July 2020

July 31, 2020

I want to have a more balanced day today. It’s going to be a hot one — I did fifteen minutes of meditation before setting out for a run at 8:30am and it was already sweltering. Three slow miles left me covered with sweat.

Made fruit salads for everyone when I got back. I thought with all the work we’ve been doing that would be nice to treat the girls to something they weren’t expecting. I opened the conversation but things degenerated quickly, mainly because Lyra wanted things I wasn’t offering and didn’t want the things I was. She can be such a “glass half empty” girl at times…

Had a Japanese lunch to use up bits and bobs — beansprouts, spinach that was getting a bit past it, green onions, cucumber pickle and some onigiri with a quick spicy salmon mayo as a filling.

I’m getting really close on the sustainability website. They now want to soft launch on Monday and I’m ready to do that, with minimal work on the weekend. Their child theme is giving me some grief (it’s not picking up the stylesheet for some reason), but that’s not a deal breaker.

Lyra finally finished the rest of her overdue Year 8 course work, so that’s one less drum I have to bang every day. She did so well at the home schooling at first, but lost the plot in July.

I have some sympathy… it’s hard to self-motivate indefinitely, and if it was a normal school year they probably would have been doing much work by now anyway. She was meant to have a week in Spain, and various other fun end-of-term activities, not be writing essays on the Kongo kingdom…

Takeout night was Lyra’s choice — surprisingly she went for fish & chips, which Adam collected from Toffs in Muswell Hill. One of the two owners has died of Covid-19, which is sad.

I have a bad feeling that is what’s happened with Del Parc as well, which sent out a terse email a couple of months saying that due to unexpected circumstances the business was closing.

July 30, 2020

Up at 6am this morning. Not enough sleep, but I did better than Adam who stayed up all night. It amazes me that he can still do that… Caught a couple of things I’d missed with the membership pages. Adam noticed them when he signed up for a free membership. I’m pretty surprised I managed to get it launched yesterday — I thought the 31st was an ambitious deadline.

No rest for the wicked… The sustainability website is aiming to soft launch tomorrow. I’ve estimated a day and a half for all the changes they requested, and have managed to do two hours so far. After putting in another nine hours today, it’s in a pretty good place.

Nova made lunch, but no one stepped up to make dinner. At 8:30 I stopped working, grabbed a bag of sweet curry tortilla chips I’d bought in Costco and a Corona and headed to the patio. I’d missed a glorious day stuck indoors at my computer, but I thought we could have a drink outdoors and try out our new fire pit.

I was too tired to find that firelog I ended up with after our Centreparcs weekend last year, but Adam popped to the garage for firewood. The pieces were all pretty large — we managed to get a bit of a blaze going but it only lasted twenty minutes before petering out.

“Maybe we can use these chips for kindling?” Lyra suggested, which wasn’t a bad idea — they weren’t very good — but we decided to bring this portion of the evening to a close. Moved indoors, waking Adam who’d fallen asleep the moment he sat down. He went to bed, and we watched a Gilmore before calling it a night.

Herman Cain died today of covid19, most likely acquired when he attended Trump’s Tulsa rally last month…

July 29, 2020

So much work to do… I’m feeling overwhelmed by it all. This morning I got stuck into desk work before I’d even had my first coffee… It feels like all my work is coming to a head at the same time. Today was a membership scheme day, and I plowed through my 30+ item snag list. Some things were straightforward, others really weren’t, and could take hours and multiple emails with support to resolve.

Broke off for meeting about the ecommerce site. I’m not feeling any better about the project, and need to get to grips with it pretty sharpish…

Lyra made a nice pasta dish for dinner — penne with spinach, grilled cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Nova is eating at Iris’s house this evening. Watched a Gilmore then back to work.

I managed to launch the membership service on Millie’s site by 1:30am. Adam still at at work when I went downstairs. Took a half an hour to unwind before I was able to fall asleep…

July 28, 2020

Slept pretty well, but forgot to wear my eye mask and the light woke me up too early. Listened to the last installment of “Polly Platt, Invisible Woman” before getting up. I’ve really enjoyed that series.Meditated then went for a three-mile run. The groceries arrived while I was out, and I returned home to find that the girls had put most of the food away, which was pleasant surprise.

My sustainable living client has come back with eight pages of substantive design feedback… Garth, project manager extraordinaire, took the situation in hand immediately. I can learn a few things from him…

Put that to one side while Garth worked out whether they should be giving us more money and got on with the beauty membership scheme. I’m slowly wrestling that puppy to the ground.

Bagel and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for lunch; Thai spicy beef bowl for dinner. I cooked the rice with coconut milk, and made a salad of julienned veg marinated in an dressing, then fried off some ground beef with soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. Garnished the lot with basil leaves and peanuts.

Watched Gilmore Girls with dinner — we are still in the high 90s of episodes to go. Stopped at one, which left time to watch the second episode of Mrs America before bed. Cate Blanchett is amazing as Phyllis Schlafly — all that curdled, thwarted ambition…

July 27, 2020

I’m surprised to be feeling that hike in my calves today. I think it was that steep climb up Beacon Hill that did it. I’ll leave running until tomorrow…

Got caught up in other things the moment I got up, like baking my sourdough loaves, and missed the opportunity to meditate. The beauty website has a nasty habit of crashing on the weekend. It happened again yesterday, and I did what I could to make it smaller and faster to load. Also amended our grocery order before the deadline at noon. What with our Costco visit this weekend, it made sense to cut it way back.

