Isolation Journal 43

A disjointed waking up today, I took ages to fall asleep and woke Alan up making odd noises that I think was met trying to speak in a dream and consequently I took ages to wake up again.  Qubit brought in a bird and woke me up at 7am, I managed to take it off him and move it so he couldn't put feathers everywhere, sadly it was already dead.

I dialled into my call and caught up with Katie and Rachel and then had a busy morning and finally got breakfast around 10am (I had yoghurt, raspberries and granola) and had 2 coffees.  I had a quick temp meeting and helped Rachel to write a proposal for a confidential client brief.

At lunch I was feeling a bit like I had cabin fever from being in all day yesterday so I suggested that we went out for a walk and so Alan and I walked along the muddy country lane near us and it spitted a bit with rain.  I took a few pictures with my Inaturalist app and  we probably walked for around 25 mins and then I made a ploughmans lunch when I got back which had granny smith, raddicchio, wensleydale, ham from Friday night, Serrano ham, a slice of homemade bread and butter, English mustard, 3 cherry tomatoes, chutney and I had some beetroot.  Sadly the iceberg lettuce was actual ice as it had been pushed to the back of the fridge so I couldn't use it.

I then went upstairs and had a very busy afternoon as I had a new role come in and picked up a role for Katie.  Frustratingly the briefing call for the new role is tomorrow at 2pm...on my day off so I need to login.  I do feel that the past 2 days have been really productive for me and I am on top of my emails much better now which clears my head.  We also had a training call on our new system which I'm really excited about and Maya kept coming on camera during the training call.

It should have been #runandtalk tonight, but I hadn't remember and no one else seemed to either so I scheduled it for next week.  

Again I felt that a run would be a good idea for me and Alan so I managed to convince him it was a good idea and we left the house at 7pm and did a 5K - he was aiming for sub 30 mins and we managed it which was pleasing.  Whilst he was in the bath I managed to fix the Garmin scales so they upload your weight details directly to the garmin app - Alan was pleased with me for not pestering him about it.  I also finished cooking tea whilst he was in the bath and managed to smash a jar of biscoff when it fell out of the cupboard, it wasn't as full as I'd expected at least.  We had Hello Fresh beef stirfry for tea and Alan had done the prep.

I managed to persuade him to use Easyfundraising to make a purchase this evening so I'm hoping we'll get some more cashback for guides that way as we aren't charging any subs at the moment.

We watched some Spaced and then he went to call his Mum and I did some emails for work and watched Catfish.  I also had a shower and got "stuck" in the bath, even without it filled up to be a bath - it happens, I can spend over an hour messing around on my phone if I'm not careful.  I also put a load of washing on and cleaned the kitchen whilst listening tot the Archers on the BBC Sounds app.

Tomorrow is my day off and for the first time I have no call with friends scheduled for 5pm and no Zumba at 7pm, so I have one work call at 2pm, but for the rest of the time I can read or do creative writing or run!

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 41

I managed about 7 hours of sleep last night, must get to bed earlier tonight.  I got up and had some yoghurt, homegrown raspberries and blackcurrants and granola for breakfast and then a naughty slice of toast with biscoff spread.  

We watched a bit of telly - Alan suggested that I might like Spooks and so we watched an episode together from 2002 and it was great, as he described a more upscale version of The Bill (That I was always obsessed with!).  

We then headed out to Berts Barrow to meet my friend Hannah and her husband and two boys.  Hannah has heart failure and whilst hadn't had a shielding letter is being very cautious so it's only the second time that I've seen her since lockdown started.  Whilst we were waiting for her to arrive we went into the shop and bought some honey, cream, sticky toffee pudding, cherry tomatoes and cherries and spent our £20 wedding present from one of Alan's colleagues Danielle.  We then put on our masks and went into the strawberry field and picked our own strawberries.  When we'd filled our punnets we went up to pay for them and then went to Fairburn Ings via our house so we could use the bathroom and Alan could make a coffee for Chris.  

We then had a delicious picnic on the benches and had homemade bacon and cheese quiche, pizza, coleslaw, salad, chicken and some of the strawberries and cream.  We then had a nice walk around the reserve and used my app to find some plants and animals.

We drove home and I did the recycling and took the rubbish out, hoovered and mopped the floors and cleaned the bathroom and went out for a run.  I felt a bit breathless during the run, but I think that it's because I've got a slight bit of a cold and I was pushing myself fairly hard and did 6.5k in about 35 minutes.  I added it to my "notparkrun" record for the week.

I had a bath and Alan cooked steak, padron peppers and chips for tea and made a couple of lynchberg lemonades.  We watched more Spooks and then I prepped the strawberries and some cream for dessert.

Isolation Journal 39

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 38

Today I woke up early as I'd booked a Covid test at the drive through regional centre at a nearby park and ride for 8am and so I was up at 7.10am which is a good hour and a half earlier than recently and I had breakfast (apple, yoghurt and granola with coffee) and fed the cats.  I'm helping with the app for monitoring my daily symptoms and it asked me to go for a test, so I obliged.  It was different to the other time when I went back in May and had to open my window and had someone swab for me, this time I was given my own test (they dropped it through the passenger window) and I had to put the swab to the back of my throat and also do my nose - it's not a pleasant test.  I then had to drop it into a box next to my window after they'd stepped away.  I got the results back today and it was negative, which wasnt a surprise.

I was back at home for 8.30am and logged on for work at 9am as usual and kicked off with a call and then had a few bits and pieces to discuss with my boss and then a few prep calls for candidates.  I've come to a conclusion that I worry very much about some calls or disputes about things that then distract me from actually getting on with things, I think one thing about lockdown is it gives a bit too much time for self reflection and less ability to form context from speaking to colleagues.  I had Pilates again at 12pm and then Alan cooked rostis and I put a couple of bratwurst in the overn for lunch and then we had them with sriracha mayo - the house smelled like the German market.  We had 2 deliveries when I was doing pilates, one was a surprise from one of the girls in my team a card an some chocolates to say thank you for some of the help I'd been giving her and the other was a box of flowers that I'd ordered from Arena Flowers as a new 2 weekly subscription - some beautiful blue hydragena and they make me happy every time I see them!  There were 6 blooms with eucalyptus foliage and enough for 2 vases.  I also had a lovely print of a runner from my friend to thank me for my help with the council tax - it's been a very good post week.

Work was very busy with a few things to sort out and I also ran the weekly quiz which was based on peoples LinkedIn profiles and guessing people from bits of photos and also from their testimonials.  

Alan cooked dinner which was a hello fresh pork and rice recipe that I later finished off for lunch tomorrow.  The delivery for toilet paper, natural deodorant and soap arrived from Ethical Superstore which was great.

I then finished off a few more things and then got ready for Guides which was at 7pm and needed some water and bowls prepping, I managed to get ready just in time and they had a fun meeting which was about stress and relaxation.  Kirstie did a guided river and leaves relaxation that was great.  

I was aware that Alan hadn't been out for a few days so I encouraged him to go for a run and we did a fairly good pace for around 5K and had a sit down and chat on the lawn before going in and getting showered and after I'd finished off lunch for tomorrow and ate a lollyand  I cleaned the kitchen and then had a shower and turned on my computer to write my appraisal.  

Alan is a bit down so I went and gave him a hug and got Maya to sit next to him.  

Isolation Journal - 36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 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 33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 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 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 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 24

This nearly didn't happen as I managed to fall asleep on the sofa in front of Dirk Gently.

Slept ok, woke up ok, although with massive anxiety about a job that I was matching at work today that I wasn't as far along with as I had hoped.  

Had some cornflakes for breakfast - the milkman had been.  I planned on making a quick coffee before work, but I managed to spill the drip tray everywhere whilst I was refilling the hopper with beans.  Took me 10 mins to clean up.

Today was a 3 coffee day and Alan made some rice and we had leftover bolognase from yesterday and ate in the garden whilst it was sunny.  Qubit got into the next door neighbours bush and meowed and then we picked some raspberries, I cut down some nettles and Alan cut down the elder that was growing in the wall at the back.

2 meetings on Teams today with clients/candidates that was quite productive and some good calls, but just need more candidates for this particular role, it's stressful sometimes when you know there must be another candidate out there, even when you have looked pretty hard.  I had some shortbread as a snack.

I finished later than I'd hoped at work, but managed to download a couple of songs and Alan and I djed for about 2 hours and got thrown off a few times when it detected matching music content.  He used his app a bit which seems to be working well.

It transpires that Katie Hopkins has been permanently banned from twitter today for inciting hatred, I'm not surprised and I'm a bit confused about people complaining about lack of free speech.  It's not that she can't speak and say the same things, but a service provider has chosen to no longer allow them to do it on their platform.  It's like if you were invited to a party, starting upsetting other guests and were asked to leave, it doesn't mean that she can't say these things anymore (although I wish she wouldn't!), but it means they don't have the AI and audience to spam it out to millions of people.

I'd had a rum punch whist DJing and finishing at 9pm neither of us really fancied cooking so we ordered our first takeaway curry since lockdown and our first ever from Saffron on the Just Eat app.  It was really good and it was supposed to take 45 mins so I headed out for a quick run.

I was just going to run up and down the driveway, but the sunset was so beautiful that I ran half a kilometre up to the start of Gorse Lane to take some photos.  The delivery driver arrived as I'd only run about 2 miles and for 20 mins so I took the delivery and went inside.  I left my watch running to tick off 5 vitality points as it only counts workouts if they are longer than 30 minutes.

We watched Dirk Gently and then I fell asleep.

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 17

I slept terribly last night, Alan was in the other room and so I read until very late and then as I was drifting asleep at around 2am my laptop started narrating things.  I was feeling really angry and kicked my legs up and down on the bed.   I also felt really lonely as even the cats both decided to sleep in the other room.

I managed to get mysefl awake and logged on for work, I'd hoped to get up a bit early and do some morning pages, but I was too tired, so instead I had coffee and cornflakes.  I brought the milk in from the pouring rain outside - 1 full fat, 2 semi skimmed and 1 orange.  I watched a video from our CEO that revealed some positive news, I had a chat with my director about it and then cracked on with a lot of work.  I managed to arrange 4 interviews as well as sort out a few other ad hoc things and catch up with people.  I also managed to refer 5 - 7 jobs.

Lunchtime Alan made some saffron rice and mixed it with the pork mince from yesterday and I didn't have an allergic reaction...the only difference was the lack of rice noodles.  I can't imagine I'm allergic to rice noodles.

I ended up getting a bit distracted at the end of the day and wanted to make sure I reduced my emails down below 300 to set me up well for next week and so I finally logged off at about 7.30pm.  Alan had already been on Zwift and also had a bath and started cooking.  I still wanted to go for a run so I made sure I got into my run kit and had dinner which was wedges with mince and beans and cheese and waited an hour before going out for my run.  

I got a reminder email on crowdcast about a flash fiction reading and listened to a bit and Lauren and I discussed it and think that we might have a go at entering next week.

It was past 9pm and pretty overcast so again I did lots of hill reps and did just over 6K up and down the driveway.  I listened again to more of I'm not your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite and the birth story makes me grateful I'm unlikely to experience this.  I also gifted a copy to my friend Hannah as I thought she'd find it interesting.

I came back in cleaned the kitchen and helped Alan unload the Amazon pantry order than had arrived and had a bath with a lush lavendar bubble bar and then had some malbec that Alan had had with dinner, but I'd saved for after my run.  

I put Scrubs on the TV because my brain is still better with familiar content at the moment.

Isolation Journal 16

Again another day with quite a lot of meetings, a kick off, a sector, another sector, a client and a candidate and then guides on zoom.  Lots of time spent looking at my face.

I managed to squeeze in pilates at 12pm with West Point Practice which was challenging, but good for my core strength - important when we're all a lot less active at the moment.  Qubit meowed really loudly at the start of the lesson.

Alan made a very tasty pork mince, Chinese five spice noodle dish for lunch and I ate it upstairs catching up on more work.  

For some reason ever since perhaps the first breakfast we had in Barbados I've had random allergic reactions shortly after I eat or drink, not every time and not for weeks at a time sometimes, but today my face felt like it was on fire and my knees, arms, chest and face went bright red.  It died down after about 20 minutes, but made me feel odd.  There doesn't seem to be a consistent obvious cause, but worth tracking I suppose?

I finished work at 6.30pm and dashed downstairs to cook Hello Fresh for tea - duck with plum sauce and mashed potato.  I finished just in time to be able to dial into the guide meeting.  I think Alan was irritated by me rushing around to get it finished, I was irritated that I had to cook before guides and that it was cold by the time I got to eat.  

Guides we did a UMA on privaledge using examples of animals and whether they always had food, a safe place to sleep etc, they seemed to enjoy it and have also discovered the chat function on zoom which was interesting!  We used the whiteboard function which was new and seemed to work quite well.

After Guides I ate my food and then messed around on social media before getting changed and going for a run at 9.20pm.  I also had a call from Ally my neighbour who wanted to borrow some red wine vinegar, I managed to find 1 single sachet and posted it through her door although I think she needed 4 tablespoons.

It was wet and starting to get dark so I did a hills session running up and down the slope that leads up to the gatehouse as it started to get darker and darker.  I really do appreciate this time of year for the extra long nights to give me time to do more activities outside.  I ran just over 6K and was able to tick off enough "activity" for 8 vitality points (I hope!)  I listened to more of "I'm not your baby mother" by Candice Brathwaite whilst I ran and made the monotony less frustrating.

I came back in and washed my hands before cleaning up the kitchen surfaces and was delighted to see that Alan had emptied and refilled the dishwasher.  I put a little bleach and water in the half sink with the clothes and covered with a chopping board to soak overnight.

I'm now running and bath and hopefully will help me get a good night of sleep.

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.