Isolation Journal 49

I got into bed at a reasonablish time, but wasted at least 30 minutes watching TikTok on my phone and then read a big chunk more of Where the Crawdads sing and texted Alan to suggest it would be good for him to come to bed, but even so I think we only got about 6 hours of sleep. 

After hitting my heaviest weight in over 5 years yesterday at 76.8kg I made the decision to take action and address this, which is hard as whilst I can exercise more with a bit of extra time that I don't spend commuting and a bit of extra time off, if I don't do exercise then I only cover about 3000 steps when I work from home.  

I weighed out my cornflakes and milk and had 2 coffees.   I fed the cats after Qubit appeared with a dying mammal and ate half of it.

We kicked off with a morning call at 9am and then I had a few quick calls to make before I had Rach's appraisal at 10am which went well and then I had a few more calls to make before Pilates at 12pm for an hour.  Of course Hello Fresh arrived as it started, but I managed to grab it and return to the class without too much interruption.  

For lunch I defrosted some leek and potato soup and finished up the salad that I'd made yesterday.  

We had a team meeting for the public sector team at 2pm and then I had a meeting with a client at 3.30pm which went well.

I then had a productive day until finishing work around 6.20pm when I went and started cooking dinner as we had In Conversation with Louis Theroux with Guardian Live booked to watch at 7pm.  I made a vegetable curry with naan bread and Alan went on his bike to drop off the tetra packs that have been living in my car at the recycling centre.  

It was fun watching Louis, he spends so much time interviewing and meeting other people so it was interesting to see him being interviewed and talking about his book, we'd posted a question, but it didn't get asked.  Alan had used his Ipad to log on and casted it to the tv.  We heated up some rhubarb crumble from yesterday and had some cream with it and watched an episode of Scrubs.  I added up all calories I'd consumed on myfitnesspal and realised I was over by about 568 and so decided to go out for a run.  Alan was doing some filming and I went upstairs to read some more "Where the Crawdads Sing" and realised it was getting quite dark so I went out and ran up and down the drive about 24 times and burned up over 600 calories in 45 minutes and covered about 7.5K and as Alan had been recording he wanted me to go out the back and as I was heading back I found a very noisy Qubit having a heated debate with one of the neighbourhood cats and so I brought him back in after I managed to entice him back through the gates to the cottage.  He struggled, but I managed to get him back in the house.

I had a very quick shower in the bath and got into my pjs and went downstairs and watched a bit more scrubs with Alan.

I had a shower

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 47

Alan didn't sleep well, I think I slept ok which was surprising as I felt last night as I was getting into bed that I'd got cystisis, but I did manage to fall asleep and slept through until around 9am, so just around 7 hours, but I didn't feel too tired, but I did still feel in a bit of pain.  I made sure I drank lots of water and also some bicarb of soda - disgusting!

I ordered a Cystitis testing kit from Boots and also booked an appointment with Vitality GP for Tuesday which I can cancel if I need to.

For breakfast we had chorizo and black pudding with maple syrup and scrambled eggs in wraps and I had 2 coffees.  We watched some Scrubs and I felt bad that I again didn't log onto the zoom call for parkrun.  I miss people, but I'm finding zoom intimidating a bit at the moment which is weird as many other circumstances I'm really comfortable with it.

We'd gotten straight into our running gear this morning and I'd managed to spill some oil down my front, but I headed out with Alan and we went for a run to do a (not)parkrun and went down to Newthorpe and then across the railway line and through a field of wheat, we had to go up a muddy lane for 500m to get the right distance and we noticed when we got back the same Flogas truck was parked out the front that was there when we left and when Alan took out some boxes for recycling he chatted to him and realised he'd had a breakdown, Alan made him a coffee.

I busied myself for about 2 hours tidying and cleaning, I vacuumed the whole house and mopped all the floors, I cleaned the kitchen, cleaned and changed the cat litter, changed the sheets on both the beds, took out all the other recyling, cleaned the bathroom and filled up a bath whilst I polished the table and I also did 2 lots of washing.  I listened to the "With me Now" podcast whilst I cleaned and finished off whilst I was in the bath.

I then got stuck in the bath and messed around on my phone and got cleaned up and then Alan made tea and I tried to catch up on my reading for the book club on Where the Crawdads Sing which I'm reallly enjoying, I even read some whilst eating tea and Alan watched the end of the cricket.  

Amazon Prime delivery arrived and I put the shopping away and we had ice lollies and then some salted caramel Ice Cream and cream.  We watched lots of Spooks and I caught up on my step goal as my Vitality points for earlier for our run was 5 out of a possible 8 so I had to get my step count over 12500 to get the maximum points for the day.  

I wanted a bit of a curry snack and so I got it out the fridge, realised it had leaked everywhere and needed to clean the shelf, I then broke the corner bit of plastic and so Alan suggested I superglued it back together again.  I got superglue all over my hands and now can't get it off again and I have crispy hands.  I had the cake that Kirstie dropped off earlier in the week and instantly feel regretful as I'm so heavy at the moment.

Isolation Journal 46

I updated the settings so instead of getting woken up by a dying animal being brought in by the cats, Qubit work me up at 8am to ask for food and no dead animals after a day of being out and about we are murder free!

Alan brought the milk in and groggily stumbled about and got logged on and called one of my candidates who had an interview today to prep her.  I grabbed cornflakes and 2 coffees for breakfast.  I also had a proposal to write for a client and a call with my MD at 11am.  It was a busy morning.  The feedback from the interviews this morning were good and I had an offer that was accepted and so it's my first placement for this month.  I then had some more interviews to arrange for one job for me and one for a colleague.  I'm not sure where the rest of the day went, but finally after giving a reference for someone who worked for me years ago who has applied for a job in New York I finished around 6.50pm.

I had about 15 minutes for lunch and reheated the pasta from yesterday.  I ate it outside in the sunshire.

When I finished work Alan got me to grab some bits and pieces to fix the terrestrial TV for the street.  We spent around 2 hours in the garage of number 9 where the aerial lives and I had to pass him things.  My back was hurting from standing up for so long.  I watched a bit of telly and a bit of instagram live whilst I was waiting including Jack Whitehall interviewing Mo Farah.

We ordered a curry from Saffron poppadoms, a peshwari naan, pickle tray, brijal bhindi, saag paneer, mint and coriander lamb and zeera rice.  I am so full!  I am frustrated I didn't get to run as I'll now not get my 40 points for Vitality this week.  Alan made a tasty rum punch and I later made whisky and lemonade with squeezed lemon.

Isolation Journal 44

Today was my day off...in theory...I knew I had a call and I had a few other things to do, I'm so busy at the moment and it's feeling hard to switch off.  I got woken up by Qubit making his "I've caught a creature" noise and so I went down and found him with a dead bird.  I put the bird in a plastic bag and by the front door and went back to bed.  I then heard him rustling around the milk bottles by the front door, so went down again and moved Alan's bike so that I could shut the door to the hall.  Maya then came upstairs and was sick twice next to the bed onto the beige carpet that we definitely wouldn't have chosen if we had carpeted it!

I stayed in bed mooching around for a bit watching videos and read a bit of Where the Crawdads Sing (I'm way behind in my reading schedule for my Uni of Leeds Alumni bookclub) and Alan brought me a coffe and then I got dressed and went down to make breakfast at around 11am and I made scrambled eggs on toast for brunch and listened to The Archers and the High Low podcast.  I did some work and prepped for a call that I had at 2pm with a client.  We heard a noise and Alan thought there was some post, he said "Lucy did you just leave that bird out?" and the little sparrow I thought that Qubit had killed was still alive, I'd put it in a bag and it had pooed into the bag, but fortunately managed to peck it's way out and Alan opened the front door and it flew away.  I weirdly felt more sad that I nearly killed it by accident and it survived than potentially if it was just dead.  At least he got to fly away.

We watched PMQs and it was mostly Bojo chanting 3 word slogans "build build, build" and "jobs, jobs, jobs" it's frustrating.  I wish they would be kinder and more strategic with their solutions.  It was later announced that if you go and eat out you'll get 50% up to £10 off a meal Monday to Wednesday.  I love eating out and I feel really conflicted as I want to do everything I can to support good restaurants, pubs and even good chain restaurants, but I am worried that this is too soon to be piling back into public spaces.  

I had my client call at 2pm and it went well, and I managed to do some work on the role that I'd picked up which was positive.  I then ate some left over orzotto from Saturday for a late lunch at walked to my friend Gemma's house to take her 1 year old out for a walk in the buggy.  Gem is finding balancing her return from mat leave in lockdown really hard as her husband's role is really busy and her little one is lively.  I've been meaning to help out for ages, but this was probably the first time it felt safe and within the guidelines to do so.  I took little one in the buggy for a walk and santised my hands and Gem put her in so I didn't have to touch her and she was in front of me all the time other than when I'd stop and check in from a safe distance.  We walked a good 5K together and I realised that my watch wasn't registering my steps on the buggy!  She seemed happy with me, no tears, she pulled her socks off and kicked her legs and fortunately the weather held and I've said that I'd take her out again tomorrow.

