Isolation Journal 114

 Woke up ok, apple, yoghurt and granola for breakfast.  A busy morning of calls and emails and doing some more video screening.  I also had a few internal chats about the issue from yesterday as well and had 2 coffees, Alan didn't sleep very well.

I had a very late lunch and made a stir fry out of chicken and veg from the veg box and it was nice and I arranged for my car MOT whilst I was cooking inbetween listening to the Archers.

I finished work and a very long interview/client meeting at around 7pm and then went out for a run and went up to Sherburn, then down back via the BP garage and back round through the fields about 4 miles in total and reasonably fast in 34 minutes.

I had a bath and then Alan made haloumi chicken shwarma for tea and then we watched lots of cricket and I did more work and we watched some more comedy on Dave.

I meant to go to bed earlier, but it's not happened, I did eat 2 lollies though.

Isolation Journal 113

I haven't even left the house today!  I got up with a huge stress headache, made some breakfast and signed on for work and then decided to have some ibuprofen with all my vitamins.  I had apple, granola and yoghurt for breakfast and 2 coffees.

I had a busy morning of doing interviews and a bit more admin and realised it was past 2pm before thinking about lunch so then Alan made some waffles and a couple of fried eggs.  I cracked on with a load more work and am not close to being caught up and also had some internal patch politics to discuss.  I had a meeting with a client about an issue that I had to sort out which wasn't the best end to the day, but then I had an offer for another candidate so it sort of balanced itself out.

I finally finished work around 7pm and cooked dinner - a hello fresh pasta and butternut squash and serrano ham recipe and then I logged onto the chalk the sun reading group and shared a piece of writing that I'd done at the "How to write that novel" workshop, generally they weren't grabbed by the first page I'd written in the exercise, but they did like the blurb.  They shared some other pieces which was really nice to listen to and also mentioned that they'll be meeting again on the first Saturday for an exercise.

I then spent ages talking to Alan about my story and we came up with a few ideas of how to shape everything and a few devices.  I'm trying to work out the characters as it's hard to not write about yourself.

I then ate some cheese and chutney whilst Alan had a bath.

Isolation Journal 112

I got woken up pretty early as my phone buzzed as the delivery from Pets at Home was to be delivered at 7.30am, I managed to get them to update the delivery to just leave it at the door rather than ring the doorbell.

I got up and brought it all in and also the Hello Fresh and accidentally managed to split open the 10kg of food.  I opened the boxes and took out the trays of cat food, cat urine remover, litter tray and also the water fountain.  Breakfast was homemade kombucha and 2 coffees and yoghurt, apple and granola.

I got logged on in plenty of time to help Nic with a query and get ready for the morning meeting at 9am.  It's been a very busy day of relentless admin and organising and things breaking or not sending on the system.  I didn't get a chance to eat lunch until past 2pm and I made pasta, cheese and a corn on the cob and had a packet of skips afterwards.  

I had a very long day and finally signed off around 8pm after Alan had been for a run and cooked dinner as I'd had an extended conversation with a colleague in my team over a lot of things that perhaps haven't been communicated as they could have been.

I had dinner - paprika chicken Hello Fresh and then I did a bit more work and then finally at 9.30pm went out to run up and down the hill outside and didn't see anyone all day other than Alan and Andy from number 1 walking Bentley.  I ran 31 minutes and just over 3.3 miles.

I came back in and had an ice lolly and got hooked into watching Don't tell the Bride.  

Isolation Journal 111

We ended up going to bed late as I'd spent a lot of time ordering stuff for the kittens like a new water fountain, litter tray and food.

I woke up this morning at around 8.30am and then couldn't properly get back to sleep and so was quite tired, we got up just past 9.30am and had some apple pancakes for breakfast and I went to feed Fudge and Smudge as Alan was cooking.  

