Staying Home: Day 14

Yesterday evening I spiralled down into a tired, frustrated grump, so didn't get round to writing this blog. Why? I started work at 8.40 and finished at 6.30, admittedly with a three hour break in the middle, but it made it me feel that my whole day had being dominated by work. There are so many things I would like to do while I'm at home, and it seems I just don't have either the time or energy left for them.  I am ring fencing the daily Disney movie and making myself go out for a short walk, but by the evening I don't have the energy to do anything except slump on the sofa and watch TV for a while before going to bed. I'm not sure what the solution is - maybe not to work in split shifts? Yesterday I did archive work in the morning, then freelance work in the late afternoon, and I think that is why it felt such a long work day.

The positive bits of yesterday ... the Disney movie was Tangled, which I had actually never watched before. Teen Girl had it on DVD, but found it too scary (she was a very, very timid small girl!) and I think only watched it once or twice, either when I wasn't around or wasn't paying attention. After watching Tangled M and I went for a 20 minute walk, then came home and had afternoon tea with a proper tea pot and Victoria sponge cake I had made for his birthday. Teen Girl managed to score some self raising flour at Tesco Express yesterday - flour seems to be the current shortage item locally - so we will be able to bake more cakes when this one is gone. Dinner was Keralan fish curry for myself and H, made with some whiting from the fish box, while Teen Girl and M had breaded fish and oven chips.

I took this photo on our walk yesterday of the queuing system at Tesco Express (our local convenience store, which is a branch of one of the major UK supermarkets), carefully laid out on the path with tape and bags of salt to make sure everyone keeps the regulation socially distant 2 metres apart. It looks kind of odd when there is no queue! According to Teen Girl, they are only allowing four people in at a time.

Another problem yesterday was that the washing machine broke. Firstly clothes came out sopping wet, then I tried to check the drain and water came out of the bottom. After mopping that up, we tried a test run and more water leaked out. This all happened while I was trying to watch Tangled, so my relaxing time out became stressful. (I have only just now twigged that this was also a factor in my poor mood. Duh!) Fortunately our lovely washing machine repair man, who has been fixing them for us for well over twenty years, is able to come out today and will hopefully come up with a socially distant fix. Otherwise ... eek! 

So, onwards and upwards. Today will be better! 

Staying Home: Day 13

The clocks went forward last night, which made no difference to us whatsoever. It will be nice though to have the extra hour of daylight in the evening. Today is M's birthday, so once the girls surfaced he opened his cards and presents. These included two sets of theatre tickets - the tickets for early May will almost certainly have to be exchanged, but we are hoping for better luck with the others, which are for July.

This morning I tackled various financial jobs. The little car is now insured and has breakdown cover, even though it is stuck in the garage waiting to be fixed. I checked bank and card statements, updated the spreadsheet we use to keep track of spending,  and finished updating our new annual budget  - we run our personal financial year from April, to tie in with the tax year. We are very fortunate that coronavirus and the lockdown aren't likely to have any significant effect on our income.

H was happy because after much effort she had managed to order a 10 kilogram kettlebell which arrived today. She misses working out at the gym, but reasonably priced home weights have become almost unobtainable. Both girls have been relaxing with adult colouring books, and H decided today to do some painting. She is a good artist, but hadn't painted since she finished GCSE Art six years ago. After a bit of digging around we managed to find a decent number of acrylic paints which hadn't dried up, two watercolour paint boxes which were both short on white, and an unused set of oils. She finished a small picture of the Disneyland castle in acrylics, and has ordered a canvas so she can tackle something larger. She also finished an essay on Italian crime fiction she has been working on. Teen Girl has acquired a new Sims 4 expansion pack, so spent quite a bit of time on that. Disney movie of the day was Big Hero Six, another one new to all of us.

This evening to celebrate M's birthday we had a virtual dinner with our former neighbours. Obviously we couldn't actually share the food, only the company, but it was lovely to catch up. We intended to use Zoom, but for some reason the microphone on my laptop wasn't working with it, so ended up using FaceTime on an iPad. To give the meal an international flavour, which is always a feature of our real life dinners, I cooked Catalonian braised hake with Spanish potatoes and broccoli (there is fish somewhere under that sauce!), followed by a Swedish style berry crumble.

Staying Home: Day 12

For all of us the days are beginning to take on a pattern of their own with work, exercise and relaxation. Some of us socialise (virtually) more than others - M in particular spends a lot of time messaging and has regular video calls with groups of friends. I am largely happy in my own little bubble though have a couple of ongoing group chats - one with four close friends where we check in with (and on) each other off and on every day. The girls I think mostly WhatsApp their friends.

I woke up still fatigued and fuzzy brained. This morning I worked on the new freelance job, but only getting things set up on an online system as my brain didn't want to think. I went for a gentle 15 minute stroll this afternoon and walked past this magnolia. The flowers were getting past their best, but still strikingly lovely. The cold breeze blew my cobwebs away a bit and since then I have been feeling less tired so hoping I'm on the up again.

I haven't been reading much this year, I think because my concentration has been so erratic, but I don't want to waste the time I now have so I am now trying to make sure I spend at least some time reading every day. I'm nearly at the end of my current book, Surfacing by Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie. I hadn't come across her before, but am loving this beautifully written collection of essays. Some are short, others much longer, including two about archaeological digs in Alaska and the Orkney Islands. I think I stumbled across it on Amazon's Kindle recommendations. I also have a couple of Audible books on the go. When I wake up in the morning I like to listen to a book or podcast and do jigsaw puzzles on my iPad to ease into the day (I'm not a morning person). I have just started Bill Bryson's Neither Here or There as I wanted something that M might enjoy too.

Disney Movie tonight is going to be Avatar, which none of us have seen before. Dinner is going to be pizza, and I'm looking forward to a large gin and tonic!

Staying Home: Day 11

Thanks to the little car being off the road, this morning I spent over three hours in the other car as chauffeur, most of it stationary. H had a medical appointment (minor, but they had confirmed she should keep it) in a nearby town, so I drove her there and sat in the car park while she went in. Then I spent over an hour sitting in another car park while H did grocery shopping. She went into Aldi, which had a fairly short queue but which she said was quite busy inside, then into Marks and Spencers Food, which had a long, slow moving queue. At least we are pretty well stocked up now, and shouldn't need to go to a larger supermarket for a while.

I didn't need to do any work today, but M started a new job that came in yesterday. H made a bit of progress with an essay and Teen Girl did some schoolwork. Annoyingly I seem to be going downhill with my wretched virus thing again. M and I went for what was supposed to be a short walk this afternoon, but somehow ended up being two miles as we went round a larger loop than I intended. By the time we got back I was exhausted. Brain fog has started to descend again and my throat is feeling sore. No CV19 symptoms, fortunately. I'm hoping it is just a bad day and I'll feel better again tomorrow. It's been three months of this off-and-on thing now. The blood tests I had recently all came back clear, so I guess it is just a case of being patient.

I finished January on my weather scarf today. I'm pleased with how it is looking. The very gold looking stripes are sunny, sub-zero (centigrade) days, where the thin gold yarn dominates the thicker light blue. Most of the very cold days in January were sunny, so the light blue doesn't get much of a look in. It is going to be a very long scarf (think Tom Baker as Doctor Who!) but it can't be helped. I think it needs two rows for each day so the colour shows on both sides of the scarf, and if I only did a single row the scarf would come out too short. I'm being very good and tucking ends in as I go, though I must admit that I tucked the ends of the last few lines underneath for the sake of the photo.

Disney Movie of the day was Aladdin - the live version from last year, which Teen Girl had seen, but H and I hadn't. Dinner was chicken and mushroom pie, using up some left over roast chicken, with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Teen Girl cooked, with instruction from H. She did a great job and it was very tasty. She likes cooking and is hoping to take a hospitality and catering course at school next year.

Staying Home: Day 10

Not only is H a good cook but she has worked in a cafe for six years both as a waitress and a barista. I highly recommend barista skills in someone to stay home with, as I am enjoying lots of good coffee.

I got a fair amount of work done this morning but the girls didn't really get into gear today. A new freelance job came in this afternoon, so that will keep both M and myself busy next week. M and I went for our daily walk across nearby fields. It was intended to be a circular walk, but I took the wrong path so it ended up as shorter "there and back again". The Disney movie for the day was Mary Poppins Returns, which we enjoyed for the second time (we saw it at the cinema when it was first released).

We ran out of bread this morning so Teen Girl walked to our local Tesco Express to buy some. She had to queue for a little while to get in as they were only allowing four people inside the shop at a time, but she said they had plenty of bread and seemed generally well stocked. Restaurants are closed but takeaways and food deliveries are still allowed, so we ordered Chinese tonight for dinner. The delivery was "drop and go" with no personal contact, so hopefully that means we were safely supporting a local business. We finished eating just in time to join the "cheer for the NHS". The idea that people should open their doors or windows at 8pm tonight to clap and cheer to show our appreciation for all the dedicated health care workers of the National Health Service had taken off on social media, and there was plenty of clapping, a bit of whooping and some distant car horns.

Our small car, the only one H is insured to drive, was booked into the garage today for its MoT (annual Ministry of Transport test of roadworthiness, without which a car can't be legally driven in the UK). Although it has now been announced that MoTs are to be extended for six months, as the garage was still open and we had a flat tyre last week which had been damaged by a loose spring we thought we had better get the car serviced as planned. It was just as well we did, as there is a serious crack in a bracket holding the engine. The garage say it is far too dangerous to drive, but due to the lockdown they can't get a replacement part, so the car is now stuck at the garage until everything starts to function again. As H will only really need a car for occasional trips to the supermarket it doesn't seem worth paying to add her to the insurance on our other car. One of us will act as chauffeur and wait in the car while she shops. It's an inconvenience, but only a minor one. I'm just grateful the bracket didn't break while one of us was driving.

Staying Home: Day 9

Today was a much better one. The sun shone, everyone was on an even keel, lots of constructive things got done, and fun happened.

I have decided that working two full days on my archive work is a bad plan, and that if I work four mornings it will mean I get into a much better routine. Freelance work can then be fitted around those four mornings as necessary. In any case we got the job we were working on submitted today and don't have anything else lined up so will get a bit of a break - in theory it shouldn't be affected by coronavirus, but the work never comes in evenly; sometimes we are crazy busy, sometimes we get quiet spells. Today M and I worked together to get the job finished, and I then moved on to archives, spending most of my time working on web pages. H had to give an online presentation this morning as part of the assessment for her Italian language course. Teen Girl did some school work.

We continued our Disney Plus binge with two movies today - Coco (which we hadn't seen before) after lunch, and the original Mary Poppins this evening. M, H and I went for a walk this afternoon, while Teen Girl stayed home and did a contemporary dance class which was  live streamed by one of her teachers. This evening our eldest daughter called for a family FaceTime chat which degenerated into hysterical laughter thanks to some interesting Animoji and people attempting to lick their own noses (one daughter was successful!). The Brass Band replaced its cancelled concert for tonight by getting people to send in video or audio clips of themselves playing something, on whatever instrument. I don't have much puff for the trombone still, so played Be Our Guest on the flute (on which I am very out of practice!)

While watching the films I made progress on my new knitting project - a weather scarf. The idea is that for each day I will knit two rows with the colour chosen according to the temperature. I am also mixing in a second, thinner yarn, which represents the weather - blue for rain, grey for cloud, yellow for sun, white for snow. It is my contribution to a project we are running at work, encouraging people to use archives to inspire textile art. My scarf is based on historic weather records from the 1980s that were recently deposited with us. I ran across a weather scarf on Twitter just after the records arrived, and had a lightbulb moment. Apparently weather blankets are also a thing. Time permitting, I want to do a second scarf based on last year's weather as a comparison to see if it comes out warmer. The picture above shows the scarf six days in, but by the time Mary Poppins finished I was half way through January. The blue and grey threads don't show up very much, but the yellow sunny days definitely give a different tone, as does the one snow day I've had so far. This is my colour chart - nine shades of double knitting for the temperatures (I am using units of 5 degrees centigrade) and four of fluffy lace weight for the weather.

Staying Home: Day 8

I panicked myself first thing this morning by looking at the Asthma UK website. It now has a list of medications which indicate that people are considered to be at such high risk of complications from coronavirus that they are being recommended to stay shielded at home for the next three months. The inhaler I use was on the list and I started to melt down at the prospect of having to live under so many restrictions for so long, mainly I think because it was an unexpected shock. Once I calmed down and looked again I realised that although my inhaler was indeed on the list, it was only at a higher dose, or if used as part of a heavier regime. Much relieved, I am now grateful to be just on the 'vulnerable' list, which means I can at least go out for a walk so long as I keep my distance from other people and don't have to keep everyone else in the house at arm's length. Despite the relief I still felt quite down, and I wasn't the only family member who had a moment today - I think a week in the situation was hitting us.

I spent most of today checking a batch of exam questions. I wanted to get to the end rather than leave part of the job until Thursday, so ended up finishing them off after dinner. Too long a day really, and there was no real reason for it as there isn't a tight deadline - I just wanted to get the job done and free up the back end of the week to do other things. The girls are still keeping up their study routine, and H had an online lecture this afternoon. Later on Teen Girl did an online workout, and H went for a run. M and I went for a mid-afternoon walk, quite a short one today as I was tired.

Part of the reason my work dragged on was because I took a break early in the afternoon to watch a movie with the girls. Today was the launch date for Disney Plus in the UK. I had bought a pre-launch subscription because we have a long list of movies we want to watch before we go to DisneyWorld in August - we hope! Our plan for the time being is to watch one a day, and we made a list at the weekend of our first ten. Today was supposed to be Finding Dory, but they changed their minds and wanted Monsters University instead. So much for the list.  While we watched I started a new knitting project. More on that tomorrow.

It was my turn to cook dinner, which was fresh fish from today's fish box - tusk, shallow fried in breadcrumbs with poppy seeds mixed in, with sweet potato fries, roasted courgettes (left from last weeks veg box) and peas, followed by watermelon. I am loving our fish box which I started ordering because M and I decided we should really eat more fish. It comes from Scotland, with fish caught sustainably by independent fishermen, all pre-prepared and ready to freeze. My order is for a medium sized box every two weeks. Now H is home I changed my settings to add an extra person, so they pack the fish in sets of four portions rather than three. The contents vary according to what has been caught and includes a much wider variety of fish than the supermarkets stock, which has successfully pushed us out of our comfort zone. You can mark on the website which fish you are happy to try and which you don't want. Today we got two packs of mackerel, salmon, and the tusk.