July 2021

July 31, 2021

Slept surprisingly well considering the state of me. My eye felt pretty miserable when I woke up this morning and I was definitely ready for some more paracetamol but the swelling has reduced a lot. The bump on my head is barely noticeable, though my whole forehead still feels quite numb.

Had coffee in bed and read the weekend paper. I’d quite happily have stayed there all morning, but Adam made pancakes so I came up to join in and have one myself. Nova headed off to the Whittington to collect my eyedrop prescription, which I was pleased to get. My eye is pretty painful and weepy.

I removed the eyepatch bandage, which was super uncomfortable and felt better for it, though the little sterile strips are pretty uncomfortable themselves. I have no idea how I’m supposed to remove them in due course. I’ve been told not to get them wet, so they can’t stay on for all that long. I’m thinking Monday, and if I don’t know what to do myself I’ll try to get an emergency appointment at the GP.

Lyra wanted me to watch a film called Flipped with her, and I thought why not? Snuggled up on the sofa together and enjoyed it so much we then watched The Talented Mr Ripley. Had a bit of lunch and moved on to something called The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants — another classic.

Ordered dinner from Nandos and watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with that. I don’t know that I’ve ever watched four films in one day, but what the hell…

I’ve been thinking about how I’ve drawn on my meditation practice since my fall, and can recognise a few things. When I was lying on the bed waiting for the ambulance, I deliberately just focused on my breathing and didn’t think about anything else. I haven’t spent any time wishing it hadn’t happened or playing/projecting scenarios.

I spent my whole time in A&E filled with immense gratitude for the care I was receiving and the people who worked there. And when the eye wound was being cleaned and sutured, I just mentally repeated “unpleasant, unpleasant”, noting what I was experiencing while trying not to attach any emotion to it.

I might have landed on some of that without the help of meditation, but I don’t think I would have done and felt all those things. The point has been made numerous times in guided meditations that the point of meditating isn’t to become great at meditating, but to live your life a different way.

July 30, 2021

No running or meditating again this morning – I’m just not in the zone for that at the moment. Slept really badly last night, worrying about work and after a cup of coffee I got stuck straight in. Adam went to the office again, I can see he’ll be doing that more and more.

It had gone 2pm when I realised that I hadn’t had anything to eat yet (or event moved except when poor kitty vomited on the floor, something I don’t think she has ever done, and I had to sort it out). Got up and headed to the kitchen and was just poking around in the fridge when I got this intense, painful burning feeling in my solar plexus. I felt suddenly hot and dizzy as well.

It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and had no idea what to do. I thought about eating or drinking something, but in the end I lay down on the living floor and loosened my clothing. I didn’t help much and my next though was that I should head for the loo in case I was sick.

As soon as I stood up I was super woozy and had a tough time making it down the stairs. I’m not sure what happened at this point. Instead of turning right into the loo, I turned left into the bedroom, passed out and fell forward, cracking my face on the rocking chair base.

The girls heard the thud and came running in to find me face down on the floor. I wasn’t clear on what happened, but the turned me over and saw that my face was pretty messed up. Lyra wanted to call an ambulance but I said no. I got them to remove my clothes, and then crawled to the toilet.

After I finished there, I crawled into the bathroom and lay on the cold floor. Within five minutes I was feeling a lot better and able to think more clearly. Lyra was on the phone to 999 by this point and I could answer some of the questions they were asking her.

My right eye was messed up and I was having trouble seeing out of it. Turns out I’d knocked out a contact lens, but there was also a fair amount of blood from a cut just underneath my eye. The girls moved me back to bed, got me dressed in loose clothing, cleaned and disinfected my wounds and got me cold compresses. They called Adam to come home and ensured I stayed awake until the ambulance arrived. Basically, they were complete superstars.

I got an initial assessment in the ambulance – ECG, stroke test, blood sugar, blood pressure – all of which was absolutely fine. Nevertheless they recommended I go to A&E, The girls ran inside to grab my purse, phone, book and a bottle of water and off we went.

A&E works differently now. I had to wait in the ambulance until there was an assessment bay for me. I went through the same tests as in the ambulance plus extra blood work, after which I was wheeled into a four-bed room. I was seen by a doctor after about an hour.

He had me go through everything, listened to my chest, tested my blood pressure lying and standing, and organised a CAT scan to check for skull fractures or bleeding. That went pretty smoothly as well, and when I got back to my room the doctor had someone come round with a sandwich and cup of tea.

I seemed much less poorly than the other three people in the room and was starting to feel a bit of a fraud for being there. The doctor’s concern was that they didn’t know why it had happened. He was also keen to know whether I fainted then fell, or fell then fainted. When I couldn’t help him with that one, he asked for Lyra’s number to check some details.

When the scan came back clear, the last thing was to deal with the eye injury. A nurse cleaned it with antiseptic, snipped off the torn skin, then affixed a number of butterfly sutures, and a big bandage. After that I was good to go.

Texted Adam, but he didn’t get the message and I was half was up Highgate Hill by the time he collected me. I was glad to get in the car. I didn’t feel too poorly to walk, but I was attracting a number of stares. A good look in the mirror when I got home showed that my eye was swelling and discolouring rapidly. I look like I’ve gone a few rounds with Apollo Creed…

Both girls were out – Lyra having dinner with a friend, and Nova doing a trial shift at Mildred’s in Dalston (she got the job!) Ordered pizza, watched some telly, had a long chat with Wade (who’d noticed my location on FindAFriend and texted to see if something was up) and to bed.

July 29, 2021

I’m still off my morning routine… no meditating, no running. Not sure what’s going on there, but I expect I’ll get back into my groove soon. We’ve been warned by Virgin that our internet was going to be disrupted today, so I wanted to get a few things done before that happened.

Adam headed to his office to avoid the issue and I piggybacked off the next door neighbour’s wifi for the hours service was down, which worked out okay.

I had a meeting with Kate about the classfinder for the fitness site, so I focused on that first thing. I built two data entry options to collect teacher and class data – one using a form on the website and the other using Google forms.

Spent the afternoon trying to wrestle a listings plugin to serve as a classfinder. I’m losing confidence that it’s the right solution. Am now thinking maybe a events plugin might work better…

Met Kate and Tim for dinner at the Gatehouse: roasted cauliflower salad, lemon sole with tenderstem broccoli and some nice pinot noir. A good evening…

July 28, 2021

No running or meditating either. I’ve had a bit of an ssue with my app, but that’s not it. I’m not sure what’s going on there. Today’s excuse was that I’d agreed to drive Nova to Gospel Oak so she could get to a job interview in Dalston for 10am.

The neighbours were by their front door when I got home so I knocked to thank them for feeding Cleo while we were on Osea. I could tell something was up as soon as Kat answered. Turns out their elderly cat Stripes had just walked out of a second-storey window and they were packing her up to take to the vet…

It was John’s memorial service in Stockport this afternoon. Nova and I sat down at 1:30pm to attend but they were experiencing technical issues and unable to connect to the internet…

I have three work projects looming that are overwhelming me, and I worked steadily until a migraine halo stopped me in my tracks at 7:30pm. I haven’t had one of those in ages…

Leftover chicken from yesterday with the girls. Adam went on from work for drinks with a woman who is some sort of work connection. Headed to bed at 9pm when girls started watching Love Island. My head didn’t hurt and halo had cleared, but I had hat out of it feeling that comes with migraines. Read and dozed to 11pm and lights out.

July 27, 2021

Had a fitness charity meeting today and managed to make some progress on the classfinder in time for that. I’m still not convinced that I’ve figured out how to do it, but my current approach looks promising for now…

In the afternoon I popped to the shops for chicken and just to get out of the house really. When I don’t run it’s too easy for the day to go by without me venturing outside…

Made the roast chicken, broccoli and pancetta dish with corn on the cob. Headed over to Beulah’s for the second half of the photo sorting exercise. Things went a lot faster this time. We knew the drill and Doron and Antonia engaged more, which helped. Spent half an hour looking through Beulah’s wedding photos afterwards. I hadn’t realised that her mum died of a heart attack only eight weeks after the wedding, aged 53.

July 26, 2021

Coffee in bed then hopped up to sort things for our return to London. The causeway is open between 6:30–10:30am this morning. On previous visits we’ve opted for a late return, but Adam had a phone interview that he wanted to do from London at 2pm. (So much for the four day weekend concept…)

It’s always much easier packing to leave somehow and we were on our way on schedule. Flooding meant M11 interchange with North Circular was closed, so we took a different route this time – some M25, A10, and picking our way through Waltham Forest and Enfield. There was so much traffic disruption that the roadworks app was completely useless…

Dropped Ellie at hers and made it home home in good time for the interview (which ended up being cancelled). Once the unpacking was done, Adam got stuck straight into work. I had vague thoughts of doing some myself, but couldn’t rouse the enthusiasm. Finished my novel instead and read the weekend paper which was waiting for us.

Lyra wanted a lift over to her friend Alex’s house in Crouch End, and I dropped Nova at the tube on the way. She’s spending the evening at her friend Izzy’s, so it was ust the two of us for dinner. I wasn’t hungry so Adam finished the Indian leftovers from Saturday.

Watched an episode of The Legacy. Home stretch there… and then some Olympics men’s triathlon. I thought I might need to go collect Lyra from Crouch End, but Alex’s mum ended up running her home.

July 25, 2021

Our last full day on Osea. The weather has turned out even better than yesterday. No great shakes compared to the heat wave we’ve been having, but so much better than predicted… Speaking of weather, London was completely battered by thunder storms yesterday and there was flooding all over north London.

Made egg mcmuffins for breakfast. using my new technique way of melding everything – eggs, cheese, ham and green onion – in the frying pan.

Afterwards, I encouraged the girls to get out and grab the day while they could but they were feeling lazy. It’s their holiday and I left them to it. Adam had got up early and worked all morning, but eventually we went for a bike ride together with Nova. Pedalled down to the causeway and then back on a different route than yesterday. I really enjoy bumping my bike over the rough tracks mown through the fields.

I’d brought my computer in case I needed or felt like doing some work, but didn’t crack the lid all weekend. I have been reading lots: All Adults Here by Emma Straub, Independence Square by AD Miller, and am now onto Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (creepy and good).

Tricolore salad for lunch with toasted ciabatta buns. Nova volunteered to make dinner – pasta al limone – and Lyra and Ellie made some guac to have with tortilla chips as a late afternoon snack. It was pretty late by the time we finished eating – and we only time for one round of Articulate before bedtime.

July 24, 2021

Slept very well last night, aside from an imposter syndrome dream the woke me in the middle of the night. I was visiting this large Danish family who I didn’t know well, who were under the misapprehension that I was marvellously good at all sorts of things I knew nothing about.

There was a big family event that day, and they were regretting that they hadn’t asked me to DJ and organise the music, and kept starting conversations about things they clearly knew more than I did about but assumed I was expert at (like Russian literature, psychiatry and Buddhism).

I went to the loo (which didn’t lock) and did a poop. When I turned round to flush the toilet was gone and the poop was sitting on the floor. I found a little gift bag to hide it in and headed out to dispose of it somehow. People kept assuming I’d thoughtfully brought a gift (“you didn’t need to do that!”) and trying to take it from me. Relieved when I woke up from that wretched experience…

Mini croissants and fruit salad for breakfast. Filter coffee is a bit of a shock now that we’re pod people…

The weather is surprisingly okay. It rained overnight, but by mid-morning it had improved to overcast and reasonably warm. Read my novel while Adam did a bit of work, then we went for a long bike ride round the island. They’ve definitely improved the roads and the causeway (which has fewer potholes and crumbly corners).

The whole operation is more professional – better kitchen equipment, laminated instruction cards, parking regulations, no fire pits in the village. That last one’s a shame, but probably wise. We were super responsible with our fire pit – situating it away from trees, ensuring it was completely extinguished at bed time etc, but there’s no way some of the boobies who vacation would even know to do anything of the sort.

There’s a big Indian wedding party in the big house this weekend. Groups of girls wobbling past on bikes in inappropriate shoes and a large gathering of smartly dressed people on the lawn when we passed by this afternoon. There’s a bit of a party crowd next door as well – lots of singing last night, but they quieted down by 11pm. (Noise control was on the new laminated cards…)

Cheese, crackers, salami and salad for lunch; chicken curry with naan for dinner. Played several closely fought rounds of Articulate before bed, trying different team configurations. It definitely worked best to have three girls versus Adam and me.

July 23, 2021

Happy birthday Denise! Didn’t meditate this morning, but made time for a four mile run in the Woods before shifting gears to getting us ready for our weekend on Osea. The original plan was for both Adam and me to take Friday and Monday off, but unsurprisingly that didn’t happen.

He worked late last night and all morning as well, doing the odd thing on the to-do list. I packed the car, corralled the girls, organised the food, yada yada yada. Just enough time before we needed to leave to pull together an estimate for the British Beauty Week website.

Set out about 3:15pm. We hoped to arrive at 5pm when the causeway opened, but traffic was heavy, we needed to stop for ice, and it was more like 6pm by the time finally arrived. We’re in a new house this time – three bedrooms so that Lyra and Ellie can share and Nova have her own space.

Our groceries arrived without incident and I decided it made sense to barbeque tonight, given the amount of rain still in the forecast. Went for a bike ride before starting on dinner, and in the way of UK barbeques it was 9:30pm by the time we ate our lamb burgers and sausages.

Afterwards the kids made smores on the dying embers, we finished the wine and called it a night. Good to be back on Osea…

July 22, 2021

John Stillman has died, aged 101… His son Andy texted yesterday to tell us the news. I feel quite sad about it. He and Anne were part of our lives for a long time…

Had a client meeting first thing, then did my meditating before I forgot. After that I finalised the grocery order for Osea. Had a text earlier this week to tell me that the local supermarket had caught fire so our order might be disrupted or not arrive at all. Not a great state of affairs when we are planning to spend the weekend on an island cut off from the mainland 22 hours a day.

The weather forecast is persistently dreadful as well – torrential rain, thunderstorms and a risk of flooding. Happy happy joy joy…

Spent most of the day getting the art school website ready to launch, and by dinner time it was looking pretty good. I hadn’t bothered including the previous version in my work samples, but I’ll definitely add it now.

The girls cooked tonight – cheese quesadillas with guac, salsa and green salad. Went for a long walk on the Heath with Pasc and Pete afterwards, then stopped in at theirs for a drink before getting back home about 10pm.

July 21, 2021

It was supposed to be Lyra’s last day of school today, but due to the number of kids and teachers self-isolating, the decided to do the leaving assembly online. She had a couple of hours in the morning on her laptop, then that was it for Year 9.

I went for a run in the Woods before work – half mile warm-up, then a series of wind sprints and recovery, before a cool down. My legs felt pretty good and I managed most of them sub-nine minutes/mile.

The morning was taken up with website updates and the afternoon with the final Jx strategy session. I’ve enjoyed the process and even over Zoom it feels like it has been beneficial for team building.

Banh mi and salads for dinner. We watched an episode of Atypical, then after the girls headed off for their Love Island fix, we watched another episode of The Legacy – final series now.

July 20, 2021

Happy birthday, Wendy! It’s going to be another hot one today. I got my meditation out of the way early as it isn’t a running day and got stuck into scoping the Irish fitness website. Put a fair amount of time in on that and sent her a nice brief by the end of the day. Starting to see how I’m going to tackle that project, which is a relief.

Threw together some sweet potato cauliflower tacos for dinner before heading round to Beulahs to go through photographs. She has become fixated on the idea that we need to go through all the photos together with Doron and Antonia, choose the ones we want, divvy them up between us and then she’ll throw out the rest.

Assembled at 8pm round got right down to it. Strange task. Antonia was being weirdly obstructive, Doron pretty much zoned out, but Adam and I tried to engage with the task. There were a lot of blurry holiday snaps that could go. A number of childhood pics of the two boys that we should keep. The real gems were the photos from Beulah’s childhood which she wants to hold onto in any event (as she should).

After a round of mince pies and pouring cream, we headed home about 10pm. A rather surreal evening.

July 19, 2021

I should have got straight out for my run as soon as I got home from dropping Lyra, but I pootled about doing this and that and by the time I headed out it was already pretty hot. Not dreadful, but by the time I finished four miles I was pretty hot and sweaty.

Had a long cool shower when I got back, then started my work day. Had to compress things a bit as we had another Jx strategy session towards the end of the day. The first two workshops were about divergence – these ones are about convergence and formulating our strategic plan for the next few years.

Headed straight out to the Festival wrap party afterwards (postponed from last week due to torrential rain). Despite it being “freedom day” it was a low-key, outdoor affair – a dozen people drinking wine and eating sausage rolls in Alicia’s garden.

I think the British public is pretty skeptical about the idea of dropping all Covid restrictions. Infections are climbing exponentially, hospital admissions and deaths are increasing, people are being told to self-isolate left, right and centre. I’m crossing my fingers we make it to Osea without further incident.

On that note, the weather is set to change abruptly the day we arrive from glorious sunshine to thunderstorms and rain. And the supermarket who is meant to deliver our food has emailed to say they’ve had a fire and can’t guarantee that our order will arrive. Which is an issue, given we’ll be on a island cut off from the mainland aside from a few hours a day. There’s not much room to travel with food either as we are bringing both girls and Lyra’s friend Ellie…

July 18, 2021

Hot hot hot… Slept restlessly and woke feeling groggy. After a pick-me-up espresso, Adam and I went for a walk before the heat built any further. Down the private road, around the ponds to Swains Lane, where we picked up a few things for a Turkish brunch and I nabbed two more signs.

Ate in the garden (the top floor is like a sauna). Afterwards I retired indoors to our bedroom where it was relatively cool and ended up having an hour’s nap. Did computer work in the shade of the patio for the rest of the afternoon. The jasmine is in full bloom and the smell is amazing, even stronger at night.

Made a spinach salad for dinner with Nova’s help. It wasn’t a great success – too much spinach for the amount of dressing, or maybe the dressing itself was missing something. At any rate, it felt like a chore to eat it. The hot weather doesn’t do anything for the appetite.

Worked in the evening until bedtime. I’m trying to come up with a solution for website-based class finder for my original fitness client and have been banging my head against the wall. The solutions I was finding required technical skills I don’t have and money beyond their budget. 

It occurred to me that we could maybe use a classified advert plugin. Each class could be treated like an advert, the teachers could fill in an online form the way you would if you were listing something on a Craigslist or similar, and there would be all the search and filtering functionality (by postcode for example). I’ll have to explore further but it might be a really good way to give them what they need.

July 17, 2021

I’d been planning to run this morning, but Millie asked if I was free for a walk so I opted for that instead. I had time to meditate and bake a batch of carrot-pineapple muffins before meeting her at the top of the path.

Grabbed a coffee in the village and headed for the Heath. One of her close friends is in a hospice in Hampstead (terminal cancer), and she was heading over to visit with her. We sat on the grass for an hour and ate lunch at a tapas place in Belsize Park (outside) before she headed off and I turned for home.

Adam collected me part way up Haverstock Hill and ran me back in the car before heading to Finchley to see the optometrist and visit his mum. I had a bit of a snooze having slept badly last night in the heat, and then pottered about with various things until it was time to meet Richard and Rachel for dinner at the Bull.