I got in and faffed around a bit more doing some work as I had interviews to arrange and I messaged a lot of people about the job.  

It was my friend Han's birthday today and she got the art equipment that I'd sent her from The Works and she did 2 drawings - I said it was a DIY birthday card.  I hope that she's had a good day.

Alan kindly cooked tea which was delicious a Hello Fresh recipe of pulled chicken burgers wtih salad and chips (he added liquid smoke which made it delicious) and I didn't run and I felt bad about not going for a run, but I'm very tired - so tomorrow I'll go twice as far.  We watched some Spooks which is really great!  I also booked my online course for tomorrow at Arvon. Alan then went up to bed so I watched some more Catfish.

Isolation Journal 42

I was a bit groggy getting up this morning and I ended up having to do loads of tidying of the coffee machine to be able to make a coffee.

I had a slice of toast and biscoff spread for breakfast, did my MS Teams and did my forecast and cracked on with searching for a candidate for a role and managed to find 5 by the end of the day as I did a much much wider search.

I had Pilates online at 12pm and had a total of 2 coffees.  During the class I had to get up as Qubit came in with a live mouse, the mouse managed to escape from him and run under the wardrobe, I couldn't get it out, but I managed to rescue it later, I hope it was ok after I let it go outside.

I made bratwurst and potato waffles for lunch and then a candidate called me at 1.30pm so it went cold before I finished eating.  My friend Kirstie texted as she had some cake from her baby shower to drop off, so I had a chat with her at the front door.  I snacked on two mini chomps in my office room.

I then took on 2 new roles for Rachel in my team and ended up working until around 7pm.  My friend Hayley texted me and was in the area and so popped over for a coffee and a catch up in the garden (I put the camping chairs out)  with her husband Flower, they're moving to Whitby and so getting their house ready.  Alan cooked Hello Fresh for tea and it was a tasty chicken fajita.

I then came back in to do some more work and upload CVs onto a portal, it took me 2 hours to upload 4 CVs and it was hard to watch Spooks as I was doing it, so after a while I switched to Catfish and Alan went up to bath and bed.  We did have some Sticky Toffee Pudding and cream beforehand though.

I also swapped messages with the lady who owns North Shire where we got married and are going for our anniversary in September and asked for some advice around Whitby for my friend Hayley.

Alan's app has been loaded for beta testing and so I have asked a few DJ contacts to find out if they can help.  Alan was a bit down today and I feel bad that I've been so busy with work and catching up with friends.

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 35

I didn't sleep very well, only about 5hrs 22 mins and I woke up and found that the cats had caught a mouse and were chasing it around, it was still alive.  I caught it, but it managed to escape and got down a crack between the wall and the monks chair.  It's weird, I think Tuesday has become my new Monday, I really struggled, I felt grumpy, stressed, irritable, again I think it's probably PMT.  I had some cornflakes and a couple of coffees.

I did a video session on how to fill out a short order form.  I then had a few more video meets, a national public sector one and then another about temp.  

I felt grumpy and awkward most of the day.  Alan whipped up a salad and some cheese and meats for lunch and I tried to help him with the insurance claim for our BA flight back from Barbados in March.

I was a bit more productive in the afternoon with some good calls and I also wrote a good quiz for Thursday 2 rounds, I think colleagues will hopefully enjoy them.

I had thought about going for a run, but my right buttock was sore, so I haven't gone today and so obviously now feel a bit guilty about it all.

I cooked dinner - a Hello Fresh sausage with bacon jam and salad and sweet potato fries and we had a couple of ice lollies.

I have snacked far too much today on both chocolate, meats and I also had 2 cups of early grey tea.  We watched Athlete A which was horrendous, I can't believe that these girls suffered so much for so long, it was really shocking.  

I added some photos to a photo competition that my running club has been running and watched some cat fish.

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 31

Alan really didn't sleep well last night, I could tell by the way that he was holding his breath as he was sleeping, I'm not sure why he does this, but I know if he's doing it, he's not had a good night of sleep.  I got the milk and orange juice in.

I had another tasty breakfast of yoghurt, granola, apple and homegrown raspberries and blackcurrants and today was a 3 coffee day with 2 in the morning and one at 3.30pm.

We had a briefing call from our MD today and he had some slides on it and it occurred to me that all the way through the daily briefing they kept saying "next slide please" but never actually had the ability to click a button, seems quite inefficient.

I put a load of washing on, hung it out and then put the dry washing away.

We had another Delifresh order arrive at 12.09pm, the order was emailed to say it would be 12.07pm, I'm amazed they can get it so close!  I unpacked everything - love how it's plastic free with just the odd thing in a paper bag.  Everything was a bit covered in condensation as it was so muggy today.

Alan made a tasty lunch from some of the order - a gnocchi, tomato and pepper pasta bake with two types of cheese - it was delicious.  I then had a busy afternoon at work with a candidate interview on Zoom and a client meeting on teams where I picked up a lot of new jobs and had 2 interview requests to arrange for Monday.  I then had a further 4 interview requests for Thursday and Friday!  i also was on a mission to sort out my emails and got them down from nearly 400 to less than 200, If I get on top of them I feel more focussed and I make more placements.  

I had an amusing scenario where I was talking to a client discussing the weather as usual chitchat and mentioned how hot it was, she mentioned that it was thundering where she was (around 8 miles away) and then 2 minutes later I heard it, the rain she had then followed 2 minutes after!  I remembered as I was on the phone to one of the candidates and had to climb the ladder in the bedroom to shut the skylight and got a facefull of rain.

I tuned in to my friend Lauren's friend Lorraine who does an Instagram live of cocktails and comedy and sorted my emails until 8.15pm.  I had though Alan was asleep, but he'd had a bit of a snooze and was watching TV, I offered to sort dinner and went down to the local pub The Queen of t'owd Thatch or the Thack for short as they had reopened yesterday after being closed for a bit to work out what they wanted to do with all the challenges of being a pub at the moment.  They had arranged a fish and chips Friday takeaway, usually it's all preordering, but they had suggested in Facebook that there was enough left to just turn up so I went and got two portions of fish and chips with garden peas, curry sauce and a bottle of prosecco.  I also reminded Annie one of the owners that I owed her £2 for some mashed potato I'd got back in April to go with Alan's birthday meal.  I wore my facemask as I got there inside as I wanted to make sure that they were all safe.  They are finding it hard to work out how to reopen as they have so many pinch points in the pub layout as a cosy little building, they were quieter yesterdy than they'd hoped which makes me sad as I'm really keen to keep this good quality, friendly and local business going through this very difficult period.

We ate our tea outside on the picnic chairs as our usual bench was soaking wet and we watched 2 of the neighbours (Kirsty and Chris) looking at where to put a fountain they'd bought and chatted to one of the other neighbours (Becci)  about Donald Trump and Greek mythology and we drank the prosecco and chatted until it was getting dark and there was lighting in the distance, we finally wen tinside at 10.30pm and I had an ice lolly and cleaned the kitchen whilst listing to "What Alice Forgot".

Last night I started reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens for the Uni of Leeds Alumni bookclub that I've joined.  I might try and read some more tonight if I'm not too tired, I'm so pleased to be actually reading books again.

Isolation Journal 30

Alan had a really bad night of sleep as it was really warm, I didn't do so badly as I slept completely not under any covers and I was pleased that I finally finished reading a book and read the last story of Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks before I went to sleep.

I had a coffee and granola, homegrown blackcurrants and raspberries and granny smith and yoghurt.

We had a few teams meetings and I had a few niggles to sort out from the day before, but I managed it.  I also had a difficult conversation that I'd been dreading for weeks with a client, hopefully I've offered a solution.  At 12pm I had a Pilates class online again, it was very warm!  I then made a quick chicken salad with Sriracha mayo dressing and a couple of small jacket potatoes with marmite and butter.

I had a fair bit on in the afternoon and tried to multitask logging onto another interactive webinar on our Unity group.  One of the topics discussed was how people really dislike the term BAME as it doesn't account for the fact that Black and Asian experience is very different.  

We had a quiz at the end of the day which I won and it was all about facts about other people in the team, it means that I'll have to get one together for next week.  I managed to cook a prawn stirfry from Hello Fresh and eat it before the guide meeting at 7pm.  The meeting went well, we played a game of counting to 10 without interrupting each other, then we did a couple of UMAs including guessing who wrote different statements and then thinking about guides in the future.  I used the Whiteboard function and got them to draw which was fun, but a bit chaotic!

I then went out for a quick run and pushed my effort a bit more and did 6.5K in about 35 minutes.  I got back and chatted with my neighbour and watered the plants from yesterday and had a quick shower before having a big hunk of chocolate cake that one of the other neighbours had made with some cream, it was delicious.

I then watched Big Brother and Alan had a bath,

Isolation Journal 29

Another "not" day off for me today.  Alan got up as normal and logged on for work at 9am, I faffed around on social media before getting out of bed around 10.15am and made myself yoghurt, granny smith, granola and home grown raspberries.  Only one coffee today.

I got straight into my run kit as I wanted to get a run over and done with and I put on a load of washing and took out the recycling and chatted to the gardener who mows our lawn for us.

I had planned to run for about an hour, but it was about 28 degrees so after a fairly fast 5km I decided to head back as it was just too warm and did just over 4 miles!  I listened to more of What Alice Forgot which is such a good audio book! I had an ice lolly when I got back and felt a bit light headed so sat down for a bit.  I was due to take little Alex (not so little anymore) out for a walk, but he had heatrash so wasn't heading out, so I had a long bath and then headed downstairs and made a salad with sriarcha mayo dressing and a couple of small potatoes with cheese, butter and marmite. I had another ice lolly.  Some herb plants that I'd ordered arrived and I planted out some mint, coriander, parsley, chives and nearly pulled up some seedlings that I then realised had grown from a tomato I planted 3 months back, so I replanted them!

I did a bit of work email stuff and Alan suggested we head out on the bikes and so I got my bike out and didn't get into biking gear, just the shorts and t-shirt that I already had on.  We cycled to post a parcel and then went to Fairburn Ings via Lumby and locked up our bikes and went for a walk and did some more mapping using the inaturist app.  We then cycled back via Ledsham just under 10 miles in total, I was surprised to get some cycling strava segments not clipped in or in proper cycling gear.

I've also been trying to sort out re-letting the studio flat that I own in the centre of Leeds, I'm not sure the agent I've been with since I bought it in 2017 are being very proactive so I'm considering whether I change agents.  It feels wrong to have it vacant, I wouldn't mind reducing the price especially if it could help a key worker.

We chatted with our nextdoor neighbour and I cleared up some feathers from a bird that the cats had clearly brought in.  Alan then made some chicken Laksa for tea and we ate outside and watched Chris from number 5 on his sit on mower cut the grass and Alan watered the plants and the lawn for us and Denise at number 4.  I had a Gentleman Jack and Ginger and we had ice cream and cream for dessert.  I then had a rose wine with some ice and came inside to watch some Catfish and plan my guide meeting for tomorrow as well as write a session plan for run club.

Isolation Journal 28

Yesterday I was feeling really motivated and productive at work and weirdly I had more sleep than the night before, but today felt much less productive.

I had another breakfast of granola, homegrown raspberries, sliced granny smith and yoghurt.  And today was a 3 coffee day.

I'd teed up a tweet on behalf of my friend to Leeds City Council, the CEO of Leeds City Council, Richard Burgeon (MP) and the Valuation Office Agency.  She's had a ridiculously tough 18 months being diagnosed with heart failure last year aged 40, having a house fire at the end of November and spending the last 7 months including lockdown in a small flat with her husband and 2 boys whilst the repairs to her very fire damaged house takes longer because of the Doncaster floods and then Covid.  Her house is not fit for human habitation, but the council have told her that she needs to pay two lots of council tax on her two properties.  Her MP (Richard Burgeon) tried to help, but they pushed it onto the Valuation Office Agency to delist the property, but they said as she was having it repaired it wouldn't be classed as derelict and so not exempt!  It's crazy and her husband found out today as he was with his mum in a hospice with hours/days to live that he's being made redundant so they don't have money to spare.  It takes emotional energy to fight these things and so I wanted to help her, fortunately the CEO got back in touch and asked me to email him, so I did.  Hopefully he'll be able to cancel this demand as it's just not fair.  

At lunch I needed to go to the pharmacy to pick up my Omaprazole prescription so I decided to walk down for some light and fresh air.  It was really warm and I played Pokemon Go for the first time in ages and noticed some new pokestops and a gym had been added in the local area.  I queued up at the pharmacy and picked up my prescription and I also listened to some more of What Alice Forgot Again - it's a captivating audio book!  I felt bad when I'd got back from the pharmacy as I realised that I'd not worn a mask.  I literally stood in a doorway and picked it up from a distance, but I feel that I should have worn a mask.  I'll put one in my bag next time.  By the time I'd walked back Alan had made lunch which was more of what we had for tea last night, I ate outside in the hot weather.  I also had an ice lolly.

The afternoon was more productive and I watched a bit of the daily briefing and I finished at 6.30pm and signed straight onto a guiding webinar which used the most inefficient and complicated method I've seen for online stuff so far!  I didn't really get much from it, apart from a game of counting from 1 - 10 without people interrupting.

I made dinner as I listened and it was a tasty soft taco and minute steak Hello Fresh dish.  We ate outside again and Alan had made me a ginger and Gentleman Jack.  There was lots of farm machinery noise in the field next door.

I then settled down to watch more Big Brother and Catfish, tidied the kitchen, had a couple of glasses of rose and fed Qubit when he came in at 10.30pm.  He was promptly sick and then kept meowing loads.

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 25

It was fairly late by the time I got into bed last night, probably around 2am, but I didn't expect my first open eyed "this is a new day" realisation to be at 11.50am!  I'd missed the chance of logging into the parkrun zoom call and it was lunchtime.

I made some black pudding sausages and scrambled eggs with sriracha for brunch (or lunch!) and we watched some Scrubs.

I'd planned a few things I wanted to do over the weekend on my post it notes and I did a few of them like tidying the lounge, dining room and kitchen and I managed to hoover a bit later, but still need to mop the floors down.  Alan cleaned the bathroom and after nearly 14 weeks of black marks post lush bathbomb we have a white bath again!

At 4pm I realised that it was nearly time for my 5th dance class with Eliza, so I watched Catfish and ate leftover curry from last night (not the best way to prepare for a dance class) before the class at 5pm.  I was awarded star of the week and we learned that our dance teacher had interviewed and recruited her sister to do all the admin for her (her mum hoped writing invoices and posters would encourage her in her writing) with a payment of not playing loud music at least 2 times a week.  I do enjoy the sense of entrepeneurship she has demonstrated.

My friend Gem came around to get me to sign a form for the guides for gift aid and it was nice to see for a catch up with her daughter and husband Chris, I also saw both the neighbours from number 2 and number 5 as well.  

Alan went for a run and then after he'd returned told me that he thought that I should cut his hair for him.   Last time was quite stressful, but I'd watched a video from Brad Mondo which seemed to have a better method and so I shared it with Alan and we watched it and used it to cut his hair, again he put it live on Facebook, but I'm more pleased with the end results even if it took 40 mins!

I then took my opportunity to go for a run and did 6.5K in 35 mins and watched the sunset.  Felt a bit sluggish, but was very pleased to be out.  Dinner was ready when I got through the door and so I had a pork stir fry with rice from Hello Fresh and we opened a bottle of Cava and watched Hidden Figures as my friend Mark mentioned it earlier.  It was a really good film, although my attention span for films is very challenging at the moment  

I'm now running a bath and I've very naughtily opened a bag of Cadburys treatsize chocs that I ended up getting for free as they were incorrected sold as weighing more than the catalog, but 8 weeks later they've not asked me to return them, but I have to say after very little chocolate in the past 3 months, I'm eating it, but with less joy than I thought I'd experience.

Isolation Journal 23

We had a bit of a rubbish night of sleep as the next door neighbour's had an alarm go off around 1am so we had about 20 mins of trying to check they were ok, we wondered if it was a CO alarm and tried to wake them to make sure they were ok.  They were, but we texted, and then called and then we finally got a text back after wandering around outside for a bit.  The main thing is that they were ok!

This moring I was a bit groggy, but had coffee and banana bread and my first MS teams meeting and then moved onto another MS Teams meeting where I was sharing some knowledge around how to use a particular spreadsheet.  I had a busy day for the rest of the day, but it went by in a bit of a blur, but I did manage to get through all of my job applications that are hugely up compared to previous months.  We also recorded another update video and I did some research into things that have happened in light of Covid that we might see as positive and want to keep such as the fact that working from home as a more common scenario would mean that people with mobility issues are better placed to access some roles that previously might be solely office based and that if offices are refurbished they may install automatic doors to limit touch points and that would also improve accessiblity for people.

I had a pilates class at 12pm which was challenging, but good and as the class started the guys who were coming to look at our roof as we'd had a leak last week arrived about 10 minutes in, so Alan had a chat with them and they started work on the roof and seem to have fixed it for us.  I roasted the leftover chicken thighs from earlier in the week and made a sriracha mayo dressing with some grated carrot, iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumber and mixed it together, I was really pleased with how tasty it was.  Today was a 3 coffee day.

I snacked on a bit of banana bread and some hot cross buns a bit later and had a delivery which was some of the plants I'd ordered from Gardening Direct 3 lovely lavender plants that smell lovely.  I need to work out where to plant them.

I finished work and faffed around on the internet for a bit and realised it was time for guides.  Gem had run the meeting and we had a bit of a scavenger hunt and then another activity for our UMAs and presented some badges.

Alan was doing a lecture online and then cooked tea which was ready as guides finished.  We watched some more Dirk Gentley and I had a glass of malbec and had a pasta bologanase for dinner.

