My first shift as a volunteer vaccination steward

When the announcement for recruiting NHS volunteers via the RVS went out early on in the pandemic, I eagerly entered my details only to not receive the "confirm your email" email (stupid inconsistent hotmail.com email address from 1998). I joined the village support group instead, but didn't end up needing to do anything as it turns out South Milford is a very self supporting community and we all helped each other out as neighbours without really needing to reach out via social media. (Alan was accepted straight away, but didn't get many alerts at all and none at a time when he wasn't working, so again it seems locally we've all been good at looking after those who live near us.)

Then as a St John Ambulance trained first aider, I was excited to receive an email inviting me to apply to be a vaccine volunteer, only I didn't pass the screening at that time (I assume because I am asthmatic and this was before I'd had any jabs at all)

I really enjoy volunteering and get an awful lot of enjoyment from it as well as it being a really important tool for me to manage my mental health. I still volunteered in a few different ways such as continuing to deliver guides through zoom and helping write lockdown running training sessions.

I went for my Covid Booster on Thursday and when I got back Alan mentioned he'd had an email from the RVS about volunteering to be a vaccine steward so I thought I'd see if I could sign up properly using a different email address. This time it worked and I was able to confirm my email address and log onto the GoodSam app. I filled in my details on the app and uploaded my ID and also a recent DBS I'd had through Guides (you don't need this to be a vaccine steward volunteer, but if you have a DBS from within the past 12 months it does allow you to volunteer for different roles if you like such as the "Check in and Chat" role). 

Alan and me then looked on the app for potential shifts that we could choose to volunteer and we found shifts at the Batley & Spen Vaccination Centre on Sunday that needed 2 volunteers so we both signed up. The shifts are 4 hours in duration which is long enough to feel like you are making a difference, but not too long that you feel you've not got time to enjoy your weekend. The app is pretty easy to use and you are able to book onto shifts fairly far in advance if you need to be organised, or you can fill something the following day.

As a Volunteer Vaccine Steward you need to be able to do at least 2 shifts per month and in return you get sent a hi vis. They can take some time to be sent out (c2-3 weeks), but you can volunteer straight away without it - we used our own hi vis vets to help identify us as volunteers today.

We signed up for the 1pm - 5pm shift and so did an LFT test before we left and set off stopping at Starbucks near Ikea on the way. Vaccination centres are typically always blessed with parking and we were able to park close by to the centre on the street. We spoke to the site manager when we arrived who very quickly showed us what we needed to do. One role was to be a greeter at the entrance and show people where to go to get checked in after reading a sign and being offered hand sanitiser and a mask and the other role was in the waiting area, wiping down chairs with sanitising wipes after people had finished using them as well as keeping an eye on people in case they needed any assistance.

For the first 3 hours I cleaned chairs and Alan was at the entrance and it was a fairly steady flow of people and it was a game of skill and memory to work out which chairs had been used and needed wiping down. I was working with another lady who worked for the local authority and so we covered the c12 rows of 6 chairs between us.  We were well looked after and I was given a Capri Sun to drink and offered tea, coffee, crisps, cake and biscuits. In a bit of a lull Alan asked if he could perhaps grab a jab himself as the vaccination centre was offering walk in appointments and so he did and we swapped roles and I went to greet people at the entrance.

The entrance was initially quite steady, but got much busier towards the end of the shift. People were all polite and happy to be getting their jabs and there were quite a few walk-ins who looked relieved when I said just to go and get checked in. I handed out masks, offered directions and hand santiser and reassured people who were worried about being too late or too early. Alan had a much busier hour as he was working on his own covering more chairs, but we were able to wave at each other from a distance.

It was a really positive experience and after the vaccine volunteers had been so kind to my Dad getting his booster in October, it felt good to be able to give something back today. The only mildly amusing interaction was a member of the public who decided to give me feedback on my chair wiping technique and a kid shouting through the door of the centre before I heard his friend whisper "ssh the door is open!"

I sometimes worry about "virtue signalling" when I post these things, but I do it more as a record of my experience and for anyone who has thought about volunteering and was either unsure as they didn't know what to expect, or had put it off for whatever reason, Or for people who didn't realise there are still opportunities to help out. I suspect in the coming weeks after the annoucement today the centres will be even busier, so if you think you'd like to spare a couple of hours I'd really recommend the experience based on how things went for us today. 

A few additional things:

• You can claim expenses for mileage and hand sanitiser
• If you are due a vaccination (first, second or booster) you should be able to get one whilst on your shift
• The staff whether clinical or non clincal and other volunteers work really really hard, we were both knackered after just 4 hours, and these guys do longer shifts many days in a row. Even more respect to them than before!
• And...lots of other FAQ answers here

Not so Isolation Journal 132

Annoyingly I woke up at 6.30am and my alarm was set for 7.10am and so I didn't fall back to sleep again and we'd been up until around 1am looking at our childhood vaccination records online.

I went into the office again today for the morning, Alan is still uncomfortable with me going into the office with Covid cases rising, I find I'm constantly torn because I do feel that the office is very much as Covid safe as it could be and I feel less cluttered and more focussed when I'm around colleagues, but I totally get that it feels very unsettling in terms of the fact Leeds it currently Tier 2.

I had a meeting with colleagues, did a handover and caught up with people and then headed back home shortly after 12.20pm and it took me around 30 mins to get back.  I wanted to be back to see how Alan had got on at the nurse appointment, but it wasn't hugely productive.  She just looked in his ear.  I had some carrot and coriander soup and a pannini for lunch and logged back on .  We did a BD session and I managed to clear around 250 emails, but had 400 to get through and I've got a load more stuff to get through, it's relentlessly busy again.  I also had a last minute client meeting with 3 clients at a company which was pretty useful.

I booked the first week in November off as leave and signed up and paid for an Arvon Course which I'm really looking forward to.  I have also ordered a book by each of the tutors Wild by Jay Griffiths and Addlands by Tom Bullough They are both more nature and landscape, which isn't directly relevant to my novel, but is something that I'm really interested in.

I ran a candidate search until around 8pm and Alan made dinner which was pulled chicken burgers and I then had 2 ice lollies.  

We watched Taskmaster and tried to go to bed a bit earlier.

Isolation Journal entry 130...but definitely missed at least 2 weeks!

Today I woke up really early as I needed to drop my car off to York Audi for a service at 8.15am so my alarm went off at 7.10am and I left about half an hour later having fed the cats, eaten a banana and drunk a coffee and made one to go.  I also cleared out my boot in the hope they might clean it (I later discovered they aren't valeting cars at the moment due to Covid)

I listened to "With me Now as I drove and I was about 3 or 4 minutes late, but the traffic wasn't too bad  at least and I'd taken "Girl Woman Other" to read as well as my phone to entertain me.  I dropped off the key and the chap was wearing a mask and sat behind a screen and pointed out a socially distanced area to myself to wait, but I suspect it wasn't all that well sanitised as there was spilt and dried up coffee all over the table.

I noticed after over an hour my car hadn't moved and the chap explained that it was because the workshop entrance was blocked, it did eventually go in about 10am and so I went for a walk around the Clifton Moor escape with an idea I might go to Costa for a coffee.  It was a 20 minute walk and I listened to an audible book that I'm using for research for my novel Don't you Know Who I Am? when I got closer I popped on my mask again and had a look and there was a queue out of the door for both Costa and Greggs and as York is Tier 2 alert level I decided not to risk it and walked back to the dealership, but dialled into the weekly parkrun "Virtual Opposite" call and caught up with people which was lovely.  I saw my car return and my battery was down to 10% so I left the call and after a few minutes I was able to get my car back.  I picked up some bad news that one of my close friend's husband has come down with Covid and is having to self isolate with the family, it's really not what they need after a stupidly challenging 18 months.  I hope they are doing ok.

The car passed it's first MOT with a small advisory on corrosion on brake discs which Alan had told me to expect as it's been sat on the driveway a lot and not moving.  I drove back and let Alan know I was on my way and called my Mum and Dad for a catch up.  I got back in time to eat a very odd lunch of an almond croissant, cinanmon swirl, left over kebab and curly fries from last night and also a rocket lolly - I definitely need to eat better food!

We watched the first episode of the new series of Taskmaster which genuinely had me crying with laughter during the "egg" challenge - watch it you will thank me!

I had to nip out for my Drive Through Flu Jab and time it so I arrived at exactly 2.07pm and it was literally a drive through where I showed my letter, was given a token, put on my mask, drove to a tent, wound down the window and without a moment to prepare jabbed in the arm!  It was certainly efficient!

I got home and watched the rest of Taskmaster and then fell asleep on the sofa and watched some Great British Bakeoff.

Alan cooked sausage and mash and cherry crumble for dinner which was really delicious.  and we watched more Taskmaster and then when he had a bath I watched some Extra Slice.

Isolation Journal 121

I woke up at 7am with a plan to go to work, but Alan was really nervous about me going based on how poorly he was and how likely he thought that it would be that I'd pick up Covid and the annoucements from last night, so in the end I worked from home and had an extremely busy day.  I had cornflakes and coffee for breakfast and started work at 8am.

I started off with processing some emails and catching up with Rachel on my handover, I then had a meeting with the internal audit colleague to help him sell a retained process.  I then had a number of calls to catch up with Katie and then a number of candidates.  Alan made aubergine and miso tacos for lunch that were delicious.  We then had a meeting about some of the learns that we'd made from the new system and then I prepped for my meeting with my client about the shortlist and the videos that I'd made.  The meeting went well and we shortlisted 3 candidates for interview next week. One of the trustees was in his camper van in a field.

The map I ordered for Alan's Anniversary present arrived and also we had Hello Fresh arrive today.

I had a discussion with my boss about the debate on how, who, when people in the team should be in the office, I'm really nervous about it.

It was really rainy today and I debated going out for a run, but I've had a really heavy chest, sore throat and this evening I've felt really tired and a bit dizzy, I'm hoping that it passes quickly.

I worked unti 8.30pm and then had dinner with Alan who I was relieved cooked again and made a very tasty spicy soup and I came down to eat it and we watched Dave on TV and then I carried on doing more work mostly writing adverts and processing a few emails.

It's now past midnight, I'm exhausted and should probably go to bed...

Isolation and Not so Isolation Journals 116, 117, 118, 119 and 120

116 - Friday was a whirlwind, Rachel was back from holiday and I had a short period of time to quickly handover with her before another call at 9am to discuss additional Covid protocols in the office and then I had another interview with a candidate and then a very busy day prepping for not being around for 2 days next week.  I had a catch up with Katie and Rachel for my handover and then I finally finished up around 9pm having had to upload all the CVs for my retainer and send all the links for the Hinterviews.  I also had a dilemna about what to do with a particular role, but I came up with a workable solution in the end thankfully.  We then had a late dinner of takeaway Chinese which did take ages to arrive and then I was very tired and went to bed after I think watching some more Dave on TV.  I also eventually managed to finally order a present for him at last and ordered a personalised OS map (paper!) centred on where we got married at North Shire.

117 - Saturday - we woke up and Alan decided to tell me that we had to go and "collect" my anniversary present from somewhere in South Yorkshire, so we had some coffee and some quick cereal and set off and he drove down the A1 and eventually after a guessing game I managed to guess Worksop as where we were going.  We got there after around an hour and he'd sponsored an area of woodland for me at Hannah Park via the Woodland Trust which was a lovely present.  We wondered around and found the patch that was dedicated and it was a lovely place with lots of different types of trees and birds and lots of people walking their dogs.  Amusingly as we walked towards the entrance there was a friendly little dog that kept saying hello and I was almost convinced that Alan had adopted it for me!  We drove back home and then had a relax at home with an idea that I wanted us to head back to Eccup Resevoir where we ran our first "date" 5 years ago.  We got there fairly late on in the afternoon, but had estimated we'd have enough time to be able to get around before sunset and we just about managed it with a jog walk around the 4 miles.   We got home and then I made tea which was a Hello Fresh spicy veggie coconut curry soup and I also prepped some of the very many apples that our neighbour Anna had kindly given us for the Apple and Roasted Garlic chutney  I then tidied as much as I could and organised things for travelling to North Shire tomorrow after making 5 litres of the chutney and putting it all in jars - it was past 1am by the time that I came to bed.  I cleaned the fridge so that I could ask our neighbour who was feeding the cats to put the milk away for us.  

118 - Sunday - I woke up at a reasonable time and spent a good chunk of time tidying and cleaning the house after packing and we set off to drive to Bempton Cliffs and I drove in Alan's car.  It's not far, but lots of slow winding roads and took us over an hour and a half to get there.  The weather was calm, but not too sunny or windy and we strolled along the edges of the cliffs and saw a fisherman who had scaled down the cliffs to fish, lots of gannets and a potential seal (fortuantely we'd brought the binoculours this time!) we stopped off and I had a sandwich and Alan some millionaires shortbread (he was disappointed that it was vegan) and a couple of teas and then Alan drove us to North Shire and we arrived just after 4.30pm.  We walked straight to Hagrids and the key was in the lock for us and we settled in and ended up cooking some pizza for tea, drinking the champagne that my work colleagues all bought for us when we got engaged.  We watched Dave and started a very hard 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle which was extremely tricky!

119 - Monday - the weather was lovely when we woke up and we made breakfast which took a while in the convection oven - we baked sausage and black pudding for about an hour and ate it with tiger bread and BBQ sauce outside and enjoyed the lovely sunny day that wasn't quite as warm as our actual wedding was exactly a year ago.  I wanted to go for a run and suggested I could do that whilst Alan had a bath, but then I'd also suggested that we visited Runswick Bay as we'd never been in any of the times that we'd visited North Shire and so we drove out and it was only about 13 minutes drive.  We found a car park that unfortunately had a broken card machine and so we put all the coins I had into the machine and got an hour, but we weren't sure if that would be enough, luckily I spotted that you could use the Ringo app to pay and we took a picture in case we needed more time.  It's a really stunning beach although a good steep walk down, and quiet as no busy shops or food stalls and so we walked along paddling in the sea and looked at the rock pools and saw different seaweed, anemones, little fish, crabs and later on Oystercatchers.  We then moved inland so that Alan could sit and sort out the parking and spotted a load of rocks that had fossils in them, we tapped away and found some great ammonites and also found some fools gold.  We then started to head back up the beach and spotted a crack next to a water fountain and a chap told us that it was 300 steps up to the top, so we climbed up the cliff path and looked at the stunning view.  We then had to top up the parking again and headed back up to the car.  Once we got to the car I was craving fish and chips, but couldn't find any on the way although we did stop at a COOP and I grabbed salad leaves, lollies, drinks and raspberries and it was the first proper shop I'd been in ages and no one was doing the one way system right!  We got to the fish and chips place I'd found on the map, but it was closed, but Alan spotted it on Just Eat and so we decided to try and order later.  We got back and it was still lovely and warm and we bumped into the new manager and had a chat about how business had been for them in the past few months and the fact that they weren't doing a pick a pumpkin patch again this year as it was too stressful last year!  I went for a run and explored a few of the little public footpaths and found that the road wasn't too good to run along, but managed to clear 4 miles in a decent time and then got in the lovely copper bath for a relax and Alan ordered us fish and chips for delivery.  We did more work on the jigsaw and then ate fish and chips outside, the peacocks were after me and I managed to spill the gravy and peas on the floor and Alan had to keep chasing them away!  We had some nice pink Moet with our dinner and watched the sunset and then went inside to watch a DVD - Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and then move Dave and struggled with the light on the jigsaw puzzle before I rested on the sofa and started to fall asleep.

120 - Tuesday - we had planned to walk up Roseberry Topping today, but Alan woke up with ear ache and feeling rubbish so we relaxed at Hagrid and I tidied up, packed and had breakfast and then at 11am we checked out and I drove us home as Alan wasn't feeling good and didn't even eat breakfast.  It took about an hour and 40 mins to get home and at one point an angry Network Rail van driver beeped and gestured at me as I stopped at a roundabout before driving on!  When we got back we unpacked and Alan went almost straight away up to bed for the rest of the day.  I tidied and unpacked and then dealt with a few work bits whilst watching The Social Dilemma which was really though provoking and made me turn off a lot of my notificatios.   I then went for a run - I had time and daylight so I decided to do 10k which I managed in 53 mins and 9 seconds which is probably the fastest all year and I then decided to run for a full hour and managed nearly 7 miles.  I managed to listen to a further 1 hour of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles and only have 2 hours to go!  I'm behind by about 7 miles from my 1000 mile target so I'm hoping I can catch up over the next few days/weeks.  I came back and had a bath and read some more of Fabulous and only have 1 story left to go.  I bottled some more Kombucha and watched the 8pm speech from the Prime Minister which is a bit odd as now he's saying if you can work from home to work from home, so I'm not sure what the means for me, although our company line is that we work better in offices so to try and continue to be in the office, so I'm going in tomorrow, much to Alan's frustration.  I made a jacket potato and salad for dinner and ate it watching Great British Bake Off and made some lunch for tomorrow and found bugs living in the tiger bread and so had to throw that out.  I'd managed to get Alan to eat some strawberries, raspberries and cream, but he's still feeling poorly.

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 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...

Isolation Journal 106

I got up at 8am and fed all the cats including a quite quiet Fudge and Smudge and then had some cornflakes and coffee and had a few bits and pieces to sort out and send CVs for a job (that I later found didn't arrive and I had to resend).

I ran a brief training session for Luke and Katie S on candidate exclusivity and then I worked on finding more candidates for a few jobs.

The Kombucha book that I'd ordered arrived and then for lunch we had some more rice and chickpea patties.

The day in general was reasonable productive as I confirmed the details of my placement and did some admin as well as joined in on a BD afternoon on the temp side and had a meeting with PP to discuss shared clients. Alan went to the dentist for more fillings at 2.20pm and came back a bit groggy.

I finished work around 6.30pm and Alan needed to drive his car for a bit of a run out and he googled some interesting places and we went to Skipwith Common and aimed to be back at 8pm for the Amazon delivery...only we realised when we were walking that I'd not completed the order, so it will be now arriving tomorrow morning instead!

We got home and Alan fed Fudge and Smudge and I made tea - Caprese Pasta by Hello Fresh.  We then ate in front of the TV and watched Dave with Katherine Ryan featured on a number of different programmes.

They announced this evening that they are going to be banning gatherings of more than 6 as of Monday, it's a good thing that I visited my parents when I did and that we planned guide meetings online only.  We were due to be going to a celebration before we had our wedding anniversary at North Shire, but I'm not sure that it will be able to go ahead.

I swapped a few messages with my brother, both my neighbours, my Mum and Gem from guides!

Me and my brother are worried in particular about my Dad as he seems to be very bored at the moment, we're not sure what to do, but hopefully we'll help him find a few more ideas.  

Isolation Journal 104

We woke up quite late around 10.30am and then debated what to do and considered going to Spurn Point, but as the weather looked a bit dodgy and my toe was still sore and Alan's back was bad.  My Covid test result arrived and was negative and I was feeling less poorly today and didn't have a sore throat.  

Alan made delicious apple pancakes and we watched Friends and then I went and fed Fudge and Smudge and did the recyling and took the rubbish out and then hoovered the house and did a couple of loads of laundry and put away the washing.  I tidied and cleaned the kitchen.  I listened to more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles and I'm now less than 8 hours away from the end - it's really felt like a marathon to get through this book!  Today was a 2 coffee day and Alan also made a pistachio tea from the Coffee at the Crescent order.  

Alan watched the Formula 1 and then I tidied out a drawer and cupboard in the Welsh Dresser and we now have a covid drawer with facemasks, wipes and hand sanitiser as well as binning a load of old diet coke with black lumps in that was 3 - 4 years out of date.

I ideally wanted to go for a run, but my feet were too sore and I could tell Alan would benefit from some fresh air so we decided to go for a walk around Pontefract racecourse and we've not been there since March when we did our last parkrun.  Both of us had high anxiety today.

