Isolation Journal 80

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 79

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 78

I don't know why, but I don't like Tuesdays...groggy wake up, got cornflakes and coffee, logged on for the team call and then sorted emails and covered a few calls and sorted a spreadsheet.

I'd managed to place someone yesterday, but I realised I'd completely messed up the rate quote, I worried about this for a while, then spoke to the client and managed to sort it out, but I'm frustrated that I ended up in that situation. It has been very hot today that hasn't really aided my ability to behave coherently.

We then had 3 deliveries, one for Alan - a new extractor fan for the bathroom to replace the one that had broken, he fixed it, a book that I'd ordered direct from my most local bookshop Fox Lane Books and they had wrapped it beautifully and also refunded my delivery which they really didn't need to and finally a shower cable for the shower so I don't have double water spray which I managed to fit with a bit of Alan's help.

Maya managed to sneak out onto the flat roof and looked very pleased with herself.  

I had a temp BD session kick off call at 1pm and then quickly made some salad with lettuce, coriander and radiccho for lunch with a slice of tiger bread and some smoked wensleydale cheese.

I had a meeting at 2pm with a client that was quite productive and I'd found out some really sad news that the partner of a candidate I've placed twice and known fairly well for a few years had suddenly been bereaved.  Her partner had died very suddenly and it's so sad as she's younger than me.

I managed to make some headway sorting through my emails and catching up on admin and then finished work around 6.45pm again and went out for a quick run and managed to do 5k in my fastest time for a while of 25.25 and finished up with 30 mins of exercise.  I listened to more of the "Wind Up Bird Chronicles"

I quickly showered and then made dinner of Hello Fresh Lamb Linguine - Alan was feeling ill with a bad headache so I cooked. 

I then signed onto the Zoom call for the Chalk the Sun reading session and somehow ended up reading an excerpt from my "novel" that I've been writing.  The feedback was generally positive and gave me some food for thought.  I also enjoyed hearing other people's writing too.

I then watered the plants, tidied the kitchen, put washing and dish washing on and ate 2 ice lollies.  I came up to write, but wasn't feeling very inspired so have just managed this and probably my flash fiction challenge and then I'll get into bed.

Isolation Journal 77

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 72

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 70

10 whole weeks of writing in a journal every day today, that's a long time for me!  I used to write pretty much every day in a teeny tiny section of a 5 year diary.  At first I would try and write in a different coloured pen each year, but I soon gave up on that.  Nearly every day was noted from 1994 through until the end of 1999 - an interesting period of going from child/teenager to pretty much adult.

Today was a frustrating day at work.  I woke up extremely tired and with an anxiety dream about selling the house which I think I'd "caught" off my friend Hayley who is in the process of selling her house in Leeds and moving to the seaside.

The initial meeting went well with people back from holiday and I handed back over to Rachel and forecasted for the month which is looking ok, especially considering it's August.  I ate cornflakes and semi skimmed milk.

I had a frustrating morning and indeed day of trying to sort out issues and I didn't really resolve a great deal.  Much less productive than a usual Monday.  We had a meeting with a client that we're having to change a method of supply to which was slightly awkward.  I don't feel that the changes will necessarily give the client better value for money or indeed quality of service and will infact make both of these worse.  During the meeting some of my colleagues were in the office and I could see in the background that at least a few people weren't socially distancing.

At 12pm I did pilates online which was a welcome relief and after I'd finished I had a toasted bread roll that I thought was spare from Hello Fresh and some iceberg and prosciuttio ham and leftover salad from yesterday.  I emptied the dishwasher and re-loaded it.

Today was a 3 coffee day and I had a final coffee for lunch.  

I had a difficult call with my boss as I'd been planning on going back into the office that re-opened last week in September, but there is pressure for me to go back in and encourage the rest of the team to go back in.  It states on the HR policy that if you have mild to moderate asthma you are considered vulnerable and then goes on to say that vulnerable people shouldn't go back into the office at this point.  I feel like I'm being judged by trying to protect my health and for the first time that i've been there I feel that I might have to speak to HR to get some support.  The call was broken off before we had a chance to speak fully, so I'm sure I'll have that conversation tomorrow and so tonight I just felt tense about it.

I finished work by writing an advert and signed off at 6.45pm.  

I went out for a run to try and shift my tension headache and it worked, I tried a few intervals of running hard uphill and got a few new "records" including a PB on a strava segment, for the first time since I bought my watch it told me that my training was now "productive" and my VO2 Max went up to 51 from 50.  I range just over 4 miles in about 34 minutes.

