Isolation Journal 11

Supergroggy again this morning, went straight to "work" rather than having breakfast and ate cornflakes and had black coffee around 10am.  Work has been ridiculously busy this week and we've had more jobs come in this week that we would tend to expect in a "pre covid" week.  

I worked solidly on a few tasks and didn't end up having lunch until around 2pm.  I had a jacket potato with marmite and a salad with avocado, tomato, lettuce and carrot sticks. 

I carried on working away and spoke to lots of people and drowned in more emails.  I've really got to get on top of my emails as it makes me feel perpetually anxious when I know that I have too many - today there are over 700 that I need to get sorted.

I've also got lots of prep work that I need to do for the new system that we go onto in July - I've been with the company for over 12 years, so I have a lot of data to get validated and right.  I've also had a work dilemna that I need to sort out and will play on my mind unti l've resolved it, I've not done anything wrong, but someone misunderstood something and I need to explain it in a way that means they aren't unhappy.

I listened to the Daily Briefing which was pretty uneventful other than the fact that more people need to wear masks in more situations (I ordered a couple of masks from amazon this morning) and the R rate is likely to be more than 1 in both the South West and North West.

I finished work just after 6pm and got into my running gear as I wanted to get a run in before I listened another Arvon Reading.  I ran for half and hour and did just over 6K as I still need to get my vitality points.  I managed to have a quick shower and put my clothes on and get ready for the reading.  

This time it was Jo Brand and it was warm and engaging and funny.  I cooked tea as I watched on my laptop and made haloumi with roasted peppers, aubergine, corgette and red onion along with some left over bulgar wheat and brown rice cooked with vegetable stock. I then opened the mint chocolate box that I'd been given for my birthday. 

Qubit has spent the day in the same amazon box and Maya has been in and out all day, she came running in when it randomly started haling.

We watched some Picard and drank some Jim Beam and ginger beer and then moved onto the final series of Friends as my brain needed something easy.  Weirdly my left leg has started to be numb this evening, I hope it's just a weird anomalie, it feels different to when the nerve was really sore.

Isolation Journal 6

Another late rising today, but I did manage to read 1 short story before I got out of bed which was an achievement.  I took Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks with me to Costa Rica in December 2018 and read and loved most of it, but inspired by the Flash Fiction earlier this week I've been inspired to read it again.  

We had a ridiculously childlike breakfast of potato waffles and sausages and some Reggae Reggae Sauce and I had a couple of coffees to wake me up properly.  I watched another Hay Festival online talk from A C Grayling about democracy which wasn't hugely positive about the democratic future for us post Covid, but did make some helpful suggestions about how it could be changed to be basically more democratic.  The one quote I especially enjoyed was "There is no such thing as a majority, only a temporary coalition of minorities across different elements of society" (i'm likely misquoting, but this was the gist)

I refilled the coffee machine with the emergency coffee that I got from Amazon whilst we waited for our deliver to arrive from Modern Standard last week (of course they came on the same day10 and Qubit wanted to smell it - he wasn't keen.

I watched a talk from Hay Festival last year by Michael Rosen, I loved his poems as a kid and I love some of his newer work.  It was lovely to see how much the kids in the audience loved his work as well.  Really inspiring.  I've just googled him to find out how old he was out of curiousity and he is 74, I also spotted that he was really poorly with suspected Covid-19 and I hope that he's doing ok.  

Alan prepared the ingredients for a stew and put it in the slow cooker, and I tidied some of the potatoes up out of the kitchen that had started to sprout and planted them in planters in the garden after I had cleared off the weeds.  

For lunch I made us another salad and the avocado was just about perfectly ripe thankfully!  We ate outside on our very lovely garden chair with a blanket over the top to cover from the ridiculous sunshine.  

I watched the Daily Briefing and it was heartening to see that many homeless people have been helped during this crisis, around 15000 people, but I'm sad that there were that many people who were homeless and needed support.  I'm incredibly confused and concerned that they have all of a sudden decided that even though the death rate is the same as when we went into lockdown, they have deemed it ok for those who have been shielding to go outside again.  The photos of crowded parks and beaches also massively worry me, I am incredibly fortunate to be able to work from home and not have to go into busier situations in the coming weeks unless I choose to, so I'm going to choose to remain not too different from my current situation to hopefully mitigate the easing of lockdown which (in my opinion) is just too early to be safe.

I decided to go for my run and needed to find the last photo for my photo challenge for the theme "chasing rainbows" and I ran into the village and said hello to some of our friends including our 6 year old dance teacher from yesterday.  

I found a couple of rainbows in the village and then ran up to Lumby and found a couple more.  I ran back through Lumby and debated whether to go left and a longer route or right for a shorter one.  I was pleased that I went for the longer route back and enjoyed some beautiful evening light.  I had a nice chat with our neighbours at number 2 on the way back in.

Alan's stew was nearly ready so I had a shower and then ate some tasty dumplings and enjoyed the last of the meat (stewing steak)) from our very delicious order from The Ethical Butcher.  He put on Space Force, but I've been a bit distracted so I'm not sure what I make of it.  

Lauren had finished work at 8 so we had a wrap up video chat on our creative week and we have a few really good ideas for collaboration of work for flash fiction.  She also shared a great drabble with me in relation to our idea for our collaboration.  I've started mine... let's see how it all turns out.  

Isolation Journal 2

After another late evening writing before bed so we were woken up with a start at 8am by Amazon delivering a parcel for Alan.  I got back into bed and fell back to sleep for a bit and it was probably around 10am before we got up.  

We had cornflakes for breakfast (which apparently provides you with 50% of your daily Vitamin D needs which I'd never focussed on as much until I knew it can help your body be more resilient to Covid, well apart from when I binged on it after I broke my shoulder in 2018)

I listened to another Hay Festival Lecture on vaccinations (well half before I had to cook lunch) and again I'll finish listening again.  We had gnocchi fried with chorizo, courgette and spring onion and Alan picked and prepped some of the artichoke that we've been growing in the garden.  He used garlic oil and roasted them in the oven.  We've been really enjoying the Artichokes as have the ants and the aphids, it's hard to clean them all off!  We ate outside and it was really hot!

I wrote 2 cards/letters one to my Dad's cousin Polly who I know is living by herself and I'm guessing might be finding lockdown more challenging and also one to my friend Gloria who is turning 40 - I found a weird inspo card from the 90s that I've had in my possession since it was being thrown out by the worst company I think I've ever worked for.   The card said "Desire breeds Power" and I think she'll enjoy the oddness of it.  

As a CIRF part sponsored by my running club Hyde Park Harriers I had set out a plan to deliver marathon coaching this year, but with all the marathons postponed and not being able to run in groups I've been preparing some session plans for people to do whilst they are running by themselves.  So far I've done a session on intervals, a progression session and today was a hill reps session.

I also listened to a parkrun podcast that has been continuing in lockdown - With Me Now as I tidied out the awkward cupboard in the kitchen to put in the new pans that arrived from Amazon at 8am this morning.  Alan also watered the garden with the hose and accidentially knocked off the water to the dishwasher and then subsequently fixed the dishwasher.

We decided to go for a run to post my 2 letters and took it steady as it was warm and Alan is regaining his fitness after some time out from running.  I also twinged my Piriformis and so was taking it a bit slower.  It took us a little longer than planned so I ended up dialling into a weekly call that I have with my friends Hayley and Sam via zoom at 5pm whilst we were still walking home across a field.  

I had a good chat and catch up with Hayley and Sam and then I debated whether to do the Wednesday evening online Zumba class with my friend Gui and I did and took it easy.  Qubit arrived in the middle and meowed loudly.

We then had Hello Fresh for tea - spicy meatball curry and rice and then rhubarb crumble and vinetta for dessert and caught up with Have I got News for You 

I'm now currently enraged by my Mum sharing a post defending Dominic Cummings, which I really don't understand when she is far more negatively affected by government policy than I am, I could say a lot more on this, but I'm currently engaged in a row with my mum on messenger.

