Isolation Journal 31

Alan really didn't sleep well last night, I could tell by the way that he was holding his breath as he was sleeping, I'm not sure why he does this, but I know if he's doing it, he's not had a good night of sleep.  I got the milk and orange juice in.

I had another tasty breakfast of yoghurt, granola, apple and homegrown raspberries and blackcurrants and today was a 3 coffee day with 2 in the morning and one at 3.30pm.

We had a briefing call from our MD today and he had some slides on it and it occurred to me that all the way through the daily briefing they kept saying "next slide please" but never actually had the ability to click a button, seems quite inefficient.

I put a load of washing on, hung it out and then put the dry washing away.

We had another Delifresh order arrive at 12.09pm, the order was emailed to say it would be 12.07pm, I'm amazed they can get it so close!  I unpacked everything - love how it's plastic free with just the odd thing in a paper bag.  Everything was a bit covered in condensation as it was so muggy today.

Alan made a tasty lunch from some of the order - a gnocchi, tomato and pepper pasta bake with two types of cheese - it was delicious.  I then had a busy afternoon at work with a candidate interview on Zoom and a client meeting on teams where I picked up a lot of new jobs and had 2 interview requests to arrange for Monday.  I then had a further 4 interview requests for Thursday and Friday!  i also was on a mission to sort out my emails and got them down from nearly 400 to less than 200, If I get on top of them I feel more focussed and I make more placements.  

I had an amusing scenario where I was talking to a client discussing the weather as usual chitchat and mentioned how hot it was, she mentioned that it was thundering where she was (around 8 miles away) and then 2 minutes later I heard it, the rain she had then followed 2 minutes after!  I remembered as I was on the phone to one of the candidates and had to climb the ladder in the bedroom to shut the skylight and got a facefull of rain.

I tuned in to my friend Lauren's friend Lorraine who does an Instagram live of cocktails and comedy and sorted my emails until 8.15pm.  I had though Alan was asleep, but he'd had a bit of a snooze and was watching TV, I offered to sort dinner and went down to the local pub The Queen of t'owd Thatch or the Thack for short as they had reopened yesterday after being closed for a bit to work out what they wanted to do with all the challenges of being a pub at the moment.  They had arranged a fish and chips Friday takeaway, usually it's all preordering, but they had suggested in Facebook that there was enough left to just turn up so I went and got two portions of fish and chips with garden peas, curry sauce and a bottle of prosecco.  I also reminded Annie one of the owners that I owed her £2 for some mashed potato I'd got back in April to go with Alan's birthday meal.  I wore my facemask as I got there inside as I wanted to make sure that they were all safe.  They are finding it hard to work out how to reopen as they have so many pinch points in the pub layout as a cosy little building, they were quieter yesterdy than they'd hoped which makes me sad as I'm really keen to keep this good quality, friendly and local business going through this very difficult period.

We ate our tea outside on the picnic chairs as our usual bench was soaking wet and we watched 2 of the neighbours (Kirsty and Chris) looking at where to put a fountain they'd bought and chatted to one of the other neighbours (Becci)  about Donald Trump and Greek mythology and we drank the prosecco and chatted until it was getting dark and there was lighting in the distance, we finally wen tinside at 10.30pm and I had an ice lolly and cleaned the kitchen whilst listing to "What Alice Forgot".

Last night I started reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens for the Uni of Leeds Alumni bookclub that I've joined.  I might try and read some more tonight if I'm not too tired, I'm so pleased to be actually reading books again.

Isolation Journal 30

Alan had a really bad night of sleep as it was really warm, I didn't do so badly as I slept completely not under any covers and I was pleased that I finally finished reading a book and read the last story of Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks before I went to sleep.

I had a coffee and granola, homegrown blackcurrants and raspberries and granny smith and yoghurt.

We had a few teams meetings and I had a few niggles to sort out from the day before, but I managed it.  I also had a difficult conversation that I'd been dreading for weeks with a client, hopefully I've offered a solution.  At 12pm I had a Pilates class online again, it was very warm!  I then made a quick chicken salad with Sriracha mayo dressing and a couple of small jacket potatoes with marmite and butter.

I had a fair bit on in the afternoon and tried to multitask logging onto another interactive webinar on our Unity group.  One of the topics discussed was how people really dislike the term BAME as it doesn't account for the fact that Black and Asian experience is very different.  

We had a quiz at the end of the day which I won and it was all about facts about other people in the team, it means that I'll have to get one together for next week.  I managed to cook a prawn stirfry from Hello Fresh and eat it before the guide meeting at 7pm.  The meeting went well, we played a game of counting to 10 without interrupting each other, then we did a couple of UMAs including guessing who wrote different statements and then thinking about guides in the future.  I used the Whiteboard function and got them to draw which was fun, but a bit chaotic!

I then went out for a quick run and pushed my effort a bit more and did 6.5K in about 35 minutes.  I got back and chatted with my neighbour and watered the plants from yesterday and had a quick shower before having a big hunk of chocolate cake that one of the other neighbours had made with some cream, it was delicious.

I then watched Big Brother and Alan had a bath,

Isolation Journal 29

Another "not" day off for me today.  Alan got up as normal and logged on for work at 9am, I faffed around on social media before getting out of bed around 10.15am and made myself yoghurt, granny smith, granola and home grown raspberries.  Only one coffee today.

I got straight into my run kit as I wanted to get a run over and done with and I put on a load of washing and took out the recycling and chatted to the gardener who mows our lawn for us.

I had planned to run for about an hour, but it was about 28 degrees so after a fairly fast 5km I decided to head back as it was just too warm and did just over 4 miles!  I listened to more of What Alice Forgot which is such a good audio book! I had an ice lolly when I got back and felt a bit light headed so sat down for a bit.  I was due to take little Alex (not so little anymore) out for a walk, but he had heatrash so wasn't heading out, so I had a long bath and then headed downstairs and made a salad with sriarcha mayo dressing and a couple of small potatoes with cheese, butter and marmite. I had another ice lolly.  Some herb plants that I'd ordered arrived and I planted out some mint, coriander, parsley, chives and nearly pulled up some seedlings that I then realised had grown from a tomato I planted 3 months back, so I replanted them!

I did a bit of work email stuff and Alan suggested we head out on the bikes and so I got my bike out and didn't get into biking gear, just the shorts and t-shirt that I already had on.  We cycled to post a parcel and then went to Fairburn Ings via Lumby and locked up our bikes and went for a walk and did some more mapping using the inaturist app.  We then cycled back via Ledsham just under 10 miles in total, I was surprised to get some cycling strava segments not clipped in or in proper cycling gear.

I've also been trying to sort out re-letting the studio flat that I own in the centre of Leeds, I'm not sure the agent I've been with since I bought it in 2017 are being very proactive so I'm considering whether I change agents.  It feels wrong to have it vacant, I wouldn't mind reducing the price especially if it could help a key worker.

We chatted with our nextdoor neighbour and I cleared up some feathers from a bird that the cats had clearly brought in.  Alan then made some chicken Laksa for tea and we ate outside and watched Chris from number 5 on his sit on mower cut the grass and Alan watered the plants and the lawn for us and Denise at number 4.  I had a Gentleman Jack and Ginger and we had ice cream and cream for dessert.  I then had a rose wine with some ice and came inside to watch some Catfish and plan my guide meeting for tomorrow as well as write a session plan for run club.

Isolation Journal 28

Yesterday I was feeling really motivated and productive at work and weirdly I had more sleep than the night before, but today felt much less productive.

I had another breakfast of granola, homegrown raspberries, sliced granny smith and yoghurt.  And today was a 3 coffee day.

I'd teed up a tweet on behalf of my friend to Leeds City Council, the CEO of Leeds City Council, Richard Burgeon (MP) and the Valuation Office Agency.  She's had a ridiculously tough 18 months being diagnosed with heart failure last year aged 40, having a house fire at the end of November and spending the last 7 months including lockdown in a small flat with her husband and 2 boys whilst the repairs to her very fire damaged house takes longer because of the Doncaster floods and then Covid.  Her house is not fit for human habitation, but the council have told her that she needs to pay two lots of council tax on her two properties.  Her MP (Richard Burgeon) tried to help, but they pushed it onto the Valuation Office Agency to delist the property, but they said as she was having it repaired it wouldn't be classed as derelict and so not exempt!  It's crazy and her husband found out today as he was with his mum in a hospice with hours/days to live that he's being made redundant so they don't have money to spare.  It takes emotional energy to fight these things and so I wanted to help her, fortunately the CEO got back in touch and asked me to email him, so I did.  Hopefully he'll be able to cancel this demand as it's just not fair.  

At lunch I needed to go to the pharmacy to pick up my Omaprazole prescription so I decided to walk down for some light and fresh air.  It was really warm and I played Pokemon Go for the first time in ages and noticed some new pokestops and a gym had been added in the local area.  I queued up at the pharmacy and picked up my prescription and I also listened to some more of What Alice Forgot Again - it's a captivating audio book!  I felt bad when I'd got back from the pharmacy as I realised that I'd not worn a mask.  I literally stood in a doorway and picked it up from a distance, but I feel that I should have worn a mask.  I'll put one in my bag next time.  By the time I'd walked back Alan had made lunch which was more of what we had for tea last night, I ate outside in the hot weather.  I also had an ice lolly.

The afternoon was more productive and I watched a bit of the daily briefing and I finished at 6.30pm and signed straight onto a guiding webinar which used the most inefficient and complicated method I've seen for online stuff so far!  I didn't really get much from it, apart from a game of counting from 1 - 10 without people interrupting.

I made dinner as I listened and it was a tasty soft taco and minute steak Hello Fresh dish.  We ate outside again and Alan had made me a ginger and Gentleman Jack.  There was lots of farm machinery noise in the field next door.

I then settled down to watch more Big Brother and Catfish, tidied the kitchen, had a couple of glasses of rose and fed Qubit when he came in at 10.30pm.  He was promptly sick and then kept meowing loads.

Isolation Journal 27

Mondays I usually find extremely challenging in lockdown as I am a person who gets their morning energy from seeing people, and not through a screen!

I had a much healthier than usual breakfast of yoghurt, homegrown raspberries, granola and a granny smith cut up with the magic slicer thing!

This morning I managed to kick off well and sent a shortlist to a job as well as catching up with people I'd not spoken to for a while.  At 12pm I went down and did my online Pilates class that was challenging, but just the right level of challenge.  Alan had made Eggy bread and fruit compote for lunch and I just cooked my slice of bread before eating it in front of my laptop.

I managed to do a load of washing and hang it out whilst catching up with a candidate.  All good for multitasking today.  I had 2 coffees in total today and one cookie as a snack.

I finished work around ten past 6 and joined Alan for a run of about 5K and used the new app that I'd downloaded inaturalist to find out what different plants in the fields were - pineapple weed, burdock, onion (we foraged some!), some hares that I took from a big distance and zoomed in my phone camera and it even recognised Maya!  I asked Alan if I was the geekiest person he'd ever gone out with and he said yes apart from perhaps someone he was with who was really into pylons...

We came home and Alan finished cooking tea that he'd prepped before we went out which was okra rice and a carribean lamb curry, it was delicious.  I had a whisky and ginger and a lime cheesecake as treats!

We watched Catfish the film which was far weirder than any of the encounters he has in the show, it was really odd.  I then watched some more Best of Big Brother.

Isolation Journal 26

Alan woke me up at around 9am today as he'd booked a Tesco delivery (amazingly we booked a slot for early this morning yesterday, we were surprised, we didn't even need to do click and collect)

I felt better getting up at a reasonable time, yesterday I felt like I really wasted the day.  We had peacan plaits and coffee for breakfast and watched a bit of Scrubs and Best of Big Brother.  I'd planned to take my friend's son Alex for a walk, but she'd not put two and two together that it was father's day and so they headed off to the coast, which I totally understood because as a chef her husband is usually working.  I'll hopefully head over on Wednesday instead.

I mopped the house and hoovered upstairs to tick off another post it note I'd put together.  

Alan made bread and burgers and cooked them on the barbecue outside along with some artichokes from the garden cooked with garlic and rosemary and also I dug out some corn on the cobs that we'd had for ages.  As he cooked I sorted out some compost from the compost heap as I'd put in some wool lining from the bags we get in Hello Fresh as they say compostable, but it does take a lot longer than everything else!  I also planted out two of the lavendar plants at the back next to the wall and one at the front.  I hope they grow well.  Alan also picked me some raspberries for me and I'll have them for breakfast tomorrow.

After lunch I spent some time sorting some emails and working out how I was tracking on my 20 things in 2020 goals.  I then ordered some more facemasks as I had an idea that I wanted some with bees on them and I found one supplier on Etsy who use fabric with puffins and bumblebees on and donates £2 per mask to a children's centre in West Yorkshire - perfect!  I also listened to a panel discussion on Hay Player from 2018 with Candice Brathwaite and a few others about motherhood.  I had one of the cookies that Alan got from Tescos.

I gave my Dad a call for fathers day and had a good chat, it's hard not knowing when I might see my parents again, I don't tend to visit and they don't tend to come up all that regularly, but not knowing and feeling restricted does make it seem a lot harder.

I then made some dinner an Aubergine Curry a Hello Fresh recipe - it was delicious! And we watched the IT Crowd and I did a bit of work for an urgent role that I need to shortlist for and my anxiety about not finding the right candidate/missing candidate was calmed a little bit as I went through 215 candidates and found very few that I had perhaps not already covered.  I wish I'd been able to do this all on Friday or even yesterday as it would have made my weekend less anxiety ridden.

I then went out for a run at about 9.30pm - I am sad that from now the nights will start drawing in earlier as I love having the scope to run in the light until past 10pm at this time in the year.  I was feeling a bit nervous as it was a bit dark and also a woman was attacked about 3 miles away in Fairburn earlier this week so I did hill reps and listened to What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty that I'd started listening to yesterday and also listened to during cooking - it's great!  I ran just over 4 miles in about 36 minutes and added it to my (not) parkrun times weirdly the same best time this week of 26.39 so I have something to work towards next week.

I had a shower in the bath and then came back to finish off my blogging updates and also cleaned the kitchen and enjoyed some Haagen Daas Praline and Cream and debated with Alan how to say Praline.  I also watched a bit more Big Brother and Alan went to bed after a bath with a bit of a cough and I made him a honey and lemon and he's going to sleep in the other room.  I hope he feels better by tomorrow morning.

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.