Friends on Friday

I finished a freelance job yesterday, so today was a free day. In what made a wonderful change from the isolation of the last few weeks M and I met up with friends for a walk this morning. We are allowed to meet with one person from outside our household for outdoor exercise, so as we were two couples we split up into two pairs - I walked with one friend, while M and her husband followed us 50 yards or so behind. We went to the local country park which, inevitably at the moment, was damp, but because it is sandy soil the mud wasn't too bad. The final path we took was more of a stream than a path, but nothing we couldn't handle with boots on.

We walked round one part of the country park, then up to another section where there is a lake, which was looking very full and very brown. This is an artificial lake, constructed when the park belonged to a large country house, so it isn't very deep. I think all the rain had churned up a lot of silt. Past the lake, near the entrance to the park is a takeaway cafe which was open, so we stopped for a coffee and bacon rolls, with a burger for M who doesn't eat pork products. We then sat down at picnic tables several yards apart, but near enough to chat across the gap. Hot coffee and rolls was a true luxury after a cold January walk, and the combination of seeing friends with an unexpected outdoor lunch was a treat after so much isolation. 

This afternoon I did a bit of research and writing, followed by a yoga stretch class. I managed to find a sibling of one of the women I am researching who I had lost somewhere in the early 20th century - thanks to a newspaper mention I discovered she had married again after a divorce. I subscribe to the British Newspaper Archive which is a fantastic resource; it has often both solved mysteries and found unexpected treasures for me. I was hoping to spend quite a bit more time on this project next week, but a new job came in this afternoon which will keep me busy for the next three weeks. I'm still hoping to be able to keep one weekday and the weekend free. Working four days rather than five still feels part time, though it's not quite the leisurely semi-retirement I was expecting when I dropped my archive hours down to two days a week four years ago. At the time we didn't imagine that we would get offered so much freelance work, and the pandemic doesn't seem to have affected it at all. It is unpredictable though - we can have a run of busy weeks followed by a slack spell, which can make it difficult to get our work-life balance right. 

H has been on a team working on a job which had a major deadline today. She was expecting it could be a long day but they finished by mid-afternoon so she was given the rest of the day off and took herself out for a walk. The day ended with a Chinese meal and a glass of red wine - we are back to our lockdown habit of a weekly takeaway. Another week done, and the Covid news is looking better. The case numbers are slowly starting to fall, and our local vaccination centre opened yesterday at the rugby club in town. I'm hoping that if everything goes to plan in a few weeks it will be my turn for my first jab.