Today was my day off...in theory...I knew I had a call and I had a few other things to do, I'm so busy at the moment and it's feeling hard to switch off. I got woken up by Qubit making his "I've caught a creature" noise and so I went down and found him with a dead bird. I put the bird in a plastic bag and by the front door and went back to bed. I then heard him rustling around the milk bottles by the front door, so went down again and moved Alan's bike so that I could shut the door to the hall. Maya then came upstairs and was sick twice next to the bed onto the beige carpet that we definitely wouldn't have chosen if we had carpeted it!
I stayed in bed mooching around for a bit watching videos and read a bit of Where the Crawdads Sing (I'm way behind in my reading schedule for my Uni of Leeds Alumni bookclub) and Alan brought me a coffe and then I got dressed and went down to make breakfast at around 11am and I made scrambled eggs on toast for brunch and listened to The Archers and the High Low podcast. I did some work and prepped for a call that I had at 2pm with a client. We heard a noise and Alan thought there was some post, he said "Lucy did you just leave that bird out?" and the little sparrow I thought that Qubit had killed was still alive, I'd put it in a bag and it had pooed into the bag, but fortunately managed to peck it's way out and Alan opened the front door and it flew away. I weirdly felt more sad that I nearly killed it by accident and it survived than potentially if it was just dead. At least he got to fly away.
We watched PMQs and it was mostly Bojo chanting 3 word slogans "build build, build" and "jobs, jobs, jobs" it's frustrating. I wish they would be kinder and more strategic with their solutions. It was later announced that if you go and eat out you'll get 50% up to £10 off a meal Monday to Wednesday. I love eating out and I feel really conflicted as I want to do everything I can to support good restaurants, pubs and even good chain restaurants, but I am worried that this is too soon to be piling back into public spaces.
I had my client call at 2pm and it went well, and I managed to do some work on the role that I'd picked up which was positive. I then ate some left over orzotto from Saturday for a late lunch at walked to my friend Gemma's house to take her 1 year old out for a walk in the buggy. Gem is finding balancing her return from mat leave in lockdown really hard as her husband's role is really busy and her little one is lively. I've been meaning to help out for ages, but this was probably the first time it felt safe and within the guidelines to do so. I took little one in the buggy for a walk and santised my hands and Gem put her in so I didn't have to touch her and she was in front of me all the time other than when I'd stop and check in from a safe distance. We walked a good 5K together and I realised that my watch wasn't registering my steps on the buggy! She seemed happy with me, no tears, she pulled her socks off and kicked her legs and fortunately the weather held and I've said that I'd take her out again tomorrow.
I got in and faffed around a bit more doing some work as I had interviews to arrange and I messaged a lot of people about the job.
It was my friend Han's birthday today and she got the art equipment that I'd sent her from The Works and she did 2 drawings - I said it was a DIY birthday card. I hope that she's had a good day.
Alan kindly cooked tea which was delicious a Hello Fresh recipe of pulled chicken burgers wtih salad and chips (he added liquid smoke which made it delicious) and I didn't run and I felt bad about not going for a run, but I'm very tired - so tomorrow I'll go twice as far. We watched some Spooks which is really great! I also booked my online course for tomorrow at Arvon. Alan then went up to bed so I watched some more Catfish.
A disjointed waking up today, I took ages to fall asleep and woke Alan up making odd noises that I think was met trying to speak in a dream and consequently I took ages to wake up again. Qubit brought in a bird and woke me up at 7am, I managed to take it off him and move it so he couldn't put feathers everywhere, sadly it was already dead.
I dialled into my call and caught up with Katie and Rachel and then had a busy morning and finally got breakfast around 10am (I had yoghurt, raspberries and granola) and had 2 coffees. I had a quick temp meeting and helped Rachel to write a proposal for a confidential client brief.
At lunch I was feeling a bit like I had cabin fever from being in all day yesterday so I suggested that we went out for a walk and so Alan and I walked along the muddy country lane near us and it spitted a bit with rain. I took a few pictures with my Inaturalist app and we probably walked for around 25 mins and then I made a ploughmans lunch when I got back which had granny smith, raddicchio, wensleydale, ham from Friday night, Serrano ham, a slice of homemade bread and butter, English mustard, 3 cherry tomatoes, chutney and I had some beetroot. Sadly the iceberg lettuce was actual ice as it had been pushed to the back of the fridge so I couldn't use it.
I then went upstairs and had a very busy afternoon as I had a new role come in and picked up a role for Katie. Frustratingly the briefing call for the new role is tomorrow at 2pm...on my day off so I need to login. I do feel that the past 2 days have been really productive for me and I am on top of my emails much better now which clears my head. We also had a training call on our new system which I'm really excited about and Maya kept coming on camera during the training call.
It should have been #runandtalk tonight, but I hadn't remember and no one else seemed to either so I scheduled it for next week.
Again I felt that a run would be a good idea for me and Alan so I managed to convince him it was a good idea and we left the house at 7pm and did a 5K - he was aiming for sub 30 mins and we managed it which was pleasing. Whilst he was in the bath I managed to fix the Garmin scales so they upload your weight details directly to the garmin app - Alan was pleased with me for not pestering him about it. I also finished cooking tea whilst he was in the bath and managed to smash a jar of biscoff when it fell out of the cupboard, it wasn't as full as I'd expected at least. We had Hello Fresh beef stirfry for tea and Alan had done the prep.
I managed to persuade him to use Easyfundraising to make a purchase this evening so I'm hoping we'll get some more cashback for guides that way as we aren't charging any subs at the moment.
We watched some Spaced and then he went to call his Mum and I did some emails for work and watched Catfish. I also had a shower and got "stuck" in the bath, even without it filled up to be a bath - it happens, I can spend over an hour messing around on my phone if I'm not careful. I also put a load of washing on and cleaned the kitchen whilst listening tot the Archers on the BBC Sounds app.
Tomorrow is my day off and for the first time I have no call with friends scheduled for 5pm and no Zumba at 7pm, so I have one work call at 2pm, but for the rest of the time I can read or do creative writing or run!
I was a bit groggy getting up this morning and I ended up having to do loads of tidying of the coffee machine to be able to make a coffee.
I had a slice of toast and biscoff spread for breakfast, did my MS Teams and did my forecast and cracked on with searching for a candidate for a role and managed to find 5 by the end of the day as I did a much much wider search.
I had Pilates online at 12pm and had a total of 2 coffees. During the class I had to get up as Qubit came in with a live mouse, the mouse managed to escape from him and run under the wardrobe, I couldn't get it out, but I managed to rescue it later, I hope it was ok after I let it go outside.
I made bratwurst and potato waffles for lunch and then a candidate called me at 1.30pm so it went cold before I finished eating. My friend Kirstie texted as she had some cake from her baby shower to drop off, so I had a chat with her at the front door. I snacked on two mini chomps in my office room.
I then took on 2 new roles for Rachel in my team and ended up working until around 7pm. My friend Hayley texted me and was in the area and so popped over for a coffee and a catch up in the garden (I put the camping chairs out) with her husband Flower, they're moving to Whitby and so getting their house ready. Alan cooked Hello Fresh for tea and it was a tasty chicken fajita.
I then came back in to do some more work and upload CVs onto a portal, it took me 2 hours to upload 4 CVs and it was hard to watch Spooks as I was doing it, so after a while I switched to Catfish and Alan went up to bath and bed. We did have some Sticky Toffee Pudding and cream beforehand though.
I also swapped messages with the lady who owns North Shire where we got married and are going for our anniversary in September and asked for some advice around Whitby for my friend Hayley.
Alan's app has been loaded for beta testing and so I have asked a few DJ contacts to find out if they can help. Alan was a bit down today and I feel bad that I've been so busy with work and catching up with friends.
I managed about 7 hours of sleep last night, must get to bed earlier tonight. I got up and had some yoghurt, homegrown raspberries and blackcurrants and granola for breakfast and then a naughty slice of toast with biscoff spread.
We watched a bit of telly - Alan suggested that I might like Spooks and so we watched an episode together from 2002 and it was great, as he described a more upscale version of The Bill (That I was always obsessed with!).
We then headed out to Berts Barrow to meet my friend Hannah and her husband and two boys. Hannah has heart failure and whilst hadn't had a shielding letter is being very cautious so it's only the second time that I've seen her since lockdown started. Whilst we were waiting for her to arrive we went into the shop and bought some honey, cream, sticky toffee pudding, cherry tomatoes and cherries and spent our £20 wedding present from one of Alan's colleagues Danielle. We then put on our masks and went into the strawberry field and picked our own strawberries. When we'd filled our punnets we went up to pay for them and then went to Fairburn Ings via our house so we could use the bathroom and Alan could make a coffee for Chris.
We then had a delicious picnic on the benches and had homemade bacon and cheese quiche, pizza, coleslaw, salad, chicken and some of the strawberries and cream. We then had a nice walk around the reserve and used my app to find some plants and animals.
We drove home and I did the recycling and took the rubbish out, hoovered and mopped the floors and cleaned the bathroom and went out for a run. I felt a bit breathless during the run, but I think that it's because I've got a slight bit of a cold and I was pushing myself fairly hard and did 6.5k in about 35 minutes. I added it to my "notparkrun" record for the week.
I had a bath and Alan cooked steak, padron peppers and chips for tea and made a couple of lynchberg lemonades. We watched more Spooks and then I prepped the strawberries and some cream for dessert.
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.
Alan had booked to go into work this morning so his alarm went off before mine and I was quite groggy. He went downstairs and Qubit was in the process of killing a mouse. I was still groggy and sleepy. He left around 8.50am and my work phone went off at 9am and it was a client, I grabbed a coffee and took on a new role. It was a 3 coffee day today and I had cornflakes for breakfast.
I then had a lot of work to do, it's been really busy and I had a video interview an my appraisal. I'd finished writing my appraisal at around 1am as I am a classic ENFP and leave it always to the last minute.
Alan ended up coming home early as a colleague hadn been annoying and inconsiderate and allowed an engineer into the area he needed to be working, he didn't feel safe and so he came home.
I then had the dinner for lunch from last night for lunch after Alan got home and put the joint of ham into the slow cooker to cook for dinner with some orange juice, mustard, salt, pepper and onion.
I did the interview and then into my appraisal that went well, it's been a tough 6 months, especially since Covid, but I think my boss is realising that I have been able to manage and develop people in a positive way. I feel much more confident in my abilities as well as I've helped one of my team really succeed well in a very challenging period of time. We set some goals and I fefel actually very positive about the next few months.
I then was very busy taking feedback on interview for a role that I've been recruiting since February and I arranged some second interviews for next week.
I finished work late, past 7pm and then I went down and made some wedges and got Alan to help me prep a pineapple and put the ham in the oven. I logged onto Instagram live to watch my friend Lauren's friend Lorraine do her "Cocktagicom" cocktails and comedy session and my convo around Terry Wogan postcards that my Dad had pulled from a skip at the BBC intrigued her enough to get her to add me to instagram live, it was fun!
I finished off dinner, poured a beer for me and Alan and we turned on Freaks which I wasn't overly impressed by. There were parts like the pop up book that I liked, but some parts were very repetitve and it wasn't a very surprising conclusion, although perhaps I was multitasking.
We then turned on the Jeffrey Epstein documentary series, he's a seriously scary person, I don't understand how he had the time and ability to do what he did.
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.
