Isolation Journal 89 & 90

Two in one entry today as I was away for the first time since March yesterday evening.

I woke up yesterday and checked my phone and had a negative Covid result from my test on Friday so I decided to go with my plan of visiting my parents and my brother.  I'd packed my stuff mostly the night before so I had some cornflakes, packed up the rest of the bits and pieces and set off just before 10am.

The roads weren't too bad, I had only planned to stop once for a toilet break and I always aim to get to at least Leicester Forest East Services on the way down and if I get to Watford Gap or further I'm over halfway and feel happy.  I got out at Watford Gap, tried to charge my car, but it wasn't working so I headed to the toilet.  I had no interest in stopping for food really as it was too busy and I felt uncomfortable and social distancing wasn't great.  I got back to the car, texted my brother and my parents and then carried on.  I had been listening to the Archers and then I swapped to some more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles.

I ended up driving only for 3hrs 40 and ended up at my brothers around 2pm.  I had a protein bar and a banana for lunch on the go and he did offer me some lunch, but he'd already eaten.  When I arrived at my brothers it was just the 2 oldest girls Beatrice and Florence and they were very hyper and excited to see me.  My brother's wife came back shortly after with the two youngest boys Lenny and Winston.  They were also quite excited and Winston was doing ok after a couple of trips to hospital this week as he'd cut his hand and they weren't sure if he'd need it stitching, but fortunately he didn't.  They drew some pictures on the patio in chalk and then I headed over to see my parents in the garden.  I managed to curb my alloy wheels when I was parking the car and I really need to sort out my insurance claim to get them fixed up.

They've done a lot of gardening during lockdown including planting melons, aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, cauliflowers, nasteriums, cucumber, lettuces and sweetcorn.   We sat outside and chatted and I gave them some malbec and some prosecco as well as a rag wreath I finished off under lockdown.

We went for a walk around the recreation field at the back of the house, it was a nice walk, but it's sad that at the back of the garages people have just dumped mattresses, fridges and other rubbish.  I used to think that the street was a really nice area, but some of it with my eyes these days just looks a bit tatty.

I texted my brother to find out what to do for food that evening and suggested I bought them a takeaway and he suggested I come back for around 7pm to read a story for the girls.  By the time I'd moved a few things around in my car it was five past seven and Beatrice told me off for being late.  

I read them Andy Pandy and Hansel and Gretel and made up a story about some cats stealing  a fish, they were very excited and out of routine and I felt a bit guilty as it took them a while to fall asleep and they tried hard to convince me that I should sleep in their room!

I went downstairs and we chatted whilst Steph fed Winston and he fell asleep and then we ordered a curry from the Raj using the Uber Eats app with a code that gave me £20 off and my brother a £15 off voucher.  By the time we'd faffed around the food was ordered around 9.30pm and I ordered some poppodoms with dips, Tom Yum seafood soup and a vegetable thalia and a portion of lemon rice which was way bigger than I'd expected so there were a lot of leftovers.  

We ended up chatting until around 1.30am discussing holidays and indeed lack of holidays as kids, something that seemed to bother my brother more than me, the fact that they still have a Range Rover in the garage and my brother worked out it was last taxed in 1995 and could be worth a lot these days - I said that when the time comes, he can deal with it.

I eventually fell asleep around 2am and woke up a few times, as I was quite warm and there were a few odd noises, but I was fairly comfortable on my sleeping bag on the sofa.  The kids initially woke up about 6.30am and came downstairs around 7.30am and I had cornflakes for breakfast and a couple of coffees as I was knackered!  The kids did some more chalk drawing in the garden and played with the bubble machine when it turned 9am and screamed a fair bit!  I had a shower which I desperately needed and then headed over to my parents for around 11am and we chatted in the garden some more and then had lunch of ham, cheese and salad sandwiches including home grown yellow tomatoes.  I went to the toilet in their house in my mask and sanitised before I went in and sprayed down the toilet after I left.  We went for another walk aound the field and I tracked it and it was just under 1K - they could make a parkrun there!  I managed to find a green parakeet feather by my parents house as they hang out there, there was also a nest in their kiwi bush and I couldn't work out what bird lived in it.

