Isolation Journal 122

I woke up reasonably eearly, but was pretty groggy and it took me a while to get going, although I was logged on at 8.30am   I had crumpets with marmite and 2 coffees for breakfast.  We had a meeting at 9am to discuss working from home v. the office and then a seminar with housing finance professionals via MS Teams.

I managed to catch up with a bit of work, but I'm still not on top of things.  I updated the forecast which is looking a bit better and certainly brings us further forward than we have been.  

I didn't have time for lunch other than grabbing the packed lunch that I'd made from Tuesday evening and it was salad with a pepperarmi and a scotch egg and I had some kombucha that I'd forgotten about.  I then did a quick open demo on the new system on the reports function that was useful.

My flowers from Arena Flowers arrived after lunch so I had a 10 minute break to empty the old flowers and arrange the new ones which were chrysanthemums with some jazzy purple foliage.  They look cheerful.

I then powered through with work, picked up 2 new jobs and arranged a meeting, helped Rachel put a booking on and talked about referrals with Katie and booked a candidate meeting and confirmed people to come to the charity webinar next week.

I finished at about 6.30pm and Alan had made a Hello Fresh Pasta dish for tea and then I ate it and logged onto Zoom for the guide meeting which was fun as we had a guest speaker which was a lady called Rosemary and her Guide dog Una, it was really eye opening to hear about her experience and how actually she said it's good if people ask if a blind person needs help as especially at the moment people are keeping their distance. Una has her own facebook page!

I then went out for a run up and down the drive as I didn't do a great deal of moving around either yesterday or today and I ran just over 5K and my training status is now unproductive apparently.

I then had a tidy up of the kitchen and the dining room, ran a bath and chatted to Lauren who is on a writing holiday by herself in Margate and ended up bumping into someone she'd been on 2 dates which twice who was also on a holiday there to write!

Isolation Journal 52

Today felt really hard, I'm not exactly sure why.  I woke up not too tired and had enough time to get up and make coffee and yoghurt, apple and granola for breakfirst.

I logged on for our team call and got stuck into work, but really struggled to be as productive as I'd hoped.  I'd booked onto an Arvon course with Hisham Matar and listened in the background for the first section and then participated for the second, he was really interesting and the writing exercises were really interesting - write a description of the room you are in, past tense and in the third person and then 3 people including my friend Lauren and a lady that Lauren googled and found online and then they had to rewrite the same piece and task but without stating it, having in mind that the main character had found out that they were to become a parent.  I found it challenging, but a good exercise to complete.  It made me feel like I should definitely be doing more writing.  I think it's one of the things from a very young age that I've wanted to do is to be a published writer, and so I should really try and make it happen.

Our bathroom sink is really smelly, I tried to clean some of the gunk underneath the plug hole and I managed to drop the stick in there, it's been a clumsy day.

Alan made some scones for lunch and we had them with clotted cream, jam and strawberries - they were delicious!  It did cheer me up a little as did the subscription flowers that arrived, more eucalyptus foliage and some white/yellow snapdragons.  I was busy so  I popped them in a few vases of water and then later on in the evening I tidied them up and moved the hydrageas from last time into one vase for the fresher looking ones and one for the older ones.  I now have 4 vases of flowers around the house.

I did some more work and still struggled to be as productive, did a handover with Rachel who is now on annual leave for 2 weeks - I'm going to be super busy!

I then started cooking dinner, but the chicken in the Hello Fresh mango chicken and bulgar wheat took too long to cook so I had to hand over to Alan to finish up and start my end of term guide meeting which was an online Harry Potter Escape room that I'd done with my friend's son.

After guides I sat down with Alan for a bit and he wanted to go for a run and so we went and did 5K up to Sherburn on an out and back route, we went past our local pub that looked pretty busy, but socially distanced and safe. 

I then tidied the kitchen, did a load of washing and set off the dishwasher.  I had a shower in the bath and then listened to the High Low Podcast and put the washing away switching to the Archers.

I then came down and watched some Catfish and updated this blog...

Isolation Journal 38

Today I woke up early as I'd booked a Covid test at the drive through regional centre at a nearby park and ride for 8am and so I was up at 7.10am which is a good hour and a half earlier than recently and I had breakfast (apple, yoghurt and granola with coffee) and fed the cats.  I'm helping with the app for monitoring my daily symptoms and it asked me to go for a test, so I obliged.  It was different to the other time when I went back in May and had to open my window and had someone swab for me, this time I was given my own test (they dropped it through the passenger window) and I had to put the swab to the back of my throat and also do my nose - it's not a pleasant test.  I then had to drop it into a box next to my window after they'd stepped away.  I got the results back today and it was negative, which wasnt a surprise.

I was back at home for 8.30am and logged on for work at 9am as usual and kicked off with a call and then had a few bits and pieces to discuss with my boss and then a few prep calls for candidates.  I've come to a conclusion that I worry very much about some calls or disputes about things that then distract me from actually getting on with things, I think one thing about lockdown is it gives a bit too much time for self reflection and less ability to form context from speaking to colleagues.  I had Pilates again at 12pm and then Alan cooked rostis and I put a couple of bratwurst in the overn for lunch and then we had them with sriracha mayo - the house smelled like the German market.  We had 2 deliveries when I was doing pilates, one was a surprise from one of the girls in my team a card an some chocolates to say thank you for some of the help I'd been giving her and the other was a box of flowers that I'd ordered from Arena Flowers as a new 2 weekly subscription - some beautiful blue hydragena and they make me happy every time I see them!  There were 6 blooms with eucalyptus foliage and enough for 2 vases.  I also had a lovely print of a runner from my friend to thank me for my help with the council tax - it's been a very good post week.

Work was very busy with a few things to sort out and I also ran the weekly quiz which was based on peoples LinkedIn profiles and guessing people from bits of photos and also from their testimonials.  

Alan cooked dinner which was a hello fresh pork and rice recipe that I later finished off for lunch tomorrow.  The delivery for toilet paper, natural deodorant and soap arrived from Ethical Superstore which was great.

I then finished off a few more things and then got ready for Guides which was at 7pm and needed some water and bowls prepping, I managed to get ready just in time and they had a fun meeting which was about stress and relaxation.  Kirstie did a guided river and leaves relaxation that was great.  

I was aware that Alan hadn't been out for a few days so I encouraged him to go for a run and we did a fairly good pace for around 5K and had a sit down and chat on the lawn before going in and getting showered and after I'd finished off lunch for tomorrow and ate a lollyand  I cleaned the kitchen and then had a shower and turned on my computer to write my appraisal.  

Alan is a bit down so I went and gave him a hug and got Maya to sit next to him.