I then had a quick shower with a very leaky showerhead and got dressed and had the tea that Alan had cooked, we established that the recipe card was wrong, but the ingredients were right, but we'd eaten the burger buns.  He did stock rotation of the chicken and we had chorizo chicken rice and I made some Gentleman Jack and Ginger and then later we had leftover apple crumble and cream for dessert.

We watched Peep Show and then Alan went up for a bath and I went to look for the cats unsuccessfully.  I watered the plants, came back in and cleaned the kitchen and then the bathroom as I noticed it was a bit smelly.  I listened to more of "I heart Vegas" by Lindsey Kelk as I cleaned. Maya came in eventually shortly followed by Qubit and I fed them both and Alan noticed that Maya had a load of blood on her white neck, but we established it was unlikely to be hers.

Isolation Journal 67

Another groggy wake up, I think I'm just going to have to make peace with the fact that I just don't feel like a morning person ever, regardless of how much sleep I get.  I think it wasn't hugely helped by the fact that yesterday was a non exercise day so I'd not showered yesterday and so felt sticky and gross this morning.

I grabbed breakfast and had banana bread, apple and yoghurt and 2 coffees and I got logged on and finished up a few invoices after I'd borrowed Alan's macbook as it displays things so much better than my laptop (I can actually see the "submit" button without adjusting the screen resolution).

We finished well for July, certainly ahead of April, May and June.  I wasn't as productive in the morning although had a key account client update which was useful, but I decided after finishing up the admin for the month end to go out for a run for half an hour at lunch and helped my friend with her CV and how to apply for a job.  I also ordered dinner from our local pub - fish and chips and garden peas.  I watched a bit of the latest briefing from number 10 as the local lockdowns randomly came into place at 9pm yesterday, announced on twitter for "Greater Manchester" and "West Yorkshire" and it very much seems as though you can't go to a friend or family member's house, but it's fine if you want to sit indoors in a pub!  I also saw later today around 8 different office colleagues very close together in a bar on instagram and it just makes me nervous about going back into the office.

I managed to run about 5.7K and was reasonably swift, in just over 30 mins, but my watch keeps telling me that my training is unproductive.  

I had a shower when I got back in and potato waffles and fried and egg and had some sriracha sauce.

The afternoon was more productive, I got more CVs off for jobs and tidied up my emails, I'm still really worried that I've forgotten to do something on Rachel's handover, even though I've worked really hard to try and cover everything.

I finished work at 7pm and had just enough time to put some shoes on and head to pick up our takeway tea from QOTT.  I listened to some of the High Low Pod Cast as I walked and then got in and quickly went to see whether we'd be better eating inside or at the dining room table - I had a quick chat with my neighbour and offered her some of the leftover bedding plants from last week that had died a bit so I watered them in an attempt to bring them back to life and then it started raining heavily with thunder and lightening.  

My watch auction finished at 8pm with a final sale price of £45 to go towards a food back donation.  The guy who won I think will appreciate all the additional stats it can give you.

We ate at the dining room table and I had 3 of my Beer 52 beers that had arrived earlier today (my Harry Potter fabric finally arrived as well) I chose a couple of IPAs and a coffee and coconut stout.  After we'd eaten we played Exploding Kittens and Cat Chaos card games.

We then went out to try and find Maya (Qubit joined in our games) and had no luck, although she eventually came in around 10.30pm.  

We watched some Mock the Week, 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown and Family Guy.

I managed to finish "It's Not The End Of The World" by Judy Blume last night as well, my reading has come on loads since putting my mind to it and I'm enjoying it.

Isolation Journal 64

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 60

I was quite tired when I woke up this morning and I knew that no one else was in today so I didn't have the morning call, but I did have plenty of work to do.  I dropped some fabric off to my neighbour Anna who makes mask for a cat charity and she made a couple for me and Alan and also for my friend Hannah's boys.

I had an interview with a candidate at 10am who is moving to Whitby next year and then the rest of the day was spent on managing offers for candidates and coordinating the 14 jobs.  There was a delivery whilst I was doing the interview and it was a lucky dip of bedding plants from gardening direct.

Alan also looked afte r aguy from Sky who was installing Sky Q, apparently this is better than the other TV that we already had.

I had yoghurt, apple and granola for breakfast and 2 coffees and then at lunchtime around 1.30pm I walked down to the pharmacist to pick up a prescription and popped my mask on and an older lady was ranting about how it had to be the way now in terms of wearing masks (whilst not wearing a mask).  I though to myself "I'm wearing a mask specifically to protect people like you!".  

