Not so Isolation Journal 103

I'd not got to bed at a very good time and so I was quite tired when I woke up at 9am and needed to be out the house for around 9.30am to get to my writing class at 10.30am.  I didn't end up eating breakfast, but I made a couple of coffees and drank one before I left and took one for the journey.  I packed the last rice and beans and a couple of slices of pizza from the night before.

The traffic was good and so it only took me around 35 minutes to get there and I tried to park behind The Bowery, but it was a bit tricky and tight in the car park, so I drove down to where the art deco houses are and walked around 5 minutes to get to the class, I was just on time fortunately.

I wore my mask to enter the class and then the whole way through other than to drink my water bottle and then to eat lunch outside.  The course I was doing was How to Write that Novel and it was the first writing workshop that I'd booked this year for my 20 things in 2020 and was due to be the weekend after I'd got back from honeymoon in March, but it got delayed to June and then September so it feels like I've been waiting a while and have done a lot of online zoom in the meantime.  It was definitely worth the wait.  

The Bowery made me feel comfortable as there were only 10 of us in the room and we all wore masks apart from the tutor Mark Connors who work a visor so that we could hear and see him speaking properly.  There were masks available, but I'd brought my own and they had lovely lavendar hand santiser available around the tutor room.  

I really enjoyed the course, we started off by reading aloud the first page and the blurb of a selection of books including one by the tutor because he'd run out of books Tom Tit and the Maniacs.  We noticed various things about both especially the hook and intrigue and then we all had a go at writing our own as well as coming up with titles.  I've now got a lot more books on my "I want to read list".  We read aloud our blurbs and also our first pages and there were some really interesting outlines for novels and starting points within the class, some were fantasy, one was a romance, one about a lady's grandmothers journey from India to Africa to England and one about an aging rockstar getting together with someone who looked like his younger self, one about a Dunkirk Solider and one about dragons and another about a fantasy dream world.  I later felt sad for the fantasy dreamworld guy as he didn't get a chance to read out one of the exercises.  We also discussed how to always try and avoid cliches.

We had a break for lunch and I sat outside in the little garden area.  

After lunch we did work around scene setting and wrote and read aloud some descriptive scenes and then talked about character before having a question and answer session with Mark.  Finishing at 4.30pm I bought a copy of Tom Tit and the Maniacs and then some of the hand santiser spray, but they only had a peppermint flavour, but I bought a couple for £5.50 each.

After I'd walked back to the car I texted my friend Jenny as I've not seen her for months and she's been being very cautious.  I popped into the house briefly and she signed off a guide planning zoom call with my old guide group and I waved to Fran and some of the other leaders which was lovely.  She then showed me her homemade kombucha which was delicious!  I had some of the plain kombucha as well as some strawberry flavoured stuff with actual strawberries.  And told me about how to make it and asked me if I wanted some of her scoby to make my own and I said yes please! 

We then took Luna the King Charles Spaniel for a walk around the Meanwood woods and she was very excited and running around and it was really good to have a good chat.  When we got back to her house she boxed up the scoby and gave me some instructions and then I headed back to find Alan in the bath after a run and so I went out for a quick run too to get my (not) parkrun fix in.  I'd noticed a pain in my left big toe joint yesterday and I could run, but I could definitely still notice it today.  I listended to With Me Now podcast as I ran and they read out my Facebook comment about doing Temple Newsam parkrun with Alex last weekend.

I fed Fudge and Smudge and Fudge ran out as soon as I opened the door and they had been sick 3 times and I had to clean the litter trays, but they were more friendly than usual which was cute.

The coffee beans, chai tea and pistachio tea I'd ordered from Coffee on the Crescent had arrived as well as the Vitality free and discounted coffee from Cafe Nerro.  My mum had also texted me to tell me that the big tub of marmite I'd ordered months ago had finally arrived.

I had a soak in the bath for far too long when I got back and Alan wasn't sure what we should do for tea and eventually I made some wraps with the left over kebab meat from last night and reheated the curly fries and cut up some lettuce.  

We watched a variety of random comedy from Dave and I started to make Kombucha and ran a load of washing through.  

