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.

20 things in 2020 update at the nearly half year point!

I've finally (at nearly halfway through the year!) had a look at how I'm tracking on my 20 things in 2020 goal... some are slightly more challenging given the substantial issue of a global pandemic which I'd not really considered when I wrote my list, but interestingly some of them I've completed more easily given our lockdown situation.  I've now made a spreadsheet to track things a bit more closely...

1 - Complete 20 parkruns - an "easy" one as I've averaged more like 40 per year since I discovered parkrun in 2014. This seemed like an easy one when I set the target as I did 49 last year...20 as a number was purely arbitrary to fit in with my theme, how wrong I was!  I'm currently sat on 10 (I missed two on New Year's day because I was too hungover and one on the day we flew to Barbados), I'm not sure that it will actually be possible as parkrun is only just restarting again in New Zealand.  I have just started logging "not parkruns" so maybe that will be my workaround if I need it...I really hope parkrun starts again soon (as long as it's safe!)

2 - Donate to charity / recycle 20 bags or boxes of stuff - living in a house with no storage is great in some ways as it forces this issue, but recently I've definitely accumulated too much and a sort out would be useful.  This is certainly one that I need to focus on more, although donating to charity in terms of stuff is hard at the moment because of charity shops being closed and things like shpock being harder to use with social distancing etc.  I'm currently on 2...I need to up my game!

3 - Go to 20 yoga or pilates sessions. - This has possibly become a little easier as I find it hard to leave work on time or do much in lunchtimes, but since we've been in lockdown I've been doing pilates 1 - 2 times per week online as well as doing one yoga session with people in a class (wild!) at the start of the year, I'm tracking well on 14 sessions at the moment.

4 - Write 20 letters or postcards - I probably should track this a bit better as I've probably made more progress, but I've done a few multiples and want to push myself to do more letter writing.  I'm on 7 different iterations, but with a few multiples.  

5 - Complete at least 20 crafting sessions - either alone or even better with friends - I was doing quite well with this at the start of the year, 2 Artnights and a sewing session with Sam, but it has got a bit harder, so I might need to do more independent or zoom sessions as I'm currently on only 4

6 - 20 sessions of creative writing / blogging entries - I didn't expect to, but lockdown and my friend Lauren has really inspired this in me, I've done online flash fiction classes, I've kept an Isolation blog, and a couple of mental health blogs and even this one - so this is completed with more than 20 done, but I'm enjoying it and will happily keep going!

7 - 20 sessions of mindfulness - Ideally I'd do this everyday, but I'm not great at always remembering, so this is a nice achievable target. - I'm only on 1 as I'm not counting using Headspace to get to sleep - I must do more of this as I think it would really help me.

8 - Today having a stunning walk around Fairburn Ings RSPB nature reserve I realised this is one thing that makes me really happy and so I want to do at least 20 walks or runs around beautiful nature locations. - This is a bit hard at the moment as I know we can travel further, but we are very cautious, so I could count all my lovely runs, but for now I'm just counting the ones that I've got as far as nature reserves and so I'm on 5.

9 - Leading or backmarking at least 20 run club sessions - Again a hard one at the moment, not sure when I'll be back to normal on this, but whilst we've been in lockdown I've written a few session plans for people and run zoom sessions for #runandtalk and so if I count those then I'm on 13.

10 - Volunteer at least 20 times - If I count Guides then I'm on 16 as we've kept the meetings going via Zoom which actually feels more important even though it's not quite the same as meeting in person.  I hope we get back to that soon.

11 - Meet friends for coffee/lunch/catch ups at least 20 times - Again another coronavirus impacted activity, but if I count some of the zoom catch ups then I'm on 11 and hopefully will meet people for some socially distanced walks soon.

12 - Read 20 books - I'm really struggling to read, even before Coronavirus, my attention span was terrible, I'm nearly at the end of my first proper book and I'm going to be easy on myself and count audio books too, but I am trying to improve my book reading as it is good for my brain and my mental health and I have a big stash of great books to get through.  I'm currently on only 2 audio books completed.

13 - Watch 20 new films - I'm sure I'm further along with this than I've tracked as from what I can recall I'm on only 6, but I'm not sure I've written them all, so I need to track it a bit better, I'm sure I can catch up well during lockdown though - this is what I've noted down so far.  I think I'd have hoped more would have been in a cinema setting...

• 1917
• Starter for 10
• Hunger Games
• The Voices
• Hidden Figures
• Arrival

14 - Spend 20 hours learning something new - I'm not sure how to best count this as I've got 2 hours so far from my flash fiction course, but I've listened to lots of lectures online and so I might give this a bit more thought.  I think I'd thought that it might be more hands on.

15 - Get at least 8 hours sleep 20 times (this is a challenge as my regular 11daytime sleep is only 6.5 hours) - before lockdown I only managed to do this 7 times, I'd be getting up at 6.20am and not in bed often before midnight, it was a challenge, post lockdown means that I'm now at 40 in total.  So this one is now complete.

16 - Visit 20 new places (not countries, just different places that I've not been before, whether a restaurant, or a nice place to walk) - a bit harder to do this one post lockdown, but I'm tracking well with 13 at the moment.

17 - Visit the gym at least 20 times (pretty sure I didn't manage this in 2019) - I was tracking ok....I'd managed 3 sessions I think before lockdown, I might count the online zumba sessions that I've been doing with my friend Gui which would add another 5 including a HIIT session and put me on 8.

18 - Plant 20 "things" whether seed bombs or vegetables. - I need to focus a bit more on this, but with seed bombs, lavender, mushrooms, potatoes and raspberry cuttings I'm on 8.

19 - Watch at least 20 live music acts (should be achievable as we are least going to Blue Dot festival again and hopefully might still get tickets to Glastonbury in the resales - fingers crossed!) - This is a tough one, we had one festival and one gig booked, but we're now postponed, I may have to have a rethink...i'm on 0!

20 - Get to work without driving at least 20 times (I'll cheat if needed and include working from home!) - this is complete as I've only driven my car about 4/5 times since March!  It is more than 20, but I've not counted!

So out of a possible 400 at the halfway point I'm on.... 182 so not doing too badly, I think I'm on track with most of them.

I also set myself a challenge of not buying any new clothes in 2020 other than underwear, lockdown has made this more achievable as I've not had to worry about outfits other than leisure wear, active wear and decent camera workwear.  I've so far only bought a swimming costume and a sports bra and a second hand coat to replace one that was broken.

Isolation Journal 4

We woke up late again this morning, mostly because we were so warm even with the fan on full blast, but mostly because I made the mistake of engaging with my Mum's friend on one of her posts on Facebook.  My error here is that she's retired, a staunch brexiteer and hits the return button so often that there are more comments pinging all over the place.  I wish there was a feature on Facebook to block certain people's comments appearing from a certain time in the evening... it has my heart palpitating and my mind racing!

We got up and I had some cornflakes and coffee for breakfast after I'd dealt with a couple of work matters.  

I got drawn back into the ongoing Facebook debate, I'd posted a video last night prompted by the (to me) inexplicable loyalty to some of the government actions during the discussion.  I remain convinced that you can still be loyal to a Government or political party or a country and yet disagree with a policy or action of an MP or special advisor.  Critique and opinion forms better ideas and policy, and in this situation as my Mum asks me "How would you do better?" I think my awareness that I know very little about virology would mean that I would collate as many scientists as possible to help me.  I'd look at the world and steal all the ideas that had worked well and I'd make sure messaging was clear - "Stay Alert" is not a clear message when it comes to a microscopic and invisble virus, if it was a war maybe, but it's not.  The wartime rhetoric that has been invoke is problematic for many reasons, not least that as a globe we are stronger to collaborate globally to contain the virus and develop a vaccine.  Anyway, this was the video - Jordan Klepper vs. Trump Supporters This particular person was clearly provoked by this (although I provided no commentary on it, just the link and some thinking emojis) and she went into an overloaded rant and a few comments later was talking about Brexit and calling it the "Chinese" virus.  I shared a quote that I'd found on a Psychology Today article  

"Our survival will not be enhanced by racism or denial of racism. On an individual level, our immune systems are enhanced by compassion and community, and damaged by contempt." and also the link from the WHO as to why it's not helpful to name diseases based on country of origin.

After we'd wasted far too much time on this I'd changed into my run kit to test my knee out on a gentle run with Alan.  Qubit brought in a baby bird that he'd caught and killed which still makes me sad even though he does it far more frequently than any other cat I've lived with.

We ran a different route today through the fields and over the railway and I was trying to find some street art for my photo challenge.  It was really warm and so there was lots of walking, I tried to top the run up to over an hour for a full 8 Vitality Points, but it only gave me 5.  Fortunately my step count took me up to over 12500 so I did end up with the full points.  My knee is still sore, but it seemed ok to do just over 7K so hopefully it's just a niggle that will go away easily.

We'd not had lunch and had not much time before our 6pm online DJ session so we had the remainder of a treacle tart and cream for lunch before showering, changing and getting a few more songs ready for our DJ set.  Alan had done some visuals and we'd created a playlist themed around the political events of the week - not too serious, just themed around Dominic Cumming's jaunt to the north and inspired by some dancing rumours.

In the midst of getting ready Qubit came running into the house with a baby rabbit.  We thought it was dead, but Alan prised it out of his mouth and he hopped off.   We had no spare boxes to hand and the rabbit managed to get upstairs and we had to empty the washing basket and catch it.  I took him out to the paddock in front of the house and slowly tipped him out and he hopped off into the field.  He was really cute and it still upsets me that Qubit is such a big hunter, at least he was ok.

We Djed for 2 hours, I made a few mistakes, the feed went a bit sketchy and I'm not sure I'm getting any better, but Alan enjoyed playing with his app that he's just finished coding.

Alan then made chicken stir fry for tea and we watched Have I got News for You and more Friends.  We noticed Qubit was limping a bit, although would let us look at his paw and ther wasn't an obvious injury so we are keeping an eye on him and hope that he'll be ok tomorrow.  He was also happy to eat his dinner and some treats, so hopefully will be fine.

And so to bed, late again...I need to get better at going at a proper time.

Time Lapse

So apologies if I indeed have any regular followers, there has been a bit of a blog hiatus.  I'm hopefully back for the time being and will do my best to ensure smaller gaps in the future....

So what have I been up to?

Well my parents are visiting at the moment as it was my Mum's 61st Birthday on the 19th February and my Dad's 70th on the 9th so I decided to buy them some tickets to see Fairport Convention at Leeds City Varieties - for a band that have been going for 46 years they certainly do well on a 3 month tour in terms of energy and engagement with their audience.  We went straight to the gig from home and it was a very very cold Leeds night - fortunately we didn't have far to walk or long to queue.  

The support act for the gig was a chap called Fake Thackray who was entertaining, but a little blue and was signing the songs of a fairly misogynistic individual from the past.  It was done in good humour and more in appreciation for the artist rather than the sentiment, so I was able to tolerate it, though was keen for Fairport to start!

When I was 7 my parents first took us to to Fairport's annual festival reunion in Cropredy which was great fun for us at the time because it involved camping, shopping in hippy shops and festival food.  I did also grow to love the music - including becoming somewhat partial to a fiddle and other folk music traits.

The gig was good, the City Varieties looks awesome post makeover, but I probably only knew about 4 songs during the gig.  They did play my favourite which I can highly recommend a listen of, even if you don't like folk.