It was really warm today and nice to walk and get some sunshine.  When I got back I was straight back into lots of work after a super quick lunch of cucumber, tomatoes, smoked cheese, blue cheese, chutney and mortadella and milano I had to prep for sending CVs for the 14 jobs.  I knew that the system was going down at 8pm so needed to be swift and I finally got the 65 CVs across for both me and 2 of my colleagues at 6.30pm and I think there are still some new roless to look at.

I finished work and then went to plant out the bedding plants and ran out of planter space, so I might need to work out what to do with the spare plants.  Before I went to plant the plants we ordered a Chinese takeaway, I had my usual hot and sour soup that I put chips in and then a Thai seafood dish and some salt and pepper crispy squid.  Alan made a delicious lynchberg lemonnade and I also drank the last drop of white wine from the other night.

Again I didn't run because I think I jarred my right leg yesterday and it's really sore.  Garmin still isn't working which is kinda sad as I wanted to see all the stats.  I sat on the sofa and as we watched an episode of Spooks I had the back massage machine on bits of me.  I did a load of washing and hung it out and made plans to see my friend Lauren tomorrow who is over near Preston so I should probably go to bed soon.

Isolation Journal 59

It was an apple, granola and yoghurt breakfast day with 2 coffees to perk me up.  I had a quick chat with Matt in the team and then made a few calls before logging on for a MS Teams meet with our MD about the new system.

I had decided to auction off my old Garmin Forerunner 920 to try and raise some money for the Trussel Trust, so I posted an update on Facebook for my running group, I feel slightly nostalgic about it as it was the first present that Alan ever bought for me for Christmas, although I've changed straps about 12 times over the past 4.5 years.

I did pilates online at 12pm and it was only me and one other and the other person got lost off the call late on so in the end it was just me.

We then made some waffles and bratwurst for lunch and Alan fried a couple of eggs.  

I then had a busy afternoon trying to catch up on work and get some candidates ready for the roles I'm recruiting at the moment whilst Rachel is on holiday.  I also had one candidate today who refused to go forward for a job that was going to be working from home, I'm not sure how many office based roles are around at the moment that wouldn't be from home at least a proportion of the time currently - very frustrating.

I ended up finishing work around 7pm and went to cook dinner and was frustrated to find out that the spinach in the dish had gone off, I'm a "noticer" and I tend to spend far more time putting things away and tidying things up and sometimes it pisses me off and I don't know how to express this in a powerful way that doesn't sound like nagging.  Alan didn't take my comments very well and so I continued to cook dinner, but he didn't want to eat it and ended up going for a walk.  He'd pointed out that I'd left all the post from my flat on the floor and that was messy, so I ended up re-addressing all of it as return to sender and walking down to post it.  He was still out for a walk when I got back so I ended up driving around looking for him.  He was walking around in the dark and was clearly still angry so I drove home and walked back to check he was coming home.  It was about half ten and pitch black at this point - he had managed to see a couple of barn owls.  I also saw a baby frog when I was out looking for Alan.

We've not yet managed to have a more constructive conversation and he's still not eaten dinner, but I did make him a horlicks to drink.

I also swapped messages with my brother who had a job interview today and it was his youngest's birthday and he sent me a video of him opening the present that i'd got him.

I had thought about going for a run, but my perifirmis is sore and Garmin  is down - apparently hacked and so I just walked around a lot instead.

Isolation Journal 58

Today should be my day off, but it's our new system day so I had to log onto a training call at 9am.  I got up and dressed made a coffee and prepped a mango which I had with granola and yoghurt and left some mango for Alan.

The training call was ok, but I find training where they just show things moving around on a screen isn't really a way that I learn.  We had other bits and pieces throughout the day to learn and watch, but in truth a lot of my day was taken up with the day job as I'm covering for Rachel on holiday.  

By lunchtime I had a major stress tension headache and today took both paracetamol and ibuprofen, but it didn't really shift.  

After a 48 minute call with a client I managed to come downstairs and make some lunch, Alan chopped up some chorizo and black pudding and I fried with no oil in a pan and added to a chopped little gem lettuce, some chopped heritage tomatoes and then some apple cider vinegar and salt.  We had a slice of olive bread with anchor spreadable and then I had another coffee (3 in total today) and went up to finish more work.

