Reflecting on my week #148

Well the weather’s been odd hasn’t it? The other weekend there was the best sort of snow, the best sort because it was here and gone within a day! I’m not a huge fan of snow, though admit it does look pretty. It didn’t really settle here, and there was a little more than this photo shows, and for London it was enough. Enough for those that wanted to to play, but not enough to cause the usual disruption. Seeing the pictures of Greenwich Park was good, but with our Covid view of the world, I wonder if like me you also viewed these pictures with a social distancing lens.

In reality though, we’ve done very little - which is the purpose of lockdown I guess. We’ve only been out to the shops once or twice in the past fortnight so it is quite dull. The weather seems to time it just so when we could escape we don’t as it’s too wet, too cold or even too snowy. On the plus side it’s meant I can really get on with my half and half squares made from the mini-skeins from the yarn advent calendar.

These are from days 1 through to 14, so I’m over half-way. The colours are random, some are quite bold others more delicate. I’ve four of each colour, two with the pink/grey neutral and two with the blue/grey neutral. I’m yet to decide how to layout the squares for the blanket, or whether or not to make one or two throws. When I’m a bit further through I’ll lay them out and see what I think works, and probably ponder a bit more.

MOH has come up with a great idea, which involves drinking gin - so who am I to disagree? With gin arriving every month, and each coming with mixers and often syrups we’re gathering a growing collection of all sorts. His plan is for us to make some headway with the mixers and syrups, and obviously gin. I told you it was a good plan.

We’ve started with a gin star martini - a gin take on the porn star martini I’m sure - gin, mango & passionfruit juice, syrup and lime. I could only muster a dried lime, but a lime’s a lime I reckon.

I’ve got back into making bread, and while I’ve revived my sourdough starter (actually must go check on that soon) it’s the wholemeal loaf that’s currently our favourite. Most recently I’ve shaped into more of an loaf shape, rather than a cob. It’s the same mixture, so must work…

And so far, so good.

Now that our Christmas cake is long gone, MOH has got back into the baking habit again - we’re currently on a lemon and poppy seed traybake, but there’s also been a chai banana loaf. You see we are both lockdown cliches. And somewhere in the middle of this, it’s February already, though on some days I already think it’s been a long year.

Reflecting on my week #147

Before Christmas I had the forethought to book a few days off in January, and over the past few days that’s what’s been happening here. It’s been much needed, even though my company shuts over Christmas, and that was nice too. We haven’t done a huge amount - it’s still lockdown after all, but some bumbling around and not having to be at the dining room table has been nice.

We’ve walked into Greenwich, and into Blackheath and haven’t got wet. We’ve caught up with things at home, which are dull but need doing - fixing the shelf in the wardrobe where the Christmas decorations go, defrosting the freezer and that kind of thing. We’ve had days of domesticity with cake making, bread baking and some very fine food - and wine - being consumed. Fridge jenga is back after a trip to the butchers, our monthly online shop, a veg box delivery and a visit to the farmer’s market all within a few days of each other.

But best of all we’ve had some time to ourselves. Apart from each other I mean.

We probably do during the working week too, when MOH pops out on his bike. But usually I’m working, as he’ll leave here before dusk, and so I notice the alone time less, mainly because spending it working doesn’t count! And while there’s no one I’d rather spend lockdown(s) with than MOH, I’ve realised that I’ve also missed having some time to myself.

And I’m sure he has too. With (usually) busy social lives we’d often get an evening to ourselves, or solo nights out with friends, but as we all know life has been quite different to that for a while.

So these past few days I’ve found myself making a list of things to fill that time so when it happens I can make the most of it, even if that is enjoying the time without feeling the need to get things done.

1. My tax return - yes, I just need to get on with it, don’t I?

2. Reading my newest book

3. Picking up my crochet hook

4. Editing and sorting my photos - I’m up to December 2019

5. Planning and writing more blog posts

6. Catching up with TV recordings that MOH’s not keen on

7. Listening to podcast episodes I’ve tuned out of but enjoy

8. Sorting out my craft supplies, for my next and current projects including those I’ve not quite started yet

9. Joining a fitness or wellbeing session, either alone or online

10. Enjoying the silence and just being.

Each of them have their appeal and I know that having a variety of things will suit different days and different moods, and the one I think is important to include is the last. Sometimes enjoying the moment is just what’s needed and often what’s missing when we get caught up in the whirl of our daily lives.

So more of a reflective post from me this week, but I think that also ties in with the start of the year. I’ve already looked back at the top 10 posts here last year, and a word or maybe a phrase is starting to bubble in my head. For 2020 the word I chose was gumption and while the year didn’t turn out as anyone imagined, gumption was definitely something that was needed.

More on that another time though, and most likely once that tax return is submitted.

Reflecting on my week #146

In the last of these ‘weekly’ posts, which turns out was in the middle of November - meaning this post covers a little more than a week, I said the week had been dubbed as uninspiring. Well, little did I know the events that would follow, namely Tier 4, the return to national lockdown and the stratospheric rise in the number of Covid cases, that would quite literally ground us either side of Christmas.

While not that much of note happened in those weeks, this post will just be a quick canter through the notable events, and even that won’t take long. I paused these posts as I was taking few photos, and that hasn’t really changed that much, but anyway.

We headed into central London in December. It was peculiar to think this was the first time I’d been in town since March, when for so long it was my daily commute, although more recently my commuter has changed to a walk, but even that hasn’t happened for a while. We’d carefully chosen a date that would give us plenty of time to self-isolate, should we need to, before meeting up with family at Christmas.

Before heading to a restaurant we headed to Fortnum & Mason to buy, our now traditional, purchase of posh mince pies. It was busy in the shop, but much less so than normal and as you’d expect with Covid-safe arrangements in place to protect everyone. Outside the streets were less busy, and we spent some time wandering about and window shopping. Our plan was always to walk from Piccadilly to Borough, mainly to save getting on a tube. We added an impromptu detour to Covent Garden along the way, taking in many of the Christmas lights. By the time we reached Borough we were more than ready for a very large steak, and a nice sit down to be honest. Neither disappointed.

Moving into Tier 4 was almost expected, I knew that the number of cases here in Greenwich was increasing. There were some lovely days before Christmas and one of those we did one of our extra-long walks to the shops, taking in the views at the top of Greenwich Park. It’s a view that is wondrous, and even better on a good day.

The same day as this fantastic view there was the ‘cancelling of Christmas’ as the papers and media would have us believe. Our Christmas wasn’t cancelled, but it was rearranged at short notice like a lot of other people. We weren’t able to go to Norfolk, and nor did we think it sensible for MOH’s mum, who lives alone, to come to us in a taxi so that needed to be factored in, along with a supermarket shop - something we rarely do, as we’ve been long-time online shoppers, topping up at a smaller local supermarket within walking distance.

Mostly we stay in for New Year’s Eve in any case, and so this year wasn’t too much different for us. Having had much success ordering with Cote at Home during the year we decided to order our favourite fougasse, Cote de Boeuf and frites and creme caramel. It was due to arrive the day before allowing for any mishaps. As it turned out it gave us time to contact them as the only common denominator between what we ordered and what arrived was the frites. And there was three boxes of them.

The people there were very helpful, but couldn’t explain what had happened. The order was similar, but not ours - there was a rib of beef, lots of frites, some roast potatoes, a chicken and bacon pie topped with mash, some gravlax and two chocolate fondants. But no wine, our order had two bottles - though thankfully we have a bottle or two we could use instead.

Like the people at Cote we were bemused, and of course at such short notice it couldn’t be redelivered and so we had the almost-but-random delivery as our meal, and with a full refund it was more than palatable, and not a bad way, all things considered, to end the year. Though we did have visions of the people who received our box going hungry, but at least having a couple of bottles of wine to help them through!

Our usual New Year’s Day is a walk which more often than not ends in a pub. This year we did neither, though we did recreate the pub feel at home, complete with beer, beer mats and pub snacks. Not quite the same, but something to do in this strangest of years, which seems to have handed over the batten to 2021 to start with. Let’s hope 2021 has more about it and gets back on track.

You’ve probably also noticed that it’s been quieter on here than usual, that’s partly because before Christmas my day job was super-busy, even busier than it had been before and also because after a long day on my laptop for work the last thing I wanted to do was spend time on my laptop for pleasure. My plan was to catch up and get ahead over the longer Christmas break, but actually taking a complete break worked much better. I spent a fair amount of time crafting, including picking up my patchwork quilt, which turned out to be the first time in two years and crocheting, as I’m sure you guessed. I didn’t quite get around to starting a rag rugging project, or some lettering, but that’s true to form - I’ve always more than I can actually do on my to do lists, but at least I know this!

Usually at the start of the year I’ll look back at my posts over the previous year, and I fully intend to do that - they will of course be different this year, and need some work to make happen, but after umming and ahhing about whether to or not, I’ve decided that last year should be marked as any other would be, and what it shows could be interesting in itself - the data nerd in me is almost looking forward to what it might uncover.