Spent all day working on the membership scheme. I will be so bloody glad when that thing finally launches, although I suppose going live will open up a new world of headaches.

Lyra made tomato soup for lunch — we had that with freshly baked sourdough bread. Soup and bread hit the spot — it’s pretty chilly today, and I couldn’t keep the patio door open, which I usually do.

Nova went off to see her friend Clara this afternoon, returning with my long-lost beret! A good two years ago (if not more), she wore my beret to a party at a classmate’s Sophie’s house and left it there.

It took a few weeks to notice that it was missing, but since then I’ve been on Nova’s case to get it back. During that time, Sophie’s family moved out of their house for a year to have it renovated, and both girls went off to uni.

I can be obsessive about certain possessions, and that beret is one of them. It was a Christmas present from John Monger’s parents, and has accompanied me on most of my travels.

A couple of weeks ago, after yet another frustrating conversation with Nova along the lines of: “Have you texted Sophie yet to see if she can find the beret?” “No, she’s sick / in Warwick / I forgot / yes, but she hasn’t got back to me”, I picked up the phone and called Sophie’s mum.

She had found the beret ages ago, and wondered where it came from. Happily, she put it aside instead of sending it to the charity shop (like we probably would have done by now). Sophie then gave it to Clara, and now Clara has handed it to Nova. Result!

Worked until gone 8pm, then made a chicken caesar salad with Adam, which we ate in front of Gilmore Girls — Rory’s first day at Yale. Adam was dozing in his seat not long after, but I watched the first episode of The Luminaries before bed. A mystery novel set in the New Zealand gold rush — I remember really enjoying it at the time, but don’t recall much of the convoluted plot.

July 26, 2020

Got up promptly to get ready for our delayed walk in the Chilterns. Adam headed off to Golders Green for bagels, while I made muffins and a packed lunch. Happily Lyra is feeling less aggrieved after a decent night’s sleep and joined us for breakfast.

We wanted to set off at 11am, in the end, it was 11:45… Headed for Aylesbury, then exited the A1 and headed to Wendover in the Chilterns. The weather forecast suggested that the rain would hold off until dinner time, but we hit a squall not long after leaving London and clouds looked worrying.

Lots of other people had the same Sunday walk idea, and the car park we’d planned to park in way full. Eventually found somewhere to leave the car on the side of the road, and set off.

The walk started at the South African war monument, then headed down a steep slope in a loop that circumnavigated Chequers, the prime minister’s countryes state. The fields were thick with wildflowers, and numerous red kites circled overhead.

At the mid-point of the walk we came Beacon Hill, which we climbed before stopping to eat our lunch on the summit. It’s so nice to be somewhere different — I hadn’t realised how boring it had been to always see the same few locations.

Bought an ice cream from a van in the car park, then hiked the last bit to where we’d left the car. The journey home was much slower, with road closures and flooding. In the end, it took us two hours, instead of the one we’d spent getting up there.

Adam and the girls popped round to visit Beulah, while I organised some dinner — salmon, new potatoes and green beans with a dill cream sauce. I have a good technique for cooking salmon steaks now. I dust them with a mixture of sugar, salt and cornstarch, brown the skins in a hot cast iron skillet, flip them and then finish in the oven for about ten minutes.

Finished season two of Gilmore Girls this evening. Only five to go…

July 25, 2020

Adam is feeling rough this morning, but I’m alright… We definitely drank too much wine, but I’ve careful not to drink on an empty stomach, and to have lots of water as well.Popped round to Richard and Rachel’s for a coffee and to lend her my Mary Trump bio. Followed that with a trip to Costco, first time in a big shop since the pandemic started. Not crazy about the idea, but so big and such high ceilings, practically like being outside.

Not so busy as usual, most people in masks, though not everyone wearing them correctly. There were hand sanitizer stations around the place. We had our Canada flights deposit refund sitting on Amex so we were able to wipe that out.

Made a sandwich for Adam and me when we got back and spent some time with the weekend paper. Adam headed over to visit his mum and drop off a couple of things we’d bought her. Made kungpao chicken and rice for dinner while he was gone, and also baked some chocolate chip cookies.

Lyra was quite obnoxious this evening. There are some new type of designer trainers have been released and she wants me to buy them for her. It’s not going to happen… “You never buy me any clothes!” she complained.

I do, but probably less than some of her friends’ mums — it’s true I’ve never been a shopper. She certainly has all the clothing she needs, and I do give her a reasonable amount of pocket money each month to spend as she sees fit. Plus she has five pairs of trainers already.

She stormed off, returning with a note that announced she was now on a hunger strike AND a talking strike until I buy them. We’ll see how long that lasts…

July 24, 2020

Good meditation session this morning. Sometimes, I feel like I’m getting worse at the mindfulness aspect — I seem to slip into daydreaming more than I did at the start. But there’s no doubt I’m much better at sitting cross-legged, so there’s that…

Had a meeting with Millie first thing — I’ve really got to get this bloody membership scheme launched and out of my life. Spent most of the day getting the sustainablity site ready for a second viewing by the client at the end of the day.