To make kombucha you make 2 litres of tea with 6 - 8 teabags and 160 - 200g of sugar, let it cool to a warm tepid temperature.  You then pour into a plastic jar and add the scoby to it and the scoby juices and cover with cotton and leave for 7 - 30 days - fingers crossed that it works well!

Not so Isolation Journal 102

It was a struggle to get up this morning, but I dragged myself out of bed around 7.15am and let the cats out and had cornflakes and milk and a coffee and made one to drink in the car.  I was so groggy I spilt milk everywhere.

Work was quiet as it was only Luke in in my team.  I had a busy morning meeting 2 candidates to practice MS Teams and prep them for interviews, I also chatted to a few people as well who were interested in my very short 4 week temp role, but I did manage to fill it in the afternoon thankfully.

I also learned some more functions of the system that made me pleased like it reminds you to brief and de brief candidates on interviews, you can copy and paste the job reference number rather than trying to remember an 8 digit number and you can search for which jobs are missing adverts.

I'd got to 2pm and suddenly realised that I'd eaten my rice at my desk, but I'd not been out at all so I went for a walk around the block and then I caught up with the PP team to chat about various things.  

I decided to book a Covid Test as I'd had a note through the app because I'd reported sore throat symptoms and so I booked for 6pm and made sure I'd finished up at 5.30pm and walked out with Susan and had a catch up chat.  

I'd worn my mask a bit today and I'm literally the only person in the office who does, I especially wear in the toilets and walking to and from my car and I'm nervous as Leeds is hovering around a local lockdown at the moment.  

I rang my mum on the way back as I'd figured she'd like a chat and could listen as I went through the drive through test.  I got there a bit early, so hovered around for about 5 mins and then drove in.  You drive around the park and ride car park and then stop at various points for instructions and to have your AR code scanned and they then drop a test kit in your passenger car window and you park up and do the test.  You blow your nose and sanitise your hands and then you have to swab your tonsils for 10 - 15 secs and the back of your nose for the same time and you then break the top of the plastic off the swab and put it in a vial of liquid and seal it in a bag with a pad and then you put it in the main bag and they check it before you drive to the drop off point.  They scan your code again and I was done in 9 minutes.

I got home and then went out for a run and ran in the lovely pre sunset light, I was more sluggish today and did 4.5 miles listening to a grime mix on Apple music as I've had the M to the B song stuck in my head off TikTok and I'm still "unproductive" training and I got a photo of a sign urging you to wash your car to protect against covid.  I spotted Qubit in the field and Alan went to call him in.

We then watched some Friends and ordered takeaway, the place we got from on Saturday wasn't delivering so we got from Tokies and I ordered a kebab, pizza and curly frieds but I knew I wouldn't eat it all.  I did some tidying and unpacked the veg box and got in the bath, but the takeaway arrived only 10 mins later.  Alan watched Happy Gilmore whilst i was in the bath and tidying and then we watched 8 out of 10 cats does countdown.

The food was good, but a bit cold.  After we'd eaten Alan suggested that I make hot apple brandy as he'd bought some apple butter.

Not so Isolation Journal 100

Another earlier start back into the office today.  I didn't sleep very well, it took me a while to drift off and I woke up about 25 minutes afterwards.  My alarm went off at 6.50am and woke me up in the midst of a dream.  I was a bit slower to get up and get moving, but I got downstairs, fed the cats, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, had some of the badly executed banana bread and yoghurt for breakfast and then got dressed left about the same time as yesterday around 7.55am, but as I got down the end of Whitecote Lane there was a load of farm equipment completely blocking the road and so I had to do a million point turn to go back on myself through Newthorpe, so it was probably around 8.40am by the time I walked into the office.

The morning was relatively productive, lots of trying to get on top of how the system works and I'm getting there slowly.  I managed to send some CVs eventually, but it seems a bit clunky getting eveything as I used to.

At lunch I ate at my desk and had rice and bean and also a naked bar as well as 2 apples and a satsuam for snacks.  I then went for a walk around the block along the canal with Nic again.  She noticed that there were a lot of people walking around the back of my desk and suggested that I move to a more corner area with less people around me so I'll swap with Rachel when I'm back in the office again on Friday.

I worked out that I still had 15.5 days of leave to take and so I took off a week in October with a plan of booking onto an online writing course with Arvon.  

The afternoon was fairly productive other than the frustration of having a meeting that lasted for 40 minutes which could have been an email about a client transfering over some temps.  I finished up around 6.30pm and then went to the toilet before heading to the car in pouring rain.  It was so wet that it took me a long time to drive back in the rain more slowly.

When I arrived back home Alan was cleaning the cooker which was impressive!

I cooked Hello Fresh when I got in - Toulouse Sausage and potatoes with a tomato and bean sauce and listened to PMQs as I cooked.  I also ate 30g portion of cheese, marmite and skips whilst I cooked as I was way too hungry.  I had thought about going for a run, but it got late after I'd let my dinner go down and so I decided to email the vouchers we'd not yet been able to book for our wedding as they are due to expire very soon.  I asked the Alfresco Adventures and the Yorkshire Heart Wine Tasting people to ask about how to book.

I also checked my course on Saturday and messaged my friend Jenny to see if she might be interested in meeting for a walk and she seemed interested.

We watched Friends, Taskmaster and generally stuff on Dave whilst Alan waited for an Amazon order to arrive and we ate feasts and then wine gums after the delivery had arrived and I had a beer as well.  I meant to go for a run, but it was too wet and I didn't fancy it, will need to do 10K tomorrow!

Not so Isolation Journal 99

I woke up this morning before my alarm to a horrible bad dream, someone was attempting suicide in a most horribly graphic way, it was like something out of a film, but not a film that I've ever seen.

I then got up with my alarm at 6.50am and quietly went downstairs, emptied the and refilled the dishwasher, collected up all my food for the day and drank a coffee, ate some cornflakes and fed the cats (letting them out the back door as they were confused by me being up so early).  I then made another coffee and put it in a mug to take on the journey and put make up on and got dressed - I'd laid out my clothes the night before to make it less stressful this morning.

Alan was confused as I'd planned to get to the office for 8.30am and so I planned to leave at 7.30 and ended up leaving about 7.50am as I dropped my eyebrow shadow on the floor and had to clear it up as it was all black and manky.  The traffic was super quiet and so I ended up getting in for 8.20am and it was really quiet in the car park as well.

I put my mask on and walked across to the office carrying my run club stuff as well as my hand bag, Alan's Macbook and Rachel's bag of stuff that I'd been looking after for her.

The office smelt really clean and it did seem quite spacious, but it was weird walking back in and not chatting in close proximity to everyone.

We logged on and started to fire up the new Salesforce system and had a kick off call as normal and then I cracked on with trying to work out how to use the new system.  I had a new job to match as well as CVs to send (the system wouldn't let me do this) and I think it will be good, but will take me a while to get back to the normal speed of doing things.

At lunch the team went out for a meal, but I'd brought my wild rice and black bean salad so I ate that instead with left over cucumber salad and Nic was too busy as well so we went out for a walk at lunch.  I wore my mask to go to the bathroom and the rest of the time I was at my desk.  The one thing that threw me was when my boss threw my mobile at me to answer which I was super uncomfortable doing.  I held it at a distance and then sanitised my hands.

Today was definitely more productive that it has been, even though I was cross at the system and constantly on the phone to work out what to do.

I finished my last call at around 7pm and then went to get changed into my run kit and drove over to Woodhouse Moor for run club at 7.30pm.  I was nearly late and had to run fast across to meet at the end of parkrun (Queen Victoria Statute) and it was really nice that I knew everyone in the group - Zeni leading, Clare E, Lizzie and Emily.  We had a lovely chatty run and some effort on my intervals and my "peaking" on garmin went down to "recovery"  I ran around 6K in about 35 minutes including running back to my car at the end and I drove home which took around 40 minutes in total.

I called Alan on the way and then spoke to my parents briefly and got in and put on a load of washing and had a shower whilst Alan finished off the Hello Fresh for tea which was Pork burgers with wedges and coleslaw.

We watched an episode of Spooks and he went up for a bath and had been for a run earlier.  I then I tidied the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher and made banana bread which finished cooking at midnight and turned out terribly, the edges were burnt and the insides uncooked and fell out.  I'm a total idiot and should leave these baking things to Alan sometimes!

Isolation Journal 76

We woke up late again at around 10.30am, Alan had been sleeping in the other room for most of the night as it was so warm and his ear had been giving him grief.