There were lots of new wooden carvings "Peter and the Perrigrine" and we noticed lots of things we haven't before as we're usually running.  There were some beautiful sky scenes, we walked across a model aeroplane flying area and also saw a rainbow and then a double rainbow.  My feet got really wet.

We got home and Alan cooked a butternut Squash curry for Hello Fresh and I fed Fudge and Smudge and then mopped the floors.

We ate dinner and then Alan really wanted pudding so I finally had a go at making Sticky Lemon Pudding that I'd seen Jack Monroe tweet and it didn't take long to prep, but takes 30 mins in the oven and then 20 mins to let the lemon sauce all sink in.  

In the meantime I made chickpea, carrot and coriander patties and some rice.

Not so Isolation Journal 103

I'd not got to bed at a very good time and so I was quite tired when I woke up at 9am and needed to be out the house for around 9.30am to get to my writing class at 10.30am.  I didn't end up eating breakfast, but I made a couple of coffees and drank one before I left and took one for the journey.  I packed the last rice and beans and a couple of slices of pizza from the night before.

The traffic was good and so it only took me around 35 minutes to get there and I tried to park behind The Bowery, but it was a bit tricky and tight in the car park, so I drove down to where the art deco houses are and walked around 5 minutes to get to the class, I was just on time fortunately.

I wore my mask to enter the class and then the whole way through other than to drink my water bottle and then to eat lunch outside.  The course I was doing was How to Write that Novel and it was the first writing workshop that I'd booked this year for my 20 things in 2020 and was due to be the weekend after I'd got back from honeymoon in March, but it got delayed to June and then September so it feels like I've been waiting a while and have done a lot of online zoom in the meantime.  It was definitely worth the wait.  

The Bowery made me feel comfortable as there were only 10 of us in the room and we all wore masks apart from the tutor Mark Connors who work a visor so that we could hear and see him speaking properly.  There were masks available, but I'd brought my own and they had lovely lavendar hand santiser available around the tutor room.  

I really enjoyed the course, we started off by reading aloud the first page and the blurb of a selection of books including one by the tutor because he'd run out of books Tom Tit and the Maniacs.  We noticed various things about both especially the hook and intrigue and then we all had a go at writing our own as well as coming up with titles.  I've now got a lot more books on my "I want to read list".  We read aloud our blurbs and also our first pages and there were some really interesting outlines for novels and starting points within the class, some were fantasy, one was a romance, one about a lady's grandmothers journey from India to Africa to England and one about an aging rockstar getting together with someone who looked like his younger self, one about a Dunkirk Solider and one about dragons and another about a fantasy dream world.  I later felt sad for the fantasy dreamworld guy as he didn't get a chance to read out one of the exercises.  We also discussed how to always try and avoid cliches.

We had a break for lunch and I sat outside in the little garden area.  

After lunch we did work around scene setting and wrote and read aloud some descriptive scenes and then talked about character before having a question and answer session with Mark.  Finishing at 4.30pm I bought a copy of Tom Tit and the Maniacs and then some of the hand santiser spray, but they only had a peppermint flavour, but I bought a couple for £5.50 each.

After I'd walked back to the car I texted my friend Jenny as I've not seen her for months and she's been being very cautious.  I popped into the house briefly and she signed off a guide planning zoom call with my old guide group and I waved to Fran and some of the other leaders which was lovely.  She then showed me her homemade kombucha which was delicious!  I had some of the plain kombucha as well as some strawberry flavoured stuff with actual strawberries.  And told me about how to make it and asked me if I wanted some of her scoby to make my own and I said yes please! 

We then took Luna the King Charles Spaniel for a walk around the Meanwood woods and she was very excited and running around and it was really good to have a good chat.  When we got back to her house she boxed up the scoby and gave me some instructions and then I headed back to find Alan in the bath after a run and so I went out for a quick run too to get my (not) parkrun fix in.  I'd noticed a pain in my left big toe joint yesterday and I could run, but I could definitely still notice it today.  I listended to With Me Now podcast as I ran and they read out my Facebook comment about doing Temple Newsam parkrun with Alex last weekend.

I fed Fudge and Smudge and Fudge ran out as soon as I opened the door and they had been sick 3 times and I had to clean the litter trays, but they were more friendly than usual which was cute.

The coffee beans, chai tea and pistachio tea I'd ordered from Coffee on the Crescent had arrived as well as the Vitality free and discounted coffee from Cafe Nerro.  My mum had also texted me to tell me that the big tub of marmite I'd ordered months ago had finally arrived.

I had a soak in the bath for far too long when I got back and Alan wasn't sure what we should do for tea and eventually I made some wraps with the left over kebab meat from last night and reheated the curly fries and cut up some lettuce.  

We watched a variety of random comedy from Dave and I started to make Kombucha and ran a load of washing through.  

To make kombucha you make 2 litres of tea with 6 - 8 teabags and 160 - 200g of sugar, let it cool to a warm tepid temperature.  You then pour into a plastic jar and add the scoby to it and the scoby juices and cover with cotton and leave for 7 - 30 days - fingers crossed that it works well!