I suggested a walk with Alan to get us out of the house and actually despite all the rain it was a lovely fresh evening with loads of amazing woodland smells.  We walked up to the bench that we can see from our house and that looks down to where we live and chatted about lots of things.  We wondered how in such a short space of time we went from "hug and hoody" to where we are now politically.  We walked back home and it was quiet and there was birdsong.

Isolation Journal 21

3 weeks of isolation journalling today, it's flown and also not flown, such a strange sense of time these days.

I didn't sleep well at all last night, I got about 7 hrs 11 mins, but it doesn't seem that I felt like I'd slept well at all.  I stumbled downstairs and got some coffee and cornflakes and then logged on for work.

I was pretty busy this morning, I placed someone yesterday and so had some checking to do and a few other MS teams meetings.  Whilst I felt tired I think I was pretty productive today.

I made some pasta with the wild garlic pesto I made last night for lunch, it was so garlicky it was painful!  Alan couldn't finish it!  I guess the roots and seeds are more powerful than the leaves!  I snacked on some chocolate digestives and an orange ice lolly to try and get the taste out of my mouth.  

After work I managed to sign off at a reasonable time around 6.15pm and then I went for a run with Alan, I managed to get him excited about a couple of cherry trees nearby and we found some ripe cherries to pick.  I also dropped £2 off to pay for my online dance class and some spare egg boxes as they have chickens who are laying about 2 eggs per day each.

We ran about 3.5K and it wasn't fast, but it allowed us to pick up some tasty cherries!

I had a wash and Alan made tea - Hello Fresh orzo pasta with lamb meatballs.  I ate dinner and then went upstairs to do a zoom marathon training plan writing session with my running club.  2 people signed on and we had a good chat.  Currently London marathon is rescheduled to October, but the Great North Run has just been cancelled until next year, so it all looks quite uncertain at the moment.  We had a good chat about training load and marathon planning.

I then came downstairs and poured myself a whisky and ginger and watched some Catfish.

Isolation Journal 20

Alan got up earlier today to go to his office and was running around as he'd also agreed to take the go pro back to our his work colleague Danielle who leant it to us when we went snorkling in Barbados (we didn't expect to have it so long)  Qubit came running up the stairs and had caught a baby rabbit.  The rabbit was unharmed (although surely scared) and we managed to catch it (well Alan did, even gave it a little stroke) and put it in the laundry basket and set it free in one of the neighby fields.

I had 2 black coffees and a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast and another day of a lot of teams meetings, 3 lots of internal meetings including one quite detailed one coming up with ideas.  

I managed to place a candidate today which was good news, it's been a bit busier over the last 2 weeks, but since lockdown it's been much quieter than usual.  At least organisations are becoming more comfortable with the prospect of recruiting and onboarding remotely.

I had a couple of small potatoes for lunch with cheese, marmite and butter for lunch and a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber with cider apple vinegar, olive oil and salt dressing.  I had a couple of chocolate digestives and a tunnocks tea cake as a snack.

Alan got back after meeting up with Danielle and opened a small package that was from his Uncle Dez and had some old currency that he'd found in his Mum (Alan's Grandma's) belongings.  I'd watched a bit of the Daily Briefing and it seems really odd that there are no scientists around these days.  I also responded to my Mum's face book post that she'd shared of Boris Johnson writing a whole essay about statues, I really genuinely think that people are more important than things (even if the things are made to look like people) I commented that perhaps it would be better if our "prime minister" spent more time on things like looking at the fact that many children will be going hungry over the summer holidays.  I'm very touched by Marcus Rashford who has donated many meals to kids and is campaigning to get some government policy change on this.  I shared these thoughts in response to the Boris Johnson post and got told by her friend Pauline (who I remember as a child being the kind mum of my friend Peter) "So typical of you and you ilk?" although hasn't clarified what she means by this, but given her previous pro brexit anti social justice replies I'm guessing she is all about the statues..

I tweeted This world is confusing, apparently children are important when they are an excuse to drive 260 miles during lockdown, but not as important when they are hungry needing meals throughout school holidays.  Neither are as important as bits of metal and stone made to look like people

Work finished up late around 7pm as I had a few longer calls this evening and a lot of emails to sort through.  Another win on the day was that I'd picked up a role to refer to our sister company which felt like good news.

Alan had prepped the Hello Fresh for Chicken Tikka Masala from last week, accidentally we'd not checked the best before date on the chicken so I swapped it for some we'd got delivered with the Amazon Prime at the end of last week.  