I came downstairs to a dead pigeon that Maya had brought in and mauled with feathers everywhere, I cleared it up with Alan's help, thankfully it was completely dead.

I made some tiger bread toast, sausages and scrambled eggs for breakfast with orange juice and we watched some Peep Show this morning.  I listened to more of "I heart Las Vegas"

I then watched some CSI original Vegas episodes as I've finally had a play around with the SkyQ box.  One of the only things I used to watch when I had Sky was CSI, NCIS and Criminal Minds, I used to watch them for hours whilst my ex would go to bed at 9pm about 20 minutes after I had got home.

I went upstairs to read, but ended up messing around on my phone and then eventually got up and hoovered and mopped all the floors and cleaned the bathroom whilst listening to "I heart Vegas" and then went for a run.  I didn't really need to go for a run, but it seemed like something I could chalk up to achievement for the weekend.

I ran 7.2K and just did a very even pace and it seemed to say it was a base effort and took 43 minutes.  It was a nice sunny evening and I did a few Strava segments to increase my Local Legend efforts.  

Alan made dinner which was a Hello Fresh pork and rice dish and also harvested the rhubarb in the garden and bought some more yesterday and made a crumble.  I made Lynchberg Lemonades for me and Alan and we watched even more Peep Show and I accidentally ordered another copy of Girl Woman Other from Hive, forgetting that I'd ordered it already from Fox Lane Books!

Isolation Journal 68

Alan really didn't sleep well last night, I finally must have fallen asleep after messing around on my phone and trying to read a bit of "Little Fires Everywhere" and was woken up by him comign to bed at around 5am, it was starting to get light.  He tossed and turned for a bit and then went into the spare room and he woke up about 8.30am and got up even though he'd had no sleep.  I messed around on my phone some more and got up at about 10am and made some breakfast - yoghurt, granola, apple and some of my friend's homemade lemon curd.  I tidied the kitchen and had a coffee.

I looked at my phone as late last night I'd emailed my friend Lauren's writing group leader Ardella who leads a creative writing company Chalk the Sun to see if it was possible for me to join in the class today.  She got back to me about 11.30am and the class started at 1pm so I paid the £30 taster fee and started to plan what I was going to do.

I decided to log on briefly to the parkrun call on Zoom and it was nice to see friendly faces and catch up with people for around 45 minutes.  Maya came and sat next to me which was amusing as I wasn't trying to type and work.  I got to see Curtis's bees and Anne & Noel's tomatoes.

I didn't really have time to make lunch and had a slightly heated debate with Alan about what *we* were doing for lunch.  He'd been to pick up the click and collect from Tescos and so I'd guessed he had planned some lunch in amongst that, but it turns out that this wasn't the case.

I prepped for my class and started the first exercise which was:

Write a short scene in a busy high street you know well (or other busy scene of your choice).  Describe the actions of the shoppers, moving from the place, to the crowd, then to individuals.  (200 words)

I'd chosen to write about a memory of crossing the road in Delhi on a trip to India 5 years ago (maybe it was the facebook memories that had reminded me?)  

I signed onto the Zoom call at 1pm and got to meet Ardella who was lovely and funny and reminded me ever so slightly of Jo Brand.  There was a schedule that we loosly stuck to - intros, what we'd been doing in the way of writing, and one of the group of our 9 read out a story that she'd been writing about slavery and slave ships that was really good.  Lauren also read out the short story and poem that she'd shared with me earlier in the week.  During a quick break I had a maple & pecan plait and a packet of skips - I really must be more organised with food.

We read a couple of passages of Bonfire of the Vanities and used them as spring boards for discussion and as a way of writing a couple of exercises.  I refined my busy scene and although I couldn't get to 200 words (218 was as low as I managed) I went first at reading out my piece which seemed well received generally and I enjoyed hearing others.  Lauren's was great and about getting on the tube and really moved me along with her on the story.

The class overran slightly past 4pm and then I went downstairs to see Alan and we planned to drop the masks made my neighbour Anna to my friend Hannah for her two boys and then go for a walk at St Aidan's.  We sat outside and chatted with Hannah and her husband Chris - they are about to go on holiday to Dorset and do some camping and it's the first time they've been away in years.  James was jumping in and out of the car and beeping the horn and Alex was in his Karate kit and being generally well behaved apart from climbing on the car.  Whilst we were there, Alan got a call from Apple to say his Macbook had been repaired and was in the Apple store in Sheffield ready to be collected, so instead of going for a walk we headed to Sheffield and went to get his Macbook.  

I needed the toilet when I got there and most people seemed to be properly wearing masks, although a lot with them around their chins.  We picked up the Macbook and then looked for something to snack on and I opted for a quick Subway sandwich which confused Alan as he didn't think it would be something that I would eat.  He also ordered a couple of Starbucks drinks and we picked them up and headed back to the car.

Alan drove back so that I could eat my sandwich and then when I got home I started to cook tea which was a cod and rice Hello Fresh dish.  We ate in front of the TV and watched Peep Show and Alan made us Ginger Beer and Gentleman Jacks to drink.  He had ice cream and cream for dessert, but I was going to run to get my Vitality points, so I plugged in the end of the High Low Podcast and then some of With Me Now and ran up and down the driveway for just over 30 mins and 5K.

When I got in I had a Rowntrees Ice Lolly and then ran a cool bath that I stayed in for far too long messing around on my phone.  I did manage to change the bed sheets, but the house is a mess and so tomorrow will be another weekend clean up and tidy up day.

Isolation Journal 67

Another groggy wake up, I think I'm just going to have to make peace with the fact that I just don't feel like a morning person ever, regardless of how much sleep I get.  I think it wasn't hugely helped by the fact that yesterday was a non exercise day so I'd not showered yesterday and so felt sticky and gross this morning.

I grabbed breakfast and had banana bread, apple and yoghurt and 2 coffees and I got logged on and finished up a few invoices after I'd borrowed Alan's macbook as it displays things so much better than my laptop (I can actually see the "submit" button without adjusting the screen resolution).

We finished well for July, certainly ahead of April, May and June.  I wasn't as productive in the morning although had a key account client update which was useful, but I decided after finishing up the admin for the month end to go out for a run for half an hour at lunch and helped my friend with her CV and how to apply for a job.  I also ordered dinner from our local pub - fish and chips and garden peas.  I watched a bit of the latest briefing from number 10 as the local lockdowns randomly came into place at 9pm yesterday, announced on twitter for "Greater Manchester" and "West Yorkshire" and it very much seems as though you can't go to a friend or family member's house, but it's fine if you want to sit indoors in a pub!  I also saw later today around 8 different office colleagues very close together in a bar on instagram and it just makes me nervous about going back into the office.

I managed to run about 5.7K and was reasonably swift, in just over 30 mins, but my watch keeps telling me that my training is unproductive.  

I had a shower when I got back in and potato waffles and fried and egg and had some sriracha sauce.

The afternoon was more productive, I got more CVs off for jobs and tidied up my emails, I'm still really worried that I've forgotten to do something on Rachel's handover, even though I've worked really hard to try and cover everything.

I finished work at 7pm and had just enough time to put some shoes on and head to pick up our takeway tea from QOTT.  I listened to some of the High Low Pod Cast as I walked and then got in and quickly went to see whether we'd be better eating inside or at the dining room table - I had a quick chat with my neighbour and offered her some of the leftover bedding plants from last week that had died a bit so I watered them in an attempt to bring them back to life and then it started raining heavily with thunder and lightening.  

My watch auction finished at 8pm with a final sale price of £45 to go towards a food back donation.  The guy who won I think will appreciate all the additional stats it can give you.

We ate at the dining room table and I had 3 of my Beer 52 beers that had arrived earlier today (my Harry Potter fabric finally arrived as well) I chose a couple of IPAs and a coffee and coconut stout.  After we'd eaten we played Exploding Kittens and Cat Chaos card games.

We then went out to try and find Maya (Qubit joined in our games) and had no luck, although she eventually came in around 10.30pm.  

We watched some Mock the Week, 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown and Family Guy.

I managed to finish "It's Not The End Of The World" by Judy Blume last night as well, my reading has come on loads since putting my mind to it and I'm enjoying it.

