Isolation Journal 66

Had nearly 9 hours of sleep, but was pretty groggy when I woke up.  I got up and logged on for a kick off call, then a meeting about some adminstrative stuff we need to do and then another all regional meeting.  I had some banana bread and yoghurt for breakfast and 2 coffees and Maya spent a lot of time cleaning herself on the call and had one girl email me about her.  The update was useful, but didn't really tell me much of what I didn't know.  I decided that her scabby bits on her feet, belly and ears needed looking at and booked a vets appointment and managed to get an appointment the same day for 3.30pm.

I wasn't as productive today as I'd hoped at work, but I managed to get a few bits of work done.  I had salad and a spring roll for lunch and then headed out to take Maya to the vets at 3pm, we'd had to round her up after she'd gone out at lunchtime.  She hated getting in the cat box and cried and cried in the car, I had to keep chatting to her.  When I got to the vets I called from the car and took her in the box and waited outside wearing a mask until I was called in.  The vet was operating behind a screen and Maya tried to get behind the computer.  The vet checked her over and seemed to think that she might have harvest mites that were harmless, but itchy and causing overgrooming and so she gave her a steroid injection and hopefully that will help.  It cost £67 and I was there and back in an hour.

The rest of the afternoon was ok, I got a bit confused by an instruction from a client to put interviews arranged for next week "on hold" which they meant cancel and put other candidates in.  I picked up a new job with one of my favourite clients for Rachel.

I had been debating going to see my friends Hayley and Sam at Sams house so I popped over around 7pm to see them and chatted to my mum and dad on the way.

We sat in the garden for a couple of hours and chatted for ages and then I headed home as it got dark.  I had some pasta and egg that Alan had cooked and added some mushrooms and brocolli and had a couple of ice lollies and watched Catfish.  I had to jog on the spot to up my step count to 7000 as I need my Vitality points.

Isolation Journal 65

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 64

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 63

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I watched a bit of Catfish and looked for showerheads.

Isolation Journal 62

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 61

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.