Not so Isolation Journal 102

It was a struggle to get up this morning, but I dragged myself out of bed around 7.15am and let the cats out and had cornflakes and milk and a coffee and made one to drink in the car.  I was so groggy I spilt milk everywhere.

Work was quiet as it was only Luke in in my team.  I had a busy morning meeting 2 candidates to practice MS Teams and prep them for interviews, I also chatted to a few people as well who were interested in my very short 4 week temp role, but I did manage to fill it in the afternoon thankfully.

I also learned some more functions of the system that made me pleased like it reminds you to brief and de brief candidates on interviews, you can copy and paste the job reference number rather than trying to remember an 8 digit number and you can search for which jobs are missing adverts.

I'd got to 2pm and suddenly realised that I'd eaten my rice at my desk, but I'd not been out at all so I went for a walk around the block and then I caught up with the PP team to chat about various things.  

I decided to book a Covid Test as I'd had a note through the app because I'd reported sore throat symptoms and so I booked for 6pm and made sure I'd finished up at 5.30pm and walked out with Susan and had a catch up chat.  

I'd worn my mask a bit today and I'm literally the only person in the office who does, I especially wear in the toilets and walking to and from my car and I'm nervous as Leeds is hovering around a local lockdown at the moment.  

I rang my mum on the way back as I'd figured she'd like a chat and could listen as I went through the drive through test.  I got there a bit early, so hovered around for about 5 mins and then drove in.  You drive around the park and ride car park and then stop at various points for instructions and to have your AR code scanned and they then drop a test kit in your passenger car window and you park up and do the test.  You blow your nose and sanitise your hands and then you have to swab your tonsils for 10 - 15 secs and the back of your nose for the same time and you then break the top of the plastic off the swab and put it in a vial of liquid and seal it in a bag with a pad and then you put it in the main bag and they check it before you drive to the drop off point.  They scan your code again and I was done in 9 minutes.

I got home and then went out for a run and ran in the lovely pre sunset light, I was more sluggish today and did 4.5 miles listening to a grime mix on Apple music as I've had the M to the B song stuck in my head off TikTok and I'm still "unproductive" training and I got a photo of a sign urging you to wash your car to protect against covid.  I spotted Qubit in the field and Alan went to call him in.

We then watched some Friends and ordered takeaway, the place we got from on Saturday wasn't delivering so we got from Tokies and I ordered a kebab, pizza and curly frieds but I knew I wouldn't eat it all.  I did some tidying and unpacked the veg box and got in the bath, but the takeaway arrived only 10 mins later.  Alan watched Happy Gilmore whilst i was in the bath and tidying and then we watched 8 out of 10 cats does countdown.

The food was good, but a bit cold.  After we'd eaten Alan suggested that I make hot apple brandy as he'd bought some apple butter.

Isolation Journal 98

We ended up not going to bed properly until around 3am so we woke up about 10am, and just had a lazy morning in bed and got up around 11am, mostly prompted by Maya bringing up a mouse that she'd eaten like an apple with the just a "core" remaining.  I put some washing on and Alan started to make some lunch.  We had a delicious aubergine and okra taco recipe that we'd previously had from Hello Fresh and it was really lovely.   I also hoovered and mopped most of the floors.

We watched Friends and then more Storage Hunters whilst we ate and then we went out for a cycle up to Fairburn Ings and back home via Ledsham.  Annoyingly as my heart rate was low for the 52 mins of cycling it didn't even register as points on my Vitality!  It did change my garmin training status to "peaking" that was positive.

We had hot cross buns and a cup of tea and watched some more Storage Hunters.

When we got back I did some more tidying up and Alan went up for a bath and I went to take the compost out, remembered that I'd not planted my pansies that arrived earlier in the week and so I quickly planted them out in any place I could fit them after doing some weeding, hacking back the artichokes (I needed to saw the stems with a bread knife!) and then removing the old tent greenhouse frame that had gone rusty.

I then cooked the Hello Fresh BBQ and had to swap the chicken as it went out of date on the 28th, the beef was the 29th, but was ok and I made the 2 salads and chicken korma and koftes.  I also made some rice with beans for my lunch so that I'm all safe tomorrow with my own food.  Alan made us a JD and ginger. 

We ate and started to watch Zoolander, but Qubit turned it off by accident and so we watched some John Oliver and Modern Life is Goodish and then I finished off cleaning up the kitchen and changed both sheets on the bed.  I listened to more of "The Wind Up Bird Chronicles" as I was doing the chores.

It's now nearly midnight and I'm feeling pretty anxious aboutt getting enough sleep for work tomorrow, hopefully it should all be ok.

Isolation Journal 94

I woke up a bit earlier than my alarm and I was desperate to finish off "The Midnight Library" and I did, I loved it and wanted to read it again, but I'd promised to lend it to my neighbour Kirsty.

I logged onto my teams kick off call at 9am and updated Katie who was back from Greece and seemed happy with how I'd looked after things for her whilst I was off.  I had yoghurt, apple and granola for breakfast and then another team meeting with the wider team.

I got through a decent amount of work this morning, but it's still very busy and I have plenty to do, but I did manage to do Pilates at 12pm and it was just 3 of us in the class.  We then heated the leftover pasta bake from the day before for lunch and then cracked on with the afternoon activities including writing an advert for the job I'd managed to retain which I'm really excited to be working on and also picked up another job to work on which is the first job I've had for me in a very long time.

I finished work around 6.35pm and we were due to be doing our guide planning meeting at 6.30pm in Gem's garden, but it was really rainy so we moved it to Zoom.  I ended up having my laptop crash so I then had to download Zoom onto the Mac and then it started working again so I logged back on again.

We borrowed lots of ideas and planned the whole term that will be done via Zoom as we're not sure when we'll be allowed to do things again face to face.  It took a while, but I've made a whole document of what parents need to prep ready to participate, we've got different people leading things and some fun party, cooking and crafts.  They'll also be getting through some of their skills builders which is good.

Alan made Hello Fresh Thai Prawn Curry for tea and I ate whilst finishing the meeting and then I came down and tidied the kitchen, the dining room, took out my dead flowers and arranged 2 vases of gladioli from Arena Flowers, put a load of washing on, put away the washing from the drying rack, hung out the washing and loaded and set off the dishwasher.

I had a fruit corner dessert and then a glass of wine after I'd done all the chores listening to more Wind Up Bird Chronicles and we watched some Mock the Week and Taskmaster.

Isolation Journal 93

I woke up fairly early and read some more of The Midnight Library as I really am excited by what I'm reading.

I had some cornflakes and coffee for breakfast and had a morning of sorting out of things and a few teams meetings.  I'd also prepped for a lunch and learn I was delivering with a colleague on Mental Health Awareness for managers.  

Alan made a pasta bake for lunch which was really nice and I then delivered the session with my colleague.  One of the questions asked annoyed me basically "How do you know someon has a genuine mental health problem?" it annoyed me because people assume some people claim to have mental health problems and don't and my view is that if someone is that desperate...they are likely to have a real mental health problem!

The afternoon is fairly productive, I had a bit of an issue in that our forecast for the team has gone backwards it's been quite frustrating and a fairly difficult month, although I did sign off on the final part of a retainer which is a better way to end the month.  I picked up another job for another colleague which was good.  

I finished up work around 6.45pm and then went for a walk with Alan and we spotted Qubit as we were leaving hanging out in the field near the road with cows in it, we tried to call him in, but he wouldn't come so instead we went for our walk and chatted and saw beautiful sunlight over the wheat fields and saw someone parascending and we walked back through the public footpath through the fields.  We saw Qubit again and eventually managed to encourage him into the house.  

We needed to get home before the Tesco delivery at 8pm and so we made sure we got back and Qubit went back towards the door and started to hassle Fudge and Smudge from number 5, so I had a chat to Kirsty and said that I could feed the cats when they are away on holiday and told her that I'd return "Little Fires Everywhere" and would lend her "The Midnight Library"

I made Hello Fresh for tea, a premium recipe of steak with black garlic butter and mash and a salad and I had a fruit corner cheesecake yoghurt for dessert and a Rowntrees fruit pastle lolly.

We watched storage hunters and then tried hard to feed the worming tablets to the cats, I got one into Maya with cheese, but she wouldn't take the other half and Qubit we had to team up to get it down his throat.

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 88

I read some more of the Matt Haig "The Midnight Library" last night - it's such a good book.

I got up early as I needed to go to the Covid Test centre and so I was awake at 7.15am and left the house 20 mins later.  I got to the site around 8.10am and was done with a self test really quickly, it was the same as last time and I defintely gagged and so I hope I did it properly.  

I then got home and made breakfast and emptied the dishwasher and made breakfast granola, Skyr and coffee, today was a 3 coffee day.  I also had a worry message from a friend on Facebook to say that the block my flat is in was flooded, so I rang the letting agents, although they couldn't get hold of my tenant they seem to think it's ok.  

I had a quick call with Matt as everyone else was on holiday and then cracked on with work and had a reasonably productive day, arranging interviews for Rachel, sorting out a few nigglying things and hopefully picking up an exclusive process with a charity.

For lunch we cooked sausages and I made some salad with some of the kohl rabi from the veg box and I also used carrot, cabbage, coriander, red cabbage and tomato and the leftover potato wedges.  

I worked through until around 7.30pm as I had a lot of emails to shift and a proposal to write and a few linkedin searches to do.

I made tea and chatted to my brother and the kids who were getting into bed and discussed going back tomorrow.  I didn't have my test result, but I'm pretty sure I don't have Covid as my only symptoms into the app were a sore throat and my temperature is only 36.8.  I didn't feel like running though so I've only run twice this week!

We had pork and apple burgers with salad and wedges from Hello Fresh for tea, I had my gu cheesecake for pudding.

We watched Peep Show and Alan went for a bath and so I watched Catfish.

Isolation Journal 86

I had a reasonable night of sleep and woke up and faffed around on my phone so only had a chance to grab a coffee before logging onto the morning call.