We decided to take a trip to Spurn Point - we'd discussed it last week and were too sore/tired/late, but this week felt like a better plan.  It is 72 miles away and so we went in Alan's car so he felt more comfortable and I packed up some apples and snack bars for the journey along with coffee and water and the covid supplies (hand santiser, masks and wipes)  Alan stopped on the way for fuel at a Sainsburys in Hessle and then when we arrived at Spurn Point realised he was missing his wallet.  We searched all over and he paused his cards, but we couldn't find it and I couldn't call the store to check so we decided to explore Spurn Point and call back on the way home and hope we'd find it, but it wasn't the anxiety that we needed for the calmer day we were trying to have.

We paid for parking (£5 for the day) and then walked to the visitors centre to go to the toilet and look for potential binoculours because that was the other thing we forgot which was a real shame as we definitely spotted seals off the coast and it would have been amazing to watch them.  We could have bought some there, but the cheapest on offer were £119 and they aren't renting them as I'm guessing they might usually for obvious reasons.

We wandered along the beach and it was nice to smell the sea air and listen to the waves.  Spurn Point is quite different to anywhere I've been before, as Alan pointed out it looked a bit Mediterrean and it could be the light or the plants that were around, but I definitely saw what he meant.  Alan described how there was a road to the Lighthouse at the end of the penisula which is about 4 miles long and could be driven along, but in recent years the road has been eroded and is quite broken and twisted at points.  You could get a quad bike along it, but much more would be hard!  We saw little sea birds and seals off the shore and some cool wind farms and it was just lovely and peaceful and we must have walked around 6K in total and I wished I'd remembered to put some sun lotion on as it was really sunny.  We saw at one point a place to shelter if you got cut off in high tide and a man asked us to take a picture of him, he'd been running along the road.  I asked a volunteer/employee who was pushing his bike along the shore if we were likely to have seen seals and he said it would be hard not to see them.  

We walked back to the visitor centre and we drinks (diet coke and coke) and I had a lemonade lolly and I bought Alan a vanilla ice cream.  Alan seems happier with the idea of trying to book a little break in the UK for us in November, self catered and only 2 different locations, but that should give us some ideas at least.  

We drove back home via the Sainsburys petrol station and I went in to ask if Alan's wallet had been handed in and fortunately it had, they asked for ID, but I pointed out that was his ID and they gave it to me.  

I then did the rest of the drive home which wasn't too bad and I asked Alan to see if the Fish and Chip shop would be open when we got home and it was!  I jumped into my car and drove to Sherbun and recycled my tetrapaks and then parked outside The Fish Bank and ordered 2 lots of fish and chips and I had mushy peas with mine and Alan had gravy and I ordered an extra battered sausage - today has been a naughty day for food!   We bumped into Chris and Kirsty who had enjoyed their holiday and gave us a bottle of gin to say thanks for feeding Fudge and Smudge.

We ate Fish and Chips and Alan made hot apple brandy and put Deadpool on to watch, but I couldn't get into it at all so we ended up watching some comedy instead.  The milkman (Who was a woman today, so clearly a milk person is a better name!) came this evening because the normal chap is away on holiday.

I then vacuumed, washed the floors, tidied and cleaned the kitchen and set off the dishwasher.

I came up and logged to sort some work emails and to do lists and I hope I'll have a productive day tomorrow.

Isolation Journal 110

We woke up late and had a lazy morning in bed before getting up and watching the Film "Big Daddy" whilst eating takeaway from last night - I had pizza and the curly fries and I make Alan's leftover kebab meat into a wrap.  I made sure to feed Fudge and Smudge and Maya and Qubit first. 

Alan watched some Formula 1 stuff upstairs and then did some study, I mostly played Clash of Clans on my phone and then tidied up the kitchen, did 2 loads of washing and put the dry washing away, changed the sheets on the bed and then went and harvested the potatoes in the garden before taking the recycling out.  I ordered 3 pairs of tights from Snag Tights as they do look like they'll be more comfortable and at some point I'll need to wear tights again.  My boss had a negative covid test which is good news.

