Out to Lunch and an Unexpected Purchase

I went shopping. Twice. Once planned and once unplanned. On Friday I went to collect my violin from its service. With its rehaired bow, new strings, bridge and tail piece, it looked as good as new. It sounds good too - at least, it does when allowances are made for the limitations of the player! 

As a teenager and young adult I used to play the viola, but eventually decided I preferred the violin and sold my viola in order to buy a better violin. Over the last few years I had started to miss playing the viola. For a while pre-pandemic I played in a small string group which desperately needed a viola player, so I played on a borrowed viola to fill the gap and realised I would really like one of my own again. However, I didn't have a budget for one, and it had stayed as an unrealised aspiration. When I collected my violin, I decided to ask about violas, thinking a reasonably playable one might be manageable in the not too far distant future. I asked. It turned out that he had one for sale that was both playable and so affordable I bought it on the spot! It is a Romanian factory made viola with slight cracking to the varnish, but it makes a surprisingly reasonable sound and came with a bow, a case and even a set of spare strings. The only thing I need to get for it is a shoulder rest - trying to play without one is painful, and my violin shoulder rest is only barely better than nothing! I think I will have a lot of fun with it, although it will take a while to build up stamina due to the size and weight of it. 

Saturday's shopping trip was pre-planned. It is TG's birthday on 8th June and she didn't have anything specific she wanted as a gift apart from some oddments, so we decided I would take her to an outlet mall in the town where M works so she could choose something. As it is a holiday weekend I thought it would be a good idea to get there reasonable early. I was right! We walked straight in at 10.30. By the time we left three hours later the entire ground floor of one of the car parks was full of people queueing! It probably wasn't quite as bad as it looked as the queue was spread out to allow for social distancing, but we were very glad indeed we weren't in it! 

After looking around various shops TG chose a small bag and a pair of earrings. We enjoyed Japanese style rice bowls from Itsu for lunch - Japanese food is her favourite - and iced coffees before we headed home. 

It seems as though life has suddenly taken off, with lots of things on the calendar. Pre-pandemic it would probably have been a fairly normal level of activity, but after doing so little for so long it is both enjoyable and exciting, but also strange and tiring. Yesterday we went out for lunch, to use a gift voucher R had given M for his birthday. The voucher was for the Marco Pierre White chain of restaurants, and the nearest is part of a hotel which is inside the football stadium at Milton Keynes. We are so used to everything be shut or cancelled that we were quite surprised to find that there was an event on in the stadium. As we left the restaurant we peered through some glass doors and it seemed to be some sort of strong man competition. The audience was obviously just.a limited number and they were seated in socially distanced groups, but they were loud and enthusiastic. I just googled and it seems it was the semi-finals of the UK's Strongest Man contest - the final was taking place in the same place today. 

The three of us all enjoyed our lunch. It was the first time we had been to a MPW restaurant and we would definitely go back. They do a Sunday lunch menu with two or three course meals including a roast - TG and I had roast chicken (I very rarely eat it when I am out as I don't want to eat intensively farmed chicken, but this was advertised as free range) and M had beef. M and I had smoked salmon as a starter and TG had calamari, then we all had different desserts - mine was sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce. One consequence of the pandemic is that I have gone back to eating pretty much anything after leaning quite heavily towards a vegan diet. Being more of an omnivore made it so much easier for the four of us to eat together, and cooking and eating was something we all enjoyed as a family. I would like to switch back to eating mostly plant-based again, as I think it makes me feel fitter and more energetic as well as being more environmentally friendly. but eating differently to M an TG is an added complication to life that I'm not ready to tackle at the moment.  

This morning M got up early to go swimming - I opted out of an 8am start on a Bank Holiday - they later in the morning we went for a 3 mile walk. The boatyard where they rent out canal boats was almost empty, with just one solitary boat left moored. I'm not surprised they are getting lots of bookings, as a hiring a narrow boat must be about as Covid-safe a holiday as it is possible to get. Our friend B, who is a music teacher, came over for lunch, then she and I played duets for a while - violin / violin and violin / viola. It was good to give the viola a test drive, and I managed to play for quite a while without my arms giving up on me despite the size and weight of the instrument. Neither of us has played much (if at all!) since the pandemic started, so we were decidedly rusty, but it was good to get started again. 

Fully Vaccinated

The latest stage of lockdown lifting meant that we were able to go back to live band practice on Wednesday, after nearly six months of rehearsals on Zoom. Playing as a group rather than to a backing track is just *so* much better, and it was lovely to catch up with people in person. Driving home at 9.30 it was still not fully dark, and the clouds were spectacular. I took this photo from an upstairs window when I got back and couldn't get a view of the looming tall clouds that first caught my attention, but it gives an idea of the contrast between the clouds and the light in the sky behind them. 

On Wednesday morning I had my second vaccine dose. I felt tired again after it - more so than with the fist dose, but I think that may be because I was running a bit short on sleep. Yesterday afternoon I was definitely more than normally sleepy, though. I have an NHS app on my phone which lets me book appointments, order prescriptions and check my medical records, and from this week it is now also showing my vaccination status. Seeing my double-dose in black and white makes me very happy. I'm so looking forward to being able do things again without worrying about catching Covid. 

