Isolation Journals 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128

 So I've got a bit out sync, I'll try and summarise....

123 - Friday - Work was busy, Rachel was on holiday, I persuaded Alan to go out for a walk at lunch to pick up my prescription and it was windy, when we got back onto Whitecote Lane we found a tree that had fallen down and blocked the road and one of the trees in Andy and Becci's paddock was also losing a branch so I had to call North Yorkshire County Council to report and sort out the tree in the road.  I managed to finish work just in time to walk down to the Thack and pick up some Fish and Chips for dinner before they go on holiday.  It was windy, but I chatted to my Mum and Dad as I walked.

124 - Saturday - I woke up fairly late and then put my running stuff on and wrote a letter in reply to my Aunty Alison and Ron who had sent me and Alan an Anniversary card and I posted it on my run.  I took an epic photo of Maya looking like she'd written a disapproving letter.   Alan made orzo pasta for a very late lunch and then after I'd had a bath we went out for a walk and then he made a rice pudding which we had for "tea" and then we went to bed.

125 - Sunday - Another late rising and I mostly faffed around before deciding to go for a run and I wanted to do over 10K and so I did and managed a reasonable time.  We then had another late lunch, I made Korean Tacos and then had a bath and tidied up the house and mopped the floor whilst Alan went out for a run.  

126 - Monday - I'd negotiated with Alan to go into the office for the morning as he is uncomfortable with me being there the whole day and so I went in for the morning, only drank water that I'd brought with me and we have a one way system and lots more sanitiser.  It felt safe, but I went back at lunchtime and logged on from home and finished off another very busy day.  My extra beer 52 delivery arrived.

127 - Tuesday - worked from home all day, made waffles and scrambled eggs for lunch and in the evening some meatballs and spaghetti for tea and had a couple of beers and then we went for a walk in the dark along Whin Lane.

128....Will catch up tomorrow!

Isolation Journal 114

 Woke up ok, apple, yoghurt and granola for breakfast.  A busy morning of calls and emails and doing some more video screening.  I also had a few internal chats about the issue from yesterday as well and had 2 coffees, Alan didn't sleep very well.

I had a very late lunch and made a stir fry out of chicken and veg from the veg box and it was nice and I arranged for my car MOT whilst I was cooking inbetween listening to the Archers.

I finished work and a very long interview/client meeting at around 7pm and then went out for a run and went up to Sherburn, then down back via the BP garage and back round through the fields about 4 miles in total and reasonably fast in 34 minutes.

I had a bath and then Alan made haloumi chicken shwarma for tea and then we watched lots of cricket and I did more work and we watched some more comedy on Dave.

I meant to go to bed earlier, but it's not happened, I did eat 2 lollies though.

Isolation Journal 110

We woke up late and had a lazy morning in bed before getting up and watching the Film "Big Daddy" whilst eating takeaway from last night - I had pizza and the curly fries and I make Alan's leftover kebab meat into a wrap.  I made sure to feed Fudge and Smudge and Maya and Qubit first. 

Alan watched some Formula 1 stuff upstairs and then did some study, I mostly played Clash of Clans on my phone and then tidied up the kitchen, did 2 loads of washing and put the dry washing away, changed the sheets on the bed and then went and harvested the potatoes in the garden before taking the recycling out.  I ordered 3 pairs of tights from Snag Tights as they do look like they'll be more comfortable and at some point I'll need to wear tights again.  My boss had a negative covid test which is good news.

I then went for a run and didn't majorly push myself, but my VO2 Max is now up to 53 so it wasn't so bad, I'm now only 2.4 miles behind my yearly 1000 mile target.  

Over the course of the day I listened to the High Low and With Me Now podcast as well as a bit of The Wind Up Bird Chronicles.  Maya came running in proud of herself meowing like Qubit does.

I fed Fudge and Smudge again and then had a shower and Alan cooked hallomi and bulgar wheat Hello Fresh for tea, he's feeling quite down at the moment and I'm not sure how to help him out.   We watched "Coming to America" and then I read lots of my Kombucha book and decanted some to add strawberries to (we also had strawberries for dessert) and also some turmeric.  I added more sweet tea to the batch - I think this is right, the book is very complicated.  

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 92

I grabbed a coffee before signing on for the call this morning and then had some cornflakes as well.  It was pelting it down with rain really heavily and so the cats were a bit cautious about going out.

The morning was reasonably productive, although there was a lot of adminy sorting out of stuff to do. I am nervous going back into the office, but I do think it will help me feel a bit more engaged.  I made lunch again and we had the same as yesterday - sausages, potato waffles and chard, but I also made some quick hassleback potatoes that were really delicious and dead easy to make.

We had a kick off for our temp BD session and I also had a D&I Unity champs session which was enjoyable. 

We had another teams meeting and then I had a request for a meeting with a client where I've hopefully successfully sold a retainer.  

I had a headache and felt pretty tired and so when Maya kept lying on my keyboard at 6.30pm I called it a day and finished up.  

I went out for a run and just about got done without getting rained on - and just before I headed out spotted a worm that had got out of Qubit's bum - I've now ordered worming tablets for him!  I ran 6.5K and was reasonably on track, but my status is now down as unproductive!  

I listened to the With Me Now podcast on the run and then had a quick shower before cooking tea which was a Hello Fresh pizza recipe with some black bean salsa.  I listened to more of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles and then we watched Jon Oliver "The Night Tonight" and then some "Storage Hunters" and had an ice lolly and then some of my birthday present dark coffee flavoured chocolate.

I also ordered a lightning cable from Amazon as my apple charger is on the way out.  I tidied up the kitchen after tea.

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 75

We woke up at a fairly decent time, shortly after 9am. Alan made us coffee and a hot cross bun each and we watched some more Peep Show.

I then tided up the kitchen and the dishwasher hadn't been cleaning well so I ran it on a rinse cycle and did a load of washing.

For lunch I made a salad with dressing of ginger, honey, sriracha, olive oil, mayo and salt and pepper and cooked some sausage rolls.  

I felt quite low energy and dizzy today, I stood up really quick  and nearly passed out first thing.

I listened to more of "I Heart Vegas" as I was doing chores and then watched a bit more TV.  Alan is still feeling poorly with sore ears and just feeling really weak.  I'm not sure how best to help him, but I fed him some of the vitamins I've been taking - vitamin D and a "megavit" from Holland and Barrett.

I went upstairs and messed around on my phone before getting my "Little Fires Everywhere" book out and had a good read.  Last night I'd also ordered Girl Woman Other from Fox Lane Books that is my most local independent bookshop, it was more expensive than Amazon etc, but I'm keen to support them. 

I've definitely been feeling premenstral with levels of rage bubbling away and today I had stomach cramps and finally my period arrived.

Alan made tea which was Hello Fresh and Haloumi with lentils.  And we started to watch Greyhound, but I was really struggling to concentrate that wasn't helped with Qubit came running in and panted like mad.  Moments later I spotted a facebook post from the neighbours about an injured rabbit and then the Amazon shopping arrived and Chris our neighbour explained that Qubit had brought in a rabbit and it was stuck under a bush.  Between us we managed to get the rabbit out and it hopped away into another field.  I took the recycling out, moved the bins down from being stored on top of each other and spotted Kirsty looking at the rabbit and trying to scare off one of Anna's cats from going for it!  We had some ice cream and Qubit licked te bowl out.

I tried to focus on the film, but couldn't so went for a run at 9pm.  Sunset was at around 8.50pm and it got dark quite quickly, but I got around my run quick enough to be able to do it in the light and I appreciated not having to do lots of intervals up and down the driveway.  I ran about 5.8K in 31 minutes and my VO2 Max went up to 51 and I'm still "productive" with my training.

I then watered the plants and I ran a bath and got stuck for ages playing Pokemon go.  I came down and watched a bit of Frasier with Alan and had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a lolly and I put on "Lose a stone in 21 days" as a lot of people are talking about it.

Isolation Journal 68

Alan really didn't sleep well last night, I finally must have fallen asleep after messing around on my phone and trying to read a bit of "Little Fires Everywhere" and was woken up by him comign to bed at around 5am, it was starting to get light.  He tossed and turned for a bit and then went into the spare room and he woke up about 8.30am and got up even though he'd had no sleep.  I messed around on my phone some more and got up at about 10am and made some breakfast - yoghurt, granola, apple and some of my friend's homemade lemon curd.  I tidied the kitchen and had a coffee.

I looked at my phone as late last night I'd emailed my friend Lauren's writing group leader Ardella who leads a creative writing company Chalk the Sun to see if it was possible for me to join in the class today.  She got back to me about 11.30am and the class started at 1pm so I paid the £30 taster fee and started to plan what I was going to do.

I decided to log on briefly to the parkrun call on Zoom and it was nice to see friendly faces and catch up with people for around 45 minutes.  Maya came and sat next to me which was amusing as I wasn't trying to type and work.  I got to see Curtis's bees and Anne & Noel's tomatoes.

I didn't really have time to make lunch and had a slightly heated debate with Alan about what *we* were doing for lunch.  He'd been to pick up the click and collect from Tescos and so I'd guessed he had planned some lunch in amongst that, but it turns out that this wasn't the case.

I prepped for my class and started the first exercise which was:

Write a short scene in a busy high street you know well (or other busy scene of your choice).  Describe the actions of the shoppers, moving from the place, to the crowd, then to individuals.  (200 words)

I'd chosen to write about a memory of crossing the road in Delhi on a trip to India 5 years ago (maybe it was the facebook memories that had reminded me?)  

I signed onto the Zoom call at 1pm and got to meet Ardella who was lovely and funny and reminded me ever so slightly of Jo Brand.  There was a schedule that we loosly stuck to - intros, what we'd been doing in the way of writing, and one of the group of our 9 read out a story that she'd been writing about slavery and slave ships that was really good.  Lauren also read out the short story and poem that she'd shared with me earlier in the week.  During a quick break I had a maple & pecan plait and a packet of skips - I really must be more organised with food.

We read a couple of passages of Bonfire of the Vanities and used them as spring boards for discussion and as a way of writing a couple of exercises.  I refined my busy scene and although I couldn't get to 200 words (218 was as low as I managed) I went first at reading out my piece which seemed well received generally and I enjoyed hearing others.  Lauren's was great and about getting on the tube and really moved me along with her on the story.

The class overran slightly past 4pm and then I went downstairs to see Alan and we planned to drop the masks made my neighbour Anna to my friend Hannah for her two boys and then go for a walk at St Aidan's.  We sat outside and chatted with Hannah and her husband Chris - they are about to go on holiday to Dorset and do some camping and it's the first time they've been away in years.  James was jumping in and out of the car and beeping the horn and Alex was in his Karate kit and being generally well behaved apart from climbing on the car.  Whilst we were there, Alan got a call from Apple to say his Macbook had been repaired and was in the Apple store in Sheffield ready to be collected, so instead of going for a walk we headed to Sheffield and went to get his Macbook.  

I needed the toilet when I got there and most people seemed to be properly wearing masks, although a lot with them around their chins.  We picked up the Macbook and then looked for something to snack on and I opted for a quick Subway sandwich which confused Alan as he didn't think it would be something that I would eat.  He also ordered a couple of Starbucks drinks and we picked them up and headed back to the car.

Alan drove back so that I could eat my sandwich and then when I got home I started to cook tea which was a cod and rice Hello Fresh dish.  We ate in front of the TV and watched Peep Show and Alan made us Ginger Beer and Gentleman Jacks to drink.  He had ice cream and cream for dessert, but I was going to run to get my Vitality points, so I plugged in the end of the High Low Podcast and then some of With Me Now and ran up and down the driveway for just over 30 mins and 5K.

When I got in I had a Rowntrees Ice Lolly and then ran a cool bath that I stayed in for far too long messing around on my phone.  I did manage to change the bed sheets, but the house is a mess and so tomorrow will be another weekend clean up and tidy up day.

Isolation Journal 63

My plan was to wake up a bit early to prep for my charity pitch meeting, so I woke up annoyingly at 7.50am and had a snooze until 8.10am and then my alarm went off.  I got up and brought the milk in and it was pouring with rain and so then I made my breakfast and coffee.  I had yoghurt, apple and granola, but I put some of the homemade lemon curd that my friend had given me on Saturday - it was delicious, really lemony.

I logged on and did the team call with Katie and then prepped for my meeting.  I think it went ok, it was 4 trustees on MS teams, and one of them had to turn off her camera because her audio wasn't working.  I made the classic error of forgetting to ask how long I had (turns out 30 mins rather than the hour I'd assumed) and I spent more time asking them questions than "selling", but hopefully that's not a bad thing.  

I then had *alot* of emails to try and get through along with some admin and was full on until Alan heated up some lunch from the dinner that we'd had yesterday.  I snatched a few moments to order a hamper of gluten free treats for my brother as it's his birthday tomorrow.  It was hard as some of the stuff looked gluten free, but wasn't obvious.  I also found a few bits and pieces as suggestions for Alan's brother's wife and he ordered something for her birthday which is later this week.

I then had an interview with a very senior candidate from the private sector who wants to make a move to the charity sector and she was good, but I think it's going to be slow at the level that she's looking at for a little while.  

The rest of the afternoon was sorting out admin mostly for the placement I have starting tomorrow and one for Rachel starting later on in the week.  

I eventually finished up around 6.45pm and after much persuading managed to get Alan to agree to a run.  To try and make it easier to run together I'd suggested exploring the woods I went in yesterday, but he wasn't keen to run that far, so I suggested driving and parking closer, but he also wasn't keen on where I'd suggested to park so he suggested we drove to Towton Battlefield and we went for a run around the battlefield trail.  The sunlight was beautiful and there were some lovely views and we ran and looked at some of the different info boards.  At one point we encountered a 14 week old black lab puppy that was excited and jumped up and down at us and scratched my legs by accident.  We explored down a path to Cock's Bridge and then went in a loop past the pub.  We did 5K in 48.56.

When we got back I made tea and scoffed the leftover chips from Friday evening's takeaway whilst I listened to the archers.  We had the Hello Fresh Pork Penne Caponata and then after I'd spilled it all down my run kit I had some lemon tart with cream.  

We watched Peep Show and I then went up for a shower and worked out that the shower head is broken, Alan also worked out the cat flap was broken and managed to change the batteries and fix it on top of fixing the shelf in the fridge with Milliput.  

I watched a bit of Catfish and looked for showerheads.

Isolation Journal 58

Today should be my day off, but it's our new system day so I had to log onto a training call at 9am.  I got up and dressed made a coffee and prepped a mango which I had with granola and yoghurt and left some mango for Alan.

The training call was ok, but I find training where they just show things moving around on a screen isn't really a way that I learn.  We had other bits and pieces throughout the day to learn and watch, but in truth a lot of my day was taken up with the day job as I'm covering for Rachel on holiday.  

By lunchtime I had a major stress tension headache and today took both paracetamol and ibuprofen, but it didn't really shift.  

After a 48 minute call with a client I managed to come downstairs and make some lunch, Alan chopped up some chorizo and black pudding and I fried with no oil in a pan and added to a chopped little gem lettuce, some chopped heritage tomatoes and then some apple cider vinegar and salt.  We had a slice of olive bread with anchor spreadable and then I had another coffee (3 in total today) and went up to finish more work.

I had a busy afternoon sending out testing for candidates, fielding multiple emails and did some of the training modules towards the end of the day.  I had been supposed to go for a run with a friend after doing some more errands in town, but I set off about 30 minutes later than I'd planned at 5.35pm and then had to turn back as I'd forgotten my keys, but I managed to chat to my parents on the way, I grabbed the keys and carried onto work and parked my car underneath the office building and went up to the flat with the table (again!) and I couldn't even get the keys in the lock after being reassured the old lock had been put back in.  I called the number for a guy who came to sort out the lock who said "20 minutes" and so I went back to my office to collect things from my desk as they are implementing a clear desk policy at work.  I also moved Rachel's things into a drawer and took some stuff home for safe keeping like a picture of her with her Dad.  

I went back to the flat and after waiting for about 20 minutes the guy arrived and changed the lock.  I put the table in the flat and had a look around and then wasn't sure whether to leave both tables or just one as there's not much space.  I left both in the end.  I wore my mask the whole way around being in town both in the office where I saw two of the cleaners I'd not seen for months as well as in the apartment building even though the lock guy was "i don't have it you don't have to wear that".

I cancelled going for a run with my friend Sam even though I probably had enough time, but she didn't call me back, I drove back via Temple Newsam thinking that I could go for a run somewhere different, but there seemed to be a lot of travellers and people around the car park and I felt a bit unsure so drove home and went for a run from my front door again.  Alan called me whilst we were both driving home as he'd been catching up with his old boss in Bradford at Starbucks.  I ran past him driving home in the car.

I ran about 36 minutes and just over 4 miles and I'm still getting used to, but enjoying my new watch.  I listened to more of "How to Stop Time" by Matt Haig and I'm getting towards the end of the book now.

I spoke to my brother who'd rung me just at the end of my run to help him prepare for a promotion interview tomorrow.  He was very hung up thinking about all the other candidates, but I pointed out that it was far better to worry about what he was doing to prepare as that was the only thing that he could controls.

I then came down for tea that Alan had made which was Hello Fresh hot dogs and was nearly 1200 calories!!! I'm glad I'd not eaten loads earlier and had had a decent run.  We watched a couple of episodes of early Peep Show.

I then showered after dinner and started a bath for Alan and came down to finish off my system training which I'm nearly finished up on thankfully.  

I also have just remembered again that it's my youngest nephew Winston's birthday (he's 1) so I need to order a present for him even though I've not actually had a chance to meet him yet.

Isolation Journal 54

Not quite sure why we woke up earlier than expected, but I think possibly the neighbours were doing the hoovering.  It was good as we had to wake up for Delifresh delivery and also it meant that for once I could sign on for the virtual Opposite Zoom call.  Alan was also up after a coffee and headed to the neighbours garage again to fix up things to make it able for us to get Sky Q (I don't know what this is, but apparently it's "better" and Alan definitely knows more about this sort of thing)

The Delifresh delivery times are very precise - yesterday it was suggested it would be 10.07am, it was then revised to 10.04am and arrived pretty bang on.  It took a while to unload as it was all plastic free and so I had about 7 crates to unload with tasty treats including 900g of smoked Wensleydale cheese, mortadella ham and milano salami.  

I chatted on Zoom to parkrun people which was really nice, and as I was putting away the shopping they were asking for a tour of the house, so I obliged.  I also had to help Alan check TV signal.  

I had to sign off early as we had visitors including Winston Dog.  I'm still getting used to a bit more social interaction, we were very careful and we shared a picnic of olives, salad, beetroot, cheese, meats and chutney along with some pork pie and scotch egg that our guests had kindly brought us.  We also had caramel short bread.  It was nice to see the kids who are very funny and chattted away and wanted to sit next to me to eat lunch.

I was pretty tired so watched some Spooks and messed around on my phone and then had a nap, but set my phone to wake me up in time for the last online dance class at 5pm. 

I then listened to some Hay Festival recordings about young adult literature and researched MAs in Creative Writing as I'm wondering if I should do some further study to help make me hold myself to account.  I also read some of "It's not the end of the World" by Judy Blume to remind me of the sort of stuff I used to read when I was a teenager.

I then persuaded Alan to go out for a run with me and we saw some amazing sunsets and I asked him for suggestions about idea for something that I could write for young adult fiction and I had a potentially workable idea byt tthe time we'd got back home.

I made some cheese on toast on the olive loaf and some mortadella and salami and the left over salad.  Then watched more Spooks.

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 49

I got into bed at a reasonablish time, but wasted at least 30 minutes watching TikTok on my phone and then read a big chunk more of Where the Crawdads sing and texted Alan to suggest it would be good for him to come to bed, but even so I think we only got about 6 hours of sleep. 

After hitting my heaviest weight in over 5 years yesterday at 76.8kg I made the decision to take action and address this, which is hard as whilst I can exercise more with a bit of extra time that I don't spend commuting and a bit of extra time off, if I don't do exercise then I only cover about 3000 steps when I work from home.  

I weighed out my cornflakes and milk and had 2 coffees.   I fed the cats after Qubit appeared with a dying mammal and ate half of it.

We kicked off with a morning call at 9am and then I had a few quick calls to make before I had Rach's appraisal at 10am which went well and then I had a few more calls to make before Pilates at 12pm for an hour.  Of course Hello Fresh arrived as it started, but I managed to grab it and return to the class without too much interruption.  

For lunch I defrosted some leek and potato soup and finished up the salad that I'd made yesterday.  

We had a team meeting for the public sector team at 2pm and then I had a meeting with a client at 3.30pm which went well.

I then had a productive day until finishing work around 6.20pm when I went and started cooking dinner as we had In Conversation with Louis Theroux with Guardian Live booked to watch at 7pm.  I made a vegetable curry with naan bread and Alan went on his bike to drop off the tetra packs that have been living in my car at the recycling centre.  

It was fun watching Louis, he spends so much time interviewing and meeting other people so it was interesting to see him being interviewed and talking about his book, we'd posted a question, but it didn't get asked.  Alan had used his Ipad to log on and casted it to the tv.  We heated up some rhubarb crumble from yesterday and had some cream with it and watched an episode of Scrubs.  I added up all calories I'd consumed on myfitnesspal and realised I was over by about 568 and so decided to go out for a run.  Alan was doing some filming and I went upstairs to read some more "Where the Crawdads Sing" and realised it was getting quite dark so I went out and ran up and down the drive about 24 times and burned up over 600 calories in 45 minutes and covered about 7.5K and as Alan had been recording he wanted me to go out the back and as I was heading back I found a very noisy Qubit having a heated debate with one of the neighbourhood cats and so I brought him back in after I managed to entice him back through the gates to the cottage.  He struggled, but I managed to get him back in the house.

I had a very quick shower in the bath and got into my pjs and went downstairs and watched a bit more scrubs with Alan.

I had a shower

Isolation Journal 48

I got into bed quite late and then read and got really hooked into Where the Crawdads Sing and read for at least an hour when I started to fall asleep and kept dropping the book on my face.  

Alan wasn't in bed by the time I fell asleep which was around 2am, but he was there when I woke up at 10.30am so I read for another 2 hours until he woke up naturally.  This turned out to the right thing to do as he wasn't in bed until around 5am.

We got up and I made food - I made a mini ploughman type lunch with wensleydale, chutney, serano ham, yellow pepper, a granny smith, a salad and some pasta tossed with olive oil, black pepper and garlic.  I had 3 coffees today and I'm not sure that was necessarily the best idea, I also weighed myself and I'm officially the heaviest I've been in 5 years, so it's definitely time to sort that out now!

Alan watched the cricket and I logged onto work and wrote an appraisal only being interrupted slightly when Qubit came covered in ants and we had a call from our neighbour at exactly the same time to say that we had an ants nest at the back door.  We went out and sorted out the ants and then also Alan picked some rhubarb from the garden to make into a crumble for tea.

I finished the appraisal and went for a run and did 5 miles to catch up on my running target and I did a "mile for Karen" as one of the ladies that I know in the running community I'd discovered yesterday was hit by a car on Friday when she was out for a run which is awful.  It's an area that I know me and Alan will have run at least once when he lived in Middleton.

I listened to How to Stop Time by Matt Haig as I was running and it's an interesting book, I like books about the concept of time whether time travel or deeper and more philosophical things.  I also love Matt Haig!

I got back and had a shower in the bath and spoke to my Mum to let her know that the masks I'd ordered for her were showing as dispatched so should arrive soon.  Alan then served tea which was a pasta dish and he'd made a delicious lynchberg lemondate and we let it go down watching Spooks and then had crumble with cream.  I found loads of my emails had ended up in my "spam" folder which is separate to my "junk" folder and I'd got emails from more distant family members who I'd not replied to for nearly a year!  I'd recollected seeing them, but they vanished from my inbox, I feel bad!

I suggested putting Scrubs on at 11.30pm so we didn't get too involved in another episode of Spooks.