Took time out to help Lyra with her Kongo kingdom project. She has a number of overdue school assignments that we all want to see the back of, but she’d cut too many corners in her enthusiasm to get this one finished. It was a bit confusing, untangling the Kongo kingdom from the current DRC and Republic of Congo, but we got there…

The client meeting at the went really well, in part because the “creative strategist” wasn’t able to attend. Sadly she had a covid death in her extended family. I hope that’s that, but I imagine she’ll have plenty of feedback once she gets back to work…

When it wrapped up, I headed to the Bull for dinner with Adam, Richard and Rachel. First time we’ve eaten out since the end of March. We had a table in one corner of the patio. All the tables were appropriately spaced, and the servers were all in masks. Really good evening — quite the buzz to be eating out with friends in a restaurant, and we overdid things a bit…

July 23, 2020

Happy birthday, Denise! Started the day with some meditation, then did my 2.3 mile route again. After my shower, I made waffles for the girls’ breakfast. I have never much liked waffles, and certainly am not going to start liking them now. I’m baffled at the enthusiasm people have for them…

Worked most of the day on the sustainability website. We’re getting there my degrees — today I cracked an issue I’d been having with integrating their HubSpot account and website form, which was satisfying.

Lyra made bagels for lunch; dinner was a tabbouleh salad with some kofte/kebab things I bought accidently on Ocado. They were pretty tasty…

Came across an interesting article about the sourdough mania that overtook people at the start of lockdown and what it meant culturally. It doesn’t really apply to me — I’ve been baking sourdough pretty much weekly for years. I think my starter is practically Lyra’s age…

July 22, 2020

Didn’t run this morning, as I had a walk with Kate planned for lunch time. Did do our meditation though, which is my preferred start to the day now. It doesn’t always happen, but I’d say I do it five days out of seven…

We met in Pond Square at just after 1pm. Kate had put her name on the waiting list for a swim in the Ladies Pond. She hadn’t heard anything back, but we brought swimsuits just in case.

The girl at the gate pretty much laughed at us when we asked if there was any chance of a dip. Apparently you need to book a week in advance, and the tickets for that day sell out in a couple of hours.

Went for a lap round the Heath then headed home for lunch — sardines on toast (Lyra wasn’t around). Had a meeting the with ecommerce client to discuss the work in more detail.

They gave me access to the backend of their website, and I spent a couple of hours afterwards tiptoeing carefully around, trying to unpick how it was built. I’m a bit freaked out to be honest — it’s very different to any WordPress build I’m familiar with and I’m not sure I’ll be able to do what I intended.

Dinner was quesadillas and a slaw made by Nova — much appreciated as I was having trouble turning off the laptop for the day. Definitely a issue when you work from home…

July 21, 2020

The e-commerce beauty product is happy with my proposal and keen to meet tomorrow. The woman seems really lovely, but I’m a bit concerned that I’m getting out of my depth with this one… A few further tweaks to the video are required, which we straightforward to make. It’s no skin off my nose, but it really is silly for them to spend so much time and money faffing about with tiny details like this.

Once that was out of the way, I switched gears to work on the sustainable lifestyles website. Today was all about getting their HubSpot sign-up form configured correctly. Not straightforward, but good learning…

Veggie soup and toast for lunch plus a some fresh banana bread that I found time to bake. Dinner was an Ottolenghi dish — lamb mince with tomatoes and eggs. Very tasty, but the portions way out of whack. I pretty much doubled the recipe and it was still a small meal for four, though quite rich.

Lyra is reading me a novel called Absolutely Normal Chaos — which both girls loved. We did a few chapters tonight, and I’m really enjoying it too.

July 20, 2020

Happy birthday, Wendy! Upped my distance to 2.3 miles on my run this morning. I’ll do that for a week and then add another distance increment. I want to build up to a 3 mile base run before I worry about speed…

Sent across my completed video — we’ll see how that lands, and did some work for Basil getting their new art school programme up for the autumn. The video was soon back requiring minor amends plus a request to apply the logo differently, which took a bit more work.

At lunch, I discovered that Lyra has been tattooing herself, the bloody numpty… I’d noticed what I thought were little doodles on her wrist, finger and ankle. She made them by pushing really hard with a Muji pen — your basic prison tat… She insists she didn’t realise and that she’s sure they’ll fade, but I’m not so sure…>:(

Went for a cheeky drink at the Woodman with Millie late afternoon (is Monday the new Friday?) She’s feeling elated after achieving a victory for beauty industry, pushing the government to include them in the latest guidance around reopening.

It is shocking the way the sector has been overlooked — probably because it is relatively low-paid women’s work, and primarily for women. It’s a £30 billion industry, that is employs about 600,000 people. And yet government ministers cracked jokes when it the opposition raised a question about it in Parliament…

Made a nice pasta dish with green beans and an almond gremolata from the New York Times food section. I subscribed a couple of months ago when they floated a really great deal, and am enjoying it.

Adam subscribed to the digital Guardian last weekend, which I was also on the verge of doing. That’s an annoying thing about digital subscriptions — if we had the physical paper we could both read it…

July 19, 2020

We’d hoped to follow through with our walking plan today, but the weather is pretty dodgy. It was bucketing down when I woke at 7:30am. Loud as it was, I could still hear plaintive meows coming from the back garden.

I opened the blinds, and there was a rain-soaked Dennis crying away on their balcony. Adam thought I should mind my own business, but felt bad for the little guy (feline non grata though he is around here).

I was tempted open their front door with our spare keys and let him inside. I’m thinking they must be away for the weekend, and have left one of the kids to look after the cat (or maybe a house sitter).

Spent a couple of hours writing through the Privacy and Cookie statements for the Beauty website. Shades of my technical writing days…

Spinach potato curry and rice for dinner, and quick and easy one…

July 18, 2020

And boom… it’s the weekend again…
At breakfast we decided to go for a country walk in the Chilterns. To my surprise, the girls were enthusiastic about the idea as well. Adam found a good route and dug out our Ordnance Survey map. I made a packed lunch, and started organising walking kit.