In another month or so at least one of the orchestras I usually play in should be starting up live rehearsals again, so I decided it was time to get my violin out. For some reason since the pandemic started I just haven't felt like playing - I'm not sure why - but now I really want to get started again. Inevitably, having been neglected for a year, I had a broken string; also inevitably, it was the only string for which I didn't have a spare. The strings I normally use are traditional metal wound round gut and although they are good quality strings they can be a bit temperamental, sometimes awkward to tune and with a tendency to go pop, so I decided maybe now would be a good time to try a different type of string. Also I have been meaning for ages (literally years!) to get my violin serviced - it needs a new bridge and couple of other tweaks, and the bow needs rehairing - and realised that I really should do it now, before it gets tricky to find a convenient time when I don't have orchestra commitments. I took it in to a local repairer yesterday and it should be done in a week or so, complete with new strings. I'm looking forward to trying them out and getting the benefit of having my violin back in its best possible condition. 

 

Socially Distanced Band Practice

I have a long way to go when it comes to digital minimalism. I tried to find a couple of photos for this blog, only to discover they hadn't transferred from my phone to my laptop because the poor laptop was so clogged with the accumulated junk of the past few years that it had no storage left. I have just spent 20 minutes deleting files, and still have a very long way to go. And there was I naively thinking that I stored most things in the cloud. Apparently not. 

On Sunday afternoon we had our first indoor band rehearsal since March. As we are now a registered charity we are allowed to run rehearsals for more than the normal limit of six people, so long as everything is properly risk assessed and we follow Covid-safe guidelines. This means we have to be spaced at least 2 metres apart, keep doors and windows open for ventilation (layers and warm clothing are needed!), have bell covers on our instruments, and wear masks when not playing. Fortunately we have been able to hire a school hall which gives us space for up to 30 people, where our normal rather cramped rehearsal venue would only take about six. The rules seem to be constantly changing, but it works for now and feels safe and well managed.

As the days get shorter and life gets busier it has got harder to fit in our 3 mile walks and we have tended to cut them shorter and stay closer to home. The colder, wetter weather doesn't help either. There is a 2 mile route round our local woodland that is our current default walk. I noticed today that a new signpost has appeared, that I'm sure wasn't there a few days ago.  It was also much muddier today that it has been for a while, thanks to all the recent rain. Hard to believe that just a week ago it was hot enough to lie in the hammock in the garden wearing light summer clothes. 

With TG back at school and dancing four evenings a week we have four car journeys each day to drop her off or collect her. None are long journeys, but it means we have to live by the clock much more than we have done over the past six months. Her friend's mum used to take her in the morning and we used to bring both girls home, but now car sharing is discouraged so I have taken on the morning school run. This is a good thing as it makes sure I get up, showered and dressed nice and promptly in the mornings - I am not a morning person so having a deadline forces me to get moving. Even though the local schools are all staggering start and finish times, the traffic is as bad as ever in the morning and last week seemed to be worse each day. This week I am trying a different route, which is longer in miles but when we tested it on Monday was quicker as it circles round the town and avoids all the traffic. It also means TG gets dropped at the school entrance, rather than a few minutes walk away. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she goes in earlier as she is doing "early morning French" as an extra subject. The school allows students to take GCSE French as an additional option if they are prepared to get to school for 7.55 instead of 8.45 twice a week for extra lessons. It is very much to the credit of both the school and the modern languages department that they have over 50 students in TG's year who take up this opportunity. At least the early start means we get a nice clear run through town before the traffic starts to clog up. 

Staying Home: Day 90

For the first time since the lockdown eased I visited someone else's garden this afternoon to meet up with some band friends. We usually aim to get together once a month or so to play as a small group, so we took our instruments and played for an hour or so spread out round the garden - Brass Bands England guidelines are now that groups of up to six can play outside if they keep a suitable distance between them, so that is what we did. Hopefully the neighbours didn't mind the music! After we finished playing we had a pre-ordered lunch delivered by a local pub - roast dinners all round. Everyone seemed to be doing OK. Nobody - so far as they know - has had Covid. Only one - a nurse not on clinical duties - is still going into work. Most of us are working from home.

This morning I tackled various financial jobs, including organising refunds for flights for what was meant to be a holiday in Italy in July. I hope that next summer it will be possible to travel normally again, but guess that may depend on whether there is a vaccine. I also did an exercise class, which was hard work! TG spent the morning in her room, then did some photography homework this afternoon. H went for a run in the morning, then went for a 6km walk with her BF this afternoon. M went for a walk while I was out this afternoon.

H cooked a roast dinner for everyone, but I was still too full of my late lunch to want anything else to eat. After dinner we watched the first half of Star Wars Episode IV - the original Star Wars. I then had a self-care evening with a relaxing bath followed by a yin yoga class of long, slow stretches.