December 2021

December 31, 2021

We started our New Years’ clear out early, and even got several bags up to Cancer Research. We’re about a third of the way through…

Saw on my news feed that Betty White has died aged 99, only a couple of weeks shy of her 100th birthday. A final piece of shitty news to end a generally shitty year. For some reason she reminds me of mum, in looks more than personality.

Got a call from Sara, who we were planning to spend this evening with. She’s still testing faintly positive but wanted to go ahead with our plans.  I left it to Adam to decide, as he has to consider the possible risk to his mum. I’m not much  threat to anyone in the event I catch Covid. In the end, he decided he wanted to go.

Lyra had a sleepover arranged with her friend Alex round ours, but at the last minute Alex cried off as she wasn’t feeling well. Lyra was bummed about that and felt at a loose end. She was welcome to come along to Will and Sara’s with us, but Nova and Holly invited her to go with them for pizza in Kings Cross, which was a more tempting offer. They were planning to come back to ours for a cocktail evening afterwards, so I expect Lyra will partake in a bit of that.

Headed down to Will and Sara’s at 8pm, bearing a bread and butter panettone pudding and the last of the eggnog ice cream. They would have enjoyed having some of our kids around as a semblance of our previous New Years’ eves, but the little skunks all had better offers, aside from Etta. I think there was some kind of upset there, though didn’t discuss it with us.

Will had three cocktails planned for the evening, and we managed two before dinner: first up, the Aviator (gin, lemon juice, liqueur de violette, maraschino liqueur), followed by a Negroni. Dinner was crepes (filled turkey curry or mushrooms and tarragon), rice and salad.

Afterwards, we played a version of Sushi Go they’d made themselves based on Christmas dinner. It was pretty complicated, and by the time Adam and I had a clue what we were actually doing it was time to pop the bubbles and move into the living room to watch the countdown.

It was a bit weird watching the fireworks over London. You could feel the lack of a crowd somehow. They can certainly do some amazing things with drones now. Sara – feeling demob happy after her covid Christmas –  insisted Will make the third cocktail on the menu, and we had a martini for the road before heading home about 2am.

The girls were still up and feeling pretty merry themselves. Lyra has discovered Kahlua this Christmas, and has now added Baileys to the list, with a couple of mini-Guinness shooters. To bed about 3am.

December 30, 2021

Happy birthday, Drew! Both Adam and I slept badly last night. I woke pretty much on the hour – 2am, 3am, 4:30am etc – before finally managing a few solid hours of sleep. I think maybe Nova and Holly were up late downstairs, and making just enough noise to disturb our sleep.

Started the day with coffee in bed and our respective Jack Reacher novels. When Adam finished his, we got dressed and set out for a morning walk. Before I reached the top of the path, I noticed a migraine halo starting and decided to turn back.

Took a couple of Lyra’s tablets and lay down until it passed. I have yet to have a headache associated with the halos, for which I count myself very lucky. I’ve never tried her tablets before now. I don’t know if they made any difference, but I was left with a dull achy feeling on the right side of my head which took a few hours to pass.

Turkey soup and sandwich for lunch – which should be my last of the season. I need to return to my usual eating habits pretty pronto. Adam and I watched the BBC’s flagship Christmas drama, a three-parter called A Very English Scandal about an infamous divorce between the Duke and Duchess of Argyle. She did appear to have been quite the good time gal, but the double standards of the time were appalling, and the Duke was a nasty piece of work.

Went round to Richard and Rachel’s for a delicious roast lamb dinner. I think it was good for the dog to have us on her turf. She wasn’t happy about it at first, but chilled over the evening, and even stopped growling at Adam. Got through three bottles of wine in surprisingly short order, given that Richard stuck to beer. Home and straight to bed.

December 29, 2021

Slept very well last night – a good eight hours for once. Felt so together that I almost convinced myself to go for a run. Made the mistake of picking up my latest Jack Reacher novel, and by the time I was able to tear myself away it was almost 11am.

Started in on the housework and food prep for Beulah’s impending visit. Made carrot raita and the sauce for the turkey curry, then put together a couple of platefuls of random leftovers to try to clear some room in the fridge.

Chipped away at housework and food prep through the afternoon, and by the time Adam headed off to collect his mum I was feeling relaxed enough to watch most of an episode of Shameless with Lyra. She’s seen both the British and American versions, and rates the US one higher, so that’s what we’re going with.

Nova and Holly got in just before 7:30pm, and we sat down to eat shortly after: turkey and Brussels sprout curry (delicious), spinach-potato curry, bhel puri, naan bread, poppadums, chutney and lime pickle, basmati rice. Forgot to put out the carrot raita, but there was plenty of food without it. Christmas baking for dessert.

It was all very tasty and I think Beulah enjoyed herself – I’m sure the change of scenery is good for her. Adam dropped her home again about 10pm, and Lyra and I watched another episode of Shameless before bed. That William H Macy character is a monster.

December 28, 2021

Another morning, another excuse not to exercise… I’ll have to start with one of those “couch to five K” programmes at this rate…

Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and toast for brunch made a welcome change from all the turkey-based meals. Nova’s friend Holly is arriving to stay for a few days this afternoon, so Nova has been frantically tidying and disinfecting her plague pit in readiness.

Did some necessary client work. The beauty website has had a burst of  spammy membership sign-ups, which hasn’t happened before. I deleted them all, updated all the plugins, themes, and WordPress, cleared the cache, and even suspended the membership type that was being compromised. I’m out of my depth on this one though, so if it doesn’t work, I’ll have to put in a support request.

Adam and I walked to Muswell Hill for some exercise, and got a few groceries from EverFresh before looping back home. Made sweet-potato cauliflower tacos for dinner (Holly is vegetarian), and had a nice meal together before she and Nova headed out to the pub.

To bed about 11pm, but stayed up too late reading a Jack Reacher novel. Those things are impossible to put down. The only thing to do is delay starting the next one…

December 27, 2021

Lazed about in bed for an hour or so finishing the Christmas cryptic crossword. They do a bumper-size one over the holidays, which usually has some extra twist that you need to figure out. In this year’s, half the clues were composed without a definition and were all the names of trees or plants.

It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but once we did it came together quite quickly. Although some of the tree names were pretty obscure, and we’d work out what the answer should be and then look up whether there was such a thing as a cowtree or whatever.

My first task when I got up was to pick over the turkey bones and strain the stock. Got a big pot of turkey soup together in time for lunch with Richard and Rachel. They tend to eat their Christmas dinner in a local pub, and so appreciate the chance to have turkey sandwiches.

They headed off about 3pm, and I hit the sofa in a turkey-induced slump. No one felt like eating any dinner, which left time for Adam and I to do a walk before dusk, down to Kenwood and then back through the side streets.

Watched Don’t Look Up with the girls, which we all enjoyed and were depressed by in equal measure. Had a belated chat with David – they weren’t answering the phone on Christmas Day, but it turns out it was unplugged or flat or something. I was completely knackered by 11pm – could barely keep my eyes open and we toddled down to bed before the girls.

December 26, 2021

I love Boxing Day, and the absolute lack of things I need to do after all the Christmas build up and delivery. Shifted myself after coffee and bed and before long I tipped my second puzzle on the mat and made a start.

Took a mid-afternoon turkey sandwich break. There’s no turkey soup as yet, as I didn’t have the energy to make the stock last night. The girls like a slice of roast potato in their turkey sandwich, as well as a layer of red cabbage. I tried both, but am going to stick with my turkey/stuffing/cranberry/gravy/mayo combo.

Adam headed out for a Boxing Day walk, but I wasn’t tempted this year, mainly because the weather was pretty shit. We had Pete and Pasc coming round for belated visit, so I knocked off the puzzling in time to make the traditional Thai sausage rolls, blini, and arrange the baking.

We had a nice visit and exchange of gifts, aside from a moment when Fay piped up that she hates the film Love Actually. The girls were appalled – Lyra genuinely thought they were winding her up. Apparently Fay finds it corny (duh!) and doesn’t care about any of the characters.

Nova and I got stuck into the puzzle again after they left, and with a bit of last-lap support from Adam, managed to finish it about 1:30am. That’s my jigsaw puzzling over for another year…

December 25, 2021

Happy Christmas Day! Given how late Lyra generally sleeps in, I thought it might be a leisurely start this year, but she was raring to go by 7:30am.

The first step was for all of us to do tests. Nova is now completely negative which was nice to see. There was still  some mask wearing and we had the door and windows cracked for a bit of fresh air, but we’ll stop that after today. I won’t be testing again until we plan to see Beulah or something.

Took turns opening presents, which is a nice way of doing things. Afterwards, we sorted out the breakfast fixings and sat down to our traditional melton mowbray. Actually, we bought them from Marks & Spencer this year instead of Mrs King at Borough Market. There was next to no jelly, which suited the girls fine but I missed. I expect they’ve done their market research and I’m in the minority.

Now that both girls like prosecco we have no trouble getting through a bottle with our Christmas toasts. We’re going to need two bottles before long…

I was keen to get the turkey on early, as it’s a beast. I also needed to churn the ice cream in time for tonight. Made the stuffing and packed the bird, got the red cabbage cooking, and made the cranberry sauce, while Nova prepped the rest of the vegetables.

After a chat with Wade we sat down to watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Overall, I was feeling pretty relaxed about things. There was no room in oven for potatoes, but I always face that logistical challenge. Roast potatoes are a dumb idea at Christmas dinner imho, but that’s a minority view round here. I’m pretty sure I never even ate a roast potato before moving to the UK.

Gravy was another issue, and is always the most stressful part of the meal. I usually make stock with the giblets, but there were none this year.  I managed to pull something together with the pan drippings, chicken stock, white wine, flour etc. that was fit for purpose.

At some point, I checked the exact weight of the bird and discovered that it was only 7kg, not the 9-10kg they’d threatened to deliver. According to Delia Smith, it only required four hours (if stuffed), but I went a bit longer anyway to be on the safe side.

It had gone 7pm by the time we sat down to eat. Everything was pretty good, aside from the roast potatoes, which were a bit wan and the gravy which didn’t taste like it would have with a proper stock. The four of us put a respectable dent in the turkey, but there will be more than  plenty left for turkey sandwiches etc.

We were all too full for pudding afterwards. Broke down the carcass, did the dishes, flopped onto the couch and listened to A Child’s Christmas in Wales before returning to the table for dessert. I was completely felled by that, and staggered back to the sofa again. Had a long family phone call with Margo and Aaron, who are enjoying a quiet, snowy Christmas in Sproat Lake.

December 24, 2021

Day six and three negative lateral flows upstairs, but Nova’s showed the faintest of positive lines. She’s supposed to have two negatives before coming out of quarantine, so we’ll have to think about that…

I’m in pretty good shape for the big day tomorrow, and given that Borough Market is a non-starter and we aren’t having the Franklyn’s round for our traditional Christmas Eve get together there wasn’t much on for today either. Sorted out the Christmas silver, made the eggnog ice cream custard, and a couple of similar bits and bobs, then set up the puzzle mat and broke out T’was the Night Before Christmas.

In recent years, Nova has enjoyed helping me, with it but that’s not on the cards today. Adam scrupulously avoided the dining area so as not to get sucked in, and Lyra is yet to show any interest in jigsaws. Adam then did then male cliche of going Christmas shopping in Muswell Hill, so I was on my own.

By starting early, I’d made a relatively good dent by dinner time. Started our evening off with a round of Harvey Wallbangers, and then another. Nova emerged double-masked from her plaque pit for the traditional watching of The Polar Express with her sister. From what I hear from my annual position at the dining room table, it is a dreadful film. They rip it to shreds as they watch, but it wouldn’t be Christmas Eve without it.

Prawn cocktail and fake soufflé for dinner. Nova joined us but sat at the far end of the table so we weren’t breathing on each other, and we had windows open to encourage air flow.. Afterwards we opened our Christmas pyjamas then settled down to watch A Christmas Carol. Lyra lasted about twenty minutes before sloping off downstairs. She returned again for the ending when Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning, as she likes that bit. We’ll make a convert of her yet…

Restored my puzzle to the table, Adam relented and gave me a hand, and we had it finished by midnight. Stuffed the stockings and to bed…

December 23, 2021

Managed to get myself out for a run this morning in the Woods. Just 2.25 miles, but I’m glad I did it. Realistically, this is my last run this side of Boxing Day. I always hope I’m going to run across the holiday period, but almost never manage it…

Ended up doing spending more time than intended, but I finally built, tested and launched the new project template for the architecture site.  They are running out of space and memory in their hosting environment, which was causing hassle. I’d use up all the available resource and the site would hang or return an error message. Eventually I contacted the client and got them to upgrade their plan, and things went more smoothly after that.

The Wine Society emailed me to say that the white burgundy we’d bought recently has something wrong with it. I had to confirm batch numbers and send evidence so they can process a credit against future orders. An annoyance I didn’t need, but at least I found out before we cracked a bottle for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Decided to abandon our theatre tickets to see Mark Gatiss’ Christmas Carol at Ally Pally this evening. It’s a shame, but we wanted to do it as a family, and I would have feel crappy leaving Nova home alone.  I also have mixed feelings about sitting in an audience for a couple of hours, even with the medical grade masks I’ve bought. Apparently as many as 1 in 10 people in London have covid in London at the moment…

On a related bah-humbug note, we’ve postponed our annual get together with Pasc, Pete and the kids until Boxing Day. Fingers crossed Nova tests negative tomorrow, or we should probably postpone it further…

December 22, 2021

Day four of Nova’s quarantine and three more negative tests. There’s no point in her doing lateral flows yet, as she’s supposed to self-isolate for ten days in any event. Actually, it sounds like they are going to change the guidance of that. There are so many people currently self-isolating with Covid that the medical, transport and service industry are at risk.

It sound like people can start doing lateral flows from day 6, and once they get two negative results in a row they can end their self-isolation. Something similar has just happened in the US for the same reason, though I think it is restricted to key workers.

Another day of work. Managed to draw a line under everything except the architecture site, so I’ll put in some time on that tomorrow, after which I’ll dismantle my work station for the holidays.

Our Christmas grocery order arrived this afternoon. Despite months of warnings about food shortages, it was complete – aside from the Christmas pudding…:-( There wasn’t a lot of choice turkey-wise. Even two months ago when I set the order up, there were only large turkeys, insanely expensive turkeys, and tiny turkey crowns. I’ve been checking  back regularly to see if I could amend my turkey, but the website was so flaky that I didn’t dare amend it…

December 21 2021

The three of us upstairs folk are all doing daily tests now, and once again we were all negative. It’s good to know that the tests actually work, as I’ve never seen a second line of any description before now. Apparently, the tests are more likely to give false positives than false negatives, which is as it should be…

Finished my Christmas wrapping – I never manage  it so early, and it feels very satisfying. Finished just in time for my UN meeting. I have another round of Blue Economy editing in the new year, and Adam organised a quick Zoom call to introduce me to the client and block out the project milestones so we can hit the ground running in January. It’s the first time I haven’t been hidden in the background, which feels good.

Made veggie soup for lunch, and put together a nice tray of food for Nova. She’s barely sick at all and is feeling pretty bored down there – her meals are the one thing she has to look forward to.

I have too much work on… I was hoping  not work at all this week, but that’s not happening I had another meeting with Kate to coach her through updating the LinkedIn page for one of her clients, and managed to cross a few things off my list, but I’ll be lucky to wrap up tomorrow… 

December 20, 2021

Meditated and went for a 2.25 mile run in the Woods before doing my test this morning. Probably should have done it beforehand, but I felt fine, and in any event it came back negative. Adam and Lyra were negative too – so far, so good…

Worked half-heartedly in between servicing Nova. She requested eggs with sriracha and toast for breakfast, was ready to join us for lunch 90 minutes later, then sent up a list of medicines, throat lozenges, tea etc for us to fulfil. Fair enough, the poor kid is going to be locked in her room for the foreseeable future.

Beulah phoned a few times as well. She’s understandably feeling a bit deflated about Christmas, and we all had a good stretch on the phone with her. All in all, I managed about an hour’s billable work all day.

Made cauliflower, pea and cashew curry for dinner and watched Love Actually for the evening’s entertainment. Nova FaceTimed in and I set the phone up on a little stand so she could sort of follow along with us. What a weird world we are living in at the moment…

December 19, 2021

Had a bit of a lie-in (8am) for me. Adam went off to play football, and after my first coffee I got going on the Hannukah wrapping. I’m pretty happy with where we’re at aside from Ollie and Marni, who I find hard to buy for. They never seem to like whatever we get them, so maybe I shouldn’t worry about it…

I’d just tied my last bit of ribbon when we received the news that Nova’s PCR test had come back positive. So that’s all our plans up in the air…

She immediately started self-isolating in the flat, and we looked up the current guidance on how to proceed. Current guidance for fully-vaccinated people is that we should test daily for the next seven day, but can continue life as normal unless we get a positive result.

We both feel we should be more careful than this, especially where Beulah is concerned. After discussion with Doron and Antonia, we agreed that they’d pop by to collect our gifts and we’d join the Hannukah celebrations by Zoom.

After that all four of us did lateral flow tests, which came back Nova positive, and the three of us negative. Lyra took sole responsibility for the Christmas cake decoration, and helped me get all the tree decorations ready. We all donned our medical-grade FFP2 masks, opened the patio door and kitchen windows, and a masked Nova emerged for a bit to trim the tree before returning to her plague pit.

Got the roast in the oven, and sat down watch Elf with Santa-seccos while it cooked. Adam delivered Nova’s baron of beef sandwich, and she joined us by Facetime for dinner and cutting the Christmas cake. Sent down an individual plate of baking for her and carried on with the film until it was time to do Hannukah.

Beulah had got the menorahs ready so long ago she has now managed to lose them, Adam couldn’t find his prayer book, and the singing was a train wreck (as per usual), but it was better than nothing. Doron dropped by again on the way home with our gifts from Beulah and some Hannukah baking. To bed at 11pm.

December 18, 2021

Nova’s coming home from Spain today! Her 6am flight from Madrid ended up being delayed an hour, but even with that she should be in London by about noon…

We had a bit of shopping to take care of before Hannukah, as well as posting the Christmas cards. Did most of it in the village, but had to range as far as Archway to buy royal icing for the Christmas cake.

Adam headed off to Kings Cross to collect her about 11:30. Made a fry-up lunch when she arrived. She’d been up since 4am and hadn’t eaten, so was feeling pretty hungry.

The next order of business was to submit her PCR test. All incoming travellers are obliged to complete one within 48 hours of arriving in the UK. We want to do it as quickly as possible so that we can be reasonably confident about seeing Adam’s mum tomorrow evening.

Our original plan was to do the tree and baron of beef tonight, but I had an on-again, off-again meal with friends arranged that was unexpectedly on again. Nova was knackered, having stayed up all night so as not to miss her flight, and Lyra was hanging out with her friend Olive, so we’re going to do it tomorrow.

Headed up to the Red Lion to meet Jess and Donna for 7:30pm. Millie was meant to be coming as well, but she’s flying to LA tomorrow, and was still getting ready. A friend of Donna’s called Julia came instead. Complementary champagne was a nice start, then a provencale fish dish and pannetone bread and butter pudding (one of my faves). Home about 11pm.

December 17, 2021

Got dressed in my running clothes this morning, which can be a good way to nudge myself out the door. Made the mistake of looking at my computer, and before I knew it an hour had gone by.

Sorted out a couple of issues for the gardening lady, and was just going to set out when my Irish fitness client called. Ended up moving straight onto the gift certificate issue, and by the time I’d dealt with that it definitely felt too late. Oh well… hope there’s more time to exercise over the holidays…

Spread myself over a lot of small jobs for a number of clients, trying to reduce my to-do list before we break up. I’d vaguely wondered about started my Christmas break at the end of the day, but that is definitely not happening.

Spent the evening doing the Christmas cards with Adam. Lyra was babysitting, so we broke out the Christmas cashews, fixed ourselves some G&Ts and went for it. Managed the whole list in one evening. Makes a big difference when there are two of you on the case…:-)

December 16, 2021

Feeling surprisingly okay today, though running wasn’t on the cards. Got up as usual to get Lyra off to school – the last day of the term, but she was very resistant to going.

There’s still lingering drama around the party un-invite, and what with that, the exponential spread of omicron through London, and the fact that today’s school session was a two-hour church service, after which they were dismissed early, we decided she could stay home.

Three main tasks for today: finalising the Trade Hub on the beauty site, figuring out how to sell gift subscriptions on the Pilates site, and a one-hour session with the gardening granny.

I emailed her before setting off to see if she was still comfortable meeting in person. I told her I’d done a negative lateral flow test yesterday, but that I had taken the Tube and eaten lunch out with three colleagues. She said she was comfortable with that so we went ahead.

Both of us wore our masks throughout the session and sat further apart than we have been doing. I was somewhat surprised to notice that she clearly had cold symptoms: congestion and coughing. If she’d mentioned that in our email exchange I wouldn’t have agreed to meet. Fingers crossed it’s just a cold and not covid…:-(

I’d had enough of work when I got back, and knocked off a bit early to finish watching The Holiday with Lyra. A bit corny, but quite fun. Lime-ginger chicken thighs with slaw for dinner. To bed by 10pm…

December 15, 2021

Another okay sleep, aside from an issue with my lower back. It’s been tight and sore for the past couple of days, to the point where I need to half wake up in order to shift position.

Today the tightness seems to be concentrated on the left side. I’m wondering if I strained something in Pilates? It doesn’t feel like we’re doing much of anything in that class, but the next day my neck or some little muscle in my abdomen will be a bit sore, so it must be having some effect.

Decided against running, but did half an hour of gentle stretching before hitting the desk. Worked in the morning, then headed into town for the Jx Christmas lunch. Our colleague Cami has backed out, so there were four of us. Had a lovely French meal at a place called Cigalon, then shifted to the bar in the basement for cocktails and a couple of hours of pétanque.

Adam had a ticket to the Arsenal match this evening, so I brought his bag home for him. Got in about 8pm. Lyra had fixed herself some pesto pasta for dinner already, and we watched half of The Holiday together before I conked out.

December 14, 2021

Slept well for the second night in a row. Not sure why, and whether I’m doing anything to facilitate it, but pleased it’s happening…

I did the food stuff, then Adam drove Lyra and did his usual walk with Doron on the Heath. It’s really good that they’ve established that routine. Before they did, they sometimes went months without seeing one another.

Hung the Christmas lights round the ground floor window first thing. The couple next door are moving out today, which is news to us. They’ve been good neighbours – only one small car, non-aggressive cats, happy to feed Cleo when we go away. So another period of uncertainty while we wait to see who we get next…

Lyra was babysitting this evening, so took the opportunity to have salmon – the creamy one with spinach and tomatoes that I’ve been making lately. Watched Die Hard, which neither Adam or I had seen before, and is now considered a Christmas movie. Quite enjoyed it, especially the 80s hair and fashion…

December 13, 2021

One week of school to go and we’re free from the tyranny of 6:45am starts for a little while… Just as well the way omicron is spreading. According to the news, it already accounts for 20% of cases in the UK, numbers are expected to double every three days, and a person has now died from it.

Being fully vaccinated doesn’t seem to offer much protection, though a booster shots gives you a 70% chance of not contracting it, and of course a milder illness in the event you do. The government has announced a booster drive before Christmas, aiming to vaccinate one million people every day.

Have started reading The Plague by Albert Camus. I’ve only read it in the original French before now, so needless to say I’m enjoying it much more this time.

Meditated then went for a 2.25 mile run in the Woods. It was pretty mucky, but mild compared to last week. My inbox was in wild disarray so I spent a couple of hours slashing that back and sending holding emails where needed. 

Sorted out the email directs for the soil stabilisation people. There was a mini crisis when I realised that the old domain name emails were no longer working as they weren’t pointing to the random email host, but resolved that pretty quickly. 

I was attempting to bake shortbread alongside working, which meant a couple of too-dark batches when I got distracted by work. 

Keema curry with beef and green beans rather than lamb and peas and a Bojack then Succession one two. It was the season finale, so we can put that dysfunctional crew down for a year or so…

December 12, 2021

Felt right as rain this morning. I was careful not to drink without eating first, and didn’t have someone filling my glass when I wasn’t paying attention…

Adam headed off to play football at 8:30. I read for an hour, then went into Lyra’s room and had a long chat with her. Did some housework, made shortbread dough, then we headed up to the village to buy a better wreath and some dates to make the date squares.

In the afternoon the two of us watched a Richard Curtis film called About Time. Once you accept the ridiculous premise that all the men in this Cornish family have the ability to travel back in time to change how events in their life unfold, it was an entertaining and touching story.

After that, Adam and I made a start on our income taxes. His are less complicated than mine now that the bulk of his income comes from a salaried job. He left me compiling a big pdf of all my invoices (trying to minimise the printing this year) to head over to his mum’s for a bit.

Lyra and I made chicken fajitas for dinner, which we ate in front of Bojack. It’s interesting how invested one can get in a badly drawn horse-man.

December 11, 2021

Our Week magazine didn’t arrive on schedule, so we started the day with the morning paper and coffee instead. Off to Pilates at noon – I’m enjoying the class but would prefer it to be at least an hour earlier. Plunked in the middle of the day as it is limits the options to do other things. 

Had a bite of lunch then made the annual Christmas trip to Costco. Ended up buying ourselves a nice set of Circulon cookware, which I’m very pleased about. Our pots and pans are in an appalling state, and needed upgrading. Once we unpacked the food, I got straight into the pot cupboard and heaved most everything out, aside from the Le Creuset casserole, the two cast iron frypans, and the wok.

Lyra was at Brent Cross with Lottie (who’s over from Norway to see her dad). We had a unusually social evening for us: a small drinks party at a former colleague of Adam’s (Rikke) in Kentish Town, followed by dinner at Kiran and Birgit’s. 

We took a cab to Rikke’s, stayed 90 minutes chatting with new folk, drinking gløgg, and sampling her Danish nibbles, then caught another cab straight to K&Bs. They’d invited Laurence and Madonna, which was a nice surprise – I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen them this side of Covid.

Grilled goat’s cheese salad, pheasant stew, roasted root veg and a mixed berry tart. Everything delicious as it always is at their house, and lots of lovely wine. Walked home about 12:30am. 

December 10, 2021

Up early as per usual. Got Lyra fed and watered and ran her to the bus stop by 7:25. She’s almost always ahead of Ellie these days… Meditated, then got down to work. I need to launch the soil stabilisation website today, and there were things to do in advance of that. My to-do list is out of hand, I try to be targeted about but it’s a bit scary.

Started the launch and migration process about noon – it’s a thing of moving parts. I secured the new hosting, set up a holding domain name, rebuilt the skeleton site in situ, tested everything, started the migration of the old site to the new hosting, adjusted the DNS settings with the new domain name provider to point to the new hosting and supercede the holding domain.

I haven’t touched the email yet, which is complicated by being hosted in yet another spot, and the fact they are going to run two email addresses in parallel for a while. I’m losing track of what is pointing where. Another detail is transferring the old domain name for the migrated site to the new hosting. I can’t do that myself, but sent off an email to set in in train. 

There’s always a worrying part in the process when everything seems broken because the old DNS settings are gone and the new ones haven’t been propagated. It seems to last just long enough to make you worry that you’ve fucked something up and then suddenly it all works!

Lyra came home in the midst of all this and headed out again not long after to spend the evening at Winter Wonderland with her friend Alex. I’m glad she has something fun to do. Adam wanted to push on with work into the evening. I was less keen, but didn’t feel like coming over all housewifely and preparing his dinner either so I kept at it too…

We finally got around to cooking about 8:30pm, Made the palak paneer recipe we cooked the other day, which is a real winner. Watched The Wife with Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce about an author who’s awarded the Nobel Prize for literature when his wife had actually written all his novels. I had the idea it was based on a true story, but a bit of Googling showed that isn’t the case.

December 9, 2021

Managed my second run of the week. It was Adam’s turn to drive Lyra to the bus stop, so you’d think I might have got out early but it didn’t happen. At least I didn’t do the thing I sometimes do where I decide it’s too late and bail.

Two miles still felt like enough though my time was a bit quicker than on Monday. Bumped into Richard on the way home. He’d injured his knee slipping on the path (been there, done that) but because he has private medical he was already limping off for a physio session. Generally by the time our NHS physio appointments turn up we can’t remember which injury they were meant to apply to (probably the one before last…)

Today’s sourdough loaves were perfection. I love it when that happens…

Did my second session with the gardening granny. This time we focused on a product called Tailwind that she wants to use for social media scheduling and to create Instagram links in her profile. It occurs to me that this client might be a good kick up the pants for me in terms of my own blogging habits.

Had a long talk with Lyra when she got in from school. She’s feeling a bit better, thankfully, but the school have noticed how upset she was and I received a check-in call from the head of pastoral care for her year. This school could not be more different from Nova’s in terms of this stuff, which I’m really grateful for.

Made broccoli quiche and salad for dinner to have with the fresh bread. Watched a couple of episodes of Bojack,  so that’s season two in the bag. When she went down to bed, it was already too late to start anything else.

The nation is gripped by “partygate”, and all the parties Number 10 and government ministries were throwing during lockdown last year. Carrie popped out Johnson’s eighth (ninth, tenth?) child today, and barely got a mention on the news. To bed about 11pm.

December 8, 2021

I should have anticipated that Lyra wouldn’t feel much like going to school today – I certainly wouldn’t in her position. I’d changed into my running clothes, but ended up spending a good hour talking to her, then getting her food sorted, and she made it half way through second period.

By this point it was too late to justify delaying my working day for another hour and a half so I could exercise. Put in a good chunk of time on my engineering website, building nicely on the meeting we had yesterday. Doing all my action points basically. Ball’s in their court now…

My Kenyan client cropped up with more IT woes. Some bright spark had given her the idea that the problem was something to do with website updates, but when I looked at their hosting I could see that they were exceeding their quota by 5%. I recommended upgrading their plan, unearthed their old access details when nobody could find them, and at the end of the day she sent me this

Dear Andrea,

The website is up and running after the upgrade you recommended; thank you so so much for your support….  …Andrea, you’ve been wonderful to work with and I really appreciate the effort you’ve put in bringing us to the digital space (with a very limited budget) and supporting me when technology is not my thing.

Spicy cottage pie for dinner with Bojack followed by the latest episode of Succession before bed. I’m still enjoying that one, but they’ve painted themselves into a corner, and it’s hard to see where the characters can go…

December 7, 2021

I’m having trouble waking up at 6:45am these days. Partly because I’m sleeping badly, partly because it’s still dark. Adam drives on Tuesday, so I sorted Lyra’s food out, saw her off, then did my meditation before work.

Monthly meeting with my engineering client today, where we talk through necessary website developments/amends and project and news story ideas. I then update the content planner, putting initials against action points for all the things we agreed, and circulate that to everyone.

After which, nothing happens for a month unless it has my initials on it.  Maybe now the director who was most focused on the website is back from  nine months adoption leave, things will be better. Fingers crossed…

I also had a meeting with my Jx colleague Chantal about a potential case study for me to write. She spent the whole time telling me why it was an inappropriate choice, while also downloading  a raft of information. I listened and typed furiously for half an hour – we’ll  see what happens there…

I’ve recently finished reading a book her partner wrote, a travel/memoir about climbing in Nepal and how they came to sponsor the education of two little Nepali girls, which has involved arranging study visas for them to spend a year attending school in Canada. I wanted to hear what had happened since the book ended, around Covid etc. All up to speed now…

Wade called straight after and we were  just settling into a  nice chat when a client popped up with an urgent problem and Lyra came home from school feeling upset, so I cut things short.

She’d just been uninvited in a really insensitive way from her friend Iris’s party on the 17th. The reason given is covid, but the guest list has gone from 150 to 100 or something so that doesn’t seem the whole story. This party has been on her radar for ages – we bought a dress for it last weekend, and been searching for presents.

I just hope it’s not connected to the crap she’s been going through with her former junior school friends. Social media has transformed friendship networks – so different to my teenage years. I’m very glad there was no social media when I was her age – it seems to make the challenges of adolescence even harder.

We had a long talk, and as always I am impressed with her emotional intelligence. She sees things very clearly for someone her age. I was late getting dinner organised by this point, so it was pesto pasta for her and Adam, while  I had a cheese plate. He headed over to his mums to help with something or other, while Lyra and I finished Sex Education.  Very glad there will be another season…

December 6, 2021

Did all the usual school stuff for Lyra, meditated then managed to get out for the long-postponed run. It was cold as hell, and despite dressing in my warmest gear, my toes and fingers were quickly numb and never properly warmed up.

I had a surprising amount of energy and managed two miles without much difficulty. Had a long hot shower afterwards before getting down to work. By the time I broke off for lunch – leftover lamb burger and some salad – I was chilled again and opted to eat in bed under the duvet.

Lyra was babysitting this evening after school, which was a good chance to eat some paneer that has been languishing in the fridge for ages. She’s not a fan (or of halloumi) which is just crazy talk in my opinion…

Adam bolted his food down, then headed straight over to his mums again. I was a bit disappointed because I’d been alone all day, would have welcomed some company but hey ho. S tarted watching The Woman in White, a BBC series I’d taped ages ago. Although I never read book, I formed the idea it was a ghost story, which it doesn’t appear to be.

Adam got home about 11pm. Beulah has wound up his dad’s company, and wanted to distribute the balance of funds between the boys, so that’s a nice Christmas bonus…

December 5, 2021

I’m finally feeling myself, and even vaguely considering running, before deciding that it was better postponed until Monday…;-) Adam made pancakes for him and Lyra, and I decided to try these keto waffles. I’m not a pancake person, and savoury waffles sounded promising.

One has to accept that a lot of keto versions of things are a matter of contorting eggs and almonds into new configurations. I’m used to that, but the recipe needs to work. This one was an abysmal failure. Most of the batter poured straight out the sides of the waffle iron when I closed it. The remainder was scalded into a nasty scrappy omelette-y thing. Disappointed of N6…

I had vague ideas of doing some work in the afternoon, but never found the motivation. Read the paper instead, and my novel. I also finished the book our colleague Chantal sent us. Written by her husband, it tells about how they have ended up sponsoring the education of two Nepali girls from a remote Himalayan valley.

Watched Nativity with Lyra, such a heart-warming film – I like it better every time I see it. When Adam got back from visiting his mum, I made spicy peanut chicken and an Asian slaw for dinner. Bath and bed at a reasonable hour…

December 4, 2021

Still feeling a bit ropy this morning, and not from Richard’s dinner. I’m certain it’s still that damn foodless drinks party…

Did our Pilates class at noon, walking down with Pete and Pasc. I’m getting the hang of some of the exercises now, and am definitely enjoying it more. Made some lunch when we got in, then potted around with various bits of housework.

Got a last-minute dinner invite from Millie and Bryn (on again?) for a meal at Namaste. The food was much better than I remembered it being. Millie and I did go on the second day they opened or something, so I knew that wasn’t a good point to judge. The service is as lousy as ever unfortunately. Though we keep reading about how short-staffed everywhere is now we’ve told all the European workers to fuck off home, so maybe that’s a factor.

Headed from there to Pete and Pasc’s Christmas drinks party. I’d had water with dinner, and after the obligatory shot of sloe gin, I sipped a tepid glass of prosecco for 2+ hours until I could reasonably say my goodbyes. Adam decided to stay on, not being in the throes of a two-day hangover…

December 3, 2021

Felt like crap this morning, a full-on proper hangover. Seems like a long time since I’ve had one of those… At least I had a super fun evening and couldn’t recollect anything cringe-worthy I’d said, so there’s that to be thankful for…

I’d managed to spill my contact lenses and juice over the bedside table, which required tracking down the shrivelled lenses and disinfecting/rehydrating them all morning. I’ve managed to lose one of my favourite earrings as well – the big gold hoops that Adam gave me.

Once I managed to get myself out of bed, I had a cold shower and took some Nurofen. I also stripped and changed the bed hoping I’d find the earring but no joy…

Made myself a thick slice of toast and peanut butter then sat at my desk, but I wasn’t good for much. On the plus side, Millie appears to be feeling worse. She also injured her feet from six hours of standing/dancing in high heels on concrete floors.

I had a long chat with Nova at lunch time. She disappointed Adam’s conference is cancelled and he won’t be travelling to Barcelona next weekend. She’d shelled out £60 for a train ticket in order to meet him that turns out to be non-refundable so has decided to go on her own for a few days.

Had a bit of IT to do for a client today. I’m  so not up for that type of work, but we were meeting at 3pm and I needed to report my progress. Managed to more or less get things in place on time and hold up my end of the stick through the meeting. Zoom was definitely my friend in this instance. 

By the time Richard’s birthday dinner at Red Lion and Sun rolled round, I was feeling more myself. Ordered a bottle of sauv blanc with Rachel as per usual, but I barely touched my glass until the mains arrived. I wasn’t going to rely on two raw oysters to absorb any alcohol. Went for a burger and chips, with hit the spot.

Coming home at 10pm, I found my earring lying at the edge of the driveway! Unfortunately, Adam had run over it with the car at least once, but I’m still glad to have it back. I don’t mind things breaking or wearing out, but absolutely HATE losing things. The feeling that they are  there somewhere…

December 2, 2021

Didn’t even bother making a no-running excuse this morning… Though I did have a site visit arranged with my architects. They are finishing up a house in Bisham Gardens that they started on pre-pandemic.

Interestingly, it belongs to a girl who used to be in Lyra’s class ages ago.  I must have visited it once or twice, but have no recollection of what it was like, though I’m confident it has been utterly transformed. It was interesting to see how Sara’s work has evolved since I her last completed project.

Back home for a bit to work on the beauty site and also my Kenyan client, who was having technical issues. It is a bit tedious how I’m the default IT bod for so many people. I appreciate that I’m better at IT than they are, but still feel such a fraud…

Had the  first meeting with my septagenarian gardening blogger. She’s looking for general support around blogging, WordPress, social media and SEO. I’m not sure how it will pan out over time, but  it introduces something a bit different into my working week. She seemed pleased, happily paid me for an hour of my (only slightly reduced rate) and arranged another session for next week.

Zipped home to hop into some glad rags then tubed into town for the Beauty Council Christmas drinks party. I was happy to see a few familiar faces to chat to.  Accepted a glass of white wine, which was regularly topped up without my noticing.

Eventually I didn’t notice that there was no food on offer, and I wish I’d stopped to think about that one. The locus shifted downstairs, where I got talking to some interesting folks, then somehow it was 11pm, and I’d had a bottomless glass of wine for dinner…

Caught a taxi home with Millie and Liana. It  dropped me outside hers, and I wove my way up Southwood Lane, undoubtedly adding about 50% to the distance. Adam made me some tea and toast when I got in, but it was too little too late…

December 1, 2021

Rabbits! Lyra is off school today so they can do individual evaluations for all the students. It used to be we’d travel into the school for them, and they expected the girls to turn in uniform for their fifteen minute slot, but now everything is done online. I don’t attend them any longer, now that she’s in year 10. It meant no prep or driving, which made the morning smoother.

Nonetheless I managed to find an excuse not to run – today’s was that I wanted to get my invoicing out of the way before I was expected at my architecture client for the day…

I had a dozen invoices to send this month, which did take a while. Need to tot up all the hours, generate the invoices, pdf them, and send out the emails, update my time sheet etc. I’m getting more systematic about tracking time and generating invoices, but this is offset by the amount of invoices themselves.

It was 11am by the time I got to my client. I’ve been not getting around to their work so it was good to dedicate a good chunk of hours to them. We’re working out a template for their projects, which is taking time but once we get it right, it should be quick to copy-and-repeat.

Home about 5pm, and straight into a Jx meeting that lasted 90 minutes, then on to making dinner. I persuaded Lyra to come upstairs and cook with me. We cranked the Taylor Swift playlist and rustled up some lamb-feta burgers, Greek salad and garlicky yogurt. Watched the penultimate episode of Sex Education, I’m really enjoying this programme.