Isolation Journal 66

Had nearly 9 hours of sleep, but was pretty groggy when I woke up.  I got up and logged on for a kick off call, then a meeting about some adminstrative stuff we need to do and then another all regional meeting.  I had some banana bread and yoghurt for breakfast and 2 coffees and Maya spent a lot of time cleaning herself on the call and had one girl email me about her.  The update was useful, but didn't really tell me much of what I didn't know.  I decided that her scabby bits on her feet, belly and ears needed looking at and booked a vets appointment and managed to get an appointment the same day for 3.30pm.

I wasn't as productive today as I'd hoped at work, but I managed to get a few bits of work done.  I had salad and a spring roll for lunch and then headed out to take Maya to the vets at 3pm, we'd had to round her up after she'd gone out at lunchtime.  She hated getting in the cat box and cried and cried in the car, I had to keep chatting to her.  When I got to the vets I called from the car and took her in the box and waited outside wearing a mask until I was called in.  The vet was operating behind a screen and Maya tried to get behind the computer.  The vet checked her over and seemed to think that she might have harvest mites that were harmless, but itchy and causing overgrooming and so she gave her a steroid injection and hopefully that will help.  It cost £67 and I was there and back in an hour.

The rest of the afternoon was ok, I got a bit confused by an instruction from a client to put interviews arranged for next week "on hold" which they meant cancel and put other candidates in.  I picked up a new job with one of my favourite clients for Rachel.

I had been debating going to see my friends Hayley and Sam at Sams house so I popped over around 7pm to see them and chatted to my mum and dad on the way.

We sat in the garden for a couple of hours and chatted for ages and then I headed home as it got dark.  I had some pasta and egg that Alan had cooked and added some mushrooms and brocolli and had a couple of ice lollies and watched Catfish.  I had to jog on the spot to up my step count to 7000 as I need my Vitality points.

Burglary

So this week has not been an easy one for me.  I've always had a fairly major OCD fear of being burgled to the point that when I was particularly stressed it took me 20 - 30 minutes to leave my house about 8 years ago as I had to do so many checks to make sure it was secure.  

2 years ago I came back from a work conference and my husband told me that he thought we'd had an attempted break in and sure enough someone had tried to jemmy off the back door and had "snapped" our Yale lock - I'm not going to put up a link, but if you google "lock snapping" it's quite scary.  Fortunately my Dad had spotted that our patio doors needed additional security and had fitted two top and bottom lockable bolts and so they didn't manage to get in thankfully.  It was enough of a scare though that I invested in replacing the patio doors and the old tired side door with brand new UPVC double glazed doors with special ABS locks that are anti-snap.  

Anyway, I returned from a busy day at work on Thursday at 8.30pm with Lebanese takeaway in hand and tried to open my front door.  It wouldn't open so I assumed the cats had maybe knocked something down in front of the door, so I went around the back in the dark and saw some weird white stuff which I then realised was glass, I gasped as I wasn't sure what it was and when I realised it was a break in, I had no idea if the burglars were still there.  I ran to my next door neighbour (Who moved in during the summer, but the extend of our conversation had been to swap names and shake hands and I'd not really seen him since) and knocked on the door as my husband was down in Devon and so I was staying by myself that night.  I explained that I'd been burgled and he handed me the phone and I called the police.  I initially dialled 101 as I wasn't sure if it was an emergency, but when I though that actually there might still be people in my house, I changed to 999 and they sent 2 police cars around.  

Whilst we were waiting, my neighbour and his house mate put on shoes and helped me try and spot the cats - I was most worried about Marla who doesn't go outside as she gets lost, but we waited until the Police arrived and went into the house.  I looked through the lounge window and could see straight away that the TV had been taken.  The police arrived within about 5 minutes and got out their hitting sticks or probably as I think they're professional known to be - asps.  3 of the officers went through the house and came out of the front door. Whilst I was waiting outside I mentioned that my husband was down in Devon visiting his brother and they asked if he might have been involved - which of course wasn't true!

My first question when they came outside, was if they'd seen Marla or as I said "A white fluffy weird looking cat" and they had, I managed to catch her and locked her into my car so that she couldn't escape.  I saw Willow run down the stairs, but I couldn't see Pocky and was really worried as she needed medicine for her Thyroid problem.  

The police took me into the house so I could see what had been taken - strangely as well as the TV they'd taken our PS3, but left our PS2 and Nintendo Wii and not taken any DVDs or games.  They'd taken my Netbook - on which most of the blog was authored and then a chintzy piggy bank of 5ps and coppers.  They'd been upstairs and gone through all my clothes in my drawers and wardrobes, but hadn't found anything as I don't have any bling jewellery anyway and also the house is still a tip whilst the redecorating is finished, so I would have trouble myself finding anything of value as it's all boxed up and mixed together.   I was also pleased that they'd not discovered the external hard drive in a well hidden, on display place and had left my Tower PC alone.

One of the police officers stayed with me to take my statement and the others made "house to house" enquiries.  My neighbour remembered hearing voices during the evening, but hadn't seen anything and his housemate had been in all day as he was ill.  

The police asked if I minded being filmed - apparently the BBC and Rav Wilding were doing a special on burglaries in Leeds - I said that it would be fine - especially as I like Rav, but he never turned up, so there must have been more interesting or photogenic burglaries that evening I guess.

The police asked if I knew anyone who could secure my door and so I rang Gav - the guy who has been helping me re-plaster as he's really handy and knows pretty much everything - I work with his wife and she called to say that he was on his way and see how I was.   I also texted my cousin who lies in Leeds to ask if she knew anyone who could board the door in case I couldn't get hold of Gav and her partner replied to say that she was on her way around.  

The SOCO person arrived and it was like watching CSI as he used a torch to find footprints on my new lounge floor and lift them off with a special metallic dust.  Just from looking at them he knew that the burglars had been wearing Addidas and Nike Air trainers, unfortunately he was also able to establish they'd worn gloves so couldn't get any finger prints.  When he'd finished down by the back door Gav fitted a board to make it all secure and my cousin made everyone tea - I had some with sugar as I was in a bit of shock and hadn't eaten at all since 12pm.  The officer taking my statement was lovely and was really interested in the copy of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens which was on the dining room table.  I explained that it was my husband's and we had an interesting conversation about religion - he was Muslim  but very interested in hearing about other people's beliefs, although mentioned that he was a lot less keen about the prospect of being on TV with Rav Wilding who he'd met earlier in the toilets.

After the Police had left and Gav had finished securing the door I tidied up my clothes and the drawers and my cousin cleared up the glass inside and I managed to coax Willow and Pocky back to the house who were terrified.  I managed to feed Pocky her thyroid medicine and then settled them in and then went back to my cousins's for the night as I was a bit too full of adrenaline to want to stay in the house by myself.  I did find it hard to leave the cats though.  As much as I am annoyed at the TV being taken etc.  I was most concerned that the cats were OK as they can't be replaced in PC World.  They are still taking time to calm back down, but are getting there.  

The next day I got up and had breakfast with my cousin and her kids who didn't even seem to think it strange or ask why I was there and then headed home to speak to the insurance company and finish tidying up.  Another SOCO officer arrived as he wanted a glass sample from the door - they'd found suspects with glass in their shoes so he said that there was a chance I could see my stuff again (not holding out much hope though it has to be said).  I also purchased a cheap TV so that I have something to watch whist insurance company sort out a replacement - I had a minor operation on Saturday under general anaesthetic (more about this later) so I wanted some access to entertainment whilst recovering.  I also wanted to create a timeframe for the police as I knew I had a lot of recordings on Sky+.  I was able to tell the police that the burglary occurred between 6.30pm and 7pm (Got to Dance recorded fine from 6 - 6.30pm) and 7pm (The Big Bang Theory at 7pm failed as they'd unplugged all of the electronic devices including the Sky Box when stealing the PS3 and TV).

So what have I learned or decided from all this?

• My friends, family and neighbours are all lovely people who have helped me more than I would have expected.
• I will be upgrading to a good burglar alarm which works well with a cat infested house.
• I will be recording the serial numbers of everything electrical of value and marking them all with UV pens (this I had already done for most things, but not my Netbook).
• I will get to know my neighbours a little better.
• I will get the fence at the back of my house repaired and get a lock fitted onto the side gate.
• The Police in Leeds were lovely to me and they also came back to patrol the next evening and check in that I was ok (Marla got on the officer's lap!)
• I will continue to be grateful that my cats are ok and that I'm ok - it does make you realise that material possessions are handy, but friends, family and pets are what matter most.