I woke this morning to the sound of pouring rain, the first we have had for quite some time. It should be back to dry and sunny again tomorrow, though not as warm as it was last week. I stayed in bed for a while and listened to a couple of podcasts, including one about the possible economic effects of the pandemic, where three experts with differing views were interviewed by the presenter and then answered questions from a live audience (presumably a virtual one!). One point that struck me was the comment that the history of previous epidemics shows that they tend to accelerate changes that were already taking place, and I can see a lot of truth in that. For example, I can see the pandemic leading to long term, major changes in the way people work.
The family barista kindly brought me a cappuccino. I cannot recommend highly enough making sure you have someone with serious coffee making skills on hand during a lockdown.
I watched TV on my laptop for a while and did a bit more stitching. I'm pleased to say Jemima Puddleduck is now making better progress. Earlier in the week I cleared out a large fabric box which held old craft projects and got rid of some UFOs (unfinished objects) which were clearly never going to get completed. All my current works in progress are now tucked up in the box instead of scattered round the sitting room.
We kept to pavements for our walk today in case the rain had made the woodland paths muddy and stopped for a chat with the Waitrose delivery driver who normally delivers our groceries. As we have H able to shop for us, we are deliberately not ordering deliveries to keep slots free for those who really need them. He told us that the workload is huge, but people are almost without exception extremely grateful for the service. I feel in a strange, neutral position at the moment - neither a helper, nor someone requiring help. For now it looks as though I will not be redeployed to help my colleagues who are now working with the Council's community hub, due to a combination of the persistent fatigue (which I think is now finally easing) and lack of the right tech. Whether this will change over the next week or two remains to be seen.
I did more sewing while watching Toy Story - I must have seen it before, but couldn't remember the plot at all! - and also made a bit more progress on my weather scarf. Unless I am working on a very complicated pattern I can knit and read at the same time, so I read a bit more of my current book (The Rowan, by Anne McCaffrey).
The afternoons and evenings seems to have evolved into a very pleasant eating, drinking and viewing pattern. Afternoon tea with a sweet treat and a drink (giant choc chip shortbread from M & S Food today, which are probably a gazillion calories but are irresistible) before we start watching our movie of the day. M goes upstairs and watches something more to his taste on the computer, then emerges an hour or two later and makes a pre-dinner drink with something on the side. Gin and tonic is my usual preference - I highly recommend Aldi's rhubarb and pink grapefruit gin - with either olives or a savoury snack. H picked up some jalapeño flavoured giant corn yesterday which went very well with toy drink today. Dinner is some time after the movie, usually around seven; today we had salmon in a asian style marinade with sesame seeds, sweet potato fries and spring greens. I don't think we have ever eaten as well at home as we are doing while on lockdown. Partly because we have more time, but also partly because we no longer have to cater for young children with limited tastes and can be a bit more adventurous. After dinner we either drift off and do our own thing, watch something together as a family, or play a game - scattergories again tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment