Packages and Flowers

The sitting with my feet up and knitting continues, though I did go out for a 15 minutes walk both yesterday and today. I knitted the body of the little baby cardigan, then decided it had come out even smaller than it was supposed to be. I measured, and sure enough that confirmed it was narrower than it should be. I don't normally bother knitting swatches because I nearly always hit the right tension, but this time I was caught out. I decided to knit it again on slightly larger needles and hope for the best. I have nearly finished the second attempt and I think it may still be very slightly undersized, but she is a very tiny baby so should be OK. At least baby clothes are very quick to knit! 

The flowers above were a lovely "get well" surprise from H, who dropped in with them yesterday lunchtime. She only stopped for a brief chat as she was also taking flowers over to her BF's mum, whose father died last week (he was both very elderly and very ill, so it was expected), and needed to get home to carry on with her studying.  As a trainee accountant she gets blocks of time scheduled for college and private study, and has to make the most of them as the exams are both frequent and demanding. I love having adult daughters! 

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing some rather eclectic online shopping. Last week two yarn orders arrived. This week so far it has been gin, clothes and packing cubes. I really want to make my clothing purchases more sustainable and ethical, and have been thinking that I should start actively looking for used items before buying new. I wanted a cardigan or jacket to wear when I need something more dressy than my usual casual stuff, and found this silver-grey kimono thing on Vinted for £4. I am pretty pleased with it, though TG says it is "too shiny". I pointed out that I was looking for shiny, but she wasn't impressed! 

I had been thinking of getting packing cubes for a while so that I can keep luggage nice and organised when we go away. These are compression cubes, with a double zip that makes it possible to squish clothes down into a smaller, neater space. I proudly wrestled a ridiculous amount into the larger one to show M what it could do, only for him complain that it looked far more trouble than it was worth! They are going to be put to the test at the end of the month. We have booked flights to Copenhagen for a short break during half term, and decided - possibly foolishly - that we could manage without paying Ryan Air an extra £60 for the privilege of taking standard carry-on luggage. Three nights with a small bag is possible, right? It will be with my clever little cubes! 

Feet Up, Knitting

The last few days have looked a lot like this ...

The medication sorted out my chest infection but it has left me with absolutely no energy. At least it has moved on from feeling as though I have been hit by a bus to just feeling as though I am made out of soggy spaghetti. I'm still not up to going back to work, so this is likely to be another week with a lot of time spent on the sofa knitting, reading and watching TV. I did at least manage to finish a pair of socks - I'm trying to get ahead on gift knitting for Christmas. Normally I try to match the stripe colours to make an identical pair when I knit socks with self-striping yarn, but my brain is mush and I didn't even realise I had forgotten until I was halfway through the foot of the second sock. Ah well. They are funky stripes. I have now moved on to baby knitting - a cute little yellow cardigan for our former neighbours' new granddaughter, born last Tuesday. Tiny Summer weighed in at just 5lbs 7oz, so I'm knitting the smallest size. Our formerly-petite TG weighed an ounce less and I remember that as a baby TG would grow into each size at around the age she was supposed to grow out of it, so 0-3 month baby clothes only began to fit her when she hit 3 months. Based on that I'm working on the smallest size of this Alouette pattern and assuming it will fit through the winter. In fact, the same rule held true for TG until she hit her teens and a late and spectacular growth spurt, confounding our assumptions that she had inherited petite genes - having always been one of the smallest in her class at school, she is now 5 foot 6 and apparently still growing! 

I hadn't left the house for a week, apart from a 10 minute walk on Friday, but on Saturday I had to go into town as TG had an appointment for an eye test and M was working. Fortunately most of the trip involved sitting down! TG is getting more short sighted, but teenage vanity has kicked in and she is reluctant to wear her glasses so is going to try contact lenses. She now has a new optical prescription, new glasses on order, and an appointment booked for a contact lens teaching session in early November. I also ordered new glasses. I had my eye test done back in August, but hadn't got round to choosing frames - my current ones are breaking, so I really needed to do it sooner rather than later. 

After we had finished at Specsavers we went to the Italian cafe where H used to work for lunch. TG had a craving for spaghetti carbonara, which we can't make properly at home as we don't have bacon or other pig products in the house. Lunch out seemed a good plan as this cafe does the best carbonara, and it meant I didn't have to worry about cooking a proper meal later. I opted for smashed avocado on sourdough with poached egg and pancetta. We picked up pizzas from Waitrose for the evening, so once we got home I could flop back on the sofa and not need to move much for the rest of the day. I did pay for it a bit with feeling overtired yesterday, but it was good to get out for while. Also it allowed me to assess whether I would be fit enough for a full day at work today - answer, no! In the evening I was supposed to be going over to a friend's house for a girls' night, but that would have been way beyond my energy levels so I joined them on Zoom, along with another friend who is still trying to get mobile after a bad ankle break. Blended in-person / Zoom worked pretty well. Yesterday, I flopped! 

Some Enforced Rest

Last week was just as busy as the week before, if not more so. TG got her braces fitted by the orthodontist on Monday morning, then had to go back in the afternoon because a couple of the fixings detached themselves. It settled down until today when a couple became loose again - we think because the teeth are set a bit behind the others - so she has to go back again on Monday. She is readjusting to the limitations.  Not being able to eat whole apples is a particular annoyance, as she usually eats at least one every day (there was a time when we had to restrict her to no more than two as she would probably have eaten them by the bowlful!). On Tuesday R came over for dinner, Wednesday was band practice, I took Thursday off from orchestra because I needed a free evening, then on Friday friends came over for dinner and H and M2 came for a roast dinner on Sunday evening.  

