April 2020

April 30, 2020

Had a better night’s sleep, and still feeling grumpy so maybe it’s not just about that… Still woke up early (as per usual) and was up baking bread by 6:30am. That sourdough loves a cold rise, and the loaves came out really nicely.

The boiler packing it in is definitely a downer. Adam managed to find a guy to come round and look at it. He cleared a blockage, and reset something but warned us that it was a temporary fix and that we need a new part.

Sure enough, the thing fell over again within the hour… I know it’s pretty small in the grand scheme of things, and that we’re sitting pretty here compared to lots of people, but it’s annoying all the same.

Didn’t do my exercise either, which didn’t help. The bread tied me down until gone 9am, and my glute is sore from the run yesterday, and I had a bunch of work I didn’t get to yesterday…

Made veggie soup to go with the bread for lunch. Nova offered to make dinner, which I was happy to take her up on. She came up about 6:30pm to make spinach salad and bake chocolate chip cookies, and I headed out for a walk before dinner.

The weather has been appalling most of the day, but I caught a little hiatus in the rain. Headed down West Hill then veered down Merton Lane to the Heath. Not that many walkers, but the jogging set was out in full force.

Made a short loop round to Kenwood, then back home along Spaniards Lane. About 45 minutes in all, which was perfect to catch up on the latest Rachel Maddow podcast. She was going on about Trump forcing meat packing plants to reopen despite their being an epicentre for covid infection. As shitty as things are in the UK, and as wretched a government as these Tories are, it does seem like the Americans are having a worse time of it…

Caught some more rain on the last leg, but there was an amazing double rainbow to enjoy, so there was that… Nova handed me a large gin and tonic when I got home, and after dinner, I was banished from doing the dishes. Played four hands of Uno, and I won three, so definitely a stronger end to the day…;-)

April 29, 2020

Woke at 4:30am and wasn’t able to get back to sleep again, which set the tone for the day – tired, grumpy, unproductive… After meditating, I laced up my shoes and headed out for a run. My glute had felt pretty good yesterday, and I was hoping I could do my usual 4.5 miles, but within a couple of miles I was feeling it twinge, so pulled up at 3 miles.

Bumped into Millie while I was out –it’s a bit weird to see actual people now, especially the ones I spend time with online. She suggested meeting up for a socially distanced walk on the weekend, which I’m not sure about.

I see more and more people doing it, but it’s pretty obvious and complicates things for other park users. I’m also aware that she lives on her own, while I sometimes look forward to my walk/run to get a bit of time away from my cellmates…

Crappy day at “the office”. I had trouble getting down to any one task, frittering away time with bitty things (like an update for the Kenya website, or sorting plug-ins on the beauty site), and not getting to any of the meaty stuff.

The boiler has packed it in and we have no hot water… Adam got as little sleep as I did last night and is equally grumpy and irritable. At least Lyra had a good day, completing all the schoolwork she’s been assigned for the whole week.

Made a batch of sourdough bread, which will prove overnight. Greek salad and pitta for lunch, penne a la vodka for dinner. Haven’t made that in yonks, and it proved a big hit with everybody. Nova made the microwave banana pudding for dessert.

Adam had a 9pm–12am workshop/meeting, and Nova was attending a Zoom 18th birthday party. Lyra and I watched the first two episodes of Insatiable, which was quite fun in an un-PC way.

April 28, 2020

I’m realising that it’s best if I keep this journal up-to-date at the moment, as the days have a tendency to blur together. In some ways my days are surprisingly similar to what it was pre-covid, it’s more the evenings that have changed. I’d have meetings and social things, and we’d have people round, or go to the cinema or theatre, or be chasing around after Lyra. Now it’s meditate-exercise-breakfast-work-lunch-work-dinner-game/telly/read-bed. Rinse and repeat…

We started with fifteen minutes of meditation, after which I went for a walk in the pouring rain. That made a change, and I pretty much had the Heath to myself. It was miserable out there though, and I cut it back to about three miles. Took the rest of the day to dry properly and warm up.

Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, sweet potato and black bean tacos for dinner. Four rounds of Uno (Nova won them all), an episode of Twins, bath and bed. As I said, rinse and repeat…

April 27, 2020

And it’s another week of lockdown… Didn’t get off to my usual running start, as I decided to give the glute another day’s recovery. We did do our meditating (upstairs again on uncomfy chairs), which was good.

I had vague plans to do some exercise after lunch, but naturally that didn’t happen. If I don’t exercise at the start of my day, it rarely happens. Had a reasonably productive time of it workwise, aside from a half hour phone call from Beulah bringing me up to speed on the blockage in her kitchen sink (a cliffhanger from yesterday).

Toasted bagels for lunch, chicken tikka skewers with green bean and chickpea salad for dinner. I was late getting started on dinner, and the girls make an appetiser to tide us over – giant fried croutons with a spicy mayonnaise dipping sauce. Mighty tasty…

Started watching the BBC adaptation of Normal People, a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while. An hour of awkward teenage sex – feeling less inclined to read it now, though maybe the focus shifts in subsequent episodes…?

April 26, 2020

A delightfully lazy day today. I never sleep in, but we did a bunch of the cryptic crossword over coffee before moving upstairs to do our meditation on hard chairs. This was a first — up to now we’ve been sitting on the bed — and I think it is an improvement.

Fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast. Adam wanted to rewatch the part of Knives Out that he missed (basically all of it), and Nova and I joined him. It’s a film that rewards rewatching once you know the ending.

Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and asparagus for lunch. I’d have done a boiled egg for Lyra, but her stomach is upset. I can’t see how she can have come into contact with any tummy bug, and suspect she’s been drinking too much coffee.

Devoted a good portion of my afternoon to chatting with Beulah on the phone. She’s understandably keen for social contact and even before social distancing, she could keep you on the phone for an hour, so I tend to call on the weekends.

Choripan for dinner, with some fresh chorizo I picked up from the North Hill grocer the other day, with rocket, tomatoes, pickled onions and chimichurri. Nice… Lyra slept through dinner, and woke feeling a bit better, though still no appetite.

Watched another Star Wars film with Adam. I thought the Revenge of the Sith was the best one so far, and explains how Darth Vader came to be. There are some gaping holes in the plot though, and the guy playing Anakin Skywalker couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag, but overall I’m pleasantly surprised by this project. Three down, six to go…

April 25, 2020

Happy thirteenth birthday, Kael! David got in touch yesterday to tell me that Kael was getting a mobile phone for his birthday and to share his new number. Sent a birthday text first thing, so it would be there when he unwrapped it, and made sure the girls did too.

It has occurred to me that listening to people tell you how to meditate isn’t necessarily the same thing as actually meditating. This morning, we set a fifteen minute timer, assumed the position and attempted to meditate ourselves, without the helpful guidance of Deepak Chopra or Joseph Goldstein.

A very different experience… I found it more difficult to stay on track without the regular prompting, and also spent a fair amount of time wondering if Adam had set the timer properly, which I don’t have to think about normally.

I’m glad we tried it, and will definitely do it that way occasionally, but it feels more beneficial to be guided for now…

My right glute is pretty sore, but I didn’t think it would be a problem to do my regular walking route with Adam. The hardest bit was tying my shoes. Sitting on the stairs was out of the question, and bending low enough to reach the laces was a comedy act.

I could feel it on the steep hills, but otherwise was fine. It was cooler and slightly overcast than it has been lately, and the Heath was quieter for that. Fine by me… Picked up a few things for our neighbour Ted on North Hill and dropped them round on the way home.

Avocado mozzarella wraps for lunch. Managed to get the whole household cleaning afterwards — Lyra did the hoovering, Nova the kitchen, Adam the bathroom, toilet and fish tank, while I deep-cleaned our bedroom. A massive wiping and dusting endeavour, which took more than three hours. Looks good though…

Made mushroom risotto for dinner, with help from Nova. Ate it in front of Knives Out, a delicious whodunnit with an excellent cast including Daniel Craig, Jaimie-Lee Curtis and Christopher Plummer. I’d seen it before, but the rest of the family hadn’t, and as I expected, they all loved it.

April 24, 2020

Went for my 4.5 mile run in the Woods first thing. I was clipping along at a tidy pace 3.5 miles in, thinking that I was going to end up with my best-ever time when I snagged my left foot on a tree root. I plunged forward with my right foot and managed to keep running for a few more steps before hitting the dirt with both palms. I had a sense as it happened of several shocked faces turned to me, and as soon as I landed an older woman approached cautiously to check that I was alright.

“Oh, yes!” I replied, springing to my feet, “thank you for checking,” and carried on at a sprightly pace, while doing an internal health check. Hands scuffed/bruised but not cut. Knees never touched the ground (good), and ankles were not twisted. My right glute didn’t feel right, but I hoped it would resolve itself over the final mile.

I went straight into a client meeting (in fact she called me on the walk home), and when I got up from my chair 45 minutes later, I could tell I’d torn something. Just hope it’s not too serious…

Made spinach soup for lunch, and that was my cooking duties over for the day. Nova’s turn to pick the Friday takeaway — she went for pizza from Fabrizio, which was a definite improvement over those thin-crust Basilico ones she chose last time.

Played a round of Articulate (not particularly acrimonious), after which the girls retreated to their rooms and Adam and I watched the first two episodes of a Norwegian crime drama called Twin. Promising…

April 23, 2020

Woke at 6am… Spent an hour or so reading news and doing social media until Adam woke as well, and went upstairs to make the coffee.

Meditation then out for a walk before starting my work day. Adam and Lyra had planned to run, but she was too slow to get out of bed so he did part of my walk with me instead.

I’ve settled on a five-mile route that is working for me at the moment. It’s a bit self-indulgent to take this much time for myself at the start of the day, but these are exceptional times…

My post-exercise endorphins and meditation-induced calm went by the wayside when I went to put something in Nova’s bin and discovered it was full of junk food packaging — ice cream, crisps, popcorn, cake and cookie wrapping.

Apparently, in the early stages of the lockdown the girls would purchase extra snacks on their walks and scoff them together in Nova’s room. They were getting used to a different way of eating (ie, healthy), and haven’t done in in a few weeks (or emptied the bin…)

On reflection, it’s their money and we have the responsibility to feed them, not the other way round. Still, there’s something selfish and un-team-spirited about it that bugs me, plus the gratuitous popping into shops for Cheetos or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups…

Pea and bean salad for lunch (without the usual edamame), and homemade Japanese curry for dinner. Very pleased with the way that turned out. I had no idea how simple it was to make your own Japanese curry cubes.

Finished eating in time for the weekly NHS applause. The girls went for an evening walk afterwards and Adam and I sat down to watch the second Star Wars film. Pretty mediocre fare, but managed to get through it with only two small dozing episodes.

April 22, 2020

Had a decent night’s sleep and woke feeling refreshed and positive. When Adam was ready, we launched into today’s meditation — reacting vs responding.

I’ve realised that the app is organised into a series of little courses. We are most of the way through Basics One, and really enjoying it. The leader is stretching it a little longer each time, which is good. Ideally, I’d like to find 20-30 minutes a day for meditation.

Went for a run in the Woods, and did the 4.5 mile loop again. Now that I’m doing the long walks on my in-between days, I notice that my legs feel more tired on Wednesday and Friday. I expect I’m using slightly different muscles, or at least using them differently, but still.

Mexican wraps for lunch, and chorizo and chilli penne for dinner. Watched a film that Nova chose called Pride. It tells the true story of how a small group of gays and lesbians started fundraising to support the miners’ strike in the mid-eighties, and the unlikely bonds that grew up between them and a mining community in Wales.

Great cast as well — Domenic West, Andrew Scott, Imelda Staunton, and a few other faces that I recognised but couldn’t but a name to. Interesting slice of British history that I wasn’t aware of…

April 21, 2020

Woke up at 5:30am, and was about to feel sorry for myself until I remembered that I’d bathed and hit the sack by 10:15 last night. We’re continuing with the Ten Percent Happier meditation, and liking it a lot. It’s quite different to Deepak, but they are both good. I feel like my mind has been wiped clean after each session.

Today is Webinar Tuesday, so I made myself scarce. The shops were just opening in the village, and I picked up a few things I hadn’t been able to buy in the online order: bananas, red peppers, nuts, and chocolate chips so the girls can make more cookies…

I’d brought my backpack, so loaded it up and carried it round with me on my Heath walk. It was a glorious morning, and despite being out a bit earlier it was pretty busy. Maybe the more serious exercisers trying to beat the rush, or maybe the beautiful weather drawing new people outdoors…

When I got home five miles later, I fixed breakfast for everyone, then got down to work. I made a few amends to the beauty website, updated their theme and plug-ins and did some prep for a meeting on Friday to review the newsletter design.

In the afternoon, Adam got official confirmation that we have won a juicy piece of B Corp work with an international insurance company. It’s a large enough project that he needs to pull in a couple of other consultants to deliver it.

Hallelulah! This is just good news we need, and is exactly the kind of project that gets delayed or mothballed at a time like this. Cracked a bottle of prosecco and toasted our good fortune. The work kicks off tomorrow, and if all goes well, will keep the company in the black for at least three months, even without any other new business coming in…

Made kung pao chicken for dinner. Adam had a meeting, and then his two-hour training course. (It’s being run out of New Zealand, so finding a suitable time for all the participants is tricky.) Watched Bridget Jones’ Diary with the girls (Lyra’s pick). Nice, light, feel-good entertainment…:)

April 20, 2020

Monday, runday… I’m trying to do three runs in the week when it’s that little bit less busy, and then walk the other days. Stretched the distance to 4.5 miles today, and felt fine on it.

Back home, I spent an hour sorting through John’s rubbish bin. The people who cleared the house for Andy stuffed it so full of dubious stuff that the sanitation guys have refused to empty it for more than a month. I can understand why… it’s been jammed so full of paintings and frames from his studio that they wouldn’t come out even if they tried to tip it out.

I worked through it methodically, saving the paintings that they hadn’t ruined by folding them in half. I returned a modest amount of waste to the bin, stashed a bunch to add in the coming weeks in his outdoor cupboard, and transferred the undamaged paintings, fresh painting boards, and frames to our garage. Veronika will be glad of some of it for her studio, and I’ll take the paintings to a charity shop in due course.

Pulled together this week’s LinkedIn slide deck for my insurance client on the theme of tunnelling and geo tech. It came together much more quickly using the first one as the template.

Fennel and rocket salad for lunch. Adam was on a call so I ate with the girls. Played a few hands of Uno afterwards, then got back to the computer.

Swedish meatballs for dinner, eaten in front of the MasterChef finale. The winner wasn’t a surprise and I suppose they chose the right person, if not the most exciting culinary talent.

Played some Bananagrams afterwards, and then a few more rounds of Uno before calling it a night…

April 19, 2020

Today, would have been mum and dad’s 58th wedding anniversary, though of course they were together several years before they married… After meditating and coffee in bed, I made a slow Sunday start to the day, hanging about on the sofa with coffee and

Sunday slow start to the day. Hung about coffee and the paper. Made a bit of a fry-up for brunch – I say “bit” because we had to share two strips of bacon between us and there wasn’t much bread left either. Still very tasty…

Started a new batch of sourdough which should be ready to bake tomorrow, then spent the afternoon in the garden. I’d intended to work on my raspberry bed, but the patio absorbed most of my time. Managed a quick weed and water at the back, before it was time to head in.

Chinese pork and beans for dinner – a nice, straightforward recipe. Nova cooked it with me, been doing that a lot since we’ve been locked down together, which I’m enjoying.

Lyra did her bit by whipping up a round of those dalgona coffees that have taken social media by storm.

Checked the news websites before bed and learned of the awful shooting incident in Nova Scotia. They are saying 16 people are confirmed dead and that there will likely be more. What the fuck is wrong with some people…

April 18, 2020

Started the new Ten Percent Happier meditation thing today. I’m pretty new to meditation (aside from the final relaxation at the end of yoga class), but I can tell already that this is different to Deepak. I think that we are now practicing mindfulness, whereas Deepak is more TM-style meditation. Some of it is similar, but there is no mantra, just what the leader calls a mental note, something like “out, in” in time with the breath.

House activities ate up some of the morning, plus Adam and I finished watching Phantom Menace. Not as bad as I feared, though Ewan MacGregor dialled in a shocker of a performance…

Made veggie soup for lunch, which we had with cheese and crackers, then Adam and I headed out for an afternoon walk on the Heath.

It was pretty darn crowded, but then it’s always crowded these days. People who used to exercise in gyms and fitness classes, people walking their own dogs instead of hiring dog walkers, parents herding skulking kids, people who clearly don’t live together out for an afternoon walk and catch-up (you can tell by how happy they are in each other’s company, and how much they have to talk about)…

I made bao for dinner, starting the dough when we got back, then making the spicy chicken filling so it could chill. There are two styles of bao – the filled and the folded. Trying the filled first. Forgiving in terms of the rolling and wrapping, I had visions of them opening up during steaming, but not a bit of it.

Made a simple veg stirfry as well, thinking it wouldn’t be enough, but we would have been fine. Poor Lyra wasn’t feeling well – she had a tummyache, but managed a couple of the bao before heading off to bed early

Watched a couple of episodes of MasterChef with Nova – we really need to knock that on the head…

April 17, 2020

Crappy night’s rest and no idea why… I woke at 4:30am after only five hours asleep. It was still dark and the room completely silent. The dawn chorus hadn’t even begun to tune up… Suddenly, Adam gave an almighty snort like he was comedy snoring, and a few seconds later, another one. After which he lapsed into silence. So that might have been it…

I tried to fall asleep listening to a Table Manners podcast with Emily Maitless, but it was too interesting. It was also surprising to discover that Emily and I might have been separated at birth, so uncannily similar were our interests and tastes. I’ve never had the slightest inkling of that in all the years I’ve watched on the news.

Got round to our meditation about 7:30am. We opted for the day three recording again, because to paraphrase Janis Joplin, “it’s all the same fucking day man”… Shenda has sent me a three-month introductory offer to Ten Percent Happier, so we’ll give that a try this weekend.

A bit late setting out on my run, (ie, 9am not 8:30am), but if anything the Woods were less busy. I’m still disappointed by people’s inability to just keep left except to pass like they do on the roads, but it’s just about working okay.

Did 4.25 miles this time — three laps round — which is the longest distance I’ve gone in a good while. Once I get up to 5 mile runs, I can start running on the Heath again. Though actually, I’m quite liking the run-Woods/walk-Heath thing I’ve got going on.

Green smoothies for breakfast, Greek salad, hummus and pitta for lunch, and a takeout from the Red Lion and Sun for dinner. Unfortunately, we neglected to place our order in time, and the earliest we could collect was 8:30…

The girls participated (after much nudging from me) in the 5pm Ode to Joy thing, where musicians and choirs around the UK performed it at the same time. It was meant to take place outside the house, but a sudden burst of icy rain put paid to that.

In a moment of madness, I agreed that I’d quite like to watch all the Star Wars films in chronological order. Now that we are shelling out for the Disney streaming service, I’m going to have to put my money where my mouth is… Started with the dreaded Phantom Menace, but shifted to MasterChef when Adam returned with the food and never got back to it…

April 16, 2020

Decided to do day three of the meditation course again – we like day three, though there was something Groundhog Dayish about hearing it again…

Adam and Lyra headed off to run 5km in the Woods, an online challenge Lyra has accepted to raise money for the NHS. I headed out for my walk on the Heath. Saw Pasc in her bedroom window from the path. She came downstairs, and we had a chat from an acceptable social distance (standing at their garden gate while she stood in the doorway).

It was lovely on the Heath – cool but bright, and I powered along at a good pace. Lots of bluebells out, which was lovely to see – it’s the closest we’ll get to a bluebell walk this year…

Served up the bircher meusli I’d prepared last night for breakfast, then got busy on the LinkedIn Meet the Team slide deck for my insurance client. Lots of back and forth but we got there.

Finished configuring the event plug-in for the massage therapist site as well. I’m glad we swapped from the first one I installed — this is much more appropriate for the workshops and small groups that she runs. I got it integrated with her PayPal, which was good e-commerce learning for me as well.

For dinner, we had spinach salad with toasted pitta, dates and red onion, with slices of grilled halloumi on the side. Knocked off a couple of episodes of MasterChef — it’s the final this week, and we’re trying to catch up as much as we can before the results are splashed everywhere…

April 15, 2020

Slept well last night… a glass of wine and a nice bath before bed are always a good set-up for that. We’re on day three of our second time round the meditation challenge. It’s a good one, about focusing your attention on what you want to attract into your life, it has my favourite mantra (Sat-Chith-Ananda), and the background music is barely annoying at all.

Afterwards I went for my run in the Woods. I’m trying to get three runs in during the “work week” (such as it is), and not add to the weekend congestion. Upped my distance to 4.25 miles this time, or three laps round. Deliberately went a bit slower than last time, and managed the full distance at a consistent pace.

It’s Pasc’s birthday today. We called her at lunch time and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to the answer machine. They never answer the phone these days, which is their absolute perogative, but in our lockdown world it does plant that thought that they’re out on an illicit bluebell walk or something.

Investigated the second issue with the gay health website. This one is much more problematic. Their web guy decided he didn’t like the urls for some pages, and instead of editing them and creating re-directs, he threw the structure up in the air, breaking thousands of external links while not managing to simplify the URLs anyway. It will be a bitch to sort that mess out…

Dinner was spaghetti aglio e olio with toasted sourdough breadcrumbs, eaten in front of MasterChef…

April 14, 2020

It’s webinar Tuesday, so after our morning meditation I laced up my shoes and made myself scarce for 90 minutes. Finessed my Heath route a bit to avoid the narrower paths and more built-up areas. Down the private road, round the boating pond, up to Kite Hill, down to the bottom corner, then across the fields to Whitestone Pond corner before turning back.

Skirted round the bottom of Kenwood’s grounds like last time to enjoy the bluebells that are emerging and the valley views. It’s not exactly a valley, but it is a unique bit of Heath topography for sure.

Adam was just finishing up when I got home, and he and Lyra headed straight out for a run. They managed 2.2 miles this time at the impressive pace of 9:50/mile.

Tackled the housework backlog (I was too busy messing about on my computer this weekend)… Also called Pad and sang happy birthday to him. He sounds like he’s hanging in there. Must be so strange for the people who are locked down on their own…

Got a few hours in on client though not enough of it billable: cleaning up the back-end of the Junxion site, monitoring the beauty site Google analytics, professional development reading, helping the massage therapist sort out an events plug-in, and looking into a translation issue of the gay health website I did the page conversions for a couple of months back.

Made a Moroccan spiced roast chicken for dinner, based on an idea Lyra saw on Tiktok. You roast the chicken on a rack in the roasting tin, so that you can add chopped vegetables to roast underneath in due course. This is followed by couscous and chicken stock.

Turned out very nicely, until I took the save all the juices idea too far by attempting to carve the chicken in situ, at which point carnage occurred. Still tasted good…

Nova and I made a hot cross bun and butter pudding, which was also a success. We ate it while catching up on a couple of episodes of MasterChef — we’re through the heats now, and elimination rounds next…

Hit my 100th follower this evening, right on schedule. I’m making a point of following most everybody back, unless their site is completely irrelevant (or private). Once the thing gets better established, I’ll quietly transition away from the ropier end of my follows.

April 13, 2020

Forgot that it was actually a holiday today, now that we are on permanent holiday from normal life… Started the meditation challenge agian at the beginning. Want to keep goign with in, personally would like something a bit less new agey and also a bit longer, but better to stick with this, then wait to find something else and drop the habit.

Went for a four mile run in the Woods. Need to push myself a bit harder now that Adam and Lyra are clocking up some impressive mileage. Despite upping my distance, I also increased the pace – go me!

Adam made an omelette for brunch, ready when I got back. Nice and good to have a break for the relentless three meals a day-x4-go-round.

Instagram following building nicely. Lyra worked some more of her list building magic, and made me a story as well — my first ever foray into that medium.

For dinner, I made celeriac and dill soup, with toasted bagels and cream cheese, followed by yet another microwave banana pudding for dessert. No pudding fatigue round here as yet…

Greg messaged to tell me the sad news that Wendy’s mum Helen died unexpectedly this morning. She’d been recovering nicely from an operation at Gail’s house and suffered a heart attack.

I only met Helen a handful of times, but she seemed a lovely woman, and I was very touched that she and Gail travelled to attend my mum’s funeral…

April 12, 2020

Happy Easter everyone!
Adam and I finished the 21-day meditation challenge this morning. Or rather I did, as he didn’t do any of the exercises around it, just the fifteen minute meditation each morning. The final task was to write a profile of yourself and what you learned from the experience. I completed it while Adam was upstairs starting a web-based course on the Map of Meaning.

Set out some Easter chocolate for the girls, (and tucked an egg aside for Adam and me).

I wasn’t feeling up to much, after my exertions in last night’s virtual pub quiz…;-) Sat down with Adam to put in a bit of time on this week’s Guardian cryptic crossword.

A wasp came through the sliding door and started buzzing round our heads. I kicked out my leg and knocked over the little grey coffee table, spraying water everywhere and smashing my favourite water glass. Needed a little lie down after that…

I’ve recently created an instagram feed for Ten More Bites, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I set it up a couple of days ago, and am working out how I want to proceed. Adam had the big idea of getting Lyra to be my social media adviser.

She was keen to help, and after lunch we sat down to have a family brainstorm about ambitions and targets for it. One is to quickly grow a following of more than 100 food-minded individuals. Lyra thinks that’s absolutely doable and has some good techniques for building a base she put into play.

Made banh mi for dinner, which I photographed for the insta. I’d like to draw on recipes already on Ten More Bites, but will probably have to reshoot many of the images when it’s time to post. Those landscape images on the website aren’t very ‘grammable — portrait would work better.

At Lyra’s request, we’ve signed up to Disney channel. It seems remarkably good value for the content on offer, and these times are made for subscription services.

April 11, 2020

Happy birthday Marni and Aaron! I had a truly great night’s sleep last night, eight solid hours of uninterrupted rest. I could count on one hand the number of times I can remember that happening…

Did our penultimate meditation, then straight out onto the Heath for a good ramble. It had just gone 8:30am, and it was busy but not silly. Also, people are getting better at social distancing, with a few notable exceptions…

The girls were still abed when we got home two hours later. Had to rouse them to come upstairs for their fruit bowl.

Ham and cheese sandwiches with the fresh sourdough for lunch. I’d intended to do some gardening — it was a beautiful afternoon, and hot enough for the girls to move seamlessly from lying in bed to suntanning on the lawn.

But got stuck into the Saturday Guardian, by which point it was time for soup preparations. I did the kneidlach first, prepping the mix and leaving it to thicken and chill, as well as a round of negronis to usher in the evening.

The next step was to get the kneidlach simmering — they need twenty minutes of that. I then reheated the stock with thinly sliced carrots, leftover chicken and some fresh dill. An impressive bowl of chicken soup with kneidlach if I say so myself…;-)

After dinner we hosted a neighbourhood quiz for households in our street. Adam was the obvious person to be the quiz master, especially as he’s now so experienced at managing group meetings on Zoom.

Cracked a bottle of red wine and got things underway. It was good fun, and we three girls won by almost twenty points, which was a bit embarrassing. Adam contributed two answers we wouldn’t have otherwise got, but he was too busy running the quiz to contribute, and we clearly didn’t need his help…;-)

I was a bit squiffy by the end. A bowl of chicken soup with kneidlach is not sufficient to offset the effects of a large negroni and half a bottle of red wine. Nova fixed herself a screwdriver, and apparently Lyra got stuck as well. She was definitely getting into grandiose by the time we herded her downstairs to bed…

April 10, 2020

Today is the first anniversary of Freddy’s death, which is a sad milestone… I can tell Adam is feeling a bit blue today, and he dreamt of his dad last night.

Although it’s Good Friday, we’re both doing some work. I didn’t get enough done yesterday, between feeling rough and house responsibilities mopping up what little motivation I had.

Started things off on a good foot with a run, upping my distance to 3.75 miles, which felt fine. Actually, I stopped for a few minutes to chat with my friend Anthony who told me that he has eight friends who have lost their fathers to Covid-19.

Apparently, the north London Jewish community has been badly hit. Three of the fathers who died had attended the same bar mitzvah in mid-March, and a couple of the families have lost more than one member. What a thing…:-(

Spent a good chunk of the day working on Basil and Veronika’s art school website, adding a shop page so they can offer artworks for sale while they are unable to run classes.

Got a text from Veronika in the evening to check the side cupboard, and discovered she’d stashed a bottle of prosecco in there by way of thanks…:)

The girls were busy with their own evening plans (such as they were), Adam and I watched The Girl on the Train. Read the book but hadn’t seen the film. pretty good, can’t remember the book well enough to say how closely they stuck to the story…

April 9, 2020

Woke up at 3am, feeling way too hot… The bedroom air was stuffy, so I opening the window and the door and the bathroom window as well to create a through draught…

That improved things and I was able to drop off to sleep again. At least until 5am when this bastard of a bird started cheeping his guts out. This was way outside the normal dawn chorus, it was more like having an obnoxious drunken yob yelling outside your window… >:(

I had a bit of a headache from the wine last night. I’m out of the habit of drinking much. Nothing serious, it just took a little longer than usual to ease into my day…

Meditated solo this morning, as Adam upstairs having an early phone meeting with Rachel. Day 18 down, only three to go…

Made fruit bowls for everyone, then prepped for my meeting with Sara. She’s merging her business with another architect and they want a new website that reflects that. The work won’t kick off until May, if it goes ahead…

Spent some time in the kitchen — started a new batch of sourdough, picked the chicken carcass from last night and made stock. We’re going to have chicken soup with kneidlach in a couple of days…:-)

Made a goi ga salad for lunch. We used to eat that a lot, but I haven’t made it in a long time. It’s funny how dishes fall out of rotation. It’s not that kid friendly a meal I guess, though they both love it now.

I was feeling quite low energy today, post-Passover and the end of that big web project, and I couldn’t get focused around my client work. Rooting through the fridge, I noticed half a block of tofu and some green beans that needed using tonight. Sat down with my phone to look for inspiration.

On Twitter, people were taking the mickey out of a Guardian article on store cupboard meals that drew on Asian ingredients, and falling about at the idea that people might actually have Shaoxing wine or buckwheat noodles on hand.

When I took a closer look and realised that the recipe used green beans and tofu, I immediately sprang in to action and whipped up a batch. Very nice it was too…

Watched an episode of MasterChef with dinner. It would be good to catch up before the season ends next week, though realistically I can’t see that happening…

April 8, 2020

I’ve fallen into the habit of spending an hour scrolling the news and social sites first thing, followed by our meditation. As a result, it can be 90 minutes between waking up and getting out of bed. And that’s without putting in time on the cryptic crossword, which we did this morning…

Eventually I headed out for my 3.5 mile run round the Woods. It was a little less busy than it has been lately. And those who were out there are mostly on it in terms of sharing the space. We generally keep to the left except to overtake, aside from the odd maverick, or couple who insist on walking down the centre of the path.

The beauty site Google analytics are working fine now I’m glad to see. I don’t consider analytics or SEO to be part of my offering. I need to have a general understanding of them, but there are people whose entire job is to do those things. But as a one-shop-stop, I regularly find myself doing things I don’t know enough about. Fixing Google analytics is a case in point…

Spent some time working for my insurance client preparing LinkedIn posts. They want to create a series of “meet the team” slide decks, focused on particular sectors, starting with upstream oil and gas. As a first step, I’m creating tailored biography cards for those individuals.

Lunch was minestrone soup (frozen a couple of weeks ago) and toast. Kept it simple, as we’re having passover dinner tonight. Doron swung by Beulah’s to pick up containers of haroset and a box of matzo for us, which he left on the doorstep.

I roasted the fancy chicken, and made roast potatoes, steamed green beans, and banana pudding and butterscotch sauce for dessert.

Adam had a meeting with the Canadian outfit who are intending to buy his company scheduled for dinner time, so it was 8pm by the time we fired up Skype. It sort of worked…

Beulah has her computer set up so her eyes just appear peeping up the bottom of the screen, which takes a bit of getting used to. Though good on her sussing it at out at all.

Lit candles, said the blessings over the bread and wine. For us, that entailed knocking back thimblefuls of old port I’d found lurking at the back of the drinks cupboard, as a stand-in for kosher wine. (I had to double filter it to remove the sediment…)

Said our farewells, and sat down to the rest of our meal. All delicious, though the banana pudding was a particular triumph. Felt a bit drunk on food and wine (we knocked off most of a bottle of white). Played a round of Articulate, then toddled off to bed at 10:30…

April 7, 2020

Did our meditating first thing, then I headed off for a long walk on the Heath. Adam was hosting his weekly B-Corp webinar, and it easier not to be in the house.

Headed into the village to see if any of the shops had opened early. The butcher was just setting up and there was only one customer. I’ve been wanting to ge a chicken to make chicken soup with kneidlach for passover supper tomorrow.

They had a lovely, plump organic chicken in the window, so I bought that. Pretty expensive — there’s no way I’m boiling that sucker. I’ll roast it instead and make stock from the carcass. I prefer doing that anyway…

Headed down to the Heath with my chicken. Now Kenwood has closed its grounds, I find it difficult do a short walk — at least on my usual paths. The chicken and I were at Whitestone Pond before I turned for home.

Swung by the North Hill shop for fresh fruit, then sorted out fruit salads for everyone. After that I got busy trying to sort out why the beauty website is no longer collecting Google data.

Took a good hour, but I think I figured it out. I needed to upload another verification code. I’m pretty sure I didn’t mess anything up — and the original verification code was still sitting where it should be — but I can’t explain why it stopped working when we launched either.

Lunch was Mexican wraps, dinner an interesting sort of bake from a veggie cookbook I use regularly. Potatoes, rosemary, blitzed tomatoes, and a mix of cheese and breadcrumbs, arranged in layers like a lasagne. Pour a bit of cream over the top and bake for an hour.

Watched The Good Liar, a film recommendation from Greg that was very entertaining, then straight to bed afterwards.

April 6, 2020

April 6th feels like a date that should mean something to me, but I can’t think of what it could be. I wonder if it’s a sign of encroaching age, or maybe a blurring of mum’s death and mum and dad’s anniversary. I may never know…

Did our usual meditation (day 14), then went for a 3.5 mile run in the Woods. The glorious weather has receded and usual British service has been resumed — grey, clammy, cool. Though the air quality is noticeably improved by the lockdown. It’s apparent even up here in healthy Highgate, and our view of the city lights at night is a lot sharper.

The run felt pretty strong. Both my knee and ankle are stable at the moment, which is good. Grapefruit and peanut butter toast for breakfast all round, then settled down to my computer.

Various things needed my attention and prevented me focusing on client work. Plus Adam had established himself at the dining room table for some reason, where he conducted a series of loud phone meetings…

Tabbouleh salad for lunch, followed by more not getting down to client work. Gave up about 4pm and made a trip to the village to try to find a couple of items for our Passover dinner on Wednesday.

Beulah is providing matzoh and haroset (which Adam will collect at some point tomorrow). I was hoping to make chicken soup with matzo balls, and some sort of dessert. But it is proving difficult to find either chicken or matzo, which rather kills that plan.

Wore a mask out for the first time, which felt distinctly odd. There were a few people in Tesco who were wrapped up with scarves round their faces, and I saw one guy across the road wearing a surgical mask (like me), but we were a minority.

Dinner was mushroom risotto in front of MasterChef. Afterwards, Adam and I carried on with The Irishman, but we both conked out within half an hour. I can see it’s a good film, but I find it both slow and strewn with over-acting, especially by Pacino.

Boris Johnson has been admitted to intensive care at St Paul’s Hospital. He contracted coronavirus eleven days ago, and thought he was getting over it, but has obviously taken a turn for the worse…

Seems surreal to realise that this is what I was up to this time last year…

April 5, 2020

Awake by 6am as per usual… Checked in with a few major news sites and Twitter, caught up on some social media, then when Adam woke up we did our meditation.

Somehow, with all of that it was 9:30am by the time we set out for a walk on the Heath — far too late for such a glorious morning. The private road down to the ponds was pretty busy, the Heath itself more so.

Three conversations with people we knew before we passed the boating pond, including Antonia who was out for a run. All sounds well at their house, though Ollie still has not regained his sense of taste/smell.

Left the path and climbed on the open fields, which was better for keep distance from people. Folks are generally behaving more responsibly now, leaving space for people to pass, dropping into single file when necessary etc.

Whizzed up a quick smoothie when we got back to tide people over, then had egg, toast, bacon and mushrooms for lunch.

We all tackled some housework — Lyra hoovering, Nova cleaning the kitchen, Adam doing the toilet and the fish tank, while I did the balcony. It was so nice out there by the time I finished, I intended to get my computer and work at the little table, but it was too hot.

Made cauliflower soup, cheese and crackers for dinner, with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (from the girls) for dinner. Watched an episode of Master Chef before going our separate ways. This batch were a real bunch of duds, I don’t think any of them would have progressed in some of the heats we’ve watched…

April 4, 2020

It’s the weekend, for what it’s worth… Actually, I think I may be doing a bit better and not blurring week days and weekends during the lockdown, which is always a challenge as a self-employed person.

Did our meditation, then headed off to the Woods for a run. Did 3.5 miles today, but slowed my pace a bit. I’ll do that for the next few times until it feels comfortable picking up the pace again.

Used the last of the fresh fruit making salads for everyone’s breakfast. Adam and Lyra went off for a run before we ate — they are up to 1.75 miles now. Lyra’s ambition is to do 3 miles without stopping by the time the lockdown ends.

Greek salad and pitta for lunch (my favourite). Afterwards, Adam had to go off to exchange keys with our new tenants, who were able to effect their move. It was in the balance for a while — would the original tenants all succeed in moving, would the new group’s movers fall through, could we find someone to do a professional disinfecting job, as the new tenants had requested.

In the end, it all came off according to plan, and we have both flats rented out for the next year. Of course, whether people will be able to meet their rents is another question. But that’s the least of our concerns. We’re just happy to have them occupied and being looked after by nice people.

Lyra and I made crumpets for scratch for a teatime treat. I’ve never done it before and was surprised at how relatively easy it was. They were certainly much tastier than the packaged ones, which I’ve never seen the point of, aside from an excuse to eat a lot of melted butter.

No one was that hungry for dinner, but I’d thawed some fish already to make Thai yellow seafood curry, so I ended up cooking and we sat down to eat about 8:30pm. Adam had swung round the Red Lion & Sun to buy a case of wine, as we were pretty much out, and it’s a way of giving them some business in these challenging times.

Tried to watch the second episode of Tiger King, but kept falling asleep…

April 3, 2020

I wanted to go for a run after meditation, but time got ahead of me, and I couldn’t fit one in before my 10am meeting. Adam and Lyra went off together and ran 1.75 miles in the Woods, and both felt better for it.

I thought I might fit something in during the day, but unsurprisingly that didn’t happen either. I have some new digital marketing work lined up for my insurance client, which I made a start on using Canva. And some MailChimp work for the Beauty Council, which was good learning.

Veggie soup with sourdough croutons for lunch. Worked until 7pm, then collected a take-away sushi order from Atari-Ya in Golders Green. We’re taking turns choosing a Friday night takeout/delivery and this was Lyra’s pick.

The quality of the sushi was lovely, and I really appreciated the effort made to present it beautifully — the patterned trays, artful arrangements and miniature chrysanthemums as decoration. Feeding the eye as well as the body for sure…

We have a couple of bottles of sake that have been languishing in the garage since my 50th birthday party. Adam heated up a few flasks of that, which added to the celebratory mood.

Nova had a couple of emoji based quizzes on her phone, so we spent the evening doing that. One was cities of the world, the other was London underground stations. Things like a key + a foot = Quito. Kept us busy for a good hour…

April 2, 2020

Woke up at 5:20am, an awkward, in-between sort of time where I wasn’t sure if I could get back to sleep again or if it was even worth trying. Decided to listen to the meditation podcast I’ve started following, thinking that might be quite relaxing.

It might have done the trick if I hadn’t managed to drop my phone on my head, the sharp corner catching me right on the eyebrow. It also messed up my wifi connection somehow, so that that was the going back to sleep idea done for…

Did the daily meditation with Adam, after which we went for a brisk walk on the Heath. Bumped into Gudren and Steve on the home stretch, and had a bit of a catch-up before heading home.

Made everyone a green smoothie and peanut butter toast for breakfast, then got down to work. I have a certain amount of start the month and new financial year work to do: new spreadsheets for my work and the family budget, a final couple of invoices to get out.

The beauty website continues to occupy my day. At least now it’s launched, we are clearly into a fresh billing cycle, which is a relief. Had a meeting about newsletter functionality and some final design amends, which I was able to implement by the afternoon.

Lunch was taco salad (a big hit with everyone) and dinner was pesto pasta — basil pesto for Lyra, sardine pesto for the rest of us. Adam grabbed his bowl and disappeared into our bedroom for his virtual book group. I watched MasterChef with the girls.

There was another clap for the NHS this evening, which we did outdoors this time. It’s heartening to hear the noise rising from all around, though of course you have to stop clapping yourself in order to do so.

On Facebook last night, a group of people I know was talking about how desperately sad and worried they’re feeling. I was sorry to see it, and have filed away a couple more names of people to check in with more regularly

It made me realise that we just aren’t feeling that way at the moment. For one thing, we are in a pretty good situation: everyone healthy, a nice place to live, access to the Heath and a garden, compatible cellmates. I’m happy cooking from scratch, and we’ve got a reasonable stock of food.

I’m sure a big part of it is that being self-employed, income insecurity is a fact of life. It’s the same old same old. And we might have crappy bosses, but at least they aren’t going to fire us…;-)

April 1, 2020

Rabbits! Not sure how much of an impact it’s going to have on this month’s luck, but all the same…

By the time I woke at 6am, Adam was already up finishing a proposal. It’s for a big piece of work with an insurance company, and it would be amazing if we get it. It would remove some of the anxiety about money coming in over the next few months.

Waited until he got to a good place with it then did our meditation, after which I went for a run. Felt really good for the first time in ages, and happy to go a little faster. Just over three miles again — am sticking with that for now.

Most of my work day spent on beauty site post-launch fixes. Millie is sick in bed today (though still working). No idea if it’s Covid-19, but she’s feeling pretty rough. We heard recently that two members of Adam’s book group have had it, one of whom needed to be hospitalised overnight.

Salads for lunch, fish tacos and banana pudding for dinner. Adam didn’t eat with us as he had a Jackson’s Lane board meeting (online of course). Watched an episode of MasterChef with the girls, then when Adam came up the two of us watched the first episode of Tiger King. What an astonishing cast of characters they’ve unearthed…

To bed about 10:30. Finished the entire Guardian cryptic crossword (a first) and their killer sudoku (hard). Go us!