For reasons best known to himself, Adam decided to drop off a few bags of clothes we’d been storing in the boot at the charity shop in the high street. He tore one of the tires doing a U-turn by pinching it against the curb (something we’ve each done once before). It was completely flat by the time he got home.

The AA turned up in a few hours and towed him to the QuikFit in Crouch End to get a new tire put on, so at least the car is usable, but that was the end of the walking idea.

Worked on the video instead and had a reasonably good version ready mid-afternoon. I’m going to let it sit for a while in case I find the time to improve it before sending to the client.

The girls were thumbing through our Usbourne Fairy Cookbook this afternoon, remembering the various things we used to make with them — “tiny fairy cakes”, “mini pink meringues” etc. “Prepare for a fairy feast!” Lyra announced. We went out for an afternoon walk while they got on with it.

You can really tell that things are opening up — there are more people on the street and in the shops and pubs. We would have stopped for a swift half but all the outside tables were full.

Dinner was cauliflower soup with “little cheese scones” (delicious), and “confetti cookies” for dessert.

My Mary Trump biography arrived today. I was pleased to hear that it sold more copies in the first week than Trump’s Art of the Deal has in all the years since it was published. I’m looking forward to reading it…

July 17, 2020

Started my day with meditation then a run — another 2.3 miles in the Woods. I’ve gone three times this week, so will likely stop there with the running, do a weekend walk with Adam, and up my distance to 2.5 miles next week.

Kate called needing some urgent work done for the insurance client. They’ve gone quiet of late, and I wasn’t expecting anything from that quarter. It’s some graphics for the upcoming newsletter, and a video for a LinkedIn post.

Made a lentil-spinach salad with roasted aubergines, tomatoes and halloumi for lunch. Tasted good, but the lentils gave the whole dish a sort of murky cast when I went to photograph it:

The new video is based on the one I made for their website background. The idea was to simply superimpose some text on top, but their Comms guy came back saying he wanted clips moved around, Dubai swapped for Singapore, the office scene to include Asian business people etc. Not an insubstantial amount of work.

I did the graphics today and will cut the video over the weekend. Kate said to charge them extra for the short notice, but I feel like I charge them enough already. They pay almost twice what I charge anyone else…

This week’s takeaway is pizza — Nova’s choice, which we ordered from Fabrizio’s. The house was like an oven, so we ate in the garden. Afterwards, Nova headed off to meet friends.

The plan was to watch Whatever Happened to Sweet Baby Jane? but Lyra started acting up, Adam yelled at her and the evening went pear-shaped. Ended up retreating to the bedroom and reading for the rest of the evening…

July 16, 2020

Happy anniversary, Greg and Wendy! I was younger than Lyra when their wedding took place…
We’re having recurring dishwasher issues — half the time it doesn’t drain properly — and sorting it out meant meditation fell by the wayside. Ended up ordering a new dishwasher from John Lewis. Adam has cleared the propellor a couple of times, but it hasn’t solved the issue.

He’ll see a bit of parsley in the propellor mechanism and say it must have broken because the girls didn’t rinse the plates properly. But if that’s all it took to plug the dishwasher would have broken on a daily basis for years.

It’s more likely to be an issue with the motor. We watched a video online showing how to rebuild a dishwasher motor, but neither of us are enthusiastic about tackling it.

Worked on a proposal for a beauty product e-commerce site, with valuable support from Adam, the proposal king. I’m suggesting three days of quick fixes and medium term work getting their subscription plan working better. We’ll see…

Lyra headed out to meet one of her many mysterious friends (Astrid I think this was). We have a version of this conversation every few days: “Mum, can I walk Scarlett’s dog with her? Who’s Scarlett? Oh my god! I’ve told you about her a million times…” Next day… “Can I go to Camden with Lola? Who’s Lola? Oh my god!… rinse, repeat…

Reuben bagels for lunch with Nova and Adam, after which I switched back to the Beauty Council, ticking things off my snag list. Nothing is quick at this stage — everything on it seems to require about an hour to resolve.

My brain was frazzled by 6:30… Adam knocked off too and out for a neighbourhood walk. Everything starting to normalise, businesses are opening, people sitting outside the pubs. We would have joined them if there was any space.

Instead, we headed home for a Corona in the garden. Lyra made sweet potato black bean tacos for dinner. She brought them down and we ate outside, nice, if a bit mosquitoey. I was actually getting bitten through my socks.

Watched the first episode of Mrs America, starring Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly — about the defeat of the ERA. Excellent stuff…

July 15, 2020

Happy birthday, Landyn! I’m pretty sure he turns 40 today — the relentless march of time… You don’t notice it go by for months at a time, then realise you have a 40-year-old nephew…

Meditated 15 minutes, before going for a run in Woods. It felt great — a perfect temperature, and lots of spring in my legs. I rated it five stars in my running app, which is pretty much unheard of.

Back home, I made fruit salads for the family, though it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to come upstairs to eat them, the entitled so and sos… Same story with lunch. Lyra was out dog walking with Saya (who at least I’ve heard of). I told her to be back by 1:30pm. Nova wanted to go for a walk, told her the same thing.

1:30pm rolled round, lunch was ready, and no family. I rang the bell, and after five minutes Adam and Nova drifted upstairs. She hadn’t gone for a walk after all, but it hadn’t occurred to her to pitch in. Lyra eventually showed up at 2pm. I’m cross with the lot of them…

Carried on working until 7pm — carrying on email conversations with with two separate plug-in suppliers and the web host for the beauty web site. Broke off to make dinner. Adam came up after a while to help — within minutes we were arguing, and I downed tools and left the kitchen.

