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 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.

Isolation Journal 63

My plan was to wake up a bit early to prep for my charity pitch meeting, so I woke up annoyingly at 7.50am and had a snooze until 8.10am and then my alarm went off.  I got up and brought the milk in and it was pouring with rain and so then I made my breakfast and coffee.  I had yoghurt, apple and granola, but I put some of the homemade lemon curd that my friend had given me on Saturday - it was delicious, really lemony.

I logged on and did the team call with Katie and then prepped for my meeting.  I think it went ok, it was 4 trustees on MS teams, and one of them had to turn off her camera because her audio wasn't working.  I made the classic error of forgetting to ask how long I had (turns out 30 mins rather than the hour I'd assumed) and I spent more time asking them questions than "selling", but hopefully that's not a bad thing.  

I then had *alot* of emails to try and get through along with some admin and was full on until Alan heated up some lunch from the dinner that we'd had yesterday.  I snatched a few moments to order a hamper of gluten free treats for my brother as it's his birthday tomorrow.  It was hard as some of the stuff looked gluten free, but wasn't obvious.  I also found a few bits and pieces as suggestions for Alan's brother's wife and he ordered something for her birthday which is later this week.

I then had an interview with a very senior candidate from the private sector who wants to make a move to the charity sector and she was good, but I think it's going to be slow at the level that she's looking at for a little while.  

The rest of the afternoon was sorting out admin mostly for the placement I have starting tomorrow and one for Rachel starting later on in the week.  

I eventually finished up around 6.45pm and after much persuading managed to get Alan to agree to a run.  To try and make it easier to run together I'd suggested exploring the woods I went in yesterday, but he wasn't keen to run that far, so I suggested driving and parking closer, but he also wasn't keen on where I'd suggested to park so he suggested we drove to Towton Battlefield and we went for a run around the battlefield trail.  The sunlight was beautiful and there were some lovely views and we ran and looked at some of the different info boards.  At one point we encountered a 14 week old black lab puppy that was excited and jumped up and down at us and scratched my legs by accident.  We explored down a path to Cock's Bridge and then went in a loop past the pub.  We did 5K in 48.56.

When we got back I made tea and scoffed the leftover chips from Friday evening's takeaway whilst I listened to the archers.  We had the Hello Fresh Pork Penne Caponata and then after I'd spilled it all down my run kit I had some lemon tart with cream.  

We watched Peep Show and I then went up for a shower and worked out that the shower head is broken, Alan also worked out the cat flap was broken and managed to change the batteries and fix it on top of fixing the shelf in the fridge with Milliput.  

I watched a bit of Catfish and looked for showerheads.

Isolation Journal 62

Alan woke up and got straight out of bed at 8.50am and then went to fix the TV/Upgrade it and I snoozed until he rang me and wanted feedback on what the tv picture was doing.

I stayed in my PJs and slobbed around and then when he'd finished I made scrambled eggs, black pudding and toasted left over bread from yesterday.  I wrote "I love you" in sriracha on Alan's plate, but he wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped.

We put on a film and watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them although half way through Alan got interupted to go and help our nextdoor neighbour with her IPhone upgrade, so I got dressed into my run kit and then I tidied, hoovered, cleaned the kitchen and watered the plants and one of the neighbours further down Donna asked what Alan liked to drink as she wanted to thank him for his work on the TV.  Alan managed to turn on the TV to play Tina Turner from next door which was a bit of a surprise when "Simply the Best" started blasting out.

I watched Catfish whilst waiting for him to come back and we finished the film which was quite good and I enjoyed even if I was playing on my phone for a lot of it.  We had a pre-pared pizza and some coleslaw that Alan made for lunch.  Alan had a nap as he was really tired.  The nextdoor neighbours popped around with a bottle of Gentleman Jack to say thanks for his help.

I read through a piece of Flash Fiction for my friend Lauren and gave some thoughts (it was good!) and then finally got organised and went out for a run in a nice sunny evening and did about 7 miles which was more than I was planning.  I turned on the Strava app as it's still not working for Garmin to sync to Garmin Connect or to Strava.  I went with a planned route, but spotted a different turning that I'd not explored and went into the woods and found a burned out car.  I was a bit nervous as I was by myself, but it was a fun route and I must take Alan back.

I had a quick shower when I got back and Alan prepped some veg and made Ketjap Manis and cooked some mince and then I finished off the stir fry and we watched Peep Show.  We drank Lynchberg Lemonades and a Knob Creek and ginger beer.  

I then spoke to my brother as he'd rung whilst I was running, he was mostly worried about my Dad who had been wearing a back brace the last time that he saw him and was worried about what he could do to help.  We talked about it and his 3rd oldest was running around naked looking at the caterpillar he'd rescued from the garden and put in a pot.   I mopped down the house as I'm keen to keep it clean on a weekly basis if I am able to.

I then had to prep for a meeting tomorrow to pitch for some work with trustees of a charity for a senior role.   

Isolation Journal 61

I had set my alarm for 9.30am as I was heading over to see my friend Lauren in Chorley and I wanted to be able to set off at a decent time.

I woke up around 8.30am, but managed to snooze for a bit more and then got up and set off the breadmaker to make some bread and made some coleslaw with Sriracha and some smoked Wensleydale and some Yorkshire Red cheese as well as packing some chutney, butter and picnic plates and cutlery. 

I had banana bread and yoghurt for breakfast and had a coffee that Alan had kindly made for me and then got in the shower and got dressed, it's the first time I've been out to really meet someone for ages so I actually put a bit of make up on.  I wa a bit groggy and I checked my temparature before I went and it was 37.2.

I got in the car around 11.30am with an ETA of 1pm and set off.  I spoke to my Mum and Dad on the way and listened to a bit of Catch 22 and it took about an hour and a half to get over to Chorley and I managed to find the house ok.  It's the furthest that I've driven in months.

I had a cup of Earl Grey tea in the garden and a chat with Lauren and then we cut up the bread and headed up for a walk and a picnic.  We walked up White Coppice which was really pretty, after mostly being in the Vale of York for months now for my walks and runs, going up steep hills was really good!  We had a really good chat and catch up together and I reminded her that it's about 3 years since we last met up and hopefully we won't leave it as long next time.  She also made me a lovely fimo beaded necklace which I'm wearing now.

We had a picnic next to a waterfall and I got to try some of her very tasty miso mushroom rolls and had a diet coke and a fizzy water.  

We then walked back a different way and got really stuck in deep puddles and mud, but it was fun and lovely to look at the beautiful views.  We walked back past a house that Lauren's Mum and her husband are building and it was amazing - huge windows, underfloor heating a nice big garden and some decking.  

I had another cup of tea and then headed home and took about 70 mins to drive and by the time I was back Alan had made dinner which was Aubergine Curry and I made some lynchberg lemonades for dessert had a Gu pudding and an ice lolly as well.

I've got a bit of a sore throat which worries me, but hopefully it's nothing.  We watched 2 episodes of Spooks, a couple of Mock the Week and then I put on Catfish.

Isolation Journal 56

I work up at about 5am and felt really groggy and ended up falling back asleep and getting up for a shower at about 8.30am.  I got the milk in and had cornflakes and coffee for breakfast, today was a 3 coffee day.  I woke up with a headache and it lasted all day, I think it was distrupted sleep, stress and dehydration - even paracetamol didn't fully clear it.

We had to have a conversation at work about going back into the office, it makes me nervous, but it sounds as though it's going to be from September that we'll be going back in.  I'm hoping it will all work out ok.

I had an appraisal at 10am and had lots of jobs to pass over to people this morning.  I got through a fair chunk of work and then signed on to do my Pilates class online as I knew I felt stiff from gardening yesterday.  

During my class I saw that Hermes had managed to deliver my new Garmin Watch to my work and had not told me a signature "due to Covid" I eventually managed to work out that it was reception that had signed for it and that they were open 24/7 so I could pick it up whenever.  This stressed me out.  I had some of the couscous from last night for lunch.

I then had a training course for the new computer system at work which also stressed me out as it generated more questions than it answered for me.  

I got some more work done, but not as much as I wanted as I'm really busy, but I did manage to at least get some coverage on some of the roles that we are recruiting.