I set off home about 1.30pm and my Mum gave me fabric for some masks, some soap and some lemon drizzle cake Naked bars and an aubergine and nasterium.  The satnav gave an ETA of 6pm and it was a bit slow on the M25 and then there were some slow sections on the M1 with roadworks, but nothing stationary fortunately.  I chatted away to Alan for a big chunk of the journey and really missed him when I was away.  I then listened to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles - it's a very very long audio book!  I got to Leicester Forest East services just over half way and went to the toilet and it was a lot less busy than Watford Gap yesterday and so I braved the Waitrose and bought sushi as I'd been craving it as not had any for ages as well as some pepsi max and kefir.

I drove for another hour, but ended up stopping at Woodall as I started to feel too tired, so I went to the loo and emptied some rubbish to get a bit of a walk in and some fresh air.  Then my sat nav said an hour to do 35 miles, but it included a bit diversion through some South Yorkshire villages and so I was quite slow.

I was home for 5.45pm and about 3 hours 45 driving time and 20 - 25 mins stopping and break times.

I unpacked the car and said hello to Qubit who was hiding in a box and then had a cuddle with Alan and then a quick tea and sit down watching some cricket.

I decided to go for a run around 7.30pm and do about 8K and take it steady.  I listened to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles and did my Lumby Loop circuit and then as I got towards the end my stomach felt really odd and I had to run in and go straight to the toilet.  I then had a shower and Alan finished making tea of Carribean beef and courgette rice, I quick hung some washing out and we ate and watched Storage Hunters UK.  I prepped some strawberries and cream and then cleaned up the kitchen.

Isolation Journal 47

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isolation Journal 46

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

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

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

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

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

Yoga, Henna and Education

My alarm went off early today so that I could start the day with an hour of yoga in a class taken by the feudal lord for the sum of 500 rupee (£5).

The feudal lord is 68, looks very good for his age and clearly knew he'd be better than all of us in the class.  In fact when he discovered I've been doing yoga (about twice a week) for 10 years he kept pointing out how I wasn't as flexible as I should be!  The class was different to my normal class based out of the gym and started with lots of joint mobility work on the ankles and knees before moving onto hip stretching.  We did a shoulder stand, but no sun salutations and learned about parts of the hand and what organs of the body benefited from applying pressure there.  The relaxation part at the end was amazing and I started the day feeling extremely calm.

Breakfast was included so I saved my biscuits for another day and had marmalade on toast, a banana and a paratha with a good serving of decent coffee!

We met for our village safari in 2 jeeps with the first stop a school for tribal girls. Education is free in India, but for distant tribal people the time and cost of getting to and from school can be too much so we visited a free all girls boarding school set up to address this issue also supported by the Feudal Lord.  In India literacy is 77% for men and 51% for women so these schools will be vital in addressing this.  

The school was tidy and had a sense of organisation about it, but the most amazing part was how happy and well behaved the girls were.  They beamed with smiles as we entered and greeted us with whatever English phrases they knew, but carried on dutifully waiting for their breakfast or serving it to their classmates.  They had what looked like a delicious breakfast of chappatis, dhal and rice and when they'd finished they each washed up their own plates.  

Joe in our group is a teacher and he'd been carrying a book with him to try and get a good shot of him reading in an exotic location to promote reading to children and so he got in amongst the girls to read them "Mrs Scatterbrain goes on holiday" - they seemed to really enjoy the novelty of a new teacher!  We took a look at their classrooms and where they sleep as well as looked at the trophies the school has won before heading off in our jeeps and all the girls ran up to the rooftop to wave us goodbye.

Our next stop was to look at some graves, and then a beautiful waterfall, before being taken on a brief tour of some farmland where we saw peanuts, soya, gourds, peas, aubergine, turmeric, chilies and corn being grown.

We stopped briefly at a dairy and then crossed the road to another school where they were practicing for a procession.  

If it wasn't monsoon season we would have spent last night in a "permanent tent" on a campsite also owned by the Feudal Lord, so we went to visit, look at the beautiful lake and enjoy a cup of chai with the Lord who is incredibly charismatic and passionate about India and Rajasthan.  We also saw all the vegetables being grown at the campsite which are used by the restaurant in the castle that we are staying in.  

We returned in the jeeps for lunch and despite the covers the heavy rain meant some of us got rather wet!  I was certainly grateful for my panic buy of an umbrella at the airport!

For lunch back at the castle I again succumbed to a western craving for chips, but also had a delicious cashew nut curry and a couple of chapattis before a relax with my book and a nap.