Saturday was the highlight of the week for myself and TG. Back in June I booked tickets for us to see Hairspray on stage in London. It was fantastic - warm, funny, energetic, superbly staged and performed. We had tickets for the matinee, and I had also booked lunch at the theatre as they were offering a fun, themed menu for a very reasonable price. I had a waffle with fried chicken, and TG had one with pulled pork; desert was chocolate brownie ice cream sundae for her and key lime pie for me. The menu also included a cocktail each (alcoholic for me, mocktail for her) and tubs of popcorn to take into the theatre. The whole package really added to our enjoyment of the afternoon, and also meant we got into the theatre early and didn't have to queue. 

This was our third visit to a theatre over the last couple of months (and our last for a while - we don't have anything else booked) and it was very noticeable that hardly anyone was wearing a mask in the auditorium. On our first trip a majority of people were, and the previous time it was probably about 50:50. A good number of people put them on to move around the theatre, but then took them off again when they sat down. It did feel as though the air flow was pretty good, and presumably the vast majority of people were vaccinated, so hopefully the covid risk wasn't too high. It does seem as though we are at the stage where we are learning to live with it. Encouragingly, case rates overall are seeming pretty static, despite a big bulge in cases in school kids following the beginning of term and despite people mixing more and masking less. 

Another encouraging thing is that booster vaccine doses are happening for people over 50, clinically vulnerable or in front line roles who had their second dose more than 6 months ago. M had his on Friday morning - I will have to wait until November for mine. Also the government have finally decided to authorise vaccines for 12 to 15 year olds, starting this week. They are being given through schools, and TG got hers today. She's feeling a little fragile this evening, but at least it is done. The school had such a good take up rate that they couldn't get through everyone in one day and are having to arrange to get the vaccination team back another day to finish the job. For now they are just giving younger teens one jab, to minimise the risk of pericarditis, I think. My best guess is they will boost it with a second jab later on in the winter. 

The enforced rest bit? TG picked up the nasty non-covid cold that is going round at school, brought it home and shared it with us. M felt pretty bad on Friday night and Saturday - cold plus post-vaccine effects wasn't a good combination - and had to phone in sick from his Saturday 111 shift. I had it mildly until Sunday when it started to get much worse, and by Monday morning it was well on its way to a chest infection (unfortunately a fairly common pattern for me if a cold gets out of hand). I realised what was happening, and M kindly went down to the doctor's surgery first thing to see if he could sort out a telephone appointment for me. By 8.20 the asthma nurse had phoned me, offered a face-to-face appointment if I wanted it (in the end we decided it wasn't necessary) and prescribed steroids and antibiotics, which M had picked up from the pharmacy by 10. I had to take Monday and Tuesday off work, and spent 48 hours either in bed or on the sofa, resting and hydrating according to the nurse's instructions. The medication has now kicked in and I have felt a lot better today, but think I will be mostly resting for the rest of the week. At least it happened this week and not last! 

A Little Love for Afghanistan

As we walked along the beach into the town one morning while we were in Wales, we walked past a group making a giant heart in the sand with Afghanistan written inside. Sometimes there seems so very little one can do except watch a horrible situation from afar, and seeing people writing a little love into the sand ... well, love is never wasted. If nothing else, it acted as a brief reminder to people walking past. 

While we were away M's synagogue sent out an appeal for clothing, toys and so on for some Afghani refugee families that had arrived locally. We wanted to help, but by the time we arrived home they had already received more items than they needed . A week or so ago they asked for donations of consumable items, particularly nappies, baby wipes and toiletries. M bought a batch and mentioned it to a neighbour who was also keen to help. He then put a note onto the WhatsApp group we share with about half a dozen of our nearest neighbours. Thanks to their generosity this was the pile that M delivered to the synagogue yesterday. We really do have lovely neighbours! 

Last week was busy. Life really does seem to have stepped up into high gear again, with TG back at school, work, music and time spent catching up with friends. On Friday evening a dear friend and her fiancé came over for dinner, the first time we had seen them since before the pandemic - there was lots of talk and lots of laughter. Today I spent part of the morning helping move band music to a different storage area, then this afternoon played my violin at an orchestra rehearsal. I gave another old friend a lift, which gave us a chance to catch up with each other properly. Next week is looking busy again, kicking off with a trip to the orthodontist for TG in the morning to get braces. She had braces for several months a few years ago, to straighten a very crooked front tooth, but she has had to wait until now to have full braces put in as her baby teeth were very slow to fall out. While obviously not looking forward to the discomfort, she is glad to finally be able to get it done. 

Back from an August break (or two)

Whoa! What happened there! That is my longest break in blogging since I started writing regularly back in March 2020. Mainly it is due to holidays. We had two trips away. First the three of us went to South Wales  for a week, then I went with H and TG to Paris and Disneyland for four days. Back in July I was pretty much convinced that we would not be going - any one returning to the UK from France had to quarantine for 10 days, plus the rules about covid tests and so on just sounded complicated - but in the end we decided to go for it and were very glad we did. I'll write separate posts about both trips with photos next week. For now I just want to get caught up and back into writing. 

We got home from Paris late on Sunday night after a slight delay to the flight due to all the extra paper work that had to be checked before we could board. To travel back into the UK we needed negative covid test certificates, booking reference numbers for another test to be taken within two days of getting home, and a passenger locator form, all of which were inspected by the Air France staff. That did at least mean that we breezed through border control at Heathrow when we arrived in London. After the late night H and I both had early starts the next morning as we were working. TG was able to enjoy a couple of days of relaxing days as she didn't go back to school until Wednesday. 

So now life is very much back to normal. It really does seem to be pretty much back to pre-pandemic life for us, apart from a bit of mask wearing and regular lateral flow (antigen) tests for M and TG who have to take them for work and school. Brass band and my regular Thursday evening orchestra have started up again, and today TG and I went to the cinema to see Shang Chi and the Ten Rings. The two of us have been binging on Marvel movies over the last month, and only have the most recent Spiderman movie left to watch. Then we plan to work our way through the various Marvel series now available on Disney Plus, including a re-watch of Wandavision now we have more context. 

I'm trying to think what else I should record ... we were all horrified by what has been happening in Afghanistan. M's synagogue have been collecting various things for Afghan refugees and are asking particularly for nappies and baby wipes, so there are now batches of both in the boot of the car waiting for M to drop them off. Our government continues its usual level of incompetence, burying its head in the sand over a major shortage of lorry drivers caused largely by Brexit which is causing problems in many areas - for example, our garden waste is not being collected because the council don't have enough drivers.   Coronavirus rates are still higher than we would all like to see, but despite everything now being open and all restrictions lifted, they are pretty stable. High vaccination levels have massively reduced the number of people being hospitalised, but again, both hospitalisations and deaths are still at significant levels and not really coming down. Many people are pessimistic about the winter, but I'm feeling moderately optimistic that immunity levels are now high enough to stop case rates getting out of control. I hope I'm right. 

Day Trip 3: Sky Garden

Our third day trip last week was on Thursday, when we went back to London. We started with lunch at Borough Market. One of the joys of this food market is that there are many places to get takeaway hot food and everyone can pick something different to eat. M opted for a large salt beef bagel, TG wanted a filled bao bun and sweet potato fries, and I had a vegetarian filled dosa with a chickpea side dish from an Indian street Ford stall. There is a stepped outdoor seating area where you can look down on the stalls and watch the world go by while you eat. 

After lunch we walked across London Bridge as I had booked tickets for the Sky Garden. This is a free-to-enter public park at the top of the building in the picture above - if you look closely you can see the viewing balcony at the front. (Aside: The building just to the left of this photo is where M and I first met over 40 years ago, when we worked in the same office.)  Although tickets to enter the Sky Garden are free they have to be pre-booked as it can only accommodate a limited number of visitors, even during non-pandemic times. I think it only recently reopened, and I was surprised I managed to get tickets as they go pretty quickly. 

The "garden" is on two levels, with a restaurant above (the box in the top left corner) and a couple of bar / cafe areas. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and the balcony was closed as a result - too much wind, I think. The views from inside are still pretty impressive though. After we had walked around we stopped for coffee and pain au chocolats before heading back down.  

After the Sky Garden we split up. M had arranged to meet a couple of friends in the City, and TG wanted to go shopping in Oxford Street. By this time the weather was getting wet and nasty, so we had to dash between shops. We spent a bit of time in the giant Primark store (magnet for teen girls!) where she bought a Disney sweatshirt in the sale. We then spent a lot of time window shopping in Urban Outfitters, which according to TG is Gen Z style perfection, and finished off with a putter round the Disney Store. We are hoping that we will be able to make it to Disneyland Paris at the beginning of September, a trip postponed from last February, so in a fit of optimism I bought three little clip on Disney characters (£2 each in the sale!) for our bags. Whether we will actually make it, who knows! By that time we had had enough of the weather, so we abandoned a plan to go in search of soufflé pancakes for dinner and grabbed a couple of pasties at the station to eat when we got home. 

Friday was a day of socialising with band friends. I have swapped jobs with a friend so that he is now treasurer and I am band librarian again. This also involved swapping several large boxes of stuff, an exchange in which I came off worse! Fortunately there was space on shelving in the garage so they aren't adding too much clutter. We stayed for lunch with him and his wife after sorting out the various things we needed to hand over, then in the evening another couple of friends came over to us and we had an Indian takeaway with them. On Saturday, TG and I went to the cinema for the first time since before the pandemic to see Black Widow. On Sunday I stayed home and had a restful day before going back to work. today. 

An Olympic Week

This was another busy week, with freelance work on top of my two archive days. I took some time out on Thursday and M and I went to Aylesbury to have lunch with an old friend and former colleague who we hadn't seen since before the pandemic. We have been having quite a bit of rain, but Thursday was dry and bright so we headed over early and went for a walk first. 

I used to live close to Aylesbury (admittedly a few decades ago!) and thought I knew the town pretty well, but had never discovered the canal. This is a branch of "our" canal which I think was restored and put back into use some time ago. We walked past this narrow lock - just one boat width, whereas on the main canal they are wide enough for two. 

We had intended to do a circular walk, but the footpath shown on the map had been blocked off where a new housing estate is being built. We decided the easiest option was just to turn round and walk back along the towpath the way we had come. I imagine that the houses will eventually have access to the canal and a path will re-open. 

