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.

Isolation Journal 81

Alan was up until around 4am doing his exam, so sleep was a bit broken.  I had apple, granola, yoghurt and lemon curd for breakfast, but quite late and I also had 2 coffees.  I got the milk and orange juice in.

We had a kick off call at 9am and I also then had a handover call with Katie who is off on holiday, so I will need to work out how to recruit marketing people for the next 2 weeks.

Today was very much a sort out of admin and emails day, but I did also have some good conversations with candidates and clients and will be more organised for next week.

The game that I ordered for Alan arrived and we thought about playing it today, but we were both a bit too tired.

I made some pasta, mushrooms, garlic, onion and courgette with cream for a fairly late lunch at around 1.30pm.  I set off the dishwasher after lunch.  I chatted to my brother as I'd been debating going to see him and my parents this weekend.  It's a really long drive, but I'm not likely to see them all that easily for a while and I'd feel uncomfortable going after I'm back in the office again.  It seems easier to stay with my brother than a hotel or indeed my parents and at least I know he's had Covid, so it's less likely he'll have it.  I'm slightly worried about the flash floods forecast for down towards the south, so I'll have to check the weather warnings before I set off.  

I sorted out some purchase order issues and more admin and got my emails down to a more sensible number, re-wrote a spreadsheet and went through around 30 job applications for a remote working job that had over 139 applications.  I had to sort through them before I could delete them.  

I managed to speak to the letting agents of my flat to find out whether the key had gone missing as they had not got back to 3 emails.  Apparently the tenant had moved in ok and there was some works I'd paid out for, but now that it's been done I should receive a statement update soon.  

I finished work at around 7.30pm and we ordered a Chinese - I had hot and sour soup, chips, crispy beef in peking sauce and some waterchesnuts and bamboo shoots, Alan had a spring roll, chicken in ginger and garlic and singapore noodles and banana fritters.  I am very full now!  

I went out for a run and again was fairly fast, even though my legs ache from yesterday and I did 6K in just over 30 mins including a PR on a segment and came 7th overall.  The takeaway was delivered about 1.5 hours later, but was good, I had to ring up and make sure it was on it's way.

I spoke to my parents who seem worried about me coming, but happy to see me in the garden.  It will be a long drive, so I should really go to bed at a sensible time.

I managed to do a bit more linked in work whilst watching TV, mostly Dave and Taskmaster, 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown and QI and a bit of CSI New York.

I also stopped my anxiety, but finally booking the virtual escape room ready for Monday - we're going to try this one Out of Hours

Isolation Journal 40

Today was a bit of a lazy day, it must have been around 11am at least before I peeled myself out of bed, the late night and booze made me feel slightly hungover.  

I had yoghurt, granola and blueberries for breakfast and picked some raspberries and blackcurrants on the way back from visiting the compost heap.  I chatted to my friend Lauren on messenger.

We watched a bit of The Office (UK version) and then I got ready to do a virtual escape room with my friend Hannah's son who is 10.   It was a free Harry Potter themed one and done by someone from Peters Township Public Library Page and I specifically gave myself a Great Hall background on Zoom.  I chatted to Alex for a bit afterwards and then played with the whiteboard function and shared some of the wedding photos with him.

I then ended up chatting to my brother for about an hour and a half as he's applying for a promotion in the NHS so I was giving him some advice as he's not had an interview for about 17 years!  He also did some video chat with his 4 kids which was busy and noisy!

Alan made an orzotto with chorizo and courgette and I ate it whilst on the phone to my brother.  

I came back in to watch some tv and tried to start a film - uncut gems, but I kept falling asleep and so Alan put something else on and then I woke up and got up and made the Hello Fresh receipe for tea that should have been Prawn and chorizo soft tacos, but had chicken subsituted for the prawn.  It was a tasty dish.  We watched some more of The Office and then when our food had gone down (and after the Amazon Prime had arrived) we then went out for a run and got ourselves up to 5K and so I could add it to my Not parkrun table, my running this past two weeks has bee far more sluggish.

I then tidied the kitchen and managed to spill the giant bag of sugar everywhere!  Alan made Lynberg Lemonade cocktails that were great and we watched the end of the UK Office and I had a shower and watched some Celebrity Masterchef.