Isolation Journal 83

Again I woke up quite late, but Alan was still asleep so I went into the other room to mess around on my phone until Qubit demanded I fed him, so I did and then he was sick onto the table so I had to clean it up.

I managed to finish Little Fires Everywhere as Alan went to sleep in the other room and it was a great book - It grabbed me through from about 100 pages in and I really wanted to keep reading on.  It now means I can start my new Matt Haig book - hooray!

I decided to get up and go for a run to get it out the way and so I steadily did 9.1K through a Lumby Loop and a few different segments.  My left leg was quite stingy with the nerve thing that I've had for the last few days, but not really whilst I was running, but I took a fairly steady pace.  It was warm, but started to drizzle as I was running.

When I got back Alan had made pancake batter and so made us some pancakes with apple sauce with maple syrup.  We watched some UK Celebrity Storage Hunters and then I tidied and hoovered a bit before having a bath.

We then went over to see Alan's brother and the kids and had pizza cooked in the BBQ oven which was delicious.  The kids were quite hyper and excited to see us and did a lot of running around.  Winston dog was also excited to see us.  I had a glass of prosecco as Alan was driving us to and from.  I also gave some of the spare bedding plants to them as I'd run out of space to plant them.  I ordered some Amazon Prime Now whilst we were chatting as I figured I needed some ibuprofen gel and ibuprofen for my leg, hopefully it will help.

We got back just before 10pm and the order arrived about 30 minutes afterwards and so we watched more UK Celebrity Storage Hunters and cuddled the cats who were being particularly loving.  

I realised I've run about 1010K in my current trainers and I've not used my Vitality half price Runners Need discount yet for this year - my last pair were bought back in November 2019.  I decided to buy some next generation Asics Nimbus 22 and also a pair of Aftershokz headphones.  

Isolation Journal 82

Alan I think had a bit of a sleepless night and moved around a lot and I ended up waking up around 7.30am and then slept a bit more until 8.30am and then woke up and went in the spare room to mess around on my phone and read and I had a message from my Mum as she was worried that the weather would be poor and as we'd be meeting in the garden we worked out that it wouldn't be as much point.  So I decided to drive down next weekend instead.  My Dad also posted a highly irritating post on facebook about basically people not working shouldn't be getting benefits and that you can't tax the poor into prosperity - he's been retired for 23 years and worked for 33, my Mum probably only worked full time for about 7/8 years and then stopped to have children and didn't really work much other than a part time role when I was about 13 and another that went full time when I was at unin, but our generation are likely to have to work until around 70 years old and I don't feel this way.  As Alan pointed out, people can work extremely hard and earn less than millionnaires or indeed billionnaires as wealth isn't a clear indication of work ethic and especially not fairness.  

I stayed in the spare room messing around on my phone and reading "Little Fires Everywhere" until he woke up when the door bell went at around 11.30am and I suggested we should have breakfast or maybe brunch instead.  The door was Royal Mail who had delivered the cool mat to us that I'd ordered for him.

I decided to go to Berts Barrow and I bought some milk, cream, bread, sausages, burgers, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumber, cold brew vanilla flavoured yoghurt, broccoli and it was about £25.  There was about the right number of people in the shop, I wore my mask and there was a queue outside when I finished.  

I made scrambled eggs on toast with sausages and coffees and orange juice.  I had marmite on my toast and some sriracha sauce.

Alan introduced me to the very addictive show of Storage Hunters and I watched far too much of this today!  We discussed going for a walk and thought about going to Malham Cove, but neither of us fancied driving too far and so we went to St Aiden's where we've run a race at before, but not walked around.  As RSPB members we get to take advantage of free parking which was good.  We walked about 5K in around an hour and a half and chatted and got rained on a bit which was actually quite nice.  Alan has been really tired and lethargic and I was feeling a bit low energy today as well.

It was Jenny's birthday today and I'd ordered her some flowers and also some craft stuff, I think she's finding things a bit challenging at the moment, so hopefully it helped to cheer her up.

We drove back and then watched more TV (more Storage Hunters), and I had some toast as a snack and more storage hunters and Alan went to cook the last Hello Fresh recipe which was fish, but the fish had massively gone off so he made a couple of burgers instead.

I'm sort of glad I didn't go today as I've been feeling tired and have a bit of a sore throat, not sure where I would have caught anything from.

Isolation Journal 81

Alan was up until around 4am doing his exam, so sleep was a bit broken.  I had apple, granola, yoghurt and lemon curd for breakfast, but quite late and I also had 2 coffees.  I got the milk and orange juice in.

We had a kick off call at 9am and I also then had a handover call with Katie who is off on holiday, so I will need to work out how to recruit marketing people for the next 2 weeks.

Today was very much a sort out of admin and emails day, but I did also have some good conversations with candidates and clients and will be more organised for next week.

The game that I ordered for Alan arrived and we thought about playing it today, but we were both a bit too tired.

I made some pasta, mushrooms, garlic, onion and courgette with cream for a fairly late lunch at around 1.30pm.  I set off the dishwasher after lunch.  I chatted to my brother as I'd been debating going to see him and my parents this weekend.  It's a really long drive, but I'm not likely to see them all that easily for a while and I'd feel uncomfortable going after I'm back in the office again.  It seems easier to stay with my brother than a hotel or indeed my parents and at least I know he's had Covid, so it's less likely he'll have it.  I'm slightly worried about the flash floods forecast for down towards the south, so I'll have to check the weather warnings before I set off.  

I sorted out some purchase order issues and more admin and got my emails down to a more sensible number, re-wrote a spreadsheet and went through around 30 job applications for a remote working job that had over 139 applications.  I had to sort through them before I could delete them.  

I managed to speak to the letting agents of my flat to find out whether the key had gone missing as they had not got back to 3 emails.  Apparently the tenant had moved in ok and there was some works I'd paid out for, but now that it's been done I should receive a statement update soon.  

I finished work at around 7.30pm and we ordered a Chinese - I had hot and sour soup, chips, crispy beef in peking sauce and some waterchesnuts and bamboo shoots, Alan had a spring roll, chicken in ginger and garlic and singapore noodles and banana fritters.  I am very full now!  

I went out for a run and again was fairly fast, even though my legs ache from yesterday and I did 6K in just over 30 mins including a PR on a segment and came 7th overall.  The takeaway was delivered about 1.5 hours later, but was good, I had to ring up and make sure it was on it's way.

I spoke to my parents who seem worried about me coming, but happy to see me in the garden.  It will be a long drive, so I should really go to bed at a sensible time.

I managed to do a bit more linked in work whilst watching TV, mostly Dave and Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown and QI and a bit of CSI New York.

I also stopped my anxiety, but finally booking the virtual escape room ready for Monday - we're going to try this one Out of Hours

Isolation Journal 80

 A bit groggy again this morning, quick coffee and then onto the team call briefly before a 9.15am training session on coaching with Jane who is also my mentor and she's great!  

We talked about setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time limited) goals.  Then we talked about GROW coaching model where you identifiy the goal the coachee wants to set themselves, discover the current reality, discuss options and then come up with a way forward.  It was a really useful session and left me feeling motivated.

I then had a few calls and went and did Pilates at 12pm which was a very sweaty and warm affair.  2 things arrived for me whilst I was doing the class, my copy of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig that I ordered when I booked onto the Guardian Live event this evening which was an interview and Q&A with him and also my Arena Flowers subscription which this week are lots of pink lisianthus alissa.

I dashed back upstairs to deal with some calls whilst I put some potato waffles and sausages in the oven to cook and arranged my flowers into vases.

The afternoon was a mix of meetings and admin, I hopefully will get more time for proactive calling tomorrow.  We had a good meeting with a client, although I think we'll need to dig a little deeper for candidates in terms of what they are looking for.

I finished up around 6.30pm and had to rush to cook dinner whilst listening to the Archers and I made Hello Fresh tacos with aubergine, beans and feta.  My Guardian Live event started as I finished up tea and they asked the question that I had emailed in when I booked on about what advice Matt Haig might have given to himself 20 years ago.  I love listening to him talk and wish that it was a bit longer than an hour.

I let my food go down a bit and then went out for a run, I'd not got many particular goals for this run, but I was going quite fast and my garmin gave me a +7 improvement on my fitness.  I managed to get my fastest 5K time for a while of 24.43 and ran 6K at a pace of 8.05 per mile.  

I got in and watered the plants and then had a bath and wasted a lot of time in the bath.

Alan has been busy doing his exam and is likely to be up until 4am finishing it.  Some men came to fix the oil stain on the drive, it was noisy for hours and looks no different.

Qubit managed to get 2 dinners by meowing loudly at both me and Alan.

I completed my Tania Hershman challenge last night by writing it all down by hand.  Will do some more this evening and then I need to definitely try and get back to the novel writing if I can.

Isolation Journal 79

Alan's alarm went off at 7.30am this morning and he seemed in a much better mood and had a much better night of sleep and his grogginess seemed better too.  I wasn't too bad and got up and had cornflakes for breakfast because the milk had leaked.

I had a set up call with Katie and chatted a bit about her being on holiday for 2 weeks.  We then had a BD day set up call at 10am and I didn't make many BD calls, but I found a new contact and picked up 2 jobs...for the property team!  I'm just not picking anything up for myself at the moment.  

I was at least pleased that one of the other girls has filled 5 of the roles I'd passed her and one of the guys in Manchester filled one as well so overall it's like me placing 1 role!  We ate outside which was very warm, Alan made waffles and sausages and some mayo and sriracha and we had a lolly.  

We had a meeting to share permanent candidates with the wider team and then I had a busy afternoon trying to sort out some issues and get up to date with emails, candidate applications and coaching people on their career choices.

Hayley and Flower were coming over to visit and Alan made dinner and I ate a lovely Hello Fresh haloumi curry and we watched the Peep Show Christmas episode.  

The second accidental book that I'd ordered arrived and so I gave it to Flower to have a read and also made him a cappucino and gave Hayley a rocket lolly.

After they had left I tidied and cleaned the kitchen and the rest of the downstairs and earlier Alan had discovered that the Apple TV remote had got smashed.  

Maya kept sneaking out onto the roof during the day and this evening as we were getting ready to come upstairs she managed to get onto the adjacent flat roof of Ally and Pete next door, I had to shake the treats to encourage her to come back in the window!  I listened to more of the "Windup Bird Chronicles"

I didn't run, but it's the first time I've had a day off since last Wednesday.

Late last night I saw on my time hop that it was a year since my hen day and so I was reminded that I wanted to borrow a game from Jenny and Jonny that I thought Alan would like based on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but Jenny said no as Jonny was quite particular and didn't lend out games, but I searched and found it at an independent game sellar/cafe and ordered it and I told him about it earlier to try and cheer him up from his anxiety.

Isolation Journal 77

I didn't sleep very well at all, I kept waking up just as I was drifting off and I think it was only about 6 hours or so in the end.  I had cornflakes and 2 coffees for breakfast and I picked up the milk, orange juice and eggs and brought them in.

I logged on and had a catch up call with both Rachel and Katie and then had a morning of sorting out emails and then I signed on for Pilates and at the end had a chat with David about the weird nerve thing that is happening to my left leg - basically when I was shaving my legs the other day I noticed the nerves all over my foot tingling like mad.  He didn't think that it was anything to be too worried about, but recommended roll downs and prayer stretches.

I had reheated pasta bake for lunch and then also lots of water!   I arranged a team meeting for our team and the colleagues who look after the more junior end of the market.  We then had a client meeting and then I interview prepped a candidate.  I finished the day by placing a candidate into a job, I was especially pleased as we've been tryinig to help her since I found her a role about a year ago and she couldn't start as she'd had a stroke.  I was really pleased to hep her.  I even managed to send out a LinkedIn search for Rachel.

I finished off at 6.45pm and went for an easy run of 6.5K and then cooked Hello Fresh for dinner which was potato wedges with steak strips and mushroom and red wine sauce with green beans.  I took all the recycling out and the flowers were past their best and put them in the green bins.  I listened to Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami whilst out on my run and cooking - I'd listened to a good few hours whilst commuting, but not for about 6 months, so I'd started from the beginning again.  We watched Peep Show and ate dinner and 

I then had a shower in the bath and I called my Mum back and suggested I could try and visit them although she sounded uncomfortable.  We ended up down the odd conversation topic that she was saying she is 94% English DNA, and no African DNA, I pointed out all of us are likely to be from the same, very likely African DNA, but then she started saying we are all descended from Adam and Eve, very odd.  My brother texted to say that he'd ended up getting the job he'd applied for as the external candidate had turned it down.  We then chatted for about 45 minutes and.  He was suggesting I might be better to stay at his and I think that should be fairly safe as he's very careful and has definitely already had Covid even though he tested negative for the antibodies 4 months later.