We haven’t been there in a while, and they’d changed up the menu, which was exciting. I had the hake with a salsa and fresh borlotti beans, which was very nicely. Too much sauvignon blanc as always with Rachel, but lots of water too…

Nova got her PCR test result back (negative) but her friend Shira has tested positive. Her family now have to self-isolate for ten days and have cancelled their summer holiday…

July 16, 2021

Happy anniversary, Greg & Wendy! A decent day, weatherwise. Nova was booked in for a PCR test at Ally Pally at 9am, so I ditched the meditating and went for a quick run before I needed to drive her. Left her to walk back and got stuck into my work day.

I had a meeting at 10am with the beauty website team and where I was landed with a shedload of work, and am being chased by both fitness sites for new developments. There is something not working with my business model – I think maybe I need to stop taking on new clients, or find someone to partner up with or something. The problem is I don’t have time to think it through properly…

Did a bunch of research for the Irish fitness site and was able to send her a comprehensive letter setting out how I’d approach the project, costings etc. I even knocked her up a draft logo, which was one of the things she is after. Her thing is Pilates using a large, slightly pornographic piece of equipment called an Oov. I mocked something up that falls somewhere between an avocado and a vagina.

Adam got home about 7:30 from his workspace. Lyra came home, took possession of her phone (the three days are served), and got me to run her down to Ellie’s. It was three of us for dinner. I’d intended to cook but by the time we finished work I didn’t feel like it. Had our usual G&Ts, ordered Greek food from East Finchley and watched Twelve Angry Men for movie night. Such a great film…

July 15, 2021

Happy birthday, Landyn! Adam is working from home  today. Not that I saw any more of him than when he was at the office. He went walking with Doron first thing, then disappeared into meetings for the day. We almost never manage to eat lunch together.

I’ve been eating some lunches with Nova, but she was out today, meeting a girl who will be studying with her in Madrid this autumn. She called me on the way home to say that someone she’d spent time with on Tuesday evening has tested positive for Covid.

We all did home tests (negative) and she’s scheduled a PCR test tomorrow morning at Ally Pally. Went for a walk with Adam before dinner and collected Festival signs down Dartmouth Park and in Swains Lane. I’m over 20 now.

Salads and fresh sourdough for dinner – we’re watching the lastest season of Atypical. There was talk of it being cancelled – apparently there were objections to the girl-girl high school romance, but they must have been over-ruled.

July 14, 2021

Tried the Monday workout again – four miles, with a half mile warm-up, six fast quarter miles, interspersed with slow ones and a half mile cool down. I didn’t feel that energetic (my legs were strangely heavy) but I managed it fine. When I looked at the stats afterwards, I was surprised to see that I’d averaged faster than 9 min/mile for four of the six fast segments. That’s pretty fast going for an old gal like me…

On the way home I walked the full length of North Hill and the top of Spaniards Lane as well, collecting Festival signs. They’ve been ziptied to lamp posts and railing since early June and they need to come down now. A team of Highgate school kids was meant to do it, but it clearly isn’t happening. I’ve started taking down the ones I pass, and am amassing a decent stack. It would be good to know where they’ve been hung, but I don’t know if that info exists.

Adam is working in Shoreditch today with our new hire Helen who started this week. We don’t interact during the work day, but it feels different nevertheless. He’s aiming to work two days a week at the office and three from home.

Lime-ginger chicken and slaw for dinner, telly, bed… Some days there isn’t much to say…

July 13, 2021

Adam headed off for his regular walk with Doron, dropping Lyra on the way. I meditated and then did some web work for a wind farm enterprise in BC that I do occasional updates for.

More focussed than yesterday. Managed some client work, interspersed with a couple of meetings, and caught up on a batch of email. What I didn’t do was manage any exercise – I didn’t even leave the house. Not often that happens…

Spicy cottage pie and green beans for dinner. Nova was out for the evening with friends so she didn’t eat with us. Started watching the new series of Atypical.

July 12, 2021

Feeling very flat this morning – a combination of yesterday’s family drama, the football result, Monday, the miserable weather… Lyra’s school was online today as so many kids in her year are self-isolating. Apparently, it’s back to normal lessons tomorrow, which doesn’t make sense but nothing around covid restrictions makes sense anymore.

It’s hard to understand how we can be removing all restrictions in a week’s time with cases climbing vertically. Or how now that the app is working and detecting all the covid exposures about the plan is to make it less sensitive…

Went for a run for the first time in days but didn’t have the heart for it and pulled up after 2.5 miles. Walked home in the drizzle, showered and did the weekly laundry before starting work.

By afternoon the rain was at monsoon levels, flooding widespread round London, pipes bursting, waves on the North Circular, a massive lake forming at the bottom of Muswell Hill, lightning cracking overhead. Apparently a month’s rain fell in a hour…

We’ve taken Lyra’s phone away for three days as a consequence of yesterday’s events, but I softened enough to let her have it for fifteen minutes tonight to keep her SnapChat streaks going. I also agreed that she could take it to school and hand it over when she gets home (which counts as a half day).

Watched Love Island with the girls then headed to bed at 10pm to read for a bit before calling it a night.

July 11, 2021

I was after a lazy day, what with having worked all last weekend  and all the travelling yesterday. Had coffee in bed and got properly stuck into my current novel – Dominicana by Angie Cruz, which I’m loving.

Made a scrambled eggs and smoked salmon brunch for Adam, Nova and me. Lyra didn’t join us as she headed over to a her friend Alex’s for the afternoon. Izzie had returned from her date by this point, but was feeling hungover and also declined.

Once Izzie set off for home, Adam and Nova headed out to visit with Beulah and I continued the relaxation theme, with the Wimbledon mens’ final in the background. There was never much doubt that Djokovic was going to take it, but I was pleased to see Berrettini make him work for it.

We were just about to head off to Will and Sara’s for dinner before the match, when Lyra got a message about a possible meet-up at Lucia or Sissy’s to watch the match. She immediately started agitating to stay home in case she was included in that invite.

Things escalated from there, until she was screaming how much she hated me, that I was ruining her life, making threats, refusing to leave the house and I had confiscated her phone. Adam and Nova eventually left as we already late.

We managed to dial the situation down to where Lyra agreed to go and I agreed to let her have her phone some of the time when we were at theirs. Things were okay once we arrived. Will and Sara have raised three teenagers themselves and have had their own dramas to contend with over the years.

The food was great, Lyra played a lot of table tennis with Will, Nova and me, and once the match started I handed over the fucking phone. It was a heartbreaker of a match, and couldn’t have been closer, with England losing to Italy on penalties. Such a shame…

Headed straight home afterwards, repossessed Lyra’s phone and everyone headed for bed…

July 10, 2021

Up at 8am to sort ourselves out for a day’s walking in Surrey with Ben and Michaela. The drive down was very smooth and we pulled up at the Farnham train station right on time at 10am. It’s been ages since we’ve seen them – pretty sure we last met up in December 2019. 

Ben and Adam headed west on a ten mile walk to Alton, while Michaela and I headed southish towards a town called Tilford to have a pub lunch. I would have preferred to all do the same walk, but I wasn’t in charge of arrangements.

Ben said that we could follow the North Downs way until it hit the Greenway or something, turn right and the follow the river to Tilford, a walk of 2-3 miles. Michaela hadn’t brought a map (or possibly even looked at the route) and within about fifteen minutes we were lost.

After a stretch of quite unpleasant (and dangerous) B-road walking, we retraced our steps and tried another direction. It didn’t pan out either, and we decided to head back to Farnham. Hopped in their car and drove to Tilford for our pub lunch.

Found a riverside path and walked a mile out and back before driving to Alton to collect Adam and Ben. We ended up walking 8 miles to their 11, which sounded like a pleasant downhill ramble, so I still don’t have any idea what all the extra complication was about.

Time for a quick drink in Farnham before going our separate ways. Got back to London about 6:30pm. Nova’s friends had left by this point, aside from Izzie who is staying an extra night to go on a Tinder date. Lyra was a a gathering on the Heath for a boy who is moving back to the US.

She was checking in regularly, and seemed to be having a nice time. She was meant to be home by 10pm, but called about 9:30 to ask if she could sleep at Lucia’s. I checked with Millie then said yes. I hadn’t even finished confirming with Lyra when I received another text from Millie saying that Lyra wasn’t sleeping there now, Lucia was coming home on her own, and Lyra had gone to someone called Wyatt’s.

I called Lyra, told her I was coming to collect her straightaway and drove to Muswell Hill. She was tearful and upset, insisting it was a misunderstanding, that she was going to get the next bus to Lucia’s, and could she still sleep over. That was obviously not happening…

I was angry that she’d let Lucia travel on her own (regardless of whether she was sleeping over there), and that she thought it was fine to take a bus alone herself at 10pm.) There was a bust-up with Sissy who ran off alone and triggered the chain of events, but I wasn’t that interested in the detail. If she displays such poor judgment, we clearly can’t trust her to be out and about with friends in this way…

July 9, 2021

I had no enthusiasm whatsoever for work today. Meditated, went for a two-mile run, then did the minimum while focusing more on housework and food prep for tonight’s dinner. 

It’s been ages since I’ve cooked for guests – I’m not sure it even happened in 2020. I’d planned a Middle Easternish meal – falafel, pitta, Israeli couscous salad, fattoush, cacik, a Persian aubergine-egg dish. I paced the prep across the day, interspersed with bits of client work.

Adam had done the top-up grocery shopping yesterday, mainly because he wasn’t around to help today. His book group was meeting at the Athaneum in Pall Mall, where Simon is a member. He headed off before noon, suited and booted, for a bang-up lunch.

He thought he might be back by 4pm, but it was more like 6:30-7 when he rolled in. He wasn’t too soused, and helped set the table, toasted the pitta breads, and fixed G&Ts when Nova, Michael, Holly and Izzie arrived. The meal was well received – apparently Michael is a big TenMoreBites fan.

After dinner ended we relinquished the living room to them so they could watch Love Island on the big telly and headed to our bedroom. Lyra was babysitting Gabriel and got home about 11pm just as we were calling it a night, having earned £60.

July 8, 2021

Almost went running this morning, but just couldn’t push myself over the line…;-) I did meditate before getting busy tidying things up on the beauty site. I’ve been feeling anxious about the video background and the risk the server will be overwhelmed when they start promoting it. 

Put in a support call to the theme builder, and discovered that it was never going to work calling the video from YouTube – it isn’t something they support. So that’s that then… At least I’ve got it as small as possible now, so fingers crossed…

Had our final Festival meeting – at least until the end of August when we need to gear up to for a weekend mini Festival to deliver the events we had to postpone. Did my Google analytics presentation, and all were suitably impressed. It occurs to me that the best way not to feel exploited in this situation is to use it as a learning opportunity – and analytics is something I really should no more about.

Broke off just before 4pm to get my hair cut. I had a stretch in the winter when I was losing hair like crazy – it was really starting to stress me out, which I’m sure didn’t help. It’s not doing that anymore thankfully, and I have lots of new hair growth, including a little mini fringe (most attractive…)

Nova was back from Cambridge when I returned with her three housemates in tow. They are going out this evening, but have requested I cook them a veggie meal from TenMoreBites tomorrow. Happy to oblige, but feel pretty rusty – I haven’t done much cooking for months. 

Lyra was in bed with her monthly migraine, so it was just Adam and me for dinner – spinach salad and an episode of The Legacy.

July 7, 2021

Lyra is off school today for special teacher-student meetings. In past years they made the kids dress in their uniforms and schlep into town for their fifteen-minute slots, but it’s happening online this year. I would go in with her, but apparently that’s not necessary as they move higher up the school.

There’s meant to be a big launch on the beauty website today – they’ve commissioned a series of short films about beauty practitioners in conjunction with Marie Claire – I’ve done what I can to get the site ready, but the actual films have yet to arrive. 

I was just going into a committee meeting at 6:30 when they finally landed. There was big pressure to get them up straightaway, which I managed to do my turning off my video so I could work as well as listen. Adam and Lyra headed off to Will and Sara’s for the England v Denmark match, but I stayed until the meeting finished and the assets were in place.

Drove down and brought my computer with me in case there were any unexpected surprises. My main concern is the video background on the page. I was wanting to pull it from YouTube rather than a video on our site, but couldn’t get it to work. Ended up remaking a shorter video and compressing the hell out of it while half watching the game. Not ideal, but I hope it will do… 

It was the biggest challenge England has faced but they prevailed, beating Denmark 2-1 in extra time. It’s the first time they have made the final in a major tournament since 1966 when they won the World Cup. Quite a thing…

July 6, 2021

Slept like a log last night and feel much better for it. Still not finding the time/motivation to go running though. The incessant rain doesn’t help, but that’s not the whole story. I’ve run plenty of miles in the rain. I didn’t go the week Adam was self-isolating, then I got caught up in project deadlines and now here we are…

Had a monthly content scheduling meeting with my engineering client, and did some site updates on the back of that. Posted an article for the fitness website, ploughed through a backlog of emails, a bit of a meh day.

I’d arranged to meet Jane at the Holloway Odeon to see Another Round and headed out about 7:30pm. The 271 bus was in chaos. Six buses arrived in Highgate during the half hour I waited, but none of the left with any passengers.

I finally got one of the drivers to open the door and talk to me. He’d arranged himself a little picnic in the cab of the bus and wasn’t that keen to be disturbed. Apparently they were running an hour and half behind schedule and all of them were on dinner break (which makes absolutely no sense…)

Adam was out with his colleague Charlotte at the pub, but he managed to send me an Uber. (I haven’t used the app for so long it’s uninstalled itself.) Made it with 30 seconds to spare…

Thoroughly enjoyed the film. I’m a big Mads Mikkelsen fan and the dance scene he does at the end is awesomely uplifting. A 271 arrived straightaway (driven by the picnicking guy), so I guess normal service has been restored.

July 5, 2021

Welcome to the working week… Basil hasn’t come through with the text and image deliverables I’d asked him for on Saturday morning. The ball for that project is firmly in his court now, which is a good place to get to when I’ve been behind on delivering something.

Millie’s work is delayed as well, due to the video files not being ready, which left me free to focus on the launch stats report. Meditated before I got down to work, but that was it. No exercise, housework or the usual Monday morning stuff. Moved so little all day that I didn’t bother with lunch or dinner either as just wasn’t hungry. Lyra made pesto pasta for her and Adam. (Nova is in Cambridge for a couple of days visiting a flatmate.)

I was pretty happy with where I’d got the report to by 7pm. Went through it with Adam to doublecheck and make a few amends, and now consider that done. I’m not going to charge all the hours I put in (there was a lot of grunt work, and it’s not an area of expertise for me), but I have no qualms about charging what he was going to pay Ed.

Fixed myself a late supper, poured a  glass of red wine and watched a couple of episodes of Cardinal. Adam had headed over to see Beulah – I was in bed by the time he got back at 11pm.

July 4, 2021

Happy 20th birthday Nova – what a thing it is to have a 20-year-old, and what a marvellous 20-year-old to have 🙂

Adam and I were awake from 6:30am as per always, but it had gone 10:30 by the time Nova emerged from her cave. Did the present opening thing, then moved into preparing the weekend fry-up. Added hash browns and mimosas to make it that bit more special.

Spent the afternoon on beauty website work – they are launching a new phase of their “bring back beauty” campaign with Marie Claire next week, and there is a lot of stuff to have in place. Took a break to decorate the cake with Lyra (who also cleverly fashioned a 2 out of a spare candle when we realised we needed one. The wick is sideways, but other than that it’s perfect!)

Ate cake with Nova and Shira before they headed out for an evening on the tiles. We’d usually have Beulah round but Adam wants to be by the book with her ew self-isolating even though it’s pretty clear by now that he doesn’t have covid.

Spent the evening working on an analytics report for UNEP’s recent Net-Zero Banking Alliance launch. Adam had contracted Ed to do it, and they had a couple of meetings to agree parameters etc. Last month, Ed went blank on Adam – won’t respond to texts, emails, phone calls, direct messages – and the work is weeks overdue.

The Google analytics stuff is reasonably straightforward, but Ed has access to paid-for social listening tools that I don’t, and the free ones only look back a week (a month at most). The launch was on 21 April, so that’s no use. Ended up going through Twitter search and manually crunching the data for three hashtags over a six-week period. To bed at 2am…

July 3, 2021

Feeling pretty tired this morning, especially as I managed only five hours sleep. My brain was still spinning on the art school site, and after a cup of coffee I started straight back in. Spent an hour or so refining and snagging, and another hour drafting a long email to Basil outlining the content and images he needs to provide.

I’ve used up pretty much all the time I estimated for the work, and there are still a few hours needed. If Basil can size and crop images and provide them to me ready to upload, I can focus on the e-commerce and design details.

Fixed smoked salmon scrambled eggs for lunch – both girls were out so it was just Adam and me. Afterwards he joined me in the living room with his computer and we worked for the afternoon.

Went down to Will and Sara’s with the girls to watch the England v Ukraine match. Strictly speaking, Adam’s self-isolating doesn’t end until tomorrow evening, but he’s now done four negative covid tests, and checked to make sure they were fine with him cutting the corner.

Barbeque beforehand and the strawberries and ice cream we brought for dessert at half time. The match was weirdly unstressful. England scored in the first five minutes, and then three times after that, controlling the game the whole time.

Played a lot of table tennis with Lyra before and during the match. I walloped her at first, but she was winning by the end (as my wine consumption went up and darkness fell)…

July 2, 2021

Feeling markedly better today, though not up to running yet. Made Lyra’s lunch, drove her to the bus, meditated then put in some time in the kitchen. Baked two loaves of sourdough, made pesto, egg salad, and strawberry-lemon sorbet before starting work.

Divided my time between the beauty website and the art school rebuild. I’m able to draw on things I learnt on my course, and it’s going pretty smoothly. Had a post-Festival analysis Zoom in the afternoon. I thought that was the last I’d see of that crew for awhile, but we only managed half the agenda so we”ve got another one scheduled for next week.

Tonight’s takeout was from a Japanese restaurant on the Archway Road. Excellent food and two G&Ts. That should have been the end of my work day but after we finished watching Hot Fuzz (Nova’s pick), I headed downstairs and put in a couple more hours on the art school…

July 1, 2021

Happy Canada Day! I always intend to cook something typically Canadian or otherwise find some way of marking the occasion but somehow never do…

Ran Lyra to the bus, meditated and got a good early start on my work for a change. Finished the analytics report and sent that to the Festival committee, made some final amends to that site, and did a little preparatory work for a rebuild of Basil’s art school website.

I’ve been feeling a bit trepidatious about starting it, as it’s an ecommerce site and I’m making significant changes. I don’t see any reason it should disrupt the sales functions, but I imagine I’ll have to redesign the product pages, cart and payment pages from scratch (which I haven’t done before).

Did a bit of impromptu video work for my insurance client – setting up a little 4th of July LinkedIn greeting for a couple of day’s time. They have more in-house comms capacity now and I don’t get much work from them. A shame on one hand, because I charge them more than anyone else, but I don’t actually enjoy working for them that much so I guess it balances out.

Did my June invoicing as well – quite a productive day given that I feel quite crappy. Medium-grade headache, sinus pain, and a nasty stomachache that just won’t quit. Watched Annie with Lyra in her bedroom, then headed to bed.