We met up again as a group with the intention of playing cricket, but the rain was still strong so we went early for our henna tattoos.  The lady doing the tattoos was a teacher by day and was so quick to apply and extremely intricate brown henna powder design to my foot.  After an hour I washed it off and the skin underneath is now a vivid orange.  It was a mostly floral design, but she included the words "kiss" and "love".  At only 250 rupees (£2.50) it was a bargain!  

For dinner I had grilled vegetables with paneer and Dum Aloo - potatoes in gravy.  I'm slightly worried as now my stomach has settled I'm being a bit braver with my food choices in that I've had a couple of "saucy" curries as I've not gone for obvious "dry" dishes.  I'm hoping I'll be ok for the last few days of the trip - I'll keep my fingers crossed!

My bedroom in a castle

Not such an early start today meeting for a 6.30am breakfast.  I'm still opting for bland food at breakfast when I can and so far have successfully avoided the dreaded "Delhi belly".  I'd got my bag ready for the porters to pick up as instructed before 7am and then had a last minute panic when I realised I'd left my money belt complete with passport and cash cards under my pillow back in the room with the door wide open!  Fortunately a very honest porter handed it over to me as I ran towards my room!

We got on a minibus to the local bus station and then onto a "local" bus for our 4.5 hr drive to our "homestay" experience.  Fortunately I'm like a child when it comes to transport, unless I'm driving, if I'm in a moving vehicle I fall asleep so poor Mark who was sat next to me didn't really have much of a conversationalist!  We stopped once for a comfort break and then headed towards Bassi which is where we were staying for the night.  We swapped from the bus into a minibus and by this point I'd woken up so started to read "Dark a Places" by Gillian Flynn and glanced up from the page to see the fortress that was to be our hotel!

After arriving we were given our rooms at random and as I write this I'm lying on a bed set into a marble alcove like I'm some sort of Indian princess.  It's almost unbelievable.  We ditched our bags and then had the tastiest lunch yet with some amazing cumin potatoes.

We had some free time and despite all the snoozing on the bus I felt exhausted so went to read more of my book and have a rest before meeting the rest of the group back at 4pm for our village tour.

We walked down from the fort observing peacocks, green parakeets, pigs, cows and other native birds which I forget the names of on the way.  As we entered the village we were approached by several groups of extremely cute children with requests of "one photo, one photo" they wanted us to take their photo and let them see their images - they were delighted with the results, but we could barely move without additional requests!  

Our guide Raj accompanied by the mayor showed us some village people weaving cotton as well as a bangle maker and we encountered more children including one moment where Joe from our group was convinced into playing cricket and the boy batted the ball all the way over a nearby building - I can see why the Indian team are hard to beat at cricket!

We wandered back up to the fort and met up at the top of a minaret for drinks. Popadoms and Bombay mix (actually called something else!) and then were offered the chance to dress up in a sari.

Once again (last time was in Bali!) I became aware of how much bigger the British "frame" is compared to other countries as the poor woman battled to find a top that would encase me and some of the other ladies into traditional Indian attire in between several power blackouts!

We enjoyed the experience, but escaped quickly from our outfits to enjoy dinner which was a delicious buffet of mostly vegetarian food - 4 days in I'm not yet missing meat!  

We had a couple of beers (Turbourgs) and chats and then retired to our ceremoniously grand bedrooms for an early night!

New Delhi Old Delhi - Sensory Overload

Sleep wasn't really happening for me last night and with a 4am wake up tomorrow I should be asleep... But sadly not!

Breakfast at the hotel was a mix of western cornflakes and toast with (what I chose) Indian coconut noodles, paratha and banana.  We met as a group at 9am for our walking tour and made our way down to the Metro Station.   On the way we passed a school where I watched the joyous faces of children under umbrellas and raincoats dancing under open hoses.  

The Metro was certainly an experience I'm used to the tube in London impact that this was something else! Security is much tighter and to even enter the station you had to go through security scanners similar to in an airport.  There are separate carriages for women which I'm not sure how I felt about, but were certainly more pleasant than being crammed in with multiple men!  It's probably one of the only countries that I would feel tall living in!

We arrived in Old Delhi and it was very much sensory overload!  Walking through the streets you could smell at any one point in time urine, the heady sense of sweet incense, marigolds flowers, disinfectant, rotting rubbish and tasty street food being cooked.  You are surrounded by street vendors, men, women and children on their daily commute via TukTuk, motorcycle, rickshaw or car and the poverty stricken beggars offering to weigh you in exchange for money.  It was simultaneously overwhelming and amazing.