I ate dinner and we watched Scrubs and then after I'd let the food go down I went for a run, I went a little way along towards Newthorpe and as it started to get dark came closer to home and the last 5 minutes I ran up and down the road up to the gateway.  I did just over 5.6K in just over 30 mins.  I listened to the audio book of Suble Art of Not Giving a... quite useful giving all the social media rage going on.

I had a shower in the bath and then had some cherry crumble from last night.

Isolation Journal 19

Another late rising, I think it was probably around midday before the time I got out of bed.  I had a coffee and some granny smith, granola and yoghurt and then watched some TV before getting up and cleaning the house.

I hoovered the whole house and tidied up my office/bedroom and put up some nails to hang up some art work/paintings.  I cleaned surfaces and the bathroom and did 2 loads of laundry.  I listened to the Archers, the High Low Podcast and With Me Now podcast as I cleaned.

I then got ready to go running and went out for about 7.5 miles in about an hour and 8 minutes.  The heavy rain a few days ago meant that it was almost tropical feeling with everything feeling really steamed up.  I ran an out and back route down to Fairburn Ings RSPB Reserve which was very pretty in the sunshine.  I also saw lots of lovely red poppies along the way.  I was feeling quite heavy and wasn't particularly fast.  I'd not taken water with me and managed to survive by eating 2 shotbloks at the turnaround point.  I listened to the end of "I am not your baby Mother" by Candice Brathwaite which was really powerful.  The final few sentences mentioned about how it's not all about social media sharing, but it's mostly about what you do when no one is looking which really struck a chord with me.  It made me think very much that I need to make sure that I am doing the right things at work to be a part of positive action and change.  I got back in and necked 2 pints of orange squash and ice with a dash of salt.

I came back and had a bath with some lush lavendar bubble bar and then whilst Alan was on Zwift I mopped the lounge and the dining room.

I then had left over Chinese not realising how late it was and so Alan had to have a snack crumpet and cheese for his tea and made cherry crumble for our "tea" which was delicious.  He also made a lovely rum punch for us both.

I watched some more catfish and then we watched The Night Tonight and some Scrubs.  I also ordered a card on moonpig and a meatbox for my Dad for Father's day.

I also finally sent over the pictures that the guides had drawn for our local Self Isolation Support group and booked in my virtual marathon training sessions.

Isolation Journal 14

So this is now 2 weeks of writing a journal everyday and it's strange it feels like a lot has happened, but that also there is an overriding sense of deja vu.

This morning Alan was awake early, I had forgotten that he had to head into the office and so he got up and left around 8am.  I snoozed for a bit and put Headspace on for 10 minutes before getting up.

I had cornflakes for breakfast and a couple of coffees and then had a team meeting to start off the morning, then two client meetings and it's been pretty busy at work all day.  I've made a dent in some of the emails as when I have too many it feels as though I'm not on top of things and might miss something so hopefully I can get them squared off and feel more in control.

One of the meetings started at 11.30am and went on until about 12.20pm (although I was late to join as I hadn't realised it wasn't on Teams and that I'd get the automatic alert to say that it was ready to start, it was on googlemeet so I had to sign in separately.  I missed my Pilates class, but I did have a delivery which was addressed to Alan, but was my exciting customised Vans trainers with bees and flowers on.  I had pizza from last night for lunch and then I was a bit hungry for snacks and I had a protein bar and a mini babybel.

I had one interview request which I didn't manage to confirm by the end of the day and the important roles that I'd picked up last week for a colleague we got lots of interviews on, including one for a friend's partner which is good news.

I watched the daily briefing and only 55 deaths which was positive, but there is always a weekend lag.  Other news topics that were interesting were the reporting on the Coulson statue being pulled down yesterday.  I was also reading about how a donut place in Leeds that a lot of people raved about has been exposed by an ex employee to be owned by racists/neo nazis, I'd not been there, but it made for uncomfortable reading.

I then got some more roles in to refer to colleagues just as I was about to sign off and then I went for a run with Alan.  We ran about 5.2K and took it steady with a few walk breaks.  My right knee was really sore when I first woke up, but this did get better and was fine for the run.

Alan made tea when we got back - Hello Fresh - Halluomi with couscous and salad and we had Haagen Daas salted caramel ice cream and some double cream for tea!

I went up for a quick shower, but ended up having a stupidly long bath - I don't get relaxed by baths, I get stuck, mess around on my phone and realise that the water is cold.  

I cleaned up the kitchen and then came into the lounge and logged on to write this and to check some more work emails.

Alan went up for a bath and I turned on Catfish again to watch whilst dealing with emails.