We had lunch at Nandos in the town centre. It is in a newish complex by the cinema, with restaurants fronting onto a green space with a set of sporting statues - very appropriate as we are in the middle of the belated Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Talking of which, I have been watching as much as I can manage. Normally I rarely watch sport on TV, but I enjoy the huge variety of the Olympics, and the sheer range of skills on display. My highlight so far has been the two young British women who won gold medals for BMX cycling. Bethany Shriever won the racing medal after having to fight tooth and nail to get finance to allow her to compete - part of her training was crowd funded - and put so much into her final race that she literally couldn't stand when she got off her bike. Today's BMX freestyle winner, Charlotte Worthington, fell off on her first run then went on to perform an extraordinary series of tricks, all with a beaming smile on her face. Her tribute to the American world champion she beat was matched by the other young woman's graciousness in defeat - wonderful examples of Olympic spirt, and fantastic ambassadors for a sport that had never previously been on my radar. 

On Wednesday I went to another orchestra rehearsal for the festival performance at the end of August, but this time took my viola instead of my violin. Lots of violinists had signed up to play but very few violas, so the organiser asked if any violinists would be able to switch. I thought it would be fun to change things up a bit and play viola now I have one, so I volunteered. I enjoyed playing it and didn't have any problems keeping up, but the sound is a bit scratchy at times - not surprisingly given how little I paid for it. After Wednesday I had the bright idea of trying to play it with my decent violin bow instead of the cheap bow that came with the viola, and it makes a huge difference to both the sound and the feel of the instrument. I'm looking forward to playing it again next week. 

Lots of Normal

The last week has been the most "normal" for me since March 2020 in terms of outside activities. Last Sunday the brass band I play in performed to a live audience for the first time since Christmas 2019, playing outdoors in the local park. We had a full day of "band camp" the day before, so by the end of the weekend the physical effort was definitely taking its toll - aching stomach muscles, aching back, tired arms and so on. The trombone isn't a lightweight instrument. 

On Monday and Tuesday I was working in the office, and I will now be going in every week. Our public service is still very restricted, so not back to normal in that way, but back to a regular routine. Then on Wednesday there was another band practice (still feeling a bit ouchy!), and on Thursday an orchestra rehearsal - there have been three "live" sessions during July to allow us to get back to playing, but no more for that orchestra now until September. Yesterday I went to another orchestra session during the afternoon - this time for an orchestra which pre-Covid rehearsed on Friday lunchtimes. It is affiliated with a local university and can't meet on the premises, so some of the members have now organised a monthly weekend session in a local community hall as an alternative. M has also been working as normal and TG is still hanging in at school. A couple of local schools have had closed weeks due to Covid cases, and most have had to send students home to self-isolate due to cases, but TG has dodged that particular bullet so far. We are hoping that with only three days left to go she will make it to the end of term. The only "normal" thing that didn't happen last week was her dance classes - a student had tested positive and they decided to close the studios until the end of term, so it was back to Zoom classes. 

We are now into a heatwave, with temperatures up to 31 degrees today. Yesterday morning we walked over to our friends' house - a two mile walk, as they live on the other side of town - for tea / coffee and cake, and took the photo above as we walked through the town centre on the way back. Saturday is market day, with the market looking very tidy since it got these nice new matching stalls not all that long before the pandemic. It is extraordinary to think that a market has been held in this town for the last 1000 years, and has survived plagues far worse than this one. 

 

M bought these roses home from work last night. A local store took a load of food and flowers which had hit its sell-by date round to his office for people to help themselves. It is quite common for organisations to donate items for the benefit of NHS staff - it doesn't make up for their low pay, but it certainly makes them feel appreciated. I often read comments on social media by Americans who are scathing of what they call "socialised" medicine, and realise that they really have no concept of how the British feel about the NHS. We don't see it as a government organisation, we see it as our health service - we own it, we pay for it, and we have an emotional connection to it. Throughout the pandemic signs thanking NHS workers have been everywhere, ranging from kids' drawings to banners put up by large companies, and practical signs of appreciation like yesterday's food and flowers have been a thing since long before the pandemic. 

Messing About on the River

 ... or, more accurately, the canal.

Last year we booked to hire a small narrow boat for the day with a group of friends but, inevitably, the pandemic intervened. Twice. Yesterday we finally got our day cruise at the third attempt. Most of us met originally through brass banding and it has become a friendship group that we all value highly - although we have a wide mix of ages and personalities, we share a similar sense of humour and enjoy each other's company. It is also one of those rare and valuable truly supportive groups where if anyone needs help, someone will step up and give it. 

After a rainy day on Friday the weather cleared and it was a lovely sunny day. It was a very, very slow boat - narrow boats are a very leisurely form of transport, and this one had a maximum speed considerably slower than walking pace - so we didn't get very far. We chugged up the canal for a couple of hours, stopped for a picnic lunch, then turned round and chugged back. After we handed the boat back we went to the pub next door for an early dinner. Some of us hadn't seen each other since before the winter lockdown, so it was lovely to have the opportunity to catch up.

Today we had planned to do another leg of the Thames Path through London, but after a busy week we decided we didn't have the energy and would rather have a lazy day. We did manage a walk into town and went into Waitrose to pick up a few things. When we got to the checkout we discovered they were having the day from hell as their tills were not talking to Visa, contactless payments wouldn't work at all, and card payments were being very erratic. I normally pay using Apple Pay on my phone or watch, but for once I had actually put a card in my pocket, but the machine refused to accept it. A helpful but frazzled member of staff tried various things, but in the end we had to go and find an ATM and withdraw some cash. After we got home I spent a couple of hours relaxing in the hammock in the garden. After the miserable May weather I am so enjoying being able to spend time outdoors.

Out to Lunch and an Unexpected Purchase

I went shopping. Twice. Once planned and once unplanned. On Friday I went to collect my violin from its service. With its rehaired bow, new strings, bridge and tail piece, it looked as good as new. It sounds good too - at least, it does when allowances are made for the limitations of the player! 

As a teenager and young adult I used to play the viola, but eventually decided I preferred the violin and sold my viola in order to buy a better violin. Over the last few years I had started to miss playing the viola. For a while pre-pandemic I played in a small string group which desperately needed a viola player, so I played on a borrowed viola to fill the gap and realised I would really like one of my own again. However, I didn't have a budget for one, and it had stayed as an unrealised aspiration. When I collected my violin, I decided to ask about violas, thinking a reasonably playable one might be manageable in the not too far distant future. I asked. It turned out that he had one for sale that was both playable and so affordable I bought it on the spot! It is a Romanian factory made viola with slight cracking to the varnish, but it makes a surprisingly reasonable sound and came with a bow, a case and even a set of spare strings. The only thing I need to get for it is a shoulder rest - trying to play without one is painful, and my violin shoulder rest is only barely better than nothing! I think I will have a lot of fun with it, although it will take a while to build up stamina due to the size and weight of it. 

Saturday's shopping trip was pre-planned. It is TG's birthday on 8th June and she didn't have anything specific she wanted as a gift apart from some oddments, so we decided I would take her to an outlet mall in the town where M works so she could choose something. As it is a holiday weekend I thought it would be a good idea to get there reasonable early. I was right! We walked straight in at 10.30. By the time we left three hours later the entire ground floor of one of the car parks was full of people queueing! It probably wasn't quite as bad as it looked as the queue was spread out to allow for social distancing, but we were very glad indeed we weren't in it! 

After looking around various shops TG chose a small bag and a pair of earrings. We enjoyed Japanese style rice bowls from Itsu for lunch - Japanese food is her favourite - and iced coffees before we headed home. 

It seems as though life has suddenly taken off, with lots of things on the calendar. Pre-pandemic it would probably have been a fairly normal level of activity, but after doing so little for so long it is both enjoyable and exciting, but also strange and tiring. Yesterday we went out for lunch, to use a gift voucher R had given M for his birthday. The voucher was for the Marco Pierre White chain of restaurants, and the nearest is part of a hotel which is inside the football stadium at Milton Keynes. We are so used to everything be shut or cancelled that we were quite surprised to find that there was an event on in the stadium. As we left the restaurant we peered through some glass doors and it seemed to be some sort of strong man competition. The audience was obviously just.a limited number and they were seated in socially distanced groups, but they were loud and enthusiastic. I just googled and it seems it was the semi-finals of the UK's Strongest Man contest - the final was taking place in the same place today. 

The three of us all enjoyed our lunch. It was the first time we had been to a MPW restaurant and we would definitely go back. They do a Sunday lunch menu with two or three course meals including a roast - TG and I had roast chicken (I very rarely eat it when I am out as I don't want to eat intensively farmed chicken, but this was advertised as free range) and M had beef. M and I had smoked salmon as a starter and TG had calamari, then we all had different desserts - mine was sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce. One consequence of the pandemic is that I have gone back to eating pretty much anything after leaning quite heavily towards a vegan diet. Being more of an omnivore made it so much easier for the four of us to eat together, and cooking and eating was something we all enjoyed as a family. I would like to switch back to eating mostly plant-based again, as I think it makes me feel fitter and more energetic as well as being more environmentally friendly. but eating differently to M an TG is an added complication to life that I'm not ready to tackle at the moment.  

This morning M got up early to go swimming - I opted out of an 8am start on a Bank Holiday - they later in the morning we went for a 3 mile walk. The boatyard where they rent out canal boats was almost empty, with just one solitary boat left moored. I'm not surprised they are getting lots of bookings, as a hiring a narrow boat must be about as Covid-safe a holiday as it is possible to get. Our friend B, who is a music teacher, came over for lunch, then she and I played duets for a while - violin / violin and violin / viola. It was good to give the viola a test drive, and I managed to play for quite a while without my arms giving up on me despite the size and weight of the instrument. Neither of us has played much (if at all!) since the pandemic started, so we were decidedly rusty, but it was good to get started again. 

Cold, Wet and Windy - Again!

The weekend was quite quiet and relaxing, for me at least - M was working his late shifts so had to leave home mid-afternoon. On Saturday morning we went over to drop some post off for H and went for a walk with her around the area, which currently has pockets of finished housing, partially built sections, and areas where building has barely started. Several building firms are working there, making it quite interesting to compare the different housing styles and sections of the estate. It will be a virtually a small town when finished, with two primary schools, a secondary school, a medical centre, playing fields, a community centre and local shops. It will be interesting to see it all come together - for now the facilities are pretty much limited to a couple of children's play areas. After our walk we went back to H's house for coffee, then left her to get on with studying as she has her next accountancy exams in a couple of weeks. 

Yesterday morning we did our regular three mile walk around the canal and the woods. It is all looking very green and springlike, but even now the trees are not fully in leaf. It is hard to believe that it is almost summer as it feels more like March or April. If it isn't cold, it's wet, and if it isn't wet, it's cold. We had quite a bit more rain over the weekend, though fortunately it didn't get too heavy while we walked. This week the weather is supposed to be getting warmer and drier. I certainly hope it does! I can't help wondering whether this spring only seems cold because we have become accustomed to the effects of global warming, but I'm pretty sure still wearing winter coats at the end of May is not normal. 

While M was at work, TG did some homework and I was mostly lazy, reading and watching some TV. I am working my way slowly through the Marvel movies, with TG half watching along with me. She says she wants to like them, but finds them long and difficult to follow - she loses concentration and then can't work out what is happening. I finished a warm, wool sweater I have been working on for the last few weeks. I'm pretty pleased with the way it has come out. I intended it to be for next winter, but it would actually be good for the weather we have been having so it may get worn earlier. 

Today M only had a small amount of freelance work to do, while I was busy all day with archive work. TG's dance exam ended up being rearranged for this afternoon instead of yesterday, after they managed to find a new examiner. M collected her from school at lunchtime, and chauffeured her to the dance school while I was working. She says she things the exam went well. 

Fallen Trees, Medieval Earthworks and a Kitchen Refit

After Sunday's walk along the Thames Path, we were out walking again on Monday. We had arranged to meet three friends for a circular walk along part of the Greensand Ridge walk to Woburn and then back across fields. They actually walked further than us and we arranged to meet them part way - we might have done the longer distance if we weren't already tired from the previous day. The first section was through woodland, where we saw a few bluebells - it hasn't been a great year for them this year.  

We passed trees which had blown down across the path in a couple of places - one we went round, and this one we went under (it was bigger and taller than it looks in the photo). When we got to Woburn we stopped for coffee and a light lunch - most of us had sausage rolls or pasties. It was take away but there were picnic benches outside the cafe to eat at. 

The weather was all over the place. Sometimes sun, a bit of rain and even something cold and stingy (sleet or hail?) at one point. The final stretch was across open fields where the wind was strong enough not to be able to hear each other speak at times. The last field has earthworks which were once the site of a medieval manor house - the location is shown on a 17th century map, but the house disappeared some time after that. The dip in the bottom picture was once the moat. Around the earthworks the field still shows the old medieval ridge and furrow field strip pattern very clearly. 

Work took up the rest of Monday, all of Tuesday and part of Wednesday. We didn't do much more walking as the weather turned wet and unappealing, so we stuck to just short local walks. Yesterday we went to see a local kitchen installation company to organise a quote to get our kitchen refitted. We last had it done when TG was tiny, and it has definitely seen better days. We wondered about just replacing cupboard doors and the work surface to brighten it up, but in the end we decided it would be better to replace all the fitted cupboards, do some retiling and put down new flooring. Most of the appliances are still functional - we need a new hob and will probably replace the dishwasher - and we will keep the layout the same. It is only a small kitchen and there isn't much we could change anyway, unless we wanted to do a major remodel with building work and knock the kitchen and dining room into one large room. As we are wanting to move in three or four years, we don't want to commit to that level of cost and effort. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can get everything we want done within budget. 

After starting the kitchen ball rolling we went swimming, when later in the afternoon I went to the supermarket and topped up food for the weekend and the beginning of next week. While we are experimenting with Hello Fresh we don't need as much, so I decided not to bother with an online grocery order. Today M has been at work, TG ignored the grotty weather and went into town with her friends, so I had a few hours home alone - something that very rarely happens! I have spent the day being lazy, reading, wasting time online, and watching the first Avengers movie with TG.

It has been a busy working week as I was back in the office again on Tuesday and Wednesday and we had a freelance job which took up most of Thursday and Friday. I am enjoying being back working-at-work alternate weeks instead of working from home, but this week I found the screen on the computer I was using awful to read - I have been spoiled using my retina display laptop at home - and spent most of Wednesday with a nasty headache as a result. Next time I am in I am going to try using the middle distance glasses that I have for music and see if that helps. My varifocals definitely weren't cutting it. I had expected having to wear a mask for much of the day would be hard, but so far I'm not finding it too bad. Fortunately we only have to wear them when we have members of the public in, not around the other people in our work "bubble". Our little team of four have all had at least one vaccine dose, and two of us are due our second within the next couple of weeks (the UK decided to leave a 12 week gap between doses, to ensure that people in the high risk groups were able to get at least some immunity as quickly as possible) so the risk should be minimal.

I am really enjoying trying out Hello Fresh meal kits. After using R's voucher to get a free box last week, I decided to experiment with using it for our weekday meals during May. So far, definitely so good! Each meal comes with everything you need in a paper bag, except for meat and dairy products which are packaged separately with cool packs. Each meal comes with a recipe sheet with detailed and easy to follow instructions, and all the ingredients are pre-measured for three portions.  For some reason the neatness of this gives me a ridiculous amount of satisfaction! I am a reasonably competent cook, but have been feeding a family for nearly 30 years and it is lovely to have something that adds a bit of novelty both to the meals I am making and to how I cook them. The picture above is yesterday's Thai-style beef with peppers, green beans and fluffy rice. Very tasty and enjoyed by all of us - even M who is less enthusiastic about spicy food than TG and myself. I'm trying to push the boundaries a bit to find new and interesting things that we are all happy to eat and so far, apart from one meal which was a bit too far out of M's comfort zone and a bit too rich for TG, everything has been a success. I'm keeping a careful watch on our spending to see how much, if at all, it affects our food budget for the month. So far I think for us it may be either neutral or only slightly more expensive, which is a pleasant surprise. 

Today M was working an early shift at 111, so TG and I had arranged to meet up with H to go shopping for plants at a garden centre in MK. We did consider postponing it as the weather forecast was grim - it has stayed cold all week, though mostly dry until today when it was miserably wet; fortunately it is supposed to get warmer and drier tomorrow. In the end we decided to ignore the weather and go anyway. The incentive to get TG out of the house early on a Saturday (she is on a teenage late rising schedule when she doesn't have school!) was a takeaway breakfast from Tim Horton's, which is quite near H's new house. They have a long-running offer of a breakfast sandwich or wrap, a hash brown and a hot drink for £1.99, which is ridiculously cheap. So cheap that last time TG and H went there was a 45 minute queue for the drive through. Today we decided it would be quicker to queue in person rather than do the drive through, but it still took a while. We got breakfasts to take for H and M2 as well as for ourselves, then after we had eaten we went to Dobbies garden centre. I bought the plant in the picture above to put outside our front door and some bedding plants to go into pots in the back garden; H bought a couple of plants in pots to put outside her front door (they fortunately survived falling over in the boot of her car on the way home!) and TG bought an orchid for her bedroom. Now I just have to find time over the next few days to transplant the little plants and hope that my black thumbs don't kill them! 

Weekend Notes

A quick post of short notes as I left it rather late tonight. 

Yesterday TG went over to see H for a while. M drove her over so he could see how H's house is coming on. TG was up unusually early for a Saturday as H had promised her breakfast from Tim Horton's. Food bribery goes a long way! H dropped her home later, and generously donated more bags of rubbish to us as she is still baffled by the lack for a wheelie bin and is still waiting for the council to deliver the right bags. I sent her home with some black bags to use, though she doesn't seem very confident they will get collected. House proudness has now spread to the garden and she has invested in a garden hose sprinkler attachment (cost her all of £5 from Tesco!) so that they can nurture their lawn.  

Meanwhile M and I went for a walk through the woods, where the bluebells are coming into flower, and down the canal. A swan was sitting on the same nest where the six cygnets hatched last year. Her (or his?) mate was preening on the bank opposite, oblivious to people walking along the tow path. 

M was working a late shift this weekend so left home mid-afternoon. TG had extra dance exam prep classes yesterday afternoon and this morning. After she got home yesterday we watched the final two episodes of Wandavision. I cooked curries for dinner - chicken for TG and vegetable for myself (with aubergine, chickpeas and spinach). 

This morning I cooked a rhubarb cake as there had been some rhubarb in last week's veg box and it needed using. The rhubarb sank a bit and the crumble topping was too crumbly, but it tastes good. At lunchtime we walked into town to meet friends in the park - one of them is moving to London in a couple of weeks so we wanted to catch up before she leaves. We were lazy and instead of making a picnic we bought lunch in town - Subway for M and a bacon roll and coffee for me. Assuming things continue to go to plan in another three weeks we will be allowed to meet up with friends indoors again, and pubs and restaurants will be able to serve customers indoors. Both R and H have been out to eat and for drinks with friends since they reopened for outdoor dining a couple of weeks ago, but M and I decided it is still a bit too cold for us to want to sit outside to eat.

Train Watching

After taking TG to school this morning we went swimming again. We moved our booked slot to an earlier one after our friend messaged to ask if we were going to swim, and if so to invite us back for coffee afterwards. My swimming stamina is building up and I did 36 lengths (900 metres) today. It was a lovely morning, as bright as yesterday but a bit warmer, so it was lovely to sit outside in our friends' garden drinking coffee and eating scones. D is a retired engineer and one of his lockdown projects last year was to build a garden pond and a miniature railway, so while we sat and chatted we watched the train chugging round and their high spirited young cat hunting flies with much dramatic pouncing. Their son and daughter-in-law had a blue plaque made for D commemorating the creation of the lockdown pond, with the slogan "Stay Home. Stay Safe. Dig a Pond" (imitating the three-part slogans the government here has used throughout the pandemic - the current one is "Hands. Face. Space").   

D's wife K is a keen artist and she painted a bridge over part of the pond and the tunnel below. The string is there to deter a heron which is after the goldfish in the pond! After we got home I spent a couple of hours out in the hammock in the garden, listening to an audiobook. Then our regular appliance repair man came over later in the afternoon to fix our dishwasher which had developed a fault earlier in the week and was flashing up an error code. He has been fixing things for of us for nearly 30 years, so he had a cup of tea and a long catch-up chat before tackling the dishwasher, which decided to work perfectly for him! He did a few tweaks and some filter clearing, which he hopes will stop it playing up again. 

This evening M led an online synagogue service for the first time. He had done lots of preparation and said it went very well, and he got very complimentary comments. He had asked me to make some challah (traditional bread) to bless at the end. I tried. Most unfortunately, when I put the ingredients into the bread machine I missed out the water. When I went to take the dough out, it was warm dry crumbs! Extremely pessimistically, I decided to try adding the water and running the 2 hour dough cycle again. Very much to my surprise when I baked the loaf it came out fine. All in all it has been a good day. Better weather and the easing of pandemic restrictions is making life seem so much brighter. 

Back to Work

Yesterday I went back to work for the first time since March last year. At the time I expected to be home for three months. For it to be over a year was beyond anything I could have imagined. It was good to be back, but I found it ridiculously tiring - I think mostly because the prospect (and the reality!) of sorting out the administrative side of going back was stressful, and also because being out and with other people for a long stretch of time was so unfamiliar. It was good to see colleagues again, though there are only four of us on the team I am part of - we have two teams working in the office alternate weeks, to keep the number in the office at any time as low as possible. One thing I had not missed was the 1960s brutalist concrete building. I now have to park across the road as the office car park is being used part of the time as a drive-in Covid testing centre. I took this photo as I walked across and can't believe there are no cars as this is a busy main road. 

I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to collect a new parking pass (mine needed updating as it still had the registration number for our old car) and get my swipe card reactivated very quickly and easily. Things then fell apart when I tried to log on to my usual computer, which gave me an error message I had never seen before. I phoned IT for help, only to find the computer had been decommissioned automatically as it had not been used for so long. It will need "rebuilding" (oh dear!) which is likely to take a couple of days, so I had to hunt for something else to use. At the fifth attempt I finally found one that actually worked properly; the third one I tried seemed to work, but turned out to have no internal memory left so it persistently refused to open things. By lunch time it felt as though all I had achieved was fight losing battles with technology! I will be working again tomorrow, this time supervising researchers. We are only allowing one person in at a time to look at pre-ordered items, so it should be quite straightforward. I'm just hoping the computer in the searchroom behaves itself and I don't have another "computer says no" day! 

We went swimming again this morning. I am definitely getting the hang of swimming freestyle for longer distances, and did a total of 30 lengths without feeling quite as exhausted afterwards as I did last week. We have now taken out membership with the leisure centre which makes swimming sessions much cheaper. This afternoon we had a Zoom meeting about a training session we have been asked to provide for a client in the Caribbean in the summer. This is the first time we have done any international freelance work, and it is a one off that isn't likely set a trend! It was a lovely spring day today, so after the meeting I spent a couple of hours out in the garden. I have also been busy meal planning. Over the last year R has regularly used Hello Fresh, a company which sells meal kits online. She sent me a voucher for a free box of three meals, so I have ordered that for next week. Assuming we like what we are sent, I'm planning to order from them through May to see if it is a good fit for us. I like the idea of trying out new recipes and that you are sent exactly what you need so there is no waste; M is prepared to be a bit more adventurous in what he eats, so long as there is no pork, seafood, cheese or curry, and TG has never been a picky eater and has quite adult tastes. I'm quite excited to give it a try. 

Enjoying the Sun

After a rather lazy day yesterday, I had two things on the calendar for today - very much of a novelty after three months of lockdown. Early in the afternoon I went to my first live band practice this year. When I say band, that is a slight overstatement - the current regulations allow for six people to play together outdoors, so there were three short sessions with 5 or 6 people in each. We are able to use a grass area behind the village hall where the band used to rehearse (after over 80 years in the same place we recently moved to a local school, where there is more space). 

When we finished I drove home to pick up TG, then we went to Milton Keynes to meet up with H for a walk. Poor M couldn't come with us as he was working today. We parked at the northern, quieter end of a lake which is a very popular place for locals, especially on a warm spring day. We walked past the Peace Pagoda, which when it was built was the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It is next to a Buddhist monastery, which we discovered had a small but rather lovely Japanese style garden. 

It was a beautiful afternoon and there were a lot of people out and about, with groups enjoying picnics and BBQs. Some of these were definitely larger than they were supposed to be (socialising outdoors is currently supposed to be limited to 6 people or two households). There were also lots of people out on the lake, which has a water sports area and pedalos. The UK does not require masks outdoors (the risk of outdoor transmission of Covid is considered to be very low) and very few people wear them, so it felt very much like a normal (and busy!) warm spring or summer day. MK has joined the electric scooter boom, with scooters that can be picked up anywhere they happen to be and left anywhere, with rental paid through an app. There were quite a number of people using them and when we saw some waiting for riders we were tempted to have a go, but decided we would be better off testing them when there were less people around - we didn't want to put pedestrians at risk through our incompetence. 

After our walk we stopped off at a drive through Tim Hortons to pick up iced coffees and took them back to H's house. Their new sofa arrived yesterday and they are delighted with it - comfy and big enough to sprawl out on. It is supposed to seat four, but would probably take five or six at a squish. They also got some garden furniture, so we were able to sit outdoors in the sun to drink our coffees. With the big patio doors open, their house is beautifully light and airy. They still have a couple of minor wrinkles to iron out, but are pretty much there now with getting everything organised and how they want it. 

TG and I have been watching Wandavision on Disney Plus, me for the second time and her for the first, and we got through three or four episodes over the weekend. I have been reading a book about prehistoric Britain and have made a good start on knitting a jumper. It is a warm, woolly one, so probably not the best thing to knit as we are coming up to summer, but the wool was waiting to be used. I am trying to knit up yarn I already have rather then buy more. All in all, it has been a good weekend with a nice mix of relaxation and getting out and about and enjoying the new normal.