We walked through the crowded and chaotic streets of old Delhi stopping briefly for various explanations on buildings and to sample samosas and jelebee sweets from authentic vendors.

We walked up to the red temple or Jama Masjid - Delhis oldest mosque.  We had to put on even more clothes to enter the mosque despite being fully covered and it was interesting inside, but what intrigued me the most was the group of women and children trying to ask me to take the photograph in exchange for money.   however I've left my camera outside because it cost £3 to take photos inside.  

We then wound our way across Old Delhi to the Sikh temple - Sheeshganj Guruwara which was plush but not overly  ostentatious inside.  What was most intriguing about the temple is that it wasn't just dedicated to worship, there is a whole mass production kitchen attached where people were queueing up to eat ready for lunch.   Some of the group got to try their hand at making chapatis.   We had to remove our shoes to enter the temple and as we walked across the marble in bare feet we were aware of just how hot the day had become.  At the end of the tour we decided that we were all hungry so our leader Raj recommended a restaurant in New Delhi called United coffee house.

United coffee house was icy cool with air-conditioning and very plushly decorated. I stuck to my theory of eating vegetarian food and had a very interesting cauliflower dry curry with fresh coriander and rice.  We had a quick wander through the market to take on some of the atmosphere and then took our guides advice and jumped into TukTuk back to the hotel.  We went to the pre-booked police TukTuk station, but we're still beset by touts trying to earn our business.  It was a 20 minute ride back to the hotel and very much an experience that is hard to describe, although very similar to the traffic in Nepal!  Needless to say I don't think I would ever be able to drive in Delhi!

After a brief freshen up at the hotel we met as a group to discuss our next days activities and decided to go out for another bite to eat together. I decided to sample the strong elephant beer which was pretty strong at 8%!  I also had dhal with rice which was delicious and enjoyed getting to know the other members of the group much better.  After the meal we decide to stop at The Perfect Hotel for a rooftop beer and drink before bedtime.  

It's now midnight and I've packed my bags ready for a 5 AM departure from the hotel, but once again I am not sleepy thanks jetlag!

Acclimatisation

I've decided there's only so much time I can spend relaxing... Even on holiday!  So after trying to catch up on sleep, I decided that I should have a late lunch and ventured down to the hotel reception and was pointed me in the direction of the restaurant in the basement.  

I was the only person there and the room was a bit dark and dingy with a hugely loud fan, but I had a lovely meal of mixed vegetables, dhal makhani and vegetable pilau rice - under recommendations from my friend Jenny I'm trying to limit my intake of "saucy curry" but the dhal was quite saucy!  I loved the flavours of coriander and cumin seeds in the rice - apparently it was a "little bit spicy" for me - it wasn't!

I had a much needed coffee and a salty lassi to finish and then went back to my room for a nap!

The orientation meeting was long!  I got to meet some of my fellow great companions a good mix of people mostly from the UK but with some from Australia, Germany, Ireland and Italy.  We learned a bit more about what we will be doing in the days ahead and all agreed to go out for a meal together for our first evening.  Our Guide Gauraj seems passionate and organised - so we should have fun on our trip.

This was my first venture out walking along the streets of Delhi and actually it wasn't too dissimilar to what I expected from visiting Nepal.  You have to walk with confidence and purpose and assume that you get driven round by the constantly beeping from tuktuks, rickshaws and cars!  Lying in bed with the beeping horns outside my window I could almost imagine if it wasn't the sort that I was in New York.  People use their horns here correctly - to make other road users aware of their presence rather than an aggressive act of annoyance!  There is noise strange smells food and bright colours everywhere you go it's fantastic!  There were men stringing marigolds together into garlands, fruit and veg stalls with unusual looking fruit and rats running through litter into the drains - a colourful mix of sights.  

At the restaurant I had a mixed set of vegetable starters and vegetable Biriani for my meal coupled with the Kingfisher ultra beer and it was delicious.  

The restaurant had an unusual Indian TV program playing in the background with lots of (I assume) celebrities gyrating in some sort of dance off as well as cherubs painted all over the ceiling it was an interesting place!  It was nice to get to know some more of my trip companions over dinner and I look forward to our first proper sightseeing at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning.