Staying Home Part 2: Day 1

As our new sort-of-lockdown has started today, I'm going to try to do daily blogging again as I did for 100 days during the first lockdown. I enjoyed the routine of writing each day and although I am still blogging far more regularly than I have done for many years, it has got a bit erratic. 

This time the lockdown is a limited one, with M going to work and TG still at school. H is working from home, but will be going into college to take her next batch of exams. The first one is tomorrow, so hoping all her long hours of studying pay off. Non-essential shops, pubs and restaurants, gyms and museums are all closed. The archive is shut again, and it looks as though I will be working from home for the foreseeable future. When I came home in March I was expecting it to be for three months, and here I still am over 7 months later and will certainly not be back this year. 

I took yesterday as my morning off from archives work so that we could make the most of a lovely bright morning and go out for lunch while we still could. We are in a relatively low Covid area and the cafe we went to is very well organised and meets all the Covid-safe guidelines, so I don't think we were taking too much of a risk. Case numbers here are still climbing however (though at a slower rate than they were), so hopefully the semi-lockdown will put that into reverse. We went to Woburn and walked through the Duke of Bedford's deer park. If you look closely at the photograph above, you can see a beautiful stag near the tree. I couldn't get quite close enough to him to get a clear picture with my phone. 

My energy levels are low at the moment - possibly I haven't been sleeping enough this week, as I have been going to sleep too late then being woken by the alarm to take TG to school, possibly because my system is still dealing with the after effects of the flu vaccine. It seems to take very little to knock me back into the post-viral fatigue and brain fog loop I spend the first few months of the year stuck in. It isn't awful, but annoying. Yesterday I wilted and ran out of steam part way through our walk, and had to stop for a short while to get my breath back and my muscles co-operating again. I must remember to take a snack with me when we walk, in case I need an energy boost. I was very glad to reach the cafe and have something to eat and drink. We both had fish and chips, which were excellent. I occasionally meet a friend there, but it was M's first visit. We decided we would definitely be back once it reopens. 

In the evening we had our final live band rehearsal for the time being. I say rehearsal, but we actually spent most of the time recording Christmas music as we have had a couple of Christmas videos commissioned and will be doing a pre-recorded digital "concert" with a choir in December. I managed to get myself into a time squeeze, between trying to sort out some paperwork to do with the band's charity registration and cooking and eating dinner after TG's last dance class in the studio. Both her dance classes and band rehearsals will go back to Zoom for the next month. Due to being in a rush I managed to forget my mask - obviously we can't play in masks, but we have to wear them the rest of the time - so had to cover my face as best I could with a combination of my polo neck sweater and a woolly scarf. It was rather warm, despite being in a school hall on a cold night with the doors open for ventilation! 

Thursdays are an early-morning French day for TG, so we leave for school at 7.35am. It was a foggy morning and as I drove home the sun was glowing through the clouds. It was so atmospheric that I stopped the car just before I got home to take a couple of photographs. The fog soon cleared and it has been another cold but bright day. After a quiet spell we have some question writing work with a tight deadline, so I worked on archives this morning and checked M's questions this afternoon. I took a long lunch break though and we went for a walk in the woods. We knew it would be muddy after all the rain, but even so it was worse than we anticipated. Our walking boots are caked and will need a good clean before we use them again. I think we will avoid the woods for a while until they have dried out a bit from all the rain of the last few weeks. 

I just realised I forgot to mention the US presidential election. I have been following it closely, but it has been stuck in limbo for over 24 hours waiting for results. It looks as though Joe Biden has is going to win it - thankfully! - but also that Trump is going to try to game the results with tendentious lawsuits and it may be a while before there is a firm result. I hope for the sake of America and democracy that there will be a peaceful transfer of power, assuming that Biden is indeed the president-elect. 

[A note about photos ... Since Blogger updated itself recently the pre-set photo sizes have changed and the size I liked best has disappeared. I now seem to have a choice between a bit too small and a bit too big. I'm going to try the larger size - if the photos are overwhelming, please tell me in the comments.]