this morning, quick coffee and then onto the team call briefly before a 9.15am training session on coaching with Jane who is also my mentor and she's great!
We talked about setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time limited) goals. Then we talked about GROW coaching model where you identifiy the goal the coachee wants to set themselves, discover the current reality, discuss options and then come up with a way forward. It was a really useful session and left me feeling motivated.
I then had a few calls and went and did Pilates at 12pm which was a very sweaty and warm affair. 2 things arrived for me whilst I was doing the class, my copy of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig that I ordered when I booked onto the Guardian Live event this evening which was an interview and Q&A with him and also my Arena Flowers subscription which this week are lots of pink lisianthus alissa.
I dashed back upstairs to deal with some calls whilst I put some potato waffles and sausages in the oven to cook and arranged my flowers into vases.
The afternoon was a mix of meetings and admin, I hopefully will get more time for proactive calling tomorrow. We had a good meeting with a client, although I think we'll need to dig a little deeper for candidates in terms of what they are looking for.
I finished up around 6.30pm and had to rush to cook dinner whilst listening to the Archers and I made Hello Fresh tacos with aubergine, beans and feta. My Guardian Live event started as I finished up tea and they asked the question that I had emailed in when I booked on about what advice Matt Haig might have given to himself 20 years ago. I love listening to him talk and wish that it was a bit longer than an hour.
I let my food go down a bit and then went out for a run, I'd not got many particular goals for this run, but I was going quite fast and my garmin gave me a +7 improvement on my fitness. I managed to get my fastest 5K time for a while of 24.43 and ran 6K at a pace of 8.05 per mile.
I got in and watered the plants and then had a bath and wasted a lot of time in the bath.
Alan has been busy doing his exam and is likely to be up until 4am finishing it. Some men came to fix the oil stain on the drive, it was noisy for hours and looks no different.
Qubit managed to get 2 dinners by meowing loudly at both me and Alan.
I completed my Tania Hershman challenge last night by writing it all down by hand. Will do some more this evening and then I need to definitely try and get back to the novel writing if I can.
Wednesday 12 August 2020
Isolation Journal 79
Alan's alarm went off at 7.30am this morning and he seemed in a much better mood and had a much better night of sleep and his grogginess seemed better too. I wasn't too bad and got up and had cornflakes for breakfast because the milk had leaked.
I had a set up call with Katie and chatted a bit about her being on holiday for 2 weeks. We then had a BD day set up call at 10am and I didn't make many BD calls, but I found a new contact and picked up 2 jobs...for the property team! I'm just not picking anything up for myself at the moment.
I was at least pleased that one of the other girls has filled 5 of the roles I'd passed her and one of the guys in Manchester filled one as well so overall it's like me placing 1 role! We ate outside which was very warm, Alan made waffles and sausages and some mayo and sriracha and we had a lolly.
We had a meeting to share permanent candidates with the wider team and then I had a busy afternoon trying to sort out some issues and get up to date with emails, candidate applications and coaching people on their career choices.
Hayley and Flower were coming over to visit and Alan made dinner and I ate a lovely Hello Fresh haloumi curry and we watched the Peep Show Christmas episode.
The second accidental book that I'd ordered arrived and so I gave it to Flower to have a read and also made him a cappucino and gave Hayley a rocket lolly.
After they had left I tidied and cleaned the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs and earlier Alan had discovered that the Apple TV remote had got smashed.
Maya kept sneaking out onto the roof during the day and this evening as we were getting ready to come upstairs she managed to get onto the adjacent flat roof of Ally and Pete next door, I had to shake the treats to encourage her to come back in the window! I listened to more of the "Windup Bird Chronicles"
I didn't run, but it's the first time I've had a day off since last Wednesday.
Late last night I saw on my time hop that it was a year since my hen day and so I was reminded that I wanted to borrow a game from Jenny and Jonny that I thought Alan would like based on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but Jenny said no as Jonny was quite particular and didn't lend out games, but I searched and found it at an independent game sellar/cafe and ordered it and I told him about it earlier to try and cheer him up from his anxiety.
Tuesday 11 August 2020
Isolation Journal 78
I'd managed to place someone yesterday, but I realised I'd completely messed up the rate quote, I worried about this for a while, then spoke to the client and managed to sort it out, but I'm frustrated that I ended up in that situation. It has been very hot today that hasn't really aided my ability to behave coherently.
I quickly showered and then made dinner of Hello Fresh Lamb Linguine - Alan was feeling ill with a bad headache so I cooked.
Isolation Journal 77
I didn't sleep very well at all, I kept waking up just as I was drifting off and I think it was only about 6 hours or so in the end. I had cornflakes and 2 coffees for breakfast and I picked up the milk, orange juice and eggs and brought them in.
I logged on and had a catch up call with both Rachel and Katie and then had a morning of sorting out emails and then I signed on for Pilates and at the end had a chat with David about the weird nerve thing that is happening to my left leg - basically when I was shaving my legs the other day I noticed the nerves all over my foot tingling like mad. He didn't think that it was anything to be too worried about, but recommended roll downs and prayer stretches.
I had reheated pasta bake for lunch and then also lots of water! I arranged a team meeting for our team and the colleagues who look after the more junior end of the market. We then had a client meeting and then I interview prepped a candidate. I finished the day by placing a candidate into a job, I was especially pleased as we've been tryinig to help her since I found her a role about a year ago and she couldn't start as she'd had a stroke. I was really pleased to hep her. I even managed to send out a LinkedIn search for Rachel.
I finished off at 6.45pm and went for an easy run of 6.5K and then cooked Hello Fresh for dinner which was potato wedges with steak strips and mushroom and red wine sauce with green beans. I took all the recycling out and the flowers were past their best and put them in the green bins. I listened to Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami whilst out on my run and cooking - I'd listened to a good few hours whilst commuting, but not for about 6 months, so I'd started from the beginning again. We watched Peep Show and ate dinner and
I then had a shower in the bath and I called my Mum back and suggested I could try and visit them although she sounded uncomfortable. We ended up down the odd conversation topic that she was saying she is 94% English DNA, and no African DNA, I pointed out all of us are likely to be from the same, very likely African DNA, but then she started saying we are all descended from Adam and Eve, very odd. My brother texted to say that he'd ended up getting the job he'd applied for as the external candidate had turned it down. We then chatted for about 45 minutes and. He was suggesting I might be better to stay at his and I think that should be fairly safe as he's very careful and has definitely already had Covid even though he tested negative for the antibodies 4 months later.
I followed up on twitter as I was due to have a flash fiction prompt from Tania Hershman but it hadn't arrived via stupid hotmail, so I had to follow up and she kindly resent it for me.
Friday 7 August 2020
Isolation Journal 74
Isolation Journal 73
I got back and quickly showered and grabbed some cornflakes and coffee and signed onto Zoom for my Arvon at Home which was "How to write anything" by David Quantick and was very different, less structured exercises and much more basically how to commercialise your career as a writer and importantly reassurances that to be a writer you just have to write. Writing is like exercise and the more you do it the easier it gets and that you should do it every day. There was a Q&A that we got to ask questions at the end and he answered them swiftly and slightly flippantly, but basically the big takeaway was to just crack on and write. There was an exercise that I wasn't overly sure I did very well and I found hard and this was it:
1.
Invent a character using two adjectives only -
eg “Jon is cowardly and romantic.”
2.
What do they think they want? Eg “Jon wants to
find a knight in shining armour.”
3.
What do they actually need? Eg “Jon needs to
find his fight and win it.”
4.
Now put them in a story. Describe that story in
two lines. “Jon is in love with his boss but his boss is a bully who sets him a
morally wrong task. Will Jon do the right thing?”
5.
Now make that story a novel. Describe that novel
in one line. “The story of a man who has to learn that love is never
unconditional.”
6. Now make that story a sitcom. Describe that sitcom in one line. “Jon loves his boss who makes him do terrible things and needs to grow some bravery.”
7. Now make that story a movie. Describe that movie in one line. “When Jon falls in love with his new boss, he has to decide – spend his life dreaming of what will never be or stand up to an evil bully.”
Lauren was also in the class and seemed to enjoy it too and mentioned she'd listened to him speaking before.Alan made lunch a pasta bake with some smoked mossarella cheese that he had bought and brought it up for me with the padron peppers as well. I ate some upstairs whilst the class was finishing and then went downstairs and faffed around for a bit packing up my Garmin to deliver to Curtis who lived over in North Leeds and drove over to see Hayley for a chat first.
I had to fill up my car with petrol for the first time since the 29th March, it's a hybrid and I've not really done many longer journeys in it so most of the mileage since March has been on the electric charge. As Alan suggested I chose to go to a pay at pump place at Asda on York road so that I didn't have to worry about social distancing. I called and chatted to both my mum and dad on the way over and they seem to be doing ok.
I then headed over to Hayley and we sat in the garden chatting and watching goldfinches, sparrows and angry pigeons and she gave me a karma cola to drink. We had a really good chat and then she was getting ready to have tea and teach a class. I've been taking advantage of her proximity as she will soon be living more like an hour and a half away on the coast.
I drove over to deliver my Garmin to Curtis who had purchased it in an auction and I'd donated the money to Selby food bank. He has recently taken up the hobby of beekeeping and so I kept my mask on and went to take a look at the hive with the bees, it was very exciting!
I drove home (really needing a wee at this point as I don't like trying to use other people's toilets at the moment if I can avoid it) and when I got back Alan had more or less finished making Carribean lamb and rice for dinner and so I quickly watered the plants and we sat in the garden and ate tea and I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc from Naked Wines and Alan had a ginger beer as the diagnosis from the doc was that he needed some strong antihistamines so he'd been to pick them up from the pharmacy in the village and so was avoiding alcohol.
I tided the kitchen listening to some more of "I heart Las Vegas" hung the washing out and then sat with Alan to watch some Peep Show and eat some ice cream. I also had another ice lolly.