It feels like a bit of an unproductive day, but I did manage to book and complete 2 meetings with clients and get through some calls with people I've not spoken to for a long time.

I had the first of the client meetings at 12pm and I'd only picked up breakfast around 11am which was yoghurt, granola, lemon curd and apple and so I made a ham sandwich with salad for lunch and finally finished eating it around 2.30pm.

Maya was insistent on sitting on my keyboard an awful lot today and stole my water at one point.  I had to make sure that I'd locked her out of the room for one of the meetings with the clients.

I caught up with a friend who I'd placed previously to see how she was getting on and it was good to catch up with her.

Finished work around 7.20pm and then cooked dinner which was a really complicated Hello Fresh recipe of Chicken Katsu burgers, salad and wedges and had 3 different sauces to mix in 3 different bowls and breadcrumbs, it was really tasty, but I should have saved half for tomorrow as it had 1275 calories in!

We watched Peep Show and then I went out to run up and down the driveway at 10pm and did just over 5K in about 31 minutes and at least managed to burn some calories back.  

I'm now in a boring bit of "The Windup Bird Chronicles" the main character is talking about a story of war with the Mongols and it's very long and involved.  I cleaned the kitchen and had a bath and my heart rate went up to "high stress" in the bath. 

I also found out my youngest nephew needs stitches under general anasthetic tomorrow as he'd cut his hand on a jar of olives that he managed to break, I hope that he's ok.

Alan seemed a bit better today thankfully, so I hope he is on the mend at last.

Isolation Journal 85

12 weeks and one day of journaling every day, I wonder how long I'll keep this going for?  Today I woke up early again as we'd made it to bed at a reasonable time and had read a bit of Matt Haig's - The Midnight Library - it's really good!  I had nearly 8 hours of sleep and I went back to sleep for an hour and then got up for a quick shower.

Breakfast was cornflakes and it was a two coffee day.

Kicked off at 9am and then had a meeting with some other colleagues at 9.30am and then a client meeting/interview with a really great candidate at 10am that went on for an hour and twenty minutes.  I had calls and emails from my boss whilst this was going on with "are you in today?" but obviously I couldn't respond. 

I then had to prep 2 candidates for interviews that afternoon and prep for a national meeting, I was glad I prepped as they asked for my update first and I'm not sure I did a very good job, I hope I did ok.

I realised at 3pm I'd not had lunch so quickly made a sausage sandwich with lettuce, tomato and some cucumber with mayo and sriacha.  Alan is still feeling poorly and so he just had some toast.

I finished work eventually at 7pm, it was a long day and I really wanted to try out my new trainers that arrived and they were great - I ran my first KM in 4 minutes 19 and my first mile in 7.08 and they felt so good on my feet!  I did 5k in 24.34 which is my fastest for a very long time.  I listened to more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles.

Alan made Hello Fresh for tea and it was a pasta bake and there was enough to save a portion for tomorrow lunch.   I tidied up the kitchen, lounge and dining room and set off a load of washing.

We watched Peep Show and then I had a shower and filled the bath for Alan and then got distracted when he came into my office looking at beds as he wants a more comfy bed and so we tried to find a good storage bed that is Super King Size.

We then started to have ideas about loft beds in the spare room that would give us more storage space so we wouldn't need a bed with storage space...

Isolation Journal 84

Alan woke up at least an hour earlier than we needed to be up and so he went downstairs and I snoozed for another hour and listened to headspace to get back to sleep.  I had two slices of toast and marmite for breakfast and 2 coffees.  Alan is still feeling bad with his ear and lack of sleep, but the GPs are being really careful with who they'll see.

We had a kick off meeting and it was quite productive and then I caught up with Rachel as she was in the office today, but couldn't get logged onto the call.  Alan was on a call and Qubit brought in a mouse and put it in his shoe, so I had to rescue it for him.

I booked a good candidate meeting for tomorrow morning and then I dealt with some of the work for Katie who is off on holiday.  It was a busy day and I made a few calls for myself and then got downstairs and did pilates online.  I've still got the leg nerve issue and so I was taking it easy, but it wasn't too painful.

We had reheated Chinese leftovers from Friday evening for lunch and then I had a peach as a snack a bit later on.

I had a few more MS Teams meetings and managed to land an offer for Katie which was good news.  It got sunnier later on in the day so I opened the window and Maya got out on the flat roof and then climbed next door and tried to get in Ally's window, I managed to encourage her back with some more treats.

As I finished my last MS Teams meeting I then realised I'd picked up another 16 jobs, although none for me, it seems to be a trend.

Good news is that the government has u-turned on the A'level results and so hopefully a lot of the affected students will still be able to go to their chosen University.

I worked through until 6.30pm when I loaded up Zoom and we logged on for a team building activity of a virtual escape room.  I'd chosen one with a rogue CEO who was being investigated, I'd selected "Advanced" and it was really hard!  It took about 2 hours and I had a glass of fizz and Alan cooked dinner which was a hello fresh meanball sub.  

I then watched more Storage Hunters, cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floors and had a bit of cheese and a chocolate ice lolly.