After that, there was no action on the dinner front until 8:30, when Adam and Nova had a go at what I’d intended to make — veggie fritters with yogurt, slaw and some leftover flatbreads. It was a car crash, but something resembling dinner was produced by 9:30.

Did the dishes then retreated to the bedroom for the rest of the evening. Lyra came in to visit and cheer me up, which was nice of her…

July 14, 2020

Another good night’s sleep… I’m loving it…:-) We were meditating before 8am (20 minutes), and I got my morning tasks out of the way and was at my desk just after 9am.

Woke the girls up as well, and prodded them to get up and dressed for breakfast. They weren’t keen, but the day really does go so much better when you start as you mean to go on…

Took a break mid-morning so that Lyra could give me a haircut. She’s been angling to do it for a while. I wasn’t against the idea but I have quite enjoyed an excuse to grow it long. She cut off more than I wanted, but it certainly looks healthier now…

Spent three hours with the Beauty Council team going through the membership site — all the feedback and changes I’ve made so far. Left with a single-spaced snag list to sort out. There are lots of dependencies on them providing me with the content I need as well. They are keen to launch it this week, but I’ll be surprised if that happens…

Nova made me a salade niçoise while I was in my meeting. I was famished by the time it ended, what with the morning fasting, and inhaled my salad in minutes. Got straight back to my computer, carried on with the edits while they were fresh in my mind.

My Kenya client needs some attention as well — took care of a few things, and finalised my SLA with them — it would be good to have those in place with some of my other clients.

Made jambalaya for dinner, a current family favourite which is in main rotation. I’ve hit on a way of doing it that cuts down the effort. I make a Cajun stirfry of everything except the prawns, rather than cooking ingredients separately, add the rice and fresh tomatoes, then let it cook through before turning off the heat, burying the prawns and herbs to cook through.

Finished Killing Eve, which I’ve enjoyed more than I expected. I’d heard mixed reviews about the third series. It is such a stellar cast, which is a big part of it…

July 13, 2020

Woke up at 6am as per usual, but it wasn’t a problem, having fallen asleep by 11pm. Hopped up almost straightaway and went down to check on Cleo. She seemed a bit subdued, but got down from her perch alright and took an interest in her food.

I opened the front door and stepped outside myself to give her confidence to emerge. She stopped at the threshold to sniff her cat flap, lashing her tail. I suspect that pest of a Dennis had marked it. Just then the bugger slunk out from behind our car. Cleo turned tail and streaked upstairs — so I guess her leg isn’t too sore…

Did a fifteen minute meditation and then went for a 2.25 mile run in the Woods, adding a bit on to my three runs last week. Felt good throughout and maintained a quicker pace.

Back home, I the girls up, dressed and breakfasted at 9am (they loved that of course…) There’s been too much time spent lounging around in bathrobes, which isn’t good for motivation or mental health.

I carried Cleo outside in my arms — she definitely wouldn’t have gone on her own. She was pretty worked up — there was a lot of muttering and tail lashing. After a bit, I set her down on the patio, thinking she’d head straight inside, but she cautiously venture up the stairs.

She hid in the big fern for a bit, but followed me when I went to the greenhouse, then carried on up to the far back. I spent some time with her there, doing a bit of weeding while she sunned herself on the wall, before turning tail and heading back inside.

Spent most of the day configuring the membership service for the beauty website. It’s pretty complex stuff (at least for me). One board member has given me pages of feedback, which is daunting but better than the vacuum I’ve been operating in. Managed to work through all of it by the end of the day.

Made Greek salad for lunch, but girls did the rest: hummus with pitta chips, and banana bread for dessert. Adam and I cooked dinner together: he made an uncooked spinach sauce with fusilli, while I made baked peaches with the amaretti biscuit centres — love those things, an peaches in general.

Cleo made two little solo forays outside this evening, which I was pleased to see. She’s still quite stressed, but those two need to reach some kind of toleration of each other. Her leg seems better as well, so I don’t think a trip to the vet will be needed, likely saving us £600…

July 12, 2020

Feeling much better today… Made a bit of progress on the crossword, then got up to meditate and head off for our delayed walk. Headed down the private road as usual, but when we got to the Heath we swung left towards the bottom of Swains Lane and our flat.

Our tenants have gone home to sit out the lockdown in Hungary, and wanted us to check that all was well with the flat. They are certainly tidy — I guess they haven’t lived there all that long, but still. Nice to see when you’re someone’s landlord…

Stopped by Yildiz for olives and other groceries, grabbed a quick coffee on the Costa del Archway, and even caught a bus home. Shades of normalcy returning…

Made egg cups for lunch, following a recipe I’d come across online. Delicious, but pretty rich with all that melted brie:

Finally finished reading A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, which Pasc loaned me ages ago. While I could recognise its merits, and even see how it won awards, I found it difficult to read — it pretty much stopped me in my tracks, readingwise. Slow, demanding, depressing, long…

Went round for afternoon tea with Pete and Pasc — they made a cake for the occasion, a real Franklyn special, and caught up on the local gossip:

Our mutual friends Lynne and Adam are having a hard time shaking Covid19. She’s finally feeling okay after a three month recovery, but he has been poleaxed by severe depression, which I hadn’t realised is a side effect. The more I hear, the more I want to avoid catching it…

Adam assembled Beulah’s anniversary gift before dinner — and coat and shoe stand for the entrance. I wasn’t keen on adding more clutter to what is already a crowded space, but I couldn’t have been more wrong — it looks great:

Cleo and Dennis got into a fight this evening. I was talking to Mo on the forecourt, when Dennis suddenly lunged at her. They both dug their claws in, and were rolling in a furious ball. Cleo broke free and streaked round the side of the house and in through the back door.

She’s feeling very upset, and may have injured her leg. She’s a bit limpy, but at least there’s no blood. I gave her some cheese to rally her spirits — she loves cheddar cheese…

Nova cooked dinner — chicken kati wraps, which we ate in front of Gilmore Girls. It’s safe enough family viewing territory, though we like/dislike different characters. Cleared up the dishes and to bed before 10pm. Read the Week magazine and made a start on crossword but too sleepy to do much.

July 11, 2020

Feeling that wine a bit this morning.. I’m more of a half bottle of wine kind of girl… Adam was the worse for his four tins of beer, and we eased gently into our morning, blowing off both our meditation and usual Saturday walk.

I’m listening to a really good podcast at the moment. It’s called You Must Remember This, and is a history of the first century of cinema. At the moment, they’re doing a ten-episode biography of Polly Platt, the first wife of director Peter Bogdanovich. Super interesting woman and story…

Rachel by with some clothes she’d promised the girls. She just missed Lyra, who’d headed out to meet a friend in Camden, so Nova baggsied the lion’s share. That’s going to cause friction…

Veggie soup for lunch, after which I finally made a proper start on my day. Adam and Nova headed over to visit Beulah — Nova needed to drop by the optometrist, and Adam to collect our anniversary present, which had finally arrived.

Made a Vietnamese chicken salad for dinner and watched Muriel’s Wedding for movie night. We thought the girls would like it more than they did — turns out they disliked Muriel and found it “depressing”. It’s no easy task sto find a film that works for all of us…

July 10, 2020

That pesky Adam got up before 6am waking me from a deep sleep. Listened to the Rachel Maddow show before getting up. The Supreme Court decision about the subpoena decision for Trump’s financial records has come down. Turns out he’s not above the law — but also likely there will be enough delay that two elections will have passed before any of that information comes to light…

Did the cryptic crossword with our coffee, then twenty minutes of meditation before I headed to the Woods for a two-mile run. This one felt so much better than the last couple of runs, and I knocked a good minute off my time.

With all that, plus showering and making family breakfast I was still at my desk by 10am. Go me! I used to try to not work on Fridays — but with my current workload and client list that is no longer feasible. (These days it’s more about not working on Saturdays and Sundays.)

I would still like to have a different focus to Fridays — more professional development and new business work, and less client work. In the event, I spent most of my working time finishing the event website proposal. I think it’s a bit too large a project for a sole trader like myself, but it’s good practice to quote for these things, and it can serve as a template for future proposals.

It’s takeaway night — opted for sushi with Richard and Rachel in the garden. They came round about 7:30pm, and we spent the evening putting the world to rights. Rachel and I managed to sink two bottles of white wine between us by the time they left at 11pm…

July 9, 2020

Woke up early, but instead of getting up I used the time to catch up on a backlog of Rachel Maddow podcasts, which confirmed (if there was any doubt) that America is careening towards hell in a handcart. The excerpts from the forthcoming Mary Trump tell-all biography were a bit of light relief… Found time for fifteen minutes of meditation with Adam (which was great), started my sourdough, put on laundry, made fruit salad for the family and was at my desk by 9:30.

My first task was to prep for a meeting with a potential new client. It’s a beauty brand and full-on ecommerce website. I haven’t had much ecommerce experience, and am feeling under-confident that I’ll be able to offer anything much.

Not an intelligence issue, at least according to this list of measurable indicators of higher than average intellect:

1. You took music lessons
2. You’re the oldest
3. You’re thin
4. You have a cat
5. You were breastfed
6. You’ve used recreational drugs
7. You’re left handed
8. You’re tall
9. You drink alcohol regularly
10. You learned to read early
11. You worry a lot
12. You’re funny
13. You’re curious
14. You’re messy
15. You didn’t have sex until after high school
16. You’re a night owl
17. You don’t always have to try hard
18. You don’t constantly need to be around people
19. You live in a walkable city

Hotdogs and curtido for lunch then straight back to work. I’ve been asked to quote for a big event website. I had an initial phone meeting with the woman organising it a couple of weeks ago and said I’d submit a quote in the first week of July.

I dropped her a quick email asking her to confirm she hadn’t appointed already, and when she said she was interested, shifted gears to pull something together. My big insight was around planning a two-track event with digital belt-and-braces as a means of Covid-proofing.

Dinner was cauliflower soup and fresh sourdough bread. Watched a Gilmore Girls, then a Killing Eve and then to bed.

July 8, 2020

Feeling completely restored today, which is good news… It was crap to lose an afternoon’s work, but would have been worse if it was the start of an illness…

The weather is pretty iffy today, but I doubled down on that wellness by pulling on my running gear and heading for the Woods after my first coffee. The news that Veronika has taken up running was definitely a kick in the backside for me.

My first mile was a bit stop and start, with busy pavements, missing a traffic light, and my armband falling off twice. It was still somewhat faster than Monday (faster being a relative term). Hopped in the shower quickly and able to start work just after 10am.