I had a busy afternoon sending out testing for candidates, fielding multiple emails and did some of the training modules towards the end of the day.  I had been supposed to go for a run with a friend after doing some more errands in town, but I set off about 30 minutes later than I'd planned at 5.35pm and then had to turn back as I'd forgotten my keys, but I managed to chat to my parents on the way, I grabbed the keys and carried onto work and parked my car underneath the office building and went up to the flat with the table (again!) and I couldn't even get the keys in the lock after being reassured the old lock had been put back in.  I called the number for a guy who came to sort out the lock who said "20 minutes" and so I went back to my office to collect things from my desk as they are implementing a clear desk policy at work.  I also moved Rachel's things into a drawer and took some stuff home for safe keeping like a picture of her with her Dad.  

I went back to the flat and after waiting for about 20 minutes the guy arrived and changed the lock.  I put the table in the flat and had a look around and then wasn't sure whether to leave both tables or just one as there's not much space.  I left both in the end.  I wore my mask the whole way around being in town both in the office where I saw two of the cleaners I'd not seen for months as well as in the apartment building even though the lock guy was "i don't have it you don't have to wear that".

I cancelled going for a run with my friend Sam even though I probably had enough time, but she didn't call me back, I drove back via Temple Newsam thinking that I could go for a run somewhere different, but there seemed to be a lot of travellers and people around the car park and I felt a bit unsure so drove home and went for a run from my front door again.  Alan called me whilst we were both driving home as he'd been catching up with his old boss in Bradford at Starbucks.  I ran past him driving home in the car.

I ran about 36 minutes and just over 4 miles and I'm still getting used to, but enjoying my new watch.  I listened to more of "How to Stop Time" by Matt Haig and I'm getting towards the end of the book now.

I spoke to my brother who'd rung me just at the end of my run to help him prepare for a promotion interview tomorrow.  He was very hung up thinking about all the other candidates, but I pointed out that it was far better to worry about what he was doing to prepare as that was the only thing that he could controls.

I then came down for tea that Alan had made which was Hello Fresh hot dogs and was nearly 1200 calories!!! I'm glad I'd not eaten loads earlier and had had a decent run.  We watched a couple of episodes of early Peep Show.

I then showered after dinner and started a bath for Alan and came down to finish off my system training which I'm nearly finished up on thankfully.  

I also have just remembered again that it's my youngest nephew Winston's birthday (he's 1) so I need to order a present for him even though I've not actually had a chance to meet him yet.

Isolation Journal 57

I woke up and made crumpets for breakfast for me and Alan and also a coffee.  

I had a major issue getting logged on this morning, I had to turn my laptop on and off again about 3 or 4 times, in the meantime Alan kindly leant me his old macbook which actually displays our main system much better and so I might try and use that if I can get MS Teams to install.

Today was insanely manic, I advertised a few jobs last night and had over 100 applications and my phone was ringing solid so much so I had to update my voicemail to say "please don't leave a message as I'm slightly overwhelmed" 

I had one training course at 10am for the new system, a get back to the office session, goal setting for Katie and then a roundtable seminar on top of all the other day to day stuff - Alan kindly made a bratwurst, fried egg and potato waffles with mayo and sriracha for lunch and I didn't even have a break away for lunch.  I had a note about my old bike that I'd posted on FB village group and a lady who turned out to be a candidate came to pick it up - what an odd coincidence.  I had a pink lady apple as a snack.

I finished work around 6.30pm and asked my boss how to go back to full time hours again and she told me to fill out a form, but I just don't know what form!  

I cooked a Hello Fresh burger recipe for dinner and then logged onto Zoom for a HPH session about leading and returning to club sessions that will be more intervals sessions in no more than 6 in a group and we'll be using a booking system called Spond to get people book on.  I asked if it would be ok to auction my old Garmin watch and donate the money to a food bank, I then felt bad when I realised that it was the first thing that Alan bought me for Christmas and should I keep hold of it, but I'd like someone to do something good with it.

I then went out for a run to try out my new watch a bit more and I pushed myself as I was enjoying the fact it annouced strava segments and I got a stitch a few times as I'd obviously only eaten a bit beforehand.  It then told me my training status was "unproductive" which was a bit disappointing.  

I got back and had a shower and then had an ice lolly and turned on Peep Show.  Alan unfortunately managed to crack the screen of his new macbook when a USB got stuck in it.

Isolation Journal 56

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today has been quite frankly and annoyingly shit day.

Isolation Journal 53

I felt a bit better today, not quite so unproductive and a bit more energy.  I logged on first thing to a briefing from the Internal Audit and Tax team about what they do.  I had a coffee and then I went downstairs and made some yoghurt, apple and granola for breakfast.  I then had a few calls and was pretty busy until I realised by 1.40pm I'd not had lunch.  I had a scone and defrosted some vegetable soup I'd made about 2 months ago and had been in the freezer.

I then had a meeting that I wasn't sure what my contribution was going to be, we were talking about national strategy and I pointed out that I hadn't been given anything to do/volunteered for anything and so asked what I could do.  I was offered the task of taking notes (which I'd not been doing as I didn't arrange the meeting.)  I challenged back that as the only woman in the room it felt inappropriate for me to be asked to take the notes.  I then had an email back from one of the other guys on the call who had said that his partner had heard me challenge and given a thumbs up.  I still feel anxious thinking about it, but I think it's still a good thing to call out as I was more senior than 3 of the other people in the meeting and so there wasn't a reason for me to do the notes rather than anyone else.

I then had a busy and productive afternoon that was finished by finally picking up 12 new jobs from a client which was a positive way to end the week.  None for me unfortunately, but still good news.

It was late when I finished as I decided the best way to start finding candidates for the role was to record a quick video and share onto LinkedIn.  

I also got distracted by the fact I had an email for Hermes about my new watch that I was excited about, but then I realised even though I'd put the right address on my paypal payment, the wiggle order address was my work address and there is no human to talk to be able to ask them to change it to my home address.  It's really frustrating and nerve wracking as it could delay me receiving it by up to a month.

Alan made tea which was the last Hello Fresh meal of the week and a very tasty, but calorific Halloumi wrap dish with around 1000 calories, so I made sure I got myself into my run kit and went out for a 5K run.

The sun set was beautiful light and there was a rainbow, I wanted to run hard, but I kept stopping to look at it all.  I even stalked a couple of hares and tried to video them, but they were a bit too quick.  I listened to more of "How to Stop Time" by Matt Haig.

I had a shower and a fruit pastill lolly when I got in and watched 2 episodes of Spooks and Alan was amused that they referenced the "National Rail Enquires" as a thing that used to exist.  

Isolation Journal 51

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 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 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 45

Today was a day off that I'd taken for holiday, using up one of the two days when we came back early from honeymoon.

I had set an alarm for 9.30am, but of course Qubit woke me up again killing a bird, this time it was definitely dead, but I did put it in a box to be sure, although he also managed to get in the box and get it out!

I got up just before 10am and made some cornflakes and some coffee and logged on to return the call of a client who wanted to catch up with me yesterday and she wants me to help with a senior role, so it was a useful call to return.  I helped Rachel with a spreadsheet query and then I made a quick coffee and dialled into my Arvon Masterclass with Jay Griffiths it was more of a lecture than a participation class like the last one and I am not as familiar with Jay Griffiths, but she's very into nature and is a firm supporter of Extinction Rebellion.  

Her principals of writing were to write and make notes on a small notebook that she takes everywhere, read for feeding the mind, research for a topic you either know lots or nothing about, a blank page to play on and a bin for editing.

We did a couple of exercises that were useful like writing the blurb for a book we are writing to think about what we are aiming for and also writing about something from nature and not mentioning who you are, but how you perceive the world.  Jay also explained about scene and narrative.  I wrote a story about a bumblebee that Alan actually enjoyed - I think it's the first thing I've written that he liked.  I also wrote out a few ideas for a book of flash fiction I'm writing with Lauren and reminded myself of some flash fictions that I want to get written.

I then made orzotto with some vegetable that was on the turn - aubergine, courgette, mushrooms and spring onion with chorizo, garlic and mossarella.  I was going to take Gem's little one for another walk, but it was really wet and she'd not been down for her usual nap.

I then did a bit of work and then went for a run at around 4pm, I'd hoped to do around 10K, but I was feeling really lethargic so I ended up doing 9K and it was muddy and wet so I came in and had a quick shower (even though Alan was going to get me to help him with the aerial).  I listened to the High Low podcast earlier and for my run I listened How to Stop Time I also prepped for the guide meeting and made Hello Fresh for tea - pork with potato and cavola nero mash and apple sauce glaze.  

I brought the laptop into the kitchen for guides and we made mug cakes which was quite quick and successful and delicious even if mine did slightly explode, we played a few games and voted on what Skills Builder they want to do next term.  It was really lovely and the parents posted lots of positive feedback on our online meetings so it's good to know that we are still doing things right for them.  We're doing the escape room next week as their end of term "trip" and hopefully will do a virtual camp as well.

I then watched a load of Spooks with Alan and chatted on whatsapp to my friend Alison who I've not seen since I visited my parents in February.  I really miss the idea that I can see people and not feel nervous - hopefully I'll start to feel more comfortable soon.  I also ordered some flowers for my friend Kate as it's her birthday next week.

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 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!