I then went for a run and didn't majorly push myself, but my VO2 Max is now up to 53 so it wasn't so bad, I'm now only 2.4 miles behind my yearly 1000 mile target.  

Over the course of the day I listened to the High Low and With Me Now podcast as well as a bit of The Wind Up Bird Chronicles.  Maya came running in proud of herself meowing like Qubit does.

I fed Fudge and Smudge again and then had a shower and Alan cooked hallomi and bulgar wheat Hello Fresh for tea, he's feeling quite down at the moment and I'm not sure how to help him out.   We watched "Coming to America" and then I read lots of my Kombucha book and decanted some to add strawberries to (we also had strawberries for dessert) and also some turmeric.  I added more sweet tea to the batch - I think this is right, the book is very complicated.  

Isolation Journal 109

I woke up fairly well at 8am and then got up and went to feed Fudge and Smudge, and Maya and Qubit and then I grabbed some cornflakes and coffee and logged on for work.  The milkman came a bit after 9am and Qubit managed to bring both a nearly dead mouse that he killed quickly and then a poor dead rabbit that Alan checked was definitely dead.  

I had a very busy day and got through a reasonable amount of work in the morning, I've got jobs to match, admin to do and clients to keep in up to date.  I'm still behind on emails and general organisation, but  I'm hoping I might be able to catch up over the weekend.

For lunch I had the dinner to lunch from Hello Fresh the night before and had a muller corner yoghurt in front of the computer. Maya lay next to the keyboard for most of the day.

The Delifresh order arrived about 30 mins than they'd said at 2.20pm and they'd delivered plain flour when I'm sure I'd ordered self raising flour.

I finally signed off at 7pm at work and discussed with Alan what he wanted to do for dinner and he wanted takeaway so I went out for a run for 30 mins and did just over 6K slower than the past couple of days as my left big toe joint is still hurting.

We ordered from Tokies and I had a Zeus Pizza with some curly fries and milkshake called "Hi honey I'm home" I had a very long bath and read some Facebook drama as the place where we got married had had a family staying and had complained at the end of their stay that there was a problem with the mattress and were aggressive to the manager and were getting all their friends to leave false negative reviews.  It's so sad as tackling things like that is not good for anyone.

We watched some Dave TV after Alan had finished watching Middlesborough lose to Watford one nil.

I went to finally book my Arvon course for the week off that I'd booked, but it's sold out...I'd just read 3 of the stories in the Lucy Hallett Hughes Fabulous booked and loved them and was keen to book, but now I am on the waiting list and I'm sad as I don't know whether to try and book something else, cancel my week off or just take the week and try and crack on with my own writing.  So frustrating.

Isolation Journal 107 & 108

 So busy at work I've not had a chance to really write so a summary - 

- yesterday got up and fed all the cats, cleaned up a lot of cat sick, breakfast of cornflakes and coffee and lunch was late and reheated chick pea patties, did rachels' handover after a late lunch reading Fabulous by Lucy Hallett-Hughes in the sunshine which was mythical and interesting.  Finished work at nearly 7pm and went for run - Alan did too before me and I managed to do 23.24 which is the fastest 5K i've done in years.  Watered our plants and the neighbours.  Had prawn and rice stir fry for dinner, did more work, can't find candidates for a charity finance role, feel rubbish.

- today similar less cat sick and lunch was made from a salad and a jacket potato, cheese and marmite and I felt terrible and like I can't do my job, my head hurts.  Arena flowers arrived and I arranged them and put them next to my computer and in the dining room.  Finished work at 7.30pm and went for a run, slower that yesterday and then I fed all the cats and cooked tea a dinner for lunch hello fresh recipe with chicken and bacon and talked to my parents who had received my parcel from the Works.  Watched Frankie Boyle and then did some more work.  

Hopefully tomorrow will feel less hopeless...