The Beauty Council membership scheme is the current bane of my existence. I’m getting there by slow degrees, but it’s one of those projects where they don’t have a clear what they want, they just know what they don’t want when they see it. I have a few clients like that…

Made Greek salad and pitta chips for lunch. Maybe it was all that bread, but I wasn’t able to finish my salad — pretty sure that’s a first…

Lyra’s school chased about her not completing assignments, so made sure she’d caught up everything and shown us the proof before letting her out for her daily lurk on the Heath with Scarlett/Astrid/Ellie/Maisie/Saya/Sissy/Olive (pick one or make up your own name)…

I wasn’t hungry, so I kept working until 8:30pm. Lyra came up at one point to fix pasta for the rest of the family, I had some cheese and crackers with a glass of wine when I called it a day. No Gilmore tonight — instead Adam and I carried on with Killing Eve. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not as strong as the previous two series…

July 7, 2020

No meditating this morning… Adam needed to complete some work before a 10am meeting, so we agreed to do it later… There are a couple of things that have been languishing on my to-do list and generating guilt. One was to reply to the tech company that is looking for a Divi developer to build a bunch of pages for their website.

They mailed me their design brief and a series of questions designed to assess my suitabilty. I don’t think I’m the right person for it, but having sat on the reply for a week, it seemed rude to say that now, so I took the time to respond properly.

Spent an hour on a translation issue a Junxion client is experiencing. Basically, they are trying to warp their translation plugin to work in the opposite way it’s designed. I visited a number of support fora looking for people who had dealt with a similar issue, but could only find folks who were trying to stop it from working the way these guys want. Had to admit defeat on that one…

I have another potential client waiting for a quote. I’d planned to do that after lunch — mozza avo salad and a spiralised one using our handheld spiraliser. Liked the salad but found the tool annoying to use — will go for an electric one (or maybe an attachment for the food processor or Kitchen Aid if want to spiralise on a regular basis.

A headache came on suddenly as we were finishing lunch. Wondered if it was a migraine, but there was no visual component, so maybe not. It did have the confused thinking that I’ve noticed can accompany a migraine.

Took two paracetemol and lay down on the couch to ride it out. Dozed for the best part of an hour and felt somewhat better, but still not right. Managed to deal with a few emails in the late afternoon, but that was it for work and gave meditating a miss as well.

Spinach salad for dinner with Nova’s help, Gilmore Girls, and early to bed…

July 6, 2020

Monday, Monday… Have just realised that I took the whole weekend off — it’s been a while since that happened — and I like it. It meant lots of work to be getting on with, but I took time to meditate and go for a run for the first time in a week before getting down to it.

Back home, I needed to shower and finalise the grocery order before noon. By the time that was done, it was pretty much time to fix lunch — salade nicoise. It was the afternoon by the time I sat down at my desk.

Fortunately, I was able to work straight through until dinner time. Lyra volunteered to cook — spaghetti and meatballs — which were excellent. Ate in front of the Gilmore Girls — finishing season two. Just the five more seasons and 110 episodes to go…

July 5, 2020

Got off to a really good start today. I slept well, we blitzed the crossword, did an excellent twenty minutes of meditation then headed out for our five mile walk around 10:30am.

The weather was perfect — bright and breezy — and the Heath busy but not rammed the way it has been. It feels like some normalcy is returning, which probably isn’t great as it may also mean that people are letting down their guard.

Back home, I was just about to get started on lunch prep when I noticed a message on my phone from Bea’s dad. Beatrix was a primary school classmate of Lyra’s, but they never became friends — in fact, they never got on at all.

Lately though, they’ve been spending a bit of time together. Bea lives in the same apartment complex as Ellie, which has an excellent garden for hanging out in. I called Daren back, to be told that he’d discovered a conversation on Bea’s phone where Lyra was been trying to sell Bea a vape.

I thanked him for letting me know and said I’d speak to Lyra. Her version wasn’t so different, aside from Bea needing no encouragement from Lyra to buy a vape, and asking Lyra to do the ordering so her parents wouldn’t find out.

Lyra had deleted the messages from her phone, but I got Daren to send them from Bea’s phone. Most of the texts were Bea going on about how she couldn’t wait to start smoking, and Lyra saying “yeah, yeah, how about the money you owe me please”.

Teenagers experiment with smoking — that’s nothing new. The worst part of it is for me is that Ellie was pulled into it. Her dad Chris died of a heart attack last year, and his heavy smoking/vaping was definitely a contributing factor.

I called Ellie’s mum Jess personally, after which Lyra called both Daren and Jess to apologise. Those weren’t easy calls to make, and I was proud of the way she handled them. That draws a line under the episode as far as we’re concerned.

Put in an hour sorting out the garage. I’d saved a stack of vintage art boards for Veronika that were thrown in the bin when John’s house was cleared. She happened to be in the studio, so we grabbed a few beers and headed down for a little visit. First time I’ve seen her since lockdown…

Indian food for dinner: chicken tikka masala, cauliflower-potato curry (Adam), raita, rice, with the rest of the banoffee pie for dessert.

July 4, 2020

Happy birthday, Nova! Lyra got up super early to make Nova a breakfast surprise — mini pancakes that you put in a cereal bowl and eat with milk and syrup — something she saw on TikTok. Adam woke and went upstairs to help, but I managed to sleep through the whole event.

We were awake at 7am as per usual. Had coffee, did some crossword, our meditating, and made a start on Nova’s birthday banoffee pie before the girls came upstairs at 10am.

Nova was very pleased with all her presents — the sandals, a few books, a flowy skirt, money from Wade, and an Echo Dot from Margo and Aaron. She also enjoyed her mini pancakes. We all tried a bite, and they were surprisingly good.

The plan was to have a family brunch as Nova wanted to spend the evening partying with her friends on the Heath. Eggs benedict, which were a bit of a car crash. There was the challenge of poaching eight eggs, which Adam didn’t rise to while I was busy fucking up the hollandaise sauce.

My fail-proof method requires a deep beaker-type thing to blender stick the yolk, salt and lemon juice while drizzling in melted butter. Unfortunately, I no longer own one and the sauces was an epic fail without it. There were no spare eggs to take a second run at it, so there it was…

Doron and Antonia popped round with a gift for Nova. They seem to be getting along better since their amicable divorce mediation session a few weeks back. The mediator gave them an alarmingly long list of things they needed to do before the next appointment — form filling and financial information gathering to start dividing assets, which has stopped them in their tracks.

Paid a family visit with Beulah — the first time we’ve all been together since lockdown started. The girls and I wore our masks throughout. She struggled to understand some of what Lyra said, despite her sitting closest, but didn’t understand her when she removed her mask for tea and biscuits.

Started the banoffee pie before Nova headed out for the evening. None of us fancied dinner after that — had some cheese and crackers around 9pm. Lyra wanted to watch a movie with us and to choose which one. She opted for Sixteen Candles, a John Hughes film which I haven’t seen in years…

July 3, 2020

Happy birthday, David! I could see from social media that they were on their annual camping trip so I sent him a text in lieu of our usual singing phone message…

Got in fifteen minutes of meditation before starting my day. I’m amazed at how much better I already am at sitting cross-legged on the floor, just as I was amazed at how bad I was when I started doing it a couple of weeks ago. It was as if I was asking my legs to do something they had never done before…

Found time in the work day to wrap Nova’s birthday presents for tomorrow morning. She’s getting a pretty good haul — her present list was short and realistically priced, which meant that I bought everything on it. Her main present from us is a pair of chunky leopard print Doc Marten sandals.

Tonight’s takeway was from Turquoise — the Turkish restaurant that opened in the Village the month before lockdown. We have considered winding up Friday takeaway, but realised that our reasons for doing it still apply.

We’re supporting local restaurants (and although places are reopening, it’ll be a while before I’ll feel comfortable eating in), it gives me a break from relentless meal preparation, and it helps usremember that we are still in a pandemic, however shit our goverment is at dealing with it or advising the public on how to behave.

The Broadway version of Hamilton debuted on the Disney Channel tonight, and we were in the front row (so to speak). Great stuff — different to seeing it live on stage but well worth watching. I found myself applauding after several of the numbers…

July 2, 2020

Another terrible night’s sleep, maybe five hours at the most. I’m going to bed too late sleeping badly, then waking up with the dawn chorus… I’ve been reading that a lot of people are finding that their sleep has been disrupted by the pandemic. Pretty sure it was an issue for me before this came along, but I don’t suppose that it’s helping…

Got a meditation session in again this morning. We’ve moved off the dining room chairs and now sit on a cushion on the floor. At first, I found it really strained my hip flexors. They’d start aching and trembling after about two minutes and I’d have to support them with my hands or by wedging extra cushions underneath.

I’m already noticing a huge improvement in my flexibility on that score. My knees fall more naturally towards the floor and there doesn’t seem to be as much strain/pressure on my ankles either. Encouraging response from my 55-year-old body…

Cleo and Dennis had another encounter this morning in their ongoing turf negotiations. When I opened the blinds first thing, there was Dennis was sunning himself on our lawn. Glad Cleo wasn’t greeted to that site — it would have put her off her crunchies…

Later when I went outdoors to have a quick check on my strawberries, Cleo followed me out and there was Dennis staring balefully through the jasmine. Much growling ensued…

Pretty decent work day considering how tired I was. Sweet potato black bean tacos for dinner. I brought down a plate to Adam who was doing his book group over Zoom. Gilmored with the girls, then attempted to watch the Netflix thing on Jeffrey Epstein, but it sent me straight to sleep…

July 1, 2020

Rabbits! I remembered to say it… it’s irrational, but I always feel a bit happier when I do…

Said it to myself this morning, as Adam got up early to drive to our office in Shoreditch to collect some stuff we had stored there. Primarily the large external monitor, so I can connect it to my laptop. It will make working in programmes like Photoshop a lot easier…

Did our meditating when when he got back then down to work. It was a whole new ballgame with the big screen — such a big difference. I can’t believe I’ve gone this long without doing it. It is more encroachment of work space into personal space, but I can live with that…

My Festival interview was published in the Ham&High today — I thought she was going to use a couple of quotes, but she’s included pretty much everything I said…

Japanese food for lunch — onigiri, miso soup, sesame spinach and quick salted pickles. Another thing about the big monitor… I’d been developing the habit of shifting to living room for the afternoon to mix things up. It was generally less productive, and I didn’t do that today…

Dinner was an Ottolenghi pasta recipe I’d earmarked from the weekend paper. I noticed we had all the ingredients, but hadn’t read through it properly. The amount of work involved was ridiculous and unnecessary.

The aubergines were cooked three different ways, it required five pots, slow cooking vegetables over an open flame, and called a nearly a cup of olive oil. Scaled it way back, roasting the aubergine in the oven and making the rest of the sauce in one skillet. It was more still very nice…

Gilmore Girls as per usual, after which the kids fecked off and Adam and I read our books. To bed about midnight…