Staying Home Part 2: Day 3

I woke early this morning when H texted at 5am to say she had passed yesterday's exam (yes, that is the time they send out the email with the result!). To be fair, I was half awake anyway or I would not have noticed the text as my phone was on silent. I did eventually doze off for a bit longer - just as well as I am really not an early morning person at all and it would have left me feeling exhausted all day. If the two exams next week go well she will have nearly finished the first stage of the accountancy exams - she thinks there is one more exam next year at this level. 

M and I went out for a morning walk round the lake and along the canal. It was noticeable that there were more people than usual out walking and cycling, and enjoying the lovely bright morning. It wasn't even too cold today, and there was no frost on the car. I do love this time of year. I have this probably irrational theory that people tend to particularly like the season that they were born in, and I have an autumn birthday. 

I think I have not mentioned before that H and her boyfriend are in the process of buying a house. They want to live in Milton Keynes as that is where they both work, and want a house rather than a flat (apartment) as they want to have some outside space and ultimately to get a dog. There is a government help-to-buy shared equity scheme for new build houses which makes that a more affordable route for them, and they have put down a deposit on a little two bedroom house. It hasn't been built yet, but is planned for completion in February or March next year. They have had their mortgage application approved, and last week they went to choose flooring, kitchen finishes and bathroom tiles, so it is now starting to feel more real - in the current climate banks are being very cautious in lending to first time buyers, so having the mortgage confirmed feels a big step forward.  She also hit lucky last week and won an Instagram giveaway of some nice stoneware crockery and a beautiful hand made ash chopping board, which arrived today and has been added to her heap of household stuff in the garage (mostly things she brought back from uni). Perfect timing! She says she almost never enters giveaways, so was very surprised to win.

We got back from our walk to find that there had been a shopping list fail and we had run out of laundry detergent, which H had only discovered after she put her laundry in the machine. There was a conversation along the lines of:

H: Why did you put an empty detergent bottle back in the cupboard?

M: Maybe I was being stupid ... or maybe I just subconsciously wanted revenge for all the times you used to put empty food packaging back in the fridge. 

H: Harrumph!!!!!

I spent a while this afternoon binge watching The Good Place on Netflix and knitting. After a couple of full days of work which needed lots of thinking, I was in the mood for something light and easy to watch. I then had a craving for pizza and as M (who doesn't like pizza) was working this evening I decided to order some for myself and the two girls. It is very unusual for us to have takeaways two days running, but I am justifying it to myself on the grounds of supporting local businesses during the lockdown! After eating our pizza we all watched Strictly Come Dancing. I have never really got into Strictly, but this year they persuaded me to watch with them and I am quite enjoying it, although I don't think I will ever be an enthusiast. I would rather watch Bake Off (which I have just remembered I missed this week and need to catch up on!). I didn't have an entirely lazy day, as I spent some time doing financial stuff this afternoon, and after Strictly I put together a menu plan for next week and updated my online grocery order. 

And, of course, finally this afternoon the US election was called for Joe Biden. Along with the great majority of people here I breathed a huge sigh of relief that the Orange One will no longer be President. The world now feels a safer place. I am afraid he did enormous damage to America's reputation abroad. Unfortunately we have the same problem with Boris Johnson, who is now going to have to work hard to try to improve relations with the Biden team.