Isolation Journal 121

I woke up at 7am with a plan to go to work, but Alan was really nervous about me going based on how poorly he was and how likely he thought that it would be that I'd pick up Covid and the annoucements from last night, so in the end I worked from home and had an extremely busy day.  I had cornflakes and coffee for breakfast and started work at 8am.

I started off with processing some emails and catching up with Rachel on my handover, I then had a meeting with the internal audit colleague to help him sell a retained process.  I then had a number of calls to catch up with Katie and then a number of candidates.  Alan made aubergine and miso tacos for lunch that were delicious.  We then had a meeting about some of the learns that we'd made from the new system and then I prepped for my meeting with my client about the shortlist and the videos that I'd made.  The meeting went well and we shortlisted 3 candidates for interview next week. One of the trustees was in his camper van in a field.

The map I ordered for Alan's Anniversary present arrived and also we had Hello Fresh arrive today.

I had a discussion with my boss about the debate on how, who, when people in the team should be in the office, I'm really nervous about it.

It was really rainy today and I debated going out for a run, but I've had a really heavy chest, sore throat and this evening I've felt really tired and a bit dizzy, I'm hoping that it passes quickly.

I worked unti 8.30pm and then had dinner with Alan who I was relieved cooked again and made a very tasty spicy soup and I came down to eat it and we watched Dave on TV and then I carried on doing more work mostly writing adverts and processing a few emails.

It's now past midnight, I'm exhausted and should probably go to bed...

Isolation and Not so Isolation Journals 116, 117, 118, 119 and 120

116 - Friday was a whirlwind, Rachel was back from holiday and I had a short period of time to quickly handover with her before another call at 9am to discuss additional Covid protocols in the office and then I had another interview with a candidate and then a very busy day prepping for not being around for 2 days next week.  I had a catch up with Katie and Rachel for my handover and then I finally finished up around 9pm having had to upload all the CVs for my retainer and send all the links for the Hinterviews.  I also had a dilemna about what to do with a particular role, but I came up with a workable solution in the end thankfully.  We then had a late dinner of takeaway Chinese which did take ages to arrive and then I was very tired and went to bed after I think watching some more Dave on TV.  I also eventually managed to finally order a present for him at last and ordered a personalised OS map (paper!) centred on where we got married at North Shire.

117 - Saturday - we woke up and Alan decided to tell me that we had to go and "collect" my anniversary present from somewhere in South Yorkshire, so we had some coffee and some quick cereal and set off and he drove down the A1 and eventually after a guessing game I managed to guess Worksop as where we were going.  We got there after around an hour and he'd sponsored an area of woodland for me at Hannah Park via the Woodland Trust which was a lovely present.  We wondered around and found the patch that was dedicated and it was a lovely place with lots of different types of trees and birds and lots of people walking their dogs.  Amusingly as we walked towards the entrance there was a friendly little dog that kept saying hello and I was almost convinced that Alan had adopted it for me!  We drove back home and then had a relax at home with an idea that I wanted us to head back to Eccup Resevoir where we ran our first "date" 5 years ago.  We got there fairly late on in the afternoon, but had estimated we'd have enough time to be able to get around before sunset and we just about managed it with a jog walk around the 4 miles.   We got home and then I made tea which was a Hello Fresh spicy veggie coconut curry soup and I also prepped some of the very many apples that our neighbour Anna had kindly given us for the Apple and Roasted Garlic chutney  I then tidied as much as I could and organised things for travelling to North Shire tomorrow after making 5 litres of the chutney and putting it all in jars - it was past 1am by the time that I came to bed.  I cleaned the fridge so that I could ask our neighbour who was feeding the cats to put the milk away for us.  

118 - Sunday - I woke up at a reasonable time and spent a good chunk of time tidying and cleaning the house after packing and we set off to drive to Bempton Cliffs and I drove in Alan's car.  It's not far, but lots of slow winding roads and took us over an hour and a half to get there.  The weather was calm, but not too sunny or windy and we strolled along the edges of the cliffs and saw a fisherman who had scaled down the cliffs to fish, lots of gannets and a potential seal (fortuantely we'd brought the binoculours this time!) we stopped off and I had a sandwich and Alan some millionaires shortbread (he was disappointed that it was vegan) and a couple of teas and then Alan drove us to North Shire and we arrived just after 4.30pm.  We walked straight to Hagrids and the key was in the lock for us and we settled in and ended up cooking some pizza for tea, drinking the champagne that my work colleagues all bought for us when we got engaged.  We watched Dave and started a very hard 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle which was extremely tricky!

119 - Monday - the weather was lovely when we woke up and we made breakfast which took a while in the convection oven - we baked sausage and black pudding for about an hour and ate it with tiger bread and BBQ sauce outside and enjoyed the lovely sunny day that wasn't quite as warm as our actual wedding was exactly a year ago.  I wanted to go for a run and suggested I could do that whilst Alan had a bath, but then I'd also suggested that we visited Runswick Bay as we'd never been in any of the times that we'd visited North Shire and so we drove out and it was only about 13 minutes drive.  We found a car park that unfortunately had a broken card machine and so we put all the coins I had into the machine and got an hour, but we weren't sure if that would be enough, luckily I spotted that you could use the Ringo app to pay and we took a picture in case we needed more time.  It's a really stunning beach although a good steep walk down, and quiet as no busy shops or food stalls and so we walked along paddling in the sea and looked at the rock pools and saw different seaweed, anemones, little fish, crabs and later on Oystercatchers.  We then moved inland so that Alan could sit and sort out the parking and spotted a load of rocks that had fossils in them, we tapped away and found some great ammonites and also found some fools gold.  We then started to head back up the beach and spotted a crack next to a water fountain and a chap told us that it was 300 steps up to the top, so we climbed up the cliff path and looked at the stunning view.  We then had to top up the parking again and headed back up to the car.  Once we got to the car I was craving fish and chips, but couldn't find any on the way although we did stop at a COOP and I grabbed salad leaves, lollies, drinks and raspberries and it was the first proper shop I'd been in ages and no one was doing the one way system right!  We got to the fish and chips place I'd found on the map, but it was closed, but Alan spotted it on Just Eat and so we decided to try and order later.  We got back and it was still lovely and warm and we bumped into the new manager and had a chat about how business had been for them in the past few months and the fact that they weren't doing a pick a pumpkin patch again this year as it was too stressful last year!  I went for a run and explored a few of the little public footpaths and found that the road wasn't too good to run along, but managed to clear 4 miles in a decent time and then got in the lovely copper bath for a relax and Alan ordered us fish and chips for delivery.  We did more work on the jigsaw and then ate fish and chips outside, the peacocks were after me and I managed to spill the gravy and peas on the floor and Alan had to keep chasing them away!  We had some nice pink Moet with our dinner and watched the sunset and then went inside to watch a DVD - Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and then move Dave and struggled with the light on the jigsaw puzzle before I rested on the sofa and started to fall asleep.

120 - Tuesday - we had planned to walk up Roseberry Topping today, but Alan woke up with ear ache and feeling rubbish so we relaxed at Hagrid and I tidied up, packed and had breakfast and then at 11am we checked out and I drove us home as Alan wasn't feeling good and didn't even eat breakfast.  It took about an hour and 40 mins to get home and at one point an angry Network Rail van driver beeped and gestured at me as I stopped at a roundabout before driving on!  When we got back we unpacked and Alan went almost straight away up to bed for the rest of the day.  I tidied and unpacked and then dealt with a few work bits whilst watching The Social Dilemma which was really though provoking and made me turn off a lot of my notificatios.   I then went for a run - I had time and daylight so I decided to do 10k which I managed in 53 mins and 9 seconds which is probably the fastest all year and I then decided to run for a full hour and managed nearly 7 miles.  I managed to listen to a further 1 hour of the Wind Up Bird Chronicles and only have 2 hours to go!  I'm behind by about 7 miles from my 1000 mile target so I'm hoping I can catch up over the next few days/weeks.  I came back and had a bath and read some more of Fabulous and only have 1 story left to go.  I bottled some more Kombucha and watched the 8pm speech from the Prime Minister which is a bit odd as now he's saying if you can work from home to work from home, so I'm not sure what the means for me, although our company line is that we work better in offices so to try and continue to be in the office, so I'm going in tomorrow, much to Alan's frustration.  I made a jacket potato and salad for dinner and ate it watching Great British Bake Off and made some lunch for tomorrow and found bugs living in the tiger bread and so had to throw that out.  I'd managed to get Alan to eat some strawberries, raspberries and cream, but he's still feeling poorly.

Isolation Journal 115

I woke up before my alarn and so did a bit of reading of Fabulous and then got up and made breakfast of apple, granola and yoghurt and had a couple of coffees. 

We had a public sector call and then I had another call with the tenders team and then I had lots of calls with candidates and a couple of video interviews.  I also watched the recording of our CEO with a business update.

Alan and I then snuck out at lunch for 30 minutes for a walk and to pick some elderberries.  I then had another interview at 2pm and so then I moved onto more candidate calls and catch ups and quickly made pasta and grated cheese.

I finished work literally at 6.50pm with about 10 minutes to find all the stuff I needed to organise for Guides, Gemma had helpfully set up the zoom call with our guiding licence.  We did a meeting on lockdown bingo and then a skills builder on express myself about being deaf friendly.

I then made tea which was more complicated than I'd though a beefburger and chicken bulgogi Hello Fresh receipe.  I also bottled some more Kombucha and made one bottle with mint and one with elderberries and one plain and boiled more sweet tea to add to the batch.

I then did more work and watched more Dave on TV.

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 113

I haven't even left the house today!  I got up with a huge stress headache, made some breakfast and signed on for work and then decided to have some ibuprofen with all my vitamins.  I had apple, granola and yoghurt for breakfast and 2 coffees.

I had a busy morning of doing interviews and a bit more admin and realised it was past 2pm before thinking about lunch so then Alan made some waffles and a couple of fried eggs.  I cracked on with a load more work and am not close to being caught up and also had some internal patch politics to discuss.  I had a meeting with a client about an issue that I had to sort out which wasn't the best end to the day, but then I had an offer for another candidate so it sort of balanced itself out.

I finally finished work around 7pm and cooked dinner - a hello fresh pasta and butternut squash and serrano ham recipe and then I logged onto the chalk the sun reading group and shared a piece of writing that I'd done at the "How to write that novel" workshop, generally they weren't grabbed by the first page I'd written in the exercise, but they did like the blurb.  They shared some other pieces which was really nice to listen to and also mentioned that they'll be meeting again on the first Saturday for an exercise.

I then spent ages talking to Alan about my story and we came up with a few ideas of how to shape everything and a few devices.  I'm trying to work out the characters as it's hard to not write about yourself.

I then ate some cheese and chutney whilst Alan had a bath.

Isolation Journal 112

I got woken up pretty early as my phone buzzed as the delivery from Pets at Home was to be delivered at 7.30am, I managed to get them to update the delivery to just leave it at the door rather than ring the doorbell.

I got up and brought it all in and also the Hello Fresh and accidentally managed to split open the 10kg of food.  I opened the boxes and took out the trays of cat food, cat urine remover, litter tray and also the water fountain.  Breakfast was homemade kombucha and 2 coffees and yoghurt, apple and granola.

I got logged on in plenty of time to help Nic with a query and get ready for the morning meeting at 9am.  It's been a very busy day of relentless admin and organising and things breaking or not sending on the system.  I didn't get a chance to eat lunch until past 2pm and I made pasta, cheese and a corn on the cob and had a packet of skips afterwards.  

I had a very long day and finally signed off around 8pm after Alan had been for a run and cooked dinner as I'd had an extended conversation with a colleague in my team over a lot of things that perhaps haven't been communicated as they could have been.

I had dinner - paprika chicken Hello Fresh and then I did a bit more work and then finally at 9.30pm went out to run up and down the hill outside and didn't see anyone all day other than Alan and Andy from number 1 walking Bentley.  I ran 31 minutes and just over 3.3 miles.

I came back in and had an ice lolly and got hooked into watching Don't tell the Bride.  

Isolation Journal 111

We ended up going to bed late as I'd spent a lot of time ordering stuff for the kittens like a new water fountain, litter tray and food.

I woke up this morning at around 8.30am and then couldn't properly get back to sleep and so was quite tired, we got up just past 9.30am and had some apple pancakes for breakfast and I went to feed Fudge and Smudge as Alan was cooking.  

We decided to take a trip to Spurn Point - we'd discussed it last week and were too sore/tired/late, but this week felt like a better plan.  It is 72 miles away and so we went in Alan's car so he felt more comfortable and I packed up some apples and snack bars for the journey along with coffee and water and the covid supplies (hand santiser, masks and wipes)  Alan stopped on the way for fuel at a Sainsburys in Hessle and then when we arrived at Spurn Point realised he was missing his wallet.  We searched all over and he paused his cards, but we couldn't find it and I couldn't call the store to check so we decided to explore Spurn Point and call back on the way home and hope we'd find it, but it wasn't the anxiety that we needed for the calmer day we were trying to have.

We paid for parking (£5 for the day) and then walked to the visitors centre to go to the toilet and look for potential binoculours because that was the other thing we forgot which was a real shame as we definitely spotted seals off the coast and it would have been amazing to watch them.  We could have bought some there, but the cheapest on offer were £119 and they aren't renting them as I'm guessing they might usually for obvious reasons.

We wandered along the beach and it was nice to smell the sea air and listen to the waves.  Spurn Point is quite different to anywhere I've been before, as Alan pointed out it looked a bit Mediterrean and it could be the light or the plants that were around, but I definitely saw what he meant.  Alan described how there was a road to the Lighthouse at the end of the penisula which is about 4 miles long and could be driven along, but in recent years the road has been eroded and is quite broken and twisted at points.  You could get a quad bike along it, but much more would be hard!  We saw little sea birds and seals off the shore and some cool wind farms and it was just lovely and peaceful and we must have walked around 6K in total and I wished I'd remembered to put some sun lotion on as it was really sunny.  We saw at one point a place to shelter if you got cut off in high tide and a man asked us to take a picture of him, he'd been running along the road.  I asked a volunteer/employee who was pushing his bike along the shore if we were likely to have seen seals and he said it would be hard not to see them.  

We walked back to the visitor centre and we drinks (diet coke and coke) and I had a lemonade lolly and I bought Alan a vanilla ice cream.  Alan seems happier with the idea of trying to book a little break in the UK for us in November, self catered and only 2 different locations, but that should give us some ideas at least.  

We drove back home via the Sainsburys petrol station and I went in to ask if Alan's wallet had been handed in and fortunately it had, they asked for ID, but I pointed out that was his ID and they gave it to me.  

I then did the rest of the drive home which wasn't too bad and I asked Alan to see if the Fish and Chip shop would be open when we got home and it was!  I jumped into my car and drove to Sherbun and recycled my tetrapaks and then parked outside The Fish Bank and ordered 2 lots of fish and chips and I had mushy peas with mine and Alan had gravy and I ordered an extra battered sausage - today has been a naughty day for food!   We bumped into Chris and Kirsty who had enjoyed their holiday and gave us a bottle of gin to say thanks for feeding Fudge and Smudge.

We ate Fish and Chips and Alan made hot apple brandy and put Deadpool on to watch, but I couldn't get into it at all so we ended up watching some comedy instead.  The milkman (Who was a woman today, so clearly a milk person is a better name!) came this evening because the normal chap is away on holiday.

I then vacuumed, washed the floors, tidied and cleaned the kitchen and set off the dishwasher.

I came up and logged to sort some work emails and to do lists and I hope I'll have a productive day tomorrow.