Isolation Journal 1

I really should have started an isolation journal back in March, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only person feeling like this.  At the time when everything started to change, it changed fast and even though I had more "time" my mental energies were a bit frazzled.

For me as I've mentioned in my previous post it all felt (feels) a bit like a dream, we flew out to a tropical island and by the time we flew back my reality was very different, but rather than try and distill the past 10 weeks into a journal entry, I'm going to just think about today as part of the weekly challenge from Curtis Brown Creative.

Last night I went to bed fairly late as I have this week off as holiday, I'd decided to participate in a creative writing week with my friend Lauren and so I didn't end up getting into bed until around 1am as I'd been up doing a freewriting challenge.  Annoying my laptop decided to freeze and omitted half of what I'd written!

It meant that I woke up after around 7.5 hours of sleep and finally dragged myself out of bed after 9am knowing that I needed to get myself ready for a cycle ride.  I'd arranged to meet my cousin for a socially distanced catch up at Towton Battlefield and swap cakes.  My cousin is gluten free so I decided to make some chocolate cornflake cakes and used my favourite life hack ever of melting chocolate with a hairdrier.  I ate a banana for breakfast and had a black coffee from our lovely new coffee machine.

Alan came with me which was helpful as I'm still a bit nervous about cycling and despite googlemaps claiming it was 4.5 miles it ended up being 6 miles.  We met just after 11am and had a nice long chat whilst some farmers were laying out some cabling across the field.  We had the new awkward scenario of how to exchange cakes whilst keeping a social distance, it almost looks like a very small hostage exchange.  I felt bad on the way back as Alan pointed out that we'd not actually gone for a stroll around the Battlefield especially after reading my favourite 1 star review.

boring field

I like to come to the old battle fields. This battle field is the most boring one out of them all there is nothing to see but boring old fields. I payed a tone of money to get there and when i got there all it is, is fields after fields and the best moment was the trip there and back!!!!!!

I made some pasta for lunch with some roasted courgette and yellow pepper and chorizo and made some marmite sauce for mine after my friend Lauren had told me about it - basically cook the pasta and save some pasta water and mix it with butter and marmite.  It was very salty, but delicious.

Whilst I was cooking I listened to half of a talk from the The Hay Fesitval online by Devi Sridhar above the Covid-19 pandemic and I need to finish watching it because she was giving some really balanced critique of the UK handling including the observation that countries with less strong health systems were more rapid and robust with their responses and consequently experienced less deaths than those who on paper were better set up with strong health systems and so perhaps delayed their decisions to respond longer.  

We ate lunch and I watched another event from The Hay Festival live by Daniel Davis on immunity and Covid-19, Lauren was also watching and we both found that it was very science based in explanations and for me I need to re-watch it!

Lauren and I then had a video call to talk through the writing that we had done and to compare some notes about how we'd found the writing exercise.  It was really nice to actually do some writing and have someone else give some feedback.  I had written a piece of freewriting and thought about the concept of freedom in lockdown and Lauren had written a piece inspired by the writing prompt He knew she’d never come back.  Lauren had written with pen and paper and it made me think that I might like to try doing some writing that way as I think typing and writing use slightly different parts of your brain.  We're going to do some more writing and discussion over the week and have both booked onto a "flash fiction" course with Arvon on Thursday.

After I'd finished the call I watched the Daily Briefing from Downing Street which had two of the questions from the public that I would be asking if I'd been given the chance - Will people fined in similar situations in lockdown looking to access childcare now be able to appeal their fines in light of Dominic Cumming's behaviour being described as "legal" and also a question about if we can go shopping for non essentials why and when can we see our families?  Matt Hancock gave a more consistent briefing than we have seen over the past couple of days, but was extremely dismissive of the media and didn't allow follow-ups on their questions.  I'm worried about why we have the highest death rate and yet we still don't have a robust test, track and trace system set up and what is happening with the app?  It amazes me that people are still willing to defend our government without question as we are so far behind the world in being able to get back to some sense of normal life.  

After the briefing I decided to go for a run, I'm aiming to run around 1000 miles in 2020 which sounds like a lot, but is actually only 4.4K per day when you break it down.  I also wanted to take some pictures for the photo competition that one of the ladies from my running club has set.  I took pictures for the "bugs eye view" and "red, blue or yellow" categories.  I was going to go for a run up and down the hill on the road next to the house to keep an eye out for an amazon pantry delivery, but it had been left by the door when I went to set out for my run so I unpacked it and set off.  I ran 5K in 27 minutes.

Alan made dinner and we had a Hello Fresh recipe of Lamb Kofta and he even made a rhubarb crumble which we had with a bit of vinetta that was delivered with the Amazon Pantry order.  The biggest issue I have with lockdown is just how much sugar and puddings I'm eating, generally I've been healthier in terms of sleep and excercicse - I'm running, cycling, zumba and walking as well as Pilates classes, but I definitely need to try and cut down on the sweet things!

Whilst eating dinner, we watched a very odd film that promised more in the description than it delivered.  The Voices - A likable guy pursues his office crush with the help of his evil talking pets, but things turn sinister when she stands him up for a date.  It gets 6.4 / 10 on IMDB, but I would probably give it 3 - 4 as it really didn't have a very coherent plot and was just a bit gross, but not in a funny or contributing to the plot way.

We then put Friends on again in the background whilst I started to  write my isolation journal...

Cooking Class and a relaxing afternoon and a dinner in a "quiet restaurant for quiet people"

My plan this morning was to fulfill a bucket list desire of running in Bali...  Rachel my friend had asked me if I would have any room in my suitcase for a few books and bits and pieces before I flew out and I said "sure!"  10kg of children's literature later I was pleased with the 30kg Malaysian air allowance!  My plan was to jog across to her house which is only 3 KM away, but with only 4 hours sleep due to jet lag and general rubbishness about going to bed at a sensible time, I ended up sleeping in and left them on the balcony for her to collect later as by 9am we needed to be at our cooking class at Bumi Bali!

I work Anna up and we rushed (a little) to get ready with a similar breakfast to yesterday - again a very garlicky omelette, Bali Coffee and fresh fruit.  We got to Bumi Bali and were greeted by our teacher and in a class with a German family of 4 with teenage children and a Dutch couple - everyone was down to earth and relaxed and we had a really nice time together.

Our first exercise on the course was a trip to the Ubud market to look at the ingredients that we would need for our cooking.  We looked at a whole range of unusual vegetables, fruits and spices in colourful and fragrant (i.e. a mixture of very "strong" smells) across the market.  We discovered that the fruit we bought yesterday with snakelike skin was indeed called "snake fruit" by many!  

After our tour of approx 45 minutes where we encountered bitter melon, different types of galangal, ginger, vanilla pods and durian fruit we walked back to the restaurant to start our class.  If I'm totally honest I'm a little disappointed that we didn't *actually* buy the ingredients we were using from the market itself, but at least they were all ready for us when we returned to the restaurant.

The first thing that we were to learn was how to make Bumbu Bali a spice base for multiple dishes.  This involved a large number of ingredients being blended and friend in coconut oil including:  fresh ginger, shallots, cloves, red chills, greater galangal, lesser galangal, fresh turmeric, coriander seeds, candlenuts, black pepper corns, white pepper corns, nutmeg, garlic, cumin, sesame seed and shrimp paste.  You blend all this together and fry - it smells amazing!

The Bumbu Bali was then mixed with some blanched vegetables to make Sayur Urab and also some fried rice for our starters - blanched veg was coordinated by Anna who had to put the carrots and long beans in first, followed by all the other cabbage and "softer" beg.

After we'd munched through our first course the Bumbu Bali was used again to season chicken legs for our Opor Ayam - chicken curry with coconut.  We also used the Bumbu Bali to make satay with minced pork and we wrapped it first around a usual satay stick and then around a stick of lemon grass which made the flavour so much fragrant - although would cost far too much to be practical in the UK.  Also it is more difficult than you would think to wrap the satay around the stick - pinching the mixture and anti-clockwise turning is the trick it would appear!  The curry bubbled away for a while and when it was finished we got to eat it with some more rice and the sauce was lovely - we slightly winced at how much coconut oil had gone it, but then again "it's natural! so that's all fine right??

Our last dish was dessert - Pisang Goreng - or fried bananas!  Fairly simple - slice bananas into slices lengthways at an angle and then mix up flour, sugar and egg and dip the bananas in and then deep fry!  We had ours with syrup served on top!

After our feasting session we were pretty full so we wondered down to the internet cafe to print out our plane tickets to Lombok - felt old school to be in an internet cafe!  Anna needed decent coffee so we went along to one of my favourite places in Bali to eat and drink - Juice Ja - Anna had a cappuchino and I had a Bali coffee.

The plan was then to come back to the hotel, I was going to sleep (but blogged instead) and Anna went tourist shopping.

After she got back we went for a wonder and walked up to the tjampuham bridge which is still stunning and I bought some Almond body spray which doesn't actually smell like almond, but reminds me of a perfume I loved from when I was 15!

Getting a little thirsty we stopped into a fun looking place called Gedong Sisi which was really nicely decorated, pretty busy and had happy hour cocktails!  We had a quick drink whilst making plans to see Rachel and her husband Made for dinner and then wandered down to Tutmak for another drink (I had a Bintang and Anna sampled Balinese Rose wine) and then Rachel arrived.  We met up with Made in the car and drove a short distance to Miro's Garden Restaurant which I'd not been to since we went after Rachel and Made got married which is the first reason that I came to Bali.  

It's a medium priced restaurant where after a starter, two 500ml beers and a beautiful main of Nasi Campur it feels a bit expensive at circa 175,00 rupiah plus tax i.e. less than £9!  The food and restaurant is beautifully presented with flowers everywhere and beautiful paintings and furniture with water features throughout.  The restaurant is fairly quiet and a little bit off the Ubud beaten track, but there were still a fair few people eating there.  We had some lovely food - loved how my Nasi Campur was presented with each individual element either in a banana leaf or palm leaf dish.  

As I've not seen Rachel for nearly 2 years and we were having fun we had a few animated discussions - in particular explained the seriousness that the foot bath ingredients were explained to us at the massage and luxury spar yesterday and so we were giggling a little.  From out of the corner of the area we were eating a chap wandered over to us to inform us that this was a "quiet restaurant for quiet people to eat" which he felt the need to state at least 4 times!  Of course by this point we now felt terrible, even though we'd done nothing wrong other than giggle a little bit - and this wasn't a staff member, just some guy that felt the need to tell us to be quiet in a slightly odd way.  It reminded me of two previous occasions where I ended up feeling terrible for enjoying the atmosphere of a Ben Folds gig at Manchester Apollo (Hardly a small and intimate venue) and chatted briefly to my friends about the gig and we were all told by a particularly grumpy young woman in a dodgy hat that she had come to "watch Ben Folds and not listen to you!" but displayed not even one iota of passion for the rest of the gig!  And then there was Nepal - after a long day of trekking the guides and sherpas were relaxing by dancing like mad to an iPhone through 2 tiny speakers and we were joining in, it was "gosh" 8.50 pm and an angry looking man - who we guessed might be Eastern European from what we could tell - was staring at us for a few minutes, he then exploded screaming at us and yanking the speakers off the table "Finish, finished, FINISHED!!!  People are trying to sleep!!!  My family are trying to sleep!!!  The lovely natured Evan from our group - an ex professional ballet dancer from Australia said "people want to dance!" and the chap nearly hit him!  Incidentally his "children" were in their late teens early 20s!  So these things make me wonder a bit - I'm often highly irritated by what I perceive to be deliberately antisocial behaviour of other people at restaurants and other places, but I've not once (apart from perhaps shushing some teenagers when I was watching the first Harry Potter film in the cinema) ever passed comment and certainly haven't felt the need to make anyone feel too awkward - so I'm thinking I'm either:

a. too nice

b. too noisy and inconsiderate until it's pointed out

c. or both!

Answers on a postcard!