I had a call about my flat and some sort of certificate that I needed for the electrics which costs more money, I confirmed that it was fine to go ahead with this, I then decided the best thing to do was to drive to get my new garmin watch from work and at the same time go and put the replacement coffee table in my flat.  Alan very kindly had assembled the little Ikea table and so I put it in my car and headed off to the office around 6pm and it only took about 27 mins to get to work.  I managed to get my parcel no problem and I'd parked in the carpark under the building and so I then headed out to the flat with my table.  The fob still worked, but when I put the key in the lock it wouldn't turn, I know they had a problem getting the keys back from my tenant so I'm thinking that the locks have been changed?  It was really frustrating.  I'd also asked the agents to help me out by collecting some of the post, but they had clearly done nothing about it as it was bulging and full to the brim with flyers, TV Licence and Council tax demands.  I cleared them into a full shopping bag and headed back to my car and then back home.

When I got back Alan cooked some Hello Fresh Bacon Rigatoni for tea and I managed to charge up and start off my watch and persuaded him to go out for a run to try it out after sorting through all the post from my flat.  

It seems that Alan really hates running with me at the moment.  I'm trying hard to encourage him as I know that he's going through a down patch with his running and his fitness, but he is showing so much resentment if I make any comments or suggestions about it.  I don't really know what to do, I try to encourage him, distract him, but he got really upset when I said I wanted to try running up and down the hill segment on the driveway to really try out my watch as it made him feel bad.  He then would only walk and didn't really want to engage with what I can do to help.  I feel as though all I can do is go out running by myself so that I can't make anyone feel bad.  He can't tell me what to do to make him feel like he wants to run with me, and I worry if I don't ask him to come with me he just won't go at all and I want him to be healthy.  He seems to blame his decline on fitness on when I broke my shoulder and couldn't run as much (I still went running an awful lot and we ran the Yorkshire 3 peaks with my arm in a sling), the fact he doesn't have as much time to cook food (we definitely share the load in cooking evening meals), the fact that I have been finishing work later, the fact that we have moved out of Leeds and probably other things.  I'm not really sure what I can do and it makes me feel that I should just do my own thing, but it makes me sad when we met running and it was something that we enjoyed.  We walked back and watched the bats and I didn't really get a chance to try out my watch at all.  As a qualified coach in running fitness who has written plans to get people back to running and runs the #runandtalk group I feel lost as to what to suggest.  It's like he's given up on running.

I logged on and did a bit more work and then had a glass of wine whilst Scrubs was playing.

Today has been quite frankly and annoyingly shit day.

Isolation Journal 55

We woke up at a vaguely reasonable time to say that we were up late again.  We got up and I made crumpets for breakfast, I made mine with honey and marmite (one of each, not mixed together!) 

We ate breakfast outside and I suggested where I could locate the pallet collars from Hayley and Flower next to the compost heap and so we moved them around and had a think and I set about digging up the grass underneath and moving compost from the compost heap into the first one.  Alan and I then relocated the potato plants across and then we had a break for lunch and had gnocchi with chorizo, spring onions and home made pesto and we had a mild disagreement with what to have and how to cook it.  Alan also made us some iced lattes.

I then did some more gardening and Alan was studying for his MBA and also watching the cricket in his office.  I watched a bit of Catfish during m break, but in the meantime I was listening to a good chunk of "How to Stop Time" by Matt Haig on Audible.

We needed some more compost/top soil and so headed over to Lumby Garden Centre and picked up 3 bags of top soil and then went to look for some flowers for the pots in the front garden and picked up 2 yellow perennials, a larger yellow one and a red one.  We also picked up some gardening gloves and a stretchy hose.  We wore masks inside, but only saw one other person with one which was disappointing, but they had installed screens at the till and had some hand sanitiser.  

I finished off the gardening and then had a brief rest to watch the end of one of the episodes of Catfish.  I then took all the recycling out, did 2 loads of washing, cleaned the kitchen, tidied the downstairs, hoovered and mopped the house.  

I then made couscous with roasted vegetables (aubergine, yellow courgette and red pepper) and haloumi for tea which was really delicious and decided to have a glass of white wine with dinner.  It was from Naked Wines and a lovely sauvignon blanc that was so delicious I logged on to review it.  

We watched some more Spooks and I did lots of coding of candidates for work as we go live on our new system in only 2 weeks.

I had thought I'd go for a run, but I was pretty active gardening all day and my back was killing by the end of it.

Isolation Journal 52

Today felt really hard, I'm not exactly sure why.  I woke up not too tired and had enough time to get up and make coffee and yoghurt, apple and granola for breakfirst.

I logged on for our team call and got stuck into work, but really struggled to be as productive as I'd hoped.  I'd booked onto an Arvon course with Hisham Matar and listened in the background for the first section and then participated for the second, he was really interesting and the writing exercises were really interesting - write a description of the room you are in, past tense and in the third person and then 3 people including my friend Lauren and a lady that Lauren googled and found online and then they had to rewrite the same piece and task but without stating it, having in mind that the main character had found out that they were to become a parent.  I found it challenging, but a good exercise to complete.  It made me feel like I should definitely be doing more writing.  I think it's one of the things from a very young age that I've wanted to do is to be a published writer, and so I should really try and make it happen.

Our bathroom sink is really smelly, I tried to clean some of the gunk underneath the plug hole and I managed to drop the stick in there, it's been a clumsy day.

Alan made some scones for lunch and we had them with clotted cream, jam and strawberries - they were delicious!  It did cheer me up a little as did the subscription flowers that arrived, more eucalyptus foliage and some white/yellow snapdragons.  I was busy so  I popped them in a few vases of water and then later on in the evening I tidied them up and moved the hydrageas from last time into one vase for the fresher looking ones and one for the older ones.  I now have 4 vases of flowers around the house.

I did some more work and still struggled to be as productive, did a handover with Rachel who is now on annual leave for 2 weeks - I'm going to be super busy!

I then started cooking dinner, but the chicken in the Hello Fresh mango chicken and bulgar wheat took too long to cook so I had to hand over to Alan to finish up and start my end of term guide meeting which was an online Harry Potter Escape room that I'd done with my friend's son.

After guides I sat down with Alan for a bit and he wanted to go for a run and so we went and did 5K up to Sherburn on an out and back route, we went past our local pub that looked pretty busy, but socially distanced and safe. 

I then tidied the kitchen, did a load of washing and set off the dishwasher.  I had a shower in the bath and then listened to the High Low Podcast and put the washing away switching to the Archers.

I then came down and watched some Catfish and updated this blog...

Isolation Journal 51

Alan had a day off today to study and I was also off, but I did have a call at 11am, so we woke up quite late at 9.30am and snoozed for a bit and had around 7 hours of sleep.  I started reading a book at last that my neighbour Kirsty leant me about 4 months ago Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

I got up and let the cats out as I'd messed up the app and then got dressed and Alan brought me a coffee.  After the call I ended up getting into some work and then finishing off a few bits and came down and remembered I wanted to chase my estate agents for my flat, I left a message and by the end of the day I still hadn't heard back.  I think I might have to bite the bullet and actually change agents.  Qubit brought in a tiny shrew that escaped and managed to get under the skirting board in the kitchen and I tried to get it out, first I used a cheese cutter, but it squeaked so I used some straws and I hope it survived when I'd let it go outside.

I made some lunch after another coffee when I realised I'd not had anything for breakfast and I made some noodles cooked in miso soup, some salad with gem lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and some dry fried courgette as well as some prosciuttio ham to finish it up before it went bad.  I listended to PMQs as I was cooking and heard some ridiculous comments from BoJo comparing Keir Starmer having "more briefs than Calvin Klein".

I then drove over to Hayley's as she'd found some pallet collars that needed a new home and we figured we could use them in the garden to make some raised beds.  She had said she had a window only 2 - 3pm and I arrived about ten past 2pm after driving into Leeds properly for the first time since the 13th March and chatting to my Mum on the way.  

We ended up chatting for about 4 hours remaining distanced at all time and I had a lapsang souchon tea and I had debated going on a recce of the St Aidan's 10K, but I was feeling tired and I'd taken paracetamol for a headache earlier (I think a tiredness headache) and so then I drove home again about 6.30pm and Alan was cooking tea.  He made the Hello Fresh Lamb pilauf which was really nice and then we watched Spooks.  Alan also made a Knob Creek and Ginger.

I ordered a load of food including a 5 litre container of olive oil from Deli Fresh and after much debating, ordered a Garmin 945 as the heart rate monitor strap for mine had broken and would cost around £100 to replace and I'd already replaced it once as well as the strap several times, I will maybe sell or auction and donate to charity for my old one.  

Isolation Journal 50

So 50 days in lockdown and journaling about it.  It's been interesting blogging again after not doing a daily blog since early 2000s.  I managed to read the last bit of Where the Crawdads Sing and it was great, I'm not always satisfied by the endings, but It was really interesting and thought provoking.

I was quite slow starting this morning, I find Tuesdays way harder than Mondays at the moment and am quite often lacking in concentration.  I had greek yoghurt, raspberries from the garden and some granola and 2 coffees for breakfast.  I have had a TikTok song stuck in my head for days - I really shouldn't look at these things at night, I found the "original" song which is crude and rude and to the soundtrack of Doop...you can listen here, but it's rude and crude and I warned you...and it's still stuck in my head!

I managed to upload some CVs and had a few teams calls and ended up being really late for eating any lunch until 2pm and so I had a lettuce and cucumber salad and a jacket potato with butter and marmite.  

I then had a call from my friend Hannah who needed some help, she had to go to a visit to a school with her youngest son, but her husband was away sorting funeral arrangements for his mum and wasn't allowed to take her oldest into the school, so I met them at 4pm and went for a walk whilst they had the meeting.  I took a couple of hours back from work, but I logged on when I got home and managed to get 4 candidates uploaded for a job.  I also had a quick chat to my Mum driving over to my friend and then felt bad as I didn't speak to my Dad on the way back that I'd said I would.

Alan had a migraine all day and so felt poorly and spent a lot of time napping on the sofa and in the bed with Maya who did a better job of looking after him than I did.  I cooked dinner at 6.30pm and made a pork ragu Hello Fresh, but Alan wasn't hungry.  I then ate dinner and signed on for my Zoom #runandtalk and caught up with Paul and Ben for an hour and then I logged off and check in on Alan and made him a cup of tea and went out for a run.  I ran about 5.6K and wasn't fast and encountered the reason that one of the nearby roads is closed.  I had a rocket lolly when I got in and ran and had a bath with a bathbomb from my birthday.  I then had another orange juice lolly and ran a bath for Alan and he watched some aircrash investigation.  I then shopped for some fabric for my neighbour to make some masks for Hannah's children with Harry Potter Fabric, but I accidentally ordered it for delivery to my office, I messaged them and hopefully they'll send it here instead!

I also ordered some interesting cat fabric and watched some more catfish.  My Boots order arrived today and also the coffee I'd ordered from Bottega Millanese.

Isolation Journal 48

I got into bed quite late and then read and got really hooked into Where the Crawdads Sing and read for at least an hour when I started to fall asleep and kept dropping the book on my face.  

Alan wasn't in bed by the time I fell asleep which was around 2am, but he was there when I woke up at 10.30am so I read for another 2 hours until he woke up naturally.  This turned out to the right thing to do as he wasn't in bed until around 5am.

We got up and I made food - I made a mini ploughman type lunch with wensleydale, chutney, serano ham, yellow pepper, a granny smith, a salad and some pasta tossed with olive oil, black pepper and garlic.  I had 3 coffees today and I'm not sure that was necessarily the best idea, I also weighed myself and I'm officially the heaviest I've been in 5 years, so it's definitely time to sort that out now!

Alan watched the cricket and I logged onto work and wrote an appraisal only being interrupted slightly when Qubit came covered in ants and we had a call from our neighbour at exactly the same time to say that we had an ants nest at the back door.  We went out and sorted out the ants and then also Alan picked some rhubarb from the garden to make into a crumble for tea.

I finished the appraisal and went for a run and did 5 miles to catch up on my running target and I did a "mile for Karen" as one of the ladies that I know in the running community I'd discovered yesterday was hit by a car on Friday when she was out for a run which is awful.  It's an area that I know me and Alan will have run at least once when he lived in Middleton.

I listened to How to Stop Time by Matt Haig as I was running and it's an interesting book, I like books about the concept of time whether time travel or deeper and more philosophical things.  I also love Matt Haig!

I got back and had a shower in the bath and spoke to my Mum to let her know that the masks I'd ordered for her were showing as dispatched so should arrive soon.  Alan then served tea which was a pasta dish and he'd made a delicious lynchberg lemondate and we let it go down watching Spooks and then had crumble with cream.  I found loads of my emails had ended up in my "spam" folder which is separate to my "junk" folder and I'd got emails from more distant family members who I'd not replied to for nearly a year!  I'd recollected seeing them, but they vanished from my inbox, I feel bad!

I suggested putting Scrubs on at 11.30pm so we didn't get too involved in another episode of Spooks.

Isolation Journal 40

Today was a bit of a lazy day, it must have been around 11am at least before I peeled myself out of bed, the late night and booze made me feel slightly hungover.  

I had yoghurt, granola and blueberries for breakfast and picked some raspberries and blackcurrants on the way back from visiting the compost heap.  I chatted to my friend Lauren on messenger.

We watched a bit of The Office (UK version) and then I got ready to do a virtual escape room with my friend Hannah's son who is 10.   It was a free Harry Potter themed one and done by someone from Peters Township Public Library Page and I specifically gave myself a Great Hall background on Zoom.  I chatted to Alex for a bit afterwards and then played with the whiteboard function and shared some of the wedding photos with him.

I then ended up chatting to my brother for about an hour and a half as he's applying for a promotion in the NHS so I was giving him some advice as he's not had an interview for about 17 years!  He also did some video chat with his 4 kids which was busy and noisy!

Alan made an orzotto with chorizo and courgette and I ate it whilst on the phone to my brother.  

I came back in to watch some tv and tried to start a film - uncut gems, but I kept falling asleep and so Alan put something else on and then I woke up and got up and made the Hello Fresh receipe for tea that should have been Prawn and chorizo soft tacos, but had chicken subsituted for the prawn.  It was a tasty dish.  We watched some more of The Office and then when our food had gone down (and after the Amazon Prime had arrived) we then went out for a run and got ourselves up to 5K and so I could add it to my Not parkrun table, my running this past two weeks has bee far more sluggish.

I then tidied the kitchen and managed to spill the giant bag of sugar everywhere!  Alan made Lynberg Lemonade cocktails that were great and we watched the end of the UK Office and I had a shower and watched some Celebrity Masterchef.

Isolation Journal 39

Alan had booked to go into work this morning so his alarm went off before mine and I was quite groggy.  He went downstairs and Qubit was in the process of killing a mouse.  I was still groggy and sleepy.  He left around 8.50am and my work phone went off at 9am and it was a client, I grabbed a coffee and took on a new role.  It was a 3 coffee day today and I had cornflakes for breakfast.

I then had a lot of work to do, it's been really busy and I had a video interview an my appraisal.  I'd finished writing my appraisal at around 1am as I am a classic ENFP and leave it always to the last minute.

Alan ended up coming home early as a colleague hadn been annoying and inconsiderate and allowed an engineer into the area he needed to be working, he didn't feel safe and so he came home.  

I then had the dinner for lunch from last night for lunch after Alan got home and put the joint of ham into the slow cooker to cook for dinner with some orange juice, mustard, salt, pepper and onion.

I did the interview and then into my appraisal that went well, it's been a tough 6 months, especially since Covid, but I think my boss is realising that I have been able to manage and develop people in a positive way.  I feel much more confident in my abilities as well as I've helped one of my team really succeed well in a very challenging period of time.  We set some goals and I fefel actually very positive about the next few months.

I then was very busy taking feedback on interview for a role that I've been recruiting since February and I arranged some second interviews for next week.

I finished work late, past 7pm and then I went down and made some wedges and got Alan to help me prep a pineapple and put the ham in the oven.  I logged onto Instagram live to watch my friend Lauren's friend Lorraine do her "Cocktagicom" cocktails and comedy session and my convo around Terry Wogan postcards that my Dad had pulled from a skip at the BBC intrigued her enough to get her to add me to instagram live, it was fun!

I finished off dinner, poured a beer for me and Alan and we turned on Freaks which I wasn't overly impressed by.  There were parts like the pop up book that I liked, but some parts were very repetitve and it wasn't a very surprising conclusion, although perhaps I was multitasking.

We then turned on the Jeffrey Epstein documentary series, he's a seriously scary person, I don't understand how he had the time and ability to do what he did.

Isolation Journal - 36

It was my not day off day off today, but I wanted to be on the first call with Katie who is joining our team so I dialled in and then we had another call at 10am nationally that I dialled in, both of them I was in my run kit and Maya joined in!  I had yoghurt, granola, fig and granny smith and 2 coffees for breakfast.

I did a few bits and pieces of work and came up with an idea for an online work book club - I'm very pleased with the name - Page Turners.

I then went for a run, I needed to catch up to hit my running 1000 miles in a year target and today I got to 503 and needed to be on 500 today so I'm back on track!  I was fairly fast around my circuit of South Milford and Lumby and covered 5 miles in 43 mins.  I felt a bit chesty, but I'm mostly sure it's not covid as I logically wouldn't be able to run sub 8 minute miles if it was ill, I bet it's mostly paranoia!  I got a note from the Covid app because I'd had a bit of a sore throat 2 days ago to say that I can get a test if I want one, even though they don't necessarily think that I will test positive as they want to contrast symptoms reported.

I had a shower and then made lunch for me and Alan - a salad some olives, couscous and grilled halloumi.  I finished listening to "What Alice Forgot" and I really enjoyed this book, although I wasn't sure if the ending was really what I'd hoped for or expected, I guess I was almost hoping for a more twisty ending.

I then got my mask ready and sanitiser and left for my 2.40pm appointment to give blood.  I went to a different site today as it was closer and had parking nearby.  The emails took pains to tell me not to be early and arrive at the specific time so proudly getting out of my car at 2.36pm, putting my mask on and walking the 3 minutes to the donation centre I walked through the door and approached the reception desk.  "What time is your appointment?" the masked lady asked sharply, I looked at my watch "in five seconds" I said smiling behind my mask "you have to wait outside until your appointment time" "but it's 5 seconds?!" "you have to wait outside" so I walked out and then straight back in again at 2.40pm "you have to wait until you are called!" she barked at me, "You didn't bloody say that though!" I thought as I waited in the spitting rain.  She called in the 2.40pm appointments about 2 minutes later and I had some covid questions asked quickly and was instructed to go and wash my hands and then go to the "welcome" desk.  I did so and sat in a waiting area for 40 minutes drinking isotonic drink and watching the lady be short with a few more people, some were slightly more direct with their thoughts on her manner!  I had a trainee take me through to ask me questions and then his manager did my haemoglobin test which was fine, I sat down again briefly and then went to donate which didn't take very long at all.  I then had to navigate a mask alongside my cup of squash and penguin biscuit!  I felt fine and so walked back to the car and drove home and rung my boss on the way.

I dropped a feedback form to the NHS Blood with some suggestions for how they could improve things to avoid the weird situation I was in and then I dialled in for a catch up call with Hayley and Sam which was nice, Hayley has been doing some workshops on zoom which sounds like they are going well.  

I then cooked dinner - Hello Fresh Lamb Curry with Naan and initially I was listening to the High Low Podcast, but then called my Mum and Dad for a chat, they seem to be doing ok and are doing a few walks around the park when it's quiet.  The good news it my Mum has got a new phone and it's an Iphone, so hopefully she'll be able to take and send and receive photos a bit better.

We watched a bit of Mock the Week and then Alan went to record some video for his app and I worked on writing an 8 week training plan for people to get back to running with hyde park harriers and planned guides meeting for tomorrow.

I'm still feeling a little bit chesty and a bit of phlegm and my paranoia about this isn't helping!

Isolation Journal 34

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 27

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 13

I realised this evening when out for a run that it's only 2 weeks since the whole Dominic Cummings story broke and it feels like a lot of "news" has happened since that time which is strange as we're still all fairly locked down.  Today I felt fairly low energy, quite low and just wasn't sure what to do with myself really as I didn't feel very productive.  

Again it was a bit of a late rise for us both as I went to bed before Alan did and read some of my book - Uncommon Types by Tom Hanks - it's an attempt to get my brain back into reading and it's working slowly.  My concentration span is terrible these days.  We probably didn't get to sleep until around 3.30am again and so we didn't really get up until about 11am.

I made the same breakfast again and we had home baked bread toast (mine with marmite) and then avocado, scrambled egg and sriacha sauce and we watched some TV the IT Crowd and some more Catfish.  

I dug out my old creative writing from when I was about 20 and doing a module at Uni on my BA English Language and Literature.  It was run by the brother of Nigel Williams, but I can't remember his name!  Nigel Williams lived in Wimbledon and was a reasonably successful novelist and I went to several house parties that his son Jack had when I was about 16 - they were great parties.  I even read one of his books and told his Dad when he came into the kitchen during one of the parties to get a drink.  It's irritating me that I can't remember what his name was maybe John Williams?  As I read through it, particularly the bits from when I was mid 20s I realised just how odd the antidepressants I was on made me behave (especially cipralex and prozac).  I'd written down the highlights of some of my dreams and I know everyone's dreams are odd, but wow these were so strange.  Maybe they'll feed into some writing now that I have the distance and experience from that time in my life to process it all.  It's weird to consider that this is the month that I stopped taking antidepressants 7 years ago, but that I was on them for 12 years of my life.

I did a load of washing and hung it out and put away the dry washing that was on the rack.

I investigated some online writing retreats and listened to the intro of one.  I then went and read upstairs as Alan was playing around with the internet and it kept cutting out.  I set off some dough in the breadmaker.

I came downstairs and watched some more Catfish after Alan had showed me how to use the Apple TV that arrived this afternoon.

The dough finished in the breadmaker and so I made 3 pizzas with tomato puree topped with spring onion and red pepper that Alan prepped for me and then some mozzarella and serrano ham and I also used up some of the roasted veg left over from Friday night.

I let the pizza go down and both Alan and me gave each other neck rubs as we have both had consistent headaches for the last few days.  Maya came running in having caught another bird - again I feel awful about this.

I then got myself out for a run and did 6.1K in just over half an hour and it was cold and I wore the wrong shorts that are too small and short for me.

I had a bath and then we watched Hypothetical and I ate leftover rhubarb and apple crumble with cream.  

Isolation Journal 12

Alan and I were up late until around 3.30am last night, I was writing and working on a piece of flash fiction.   It was of course really late when we woke up, probably about 11am and so we got up and had breakfast.  I'd put a loaf on overnight in the breadmaker and we had scrambled eggs, avocado with sriracha sauce.  

We put Space Force on the TV and I ended up napping on the sofa for a bit which it occurred to me hasn't really happened in lockdown as I'm generally getting a lot more sleep.  

We'd debated going to the usual parkrun location at later than 9am as one of my friends had invited me, but we got up too late.  We even got up too late for virtual parkrun coffeeshop.  Lauren had also invited me to a creative writing group at 1pm, but I was a bit too exhausted although I'm really keen to join it next month.

I hoovered the house and tidied the kitchen and set off the dishwasher and tidied up the lounge - more to be done tomorrow.  I listended to the High Low Podcast as I was doing it.

Alan did more coding and then went to get the shopping via click and collect and I joined the dance class by our friends 6 year old daughter again.  She did a good job and I dropped off my £1 payment on my run along with returning the Singapore guide book that they had leant us and 7 egg boxes that I'd saved up.  They have chickens and right at the start of lockdown were very kind at giving us some eggs on a few occasions.  I debating running with the 6 eggs they gave us, but in the end I picked them up on the way home it seemed like a wiser move!  I ran a bit more steadily as my hips have been sore and so I managed about 3.5 miles in 32 minutes.  

Maya managed to catch and kill and bird and as usually insisted on bringing it all the way upstairs, I love birds and it really breaks my heart when the cats catch and kill them.

Alan cooked a very delicious Carribean lamb curry and made rhubarb and apple crumble for dinner.  

We then watched more Picard and finished the series and then I put on Catfish that I've not watched for ages.  

I considered thoughts around the Black Lives Matters protests, What was really interesting was that Alan mentioned he'd seen 2 people doing a little protest at the supermarket, I wonder if a really organised and very socially distanced protest could reach lots of different locations?  I also read this article which really did make me pause for thought on this.