Staying Home: Day 95

I have had my most physical day in months and have climbed into bed exhausted and with aching legs. No work today, as I have already done four mornings of archive work this week and don't have any freelance work, so I started the day with a Fiit class using dumbbells. I then helped H to wallpaper one of the bathroom walls - a particularly fiddly wall as we had to get round a radiator / towel rail (I don't have the skill to take it off the wall first), and a shaver point. She had never papered before, and in any case the tricky bits were a two person job.

We got to a stage where she could manage on her own just in time for me to jump in the shower and get changed into clothes not covered in wallpaper paste so that we could leave for another trip to a National Trust property. This time we had a booking for Hughenden Manor, the home of 19th century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, with an arrival time between 1pm and 1.30pm. We drove through quite a bit of rain, but it stopped just as we got there.

We meandered around the grounds - or rather we meandered around the correct socially distanced one-way circuit! - then took a three mile walk up to the Disraeli monument and back to the house through Hughenden Park, a rather lovely public park which joins on to the National Trust estate. There were some quite hilly bits, which my legs complained about (quite a few of the leg complaints also came out of my mouth!).

We wandered round the walled garden, then went back to the car to eat slices of TG's lemon and poppyseed cake which M had thoughtfully packed for us. Since we got home I have barely moved off the chair as my legs are now too stiff. Mostly when I moved it was to find snacks, as even after eating pasta for dinner I kept feeling hungry. According to my Apple Watch I used over 950 active calories today, which is close to a record for me. I'm sure it must have done me good, though it may take a day or two to recover.

H got her provisional mark for her dissertation today - a very satisfactory one which means she has well and truly earned a first class degree, without having to rely on the safety net put in place to ensure students aren't disadvantaged by having to finish their year working remotely due to coronavirus. She now has first class overall marks for both her 2nd and final years (1st year marks don't count towards final grades). A fantastic achievement, and one she has worked hard for and thoroughly deserves. It is a shame her graduation ceremony in July has been cancelled. They are planning to run one when circumstances allow, but it may not be easy for her to get time off work for it.

TG was mildly grumpy that she had a maths lesson set up on Teams for 1pm, which she thought an irritating time, neither one thing nor the other and clashing with lunch. She didn't get up until late, but she didn't have much work left for this week, so it wasn't a problem. Later in the afternoon she went out for a walk with a friend who lives nearby, then had an evening dance class. The letter from her school sent out today suggested that her year group may be invited to go into school at some point before the end of this term - whether as a one off catch up, or on a more regular basis wasn't clear, as the school are waiting for more information from the government before making a decision.