I followed up on twitter as I was due to have a flash fiction prompt from Tania Hershman but it hadn't arrived via stupid hotmail, so I had to follow up and she kindly resent it for me.  

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 75

We woke up at a fairly decent time, shortly after 9am. Alan made us coffee and a hot cross bun each and we watched some more Peep Show.

I then tided up the kitchen and the dishwasher hadn't been cleaning well so I ran it on a rinse cycle and did a load of washing.

For lunch I made a salad with dressing of ginger, honey, sriracha, olive oil, mayo and salt and pepper and cooked some sausage rolls.  

I felt quite low energy and dizzy today, I stood up really quick  and nearly passed out first thing.

I listened to more of "I Heart Vegas" as I was doing chores and then watched a bit more TV.  Alan is still feeling poorly with sore ears and just feeling really weak.  I'm not sure how best to help him, but I fed him some of the vitamins I've been taking - vitamin D and a "megavit" from Holland and Barrett.

I went upstairs and messed around on my phone before getting my "Little Fires Everywhere" book out and had a good read.  Last night I'd also ordered Girl Woman Other from Fox Lane Books that is my most local independent bookshop, it was more expensive than Amazon etc, but I'm keen to support them. 

I've definitely been feeling premenstral with levels of rage bubbling away and today I had stomach cramps and finally my period arrived.

Alan made tea which was Hello Fresh and Haloumi with lentils.  And we started to watch Greyhound, but I was really struggling to concentrate that wasn't helped with Qubit came running in and panted like mad.  Moments later I spotted a facebook post from the neighbours about an injured rabbit and then the Amazon shopping arrived and Chris our neighbour explained that Qubit had brought in a rabbit and it was stuck under a bush.  Between us we managed to get the rabbit out and it hopped away into another field.  I took the recycling out, moved the bins down from being stored on top of each other and spotted Kirsty looking at the rabbit and trying to scare off one of Anna's cats from going for it!  We had some ice cream and Qubit licked te bowl out.

I tried to focus on the film, but couldn't so went for a run at 9pm.  Sunset was at around 8.50pm and it got dark quite quickly, but I got around my run quick enough to be able to do it in the light and I appreciated not having to do lots of intervals up and down the driveway.  I ran about 5.8K in 31 minutes and my VO2 Max went up to 51 and I'm still "productive" with my training.

I then watered the plants and I ran a bath and got stuck for ages playing Pokemon go.  I came down and watched a bit of Frasier with Alan and had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a lolly and I put on "Lose a stone in 21 days" as a lot of people are talking about it.

Isolation Journal 74

Alan had taken some of the strong anti histamines that he'd been prescribed yesterday for the reactions he'd had and so seemed to sleep ok, I got up and logged on and used Alan's Macbook as it displays a lot of work software much better than my Dell.  I'd gone to bed quite late as I was again writing away like mad and got to another 1900 words last night on the novel.

I had cornflakes and coffee for breakfast and we kicked off with a call at 9am with a couple of us and the morning was busy, but a bit of a blur.  I think it was reasonably productive, but I can't be 100% sure.  

I then went downstairs at lunch to heat up my lunch, the pasta bake from yesterday.  Whilst I was heating it up in the microwave I noticed a small grey dog outside the house, there was a convertable Mazda reversing that I didn't recognise and the dog was jumping up at it.  The Mazda drove off and I made a note of the numberplate as we weren't sure if it had just dumped the poor dog.  Alan ran out to see if the dog was ok, and it was limping a little and someone pulled up in another car and said the dog lived at number 10 so we took her back and found that she was called Bea.  They'd not noticed she'd escaped, I'm glad we found her!

I then ate some lunch and heard Qubit come in making the meow noise that he makes when he's caught something.  Alan got to him first and it was a live sparrow, fortunately it flew into the kitchen and I was able to shut the door, grab the keys and helped it fly away unharmed.

The afternoon was definitely more productive.  I still have loads I'm not on top of, candidate conversations are taking a lot longer at the moment and they all want to give me a life history before I then find out that they only want work in London and they've reeled off 20 years of experience and I have to disappoint them to explain I can't find them anything relevant.  I picked up more jobs for other people which was good, but frustrating as I'd really like a job to work on for myself soon!

I finished work at 7pm and then went for a run, I am apparently "overreaching" according to Garmin so I made sure to run more steadily and did 8K and was "productive" at the end of it.  I saw a cool bird of prey and ran a few segments.  I got back in and went and had a shower as I was pretty sweaty!

I cooked tea, Hello Fresh had accidentally sent us the wrong recipe card for a recipe last week which confused me so I used the chicken from another recipe and some spare chicken to make tea.  We had chicken in panko breadcrumbs and wedges and a cool ginger and carrot salad.  I listened to more of "I heart Vegas" whilst I was cocoking and I finished up some mints that I'd been bought for my birthday and split a bottle of prosecco with Alan.  

We watched Spooks and then I bought a book for my Uni Alumni bookclub.  I choose to buy it from the most local independent bookshop - Fox Lane Books and it's definitely a lot more expensive, but it's important to support more bookshops when they have faced so much competition from Amazon.

Alan grabbed me an ice lolly and went for a bath and I watched some more Catfish

Isolation Journal 72

After my writing spree last night my brain was super active and alert and it took me ages to go to sleep, but Alan's alarm went off at 7.30am as he went to the dentists for 9am to get some fillings.

I got up and had the same breakfast as yesterday - yoghurt, granola, apple and lemon curd and got logged on for my team call and caught up with everyone.  Today definitely felt more productive, we have interviews arranged for roles that I've referred to people, I used the LinkedIn Recruiter licence to message some people.  

Alan got back form the Dentist around 10am and seemed ok, the novocaine had worn off and he didn't seem to be faring too badly despite 3 fillings.  He said that the dentist was in hardcore, full on PPE. 

At 12pm we decided to go for a walk and were out for about 45 mins and covered the same distance as I usually do in 20 minutes on a run, a circuit of both a lane near us, along a road and back through a field of wheat around the back of our house.  As we walked we talked about stocks and shares and the trading platform and I sold the shares I had in Pets at home and bought some in Howden Joinery - I don't know what I'm doing and I have lost money on Coca Cola, Mothercare, Hays, Tilray so far....so I'm waiting for them to improve.

I had a slice of bread, butter, ham and lettuce for lunch and today was again a 3 coffee day.

I started using a LinkedIn search for a colleague and it was all fine, she checked the search, I sent her mail and assumed she would not choose in inmail people that weren't right and I should have checked as I received a rather disgruntled reply from someone who was probably on 4 times as much as this role was paying and worked for a rather major Football Club - I apologised profusely and explained it was my first experience of the recruiter licence.

I ended up finishing work around 7pm as I started to look at the 1800 words I'd written on my novel idea last night and had sent them through to Lauren to look over.  I'd also googled the average length of a novel and they start around 40000 words upwards so on this maths I could be done and dusted in 22 days...as easy as that!

I made tea as Alan wasn't really very well and he wasn't all that hungry, it was a chicken and pasta bake and I listened to some more "I heart Vegas" we ate watching Peep Show and then I watched Catfish whilst Alan had a bath.

We also had a couple of lollies and I cleaned the kitchen.

I watched a few videos of the awful scenes in Beirut, I'm almost numb because genuinely so much shit has happened this year it is starting to seem completely unreal.

Isolation Journal 71

Alan went to bed much earlier last night and I decided to go to bed before midnight for a change and read a good bit of "Little Fires Everywhere" before falling asleep and I woke up extremely early before my alarm at around 6.30am and so messed around on my phone, read some more and got up not actually feeling that groggy for a change, but feeling full of anxiety.  I made breakfast (yoghurt, lemon curd, granola, granny smith) and coffee.

I was anxious about the pressure to go back into the office as well as a slight mistake I'd made with a candidate - our company requires a level of PI insurance for contractors, they didn't have the amount we'd required and they were unhappy yesterday, but they emailed at 10am to say that they'd been able to increase the level at no extra charge so that went away.  The second one I spoke to my boss about and explained I was concerned about my asthma so was going to wait until September.  She seemed "ok" about it, but I've still had to ask my team to go in a bit in August, although I don't think it's necessarily needed at this point.

At lunch me and Alan went for a quick walk into the village to stretch our legs and then I had a slice of bread, ham and lettuce for lunch with some orange juice.  Today was a 3 coffee day.

I didn't have a hugely productive day, in this way being in the office I love as if I'm a bit anxiety ridden the presence of others brings me away from the relentless cycle of thoughts.  I love being around people, I even went in a week after breaking my shoulder when I couldn't even wear a coat in April and had to walk 20 minutes each way to the train station wearing a bumbag as I couldn't carry my handbag on my shoulder.  I don't have time off sick and I'm really dedicated, so why do I feel so bloody guilty?!

I signed off at around 6.40pm having done a few more calls and get some things sorted.

I cooked dinner and listened to so more "I heart Vegas" and I made pork and feta naan bread pizzas with little gem lettuce salad and we watched a couple of episodes of Peep Show and then had some Haagen Daaz pralines and cream with cream and then after it had gone down...a bit I went for some hill running up and down the drive way after dropping off some fabric to a neighbour who is making masks.

I ran around 4 miles and did one rep up and down hard and one (or more) easier.  My garmin is now telling me that I'm no longer "productive" but I'm "overreaching".  

I forgot mention that I booked onto another Arvon course which looks good on Thursday A SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING EVERYTHING

Isolation Journal 69

I woke up fairly early at the sound of one of the cat toy flapping fish on the landing, but I managed to fall back to sleep again and then woke up about 9.30am and messed around on my phone until Alan woke up.

I got up and the house was a mess!  It was on the to do list to tidy and so I started tidying whilst Alan made strawberry compot and eggy bread.  I made some coffee and we sat outside to eat.  I planted some of the strawberries that were too far gone to hopefully grow some more strawberry plants.  The kids from number 10 kept leaning over the wall to say hello and their parents kept telling them off, but I didn't mind.

I then worked out how to tie up some of the raspberries that are falling over using some twine and attached it to both a pipe and one of the artichoke stalks.  I did some weeding and pulled up some nettles.  I took all the recycling out and rearranged the bins so that the full ones were at the back next to the wall and the empty ones were easier to access.

I'd been a bit anxious about how to deliver my garmin to Curtis who won it in the auction and I decided to take off Thursday as annual leave and also visit Hayley, I hope that he doesn't mind too much waiting.  He topped up the bid to £50 and I put an extra £25 in to the food bank.

I then set about tidying up the lean to bit next to the porch where the coat rack had fallen down months ago.  I sorted the coats and then found a few things for Alan's work and moved his golf clubs into the garage.  I also found the box of gin bottles with lights that we'd never got around to using at the wedding.  I'd got them ready for the evening, but didn't have time to put them out onto the tables and I still feel a bit sad and guilty about it as one of my friends had gone to the trouble of finding them.  I recycled some of the gin bottles and put the rest in the garage and hopefully I'll be able to use them for a belated 40th party next year at some point.  I downloaded I Heart Vegas by Lindsey Kelk on audible to listen to as I tidied.  I've read 3 of her books previously when my friend Philippa mentioned them too me as Lindsey had stayed with her around 10 years ago in Hollywood as she was friends with our school friend Catherine.  It's easy to digest and fun so far, Lauren has been reading her latest book and tweeted her last week so it reminded me to look up some of her other books.

I made some lunch of salad and cheese and jamon and chutney and again we sat in the garden to eat it and I came back in to carry on tidying up.  Alan fixed the coat rack in the porch.  I got distracted eating the end of my lunch inside watching Catfish and some weird urban explorer stories such as in the Bondi Beach Club in Leeds.

My new keyboard and laptop stand arrived and it's noisy and clacky and shiny and the stand is great too.  I set up my laptop upstairs and worked a bit more on a short story I'd started last night.

I finished off hoovering and mopping the lounge and the kitchen and then at 6.30pm we decided to go out for a cycle with Alan and we went up to Bishopswood which was 9.75K away and then we walked around in the forest for about 40 minutes and then back home.  It was a warm evening and the traffic was nice and quiet.  The wood was  not too busy, we met a few dogs being walked and saw some interesting mushrooms and some lords and ladies. 

When we got back I finished tidying up whilst Alan cooked a Hello Fresh meal - Lamb, cinnamon and feta penne and prepped an apple crumble.   I helped by grating the butter into the flour and making the crumble bit.

I poured us a couple of beers and we watched 2 episodes of Spooks and I finished mopping the floors and I assembled the crumble and put it in the oven and made us a couple of drinks of port.

We finished off watching Peep Show.  It's nearly 10 weeks that I've been journalling, my mental health seems to be positively impacted, but I'm not sure Alan is doing as well and I'm not sure how I can help him.

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.

Isolation Journal 65

A decent night of sleep, nearly 8 hours, but a very groggy morning.  No one logged onto the team call and I always find that makes the day a bit disjointed and makes me feel a bit disconnected to work.

I grabbed cornflakes for breakfast and two coffees and Maya kept lying on my hand to distract me, she's got a skin condition at the moment where her belly and some of her feet is a bit scabby.  I popped a bit of olive oil on to help her.  

Work was mostly unproductive and sorting out issues and admin today.  At lunch I had a break and had some of the leftover pizza and fed the chicken leftovers to the cats.

I did manage to get hold of a useful contact who might be able to help me engage a senior NHS person as a speaker for a webinar so it wasn't a day of total loss.

Alan went out for a cycle at around 5pm and had spent the day studying and came back and made tea and by the time I'd realised it was past 7pm and tea was ready (lebanese flat bread from Hello Fresh and I ate and watched the end of Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets and let my food go down before going for a run.

I decided as I'd eaten I'd try and run within the "easy" heartrate zone for Garmin which was harder than I'd imagined. I ended up running 8.3K in just over 50 mins and made up for the day of no running yesterday in my running 1000 miles in 2020 goal.

I spent a good bit of lunch researching potential venues for a holiday in the UK, but couldn't really find much as everything seems to be booked!

I then came up and type this on my computer in the office, rather than sitting in front of the telly.

Isolation Journal 64

Tuesdays remain a challenging day for me.  I woke up and got logged on fine, although was certainly groggier than yesterday.  I had a coffee and a kick off meeting with Katie and then had a load of emails and calls to sort out as well as a candidate who has been panicking a bit even though we have a role for him and going for interviews for jobs he doesn't really want.

I had the same breakfast as yesterday yoghurt, lemon curd, granola and apple and a total of 2 coffees.  

The rest of the day until around 2pm I was quite distracted, but we had a temp BD session that went quite well and gave me some useful focus.  Alan made potato waffles and sausages for lunch and we had a launch call at 1pm.

At lunch I read quite a thought provoking article Guardian article that one of my friends had shared on facebook and it was very interesting considering different people's views about diet culture based on the suggestion that the government will be potentially getting GPs to prescribe Weightwatchers.  

The afternoon at work was a bit more successful and Alan had an appointment to go and get his macbook repaired at the apple store in Sheffield so at 6.30pm we headed off to Sheffield and I went with him as I know he was a bit anxious about it in terms of going into the shop and how much it would cost.  The drive was ok, but the A1 was pretty busy and we parked up and put our masks on and went into Meadowhall.  There were a lot of people not really wearing masks or adhering to social distancing, but it wasn't too bad.  We walked past Yo Sushi! and it occured me that it was very likely that the concept of dining like that would be extremely difficult in the "new normal" of Covid dining and that made me sad.  I went to the bathroom and then we queued outside the Apple store.  We went in and had our temperature checked by the security guard and after a conversation with one of the guys, we found out that Alan's Macbook will be expensive to fix, but within the level he'd expected.  He left it at the store and we headed back to the car hoping we might be able to grab some dinner at one of the Pizza Expresses on the way home, but they are all still closed until next week.

Instead I looked on my Just Eat App as Alan was interested in getting pizza from a place in the neighbouring village called Marios, but I accidentally ordered from a completely different Marios which was 11 miles away!  The minimum order was £35 with a £5 delivery charge and we managed to hit this criteria and it was late, they forgot dressing for the salad and a can of pepsi, but other than that it was good quality food and we ate it in front of the tv watching Peep Show and then I watched a bit of Catfish again.

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.