March 2020

March 31, 2020

Went for a walk on the Heath first thing. Adam was busy prepping for his online B-Corp breakfast he was hosting, and it was far too early for the girls so I went on my own. Lovely, bright, cold day. There were plenty of folks about but the vast majority were behaving conscientiously with their distancing, which was good. You can see why you shouldn’t be out and about with people you don’t live with. There were a couple of pairs like that, and because they were maintaining a six foot distance, you then had to add another six feet to go around them.

Came back through Waterlow Park, more or less my route for when I go to the high school to invigilate. No more of that on the horizon. It’s hard to see how things are going to get back to normal from where we are now, but I suppose that they will.

Fruit salads for breakfast (everyone is enjoying that new routine), and sandwich and potato salad for lunch. We were just finishing up when the doorbell rang, and it was James with our Ocado order. Quelle surprise that came off — it flies in the face of everything I read and hear anecdotally from friends.

Interestingly most of the store cupboard staples and the meat had been dropped from the order — those must be the things they are finding it hardest to keep in stock. We are now inundated with fresh food…

Lots of web work to keep me busy, and found some time to send out a few end of month invoices as well. Fingers crossed that people pay…

Caldo verde, cheese and crackers for dinner, a few rounds of Uno, then Adam went downstairs to have a virtual yahrzeit for his dad. The reason for the date is that it corresponds to the day of his death in the Hebrew calendar.

I started watching Tiger King, which you can’t swing a cat without hearing about at the moment, but conked out before I finished the first episode…

March 30, 2020

It would have been Freddy’s 87th birthday today… Friday was Freddy and Beulah’s anniversary, and Tuesday (tomorrow), is the day Beulah had chosen for his yahrzeit, or memorial day. (I don’t know why she’s doing it so far ahead of the actual anniversary which is April 10th — maybe to link it with his birthday?)

My knee was completely fine yesterday after I got moving around, so I went for a three mile run in the Woods before breakfast. I wonder if it reacted badly to all the off-path running required to keep a good distance from people?

It’s akin to single lane highway driving. You come up behind someone (not too close), then scan the oncoming traffic before pulling out and overtaking them. Except, if you can’t overtake that way, sometimes a stretch of off-roading is an option…

Made fruit salad and yogurt for everyone, showered, baked my sourdough loaves from yesterday and got down to work. I’ve worked with a plug-in designer to fix a problem we were having with how the events page on the beauty site downsized, and after a bit of back and forth we seem to have cracked it. Yay!

A very odd thing happened this morning… I’ve been checking the online grocery site we use now and then. Usually it says something like “You are 27,945 in the queue to get onto the site. Expected wait is 4.5 hours to begin shopping.” This time it said, “next delivery slot available tomorrow between 12-1pm.”

I leapt on that sucker, tossed our recent purchases list into the shopping basket, quickly added a few things we needed and checked out. They threw a bunch of stuff off at the point of purchase, so I added suggested alternatives and tried again, rinse and repeat…

I decided to go ahead and complete the order. I’m not entirely sure what we’ll be getting (or if it will turn up at all)… watch this space…

The site went live early afternoon, and I scrambled around testing everything worked as intended and catching a few little things — friendly page paths, missing sign-ups that needed adding to the database, and a stubborn issue with social plug-ins not always loading in new tabs.

Also did a bunch of work on the Mailchimp template for the newsletter so that it matched the new design. All in all, a pretty good piece of work if I do say so myself.

After that I turned my attention to the massage therapy site. I had to get the events section working and fix a few other little things, but it is basically there.

I’ve put in so much additional work beyond what we discussed, and I’m kicking myself for not flagging it up earlier. Project management is definitely not my forte, but I kept hoping the end was in sight.

Spent ages over an email setting out why I wanted to add $400 to the estimate I gave when I thought it was a half day migration job, and finally sent it before dinner. We’ll see what happens with that…

Adam cooked tonight in honour of his dad’s birthday, producing “bacon and eggs in a glass” — a peeled soft-boiled egg in a tumbler with crumbled bacon on top and a piece of butter matzoh on the side. Odd, but surprisingly tasty.

Played some Uno before the girls headed to their rooms and Adam and I attempted to watch Ocean’s Eleven. Not sure if he saw it all, but I slept through a huge chunk in the middle…

March 29, 2020

The clocks went forward last night, so at least when I woke at 5am as per usual, I was able to tell myself that it was actually 6am… Adam and I were all set to go for a walk on the Heath after our meditation. But my knee felt very dodgy when I went to climb the stairs, and I decided to give it a rest. I must have done something that strained it, though I can’t think what. My run was very sedate… maybe hoovering the stairs?

I made pancakes for everyone while Adam was out, which we ate together when he got back. He’d bumped into bumped into an acquaintance of ours who is a renowned neurologist.

Simon has recovered from Covid-19 and is back at work, though his partner (who is also a doctor) is self-isolating until Tuesday. He told Adam that the NHS will have proven antibody tests for NHS staff starting this week, and that testing for active cases will be ramped up very soon.

Made a lentil avocado salad for lunch — one of those meals I wasn’t sure people would go for but turned out to be a hit… We’re all more appreciative of our food these days, for sure…

The girls went out for a walk, and I worked my way through the rest of this week’s Guardian. There are still sections from previous weeks hanging around, which really gave me a sense of how quickly this pandemic has enveloped us. Only two weeks ago, people were moaning about the football league being shut down until 4 April…

I checked in with Pad, who seems to be doing okay, and had my daily text exchange with Claudia in Lombardy. She seemed a bit more upbeat today, which was good to hear…

Veggie soup and toast for dinner. I was planning to serve it with fresh sourdough bread, but my dough rose so slowly ( it’s super cold today) and it wasn’t ready in time. Had an unbaked cookie for dessert — Nova had requested I make them.

One game of Articulate, which was relatively civil and came down to a tie break (which Adam and Nova won). Took to my bed with my novel for some quiet time and an early night…

March 28, 2020

I could feel my martini and two Coronas this morning — I’ve barely drunk anything since this lockdown situation began. Hopped into my running kit and set off for the Woods while it was still early…

That duck was hanging about on Southwood Lane again. This time she struck off towards Jackson Lane, waddling hurriedly ahead of me for most of the block before ducking into a front garden.

The streets were pretty deserted — no need to wait for traffic lights to cross the Archway Road — but the Woods were busier than usual. Even so, the paths are relatively wide, and most people were behaving responsibly in terms of distancing.

I decided to do two laps in the Woods instead of running up to Ally Pally, as there are spots on that route where it would be impossible to keep six feet from people.

Made fruit salad with yogurt and seeds for breakfast. Lyra called Beulah to get her grocery list so that Adam could drop some food round for her. Originally Doron was going to it, but he has a sore throat and headache. Olly has lost his sense of taste, which is a classic covid-19 symptom as well…

Lyra’s ensemble class has been replaced with an online violin theory lesson, which she did from her bedroom, after which we had salade nicoise for lunch. Adam rang round the elderly neighbours for grocery requests, then headed out to do the shopping.

I tackled some housework — hoovering the whole house, doing laundry, disinfecting surfaces and changing Lyra’s bedding.

I’ve been missing watching telly — I’m pretty sure we haven’t turned it on since last weekend. The girls mainly watch things on their laptops, and we’ve been spending all our evenings playing Articulate…

When Adam got back we sat down to catch up on an episode of Homeland, but it turned out to be too stressful for me, so I left him to it and headed off to make dinner, which was Szechuan celery beef and rice.

Watched Made in Dagenham with the girls, about a female machinists strike for equal pay at the Ford plant in the late 1960s. It was quite slow at first then got really good.

One of our neighbours in Somerset Gardens let off a massive firework display, which was a lovely treat, as we had a great view from the dining room window. To bed before 11pm.

March 27, 2020

Fell asleep before 11pm, all bath warm and dozy, only to be wakened by Adam who’d stayed until 2am for no reason…>:( Had a meeting with our United Nations client this morning. We’re reorganising the Principles for Responsible Banking website, to move it forward from the launch phase, and were seeking agreement for a proposed architecture.

Nova’s new computer arrived from Hoxton Macs, which is good news. She managed to get that set up pretty easily and is now back in business essay-wise…

Toasted two more of the pre-baked ciabattas and tuna/chicken melts for lunch again. The girls set off for an afternoon walk, and managed to buy flour from Brooksby’s — happy happy joy joy.

We finally got the beauty website launch ready, only to be told that their web hosts wouldn’t be able to help us make it live until Monday. So that was a damp squib after all that hard graft to get it over the line.

Thinking it would be good to support local restaurants who are doing take-away/delivery, we tasked Nova with ordering something for supper. She chose a pizza restaurant in Crouch End, and arranged for it to come by Deliveroo.

Unfortunately, half of north London had the same idea. Their website crashed, they weren’t answering their phone, and after two hours the Deliveroo status switched to “delivered” despite us not receiving any food.

Adam got in the car and drove over there to find two guys making pizzas for all they were worth. Apparently, they received a hundred orders in three minutes, which overwhelmed their website.

All’s well that ends well, and we sat down to dinner at 10pm. Two rounds of Articulate — Adam and me, then Lyra and me — afterwards did not help with digestion. That game really doesn’t bring out the best in us…

March 26, 2020

There was a duck on Southwood Lane this morning when we went out for our walk — a female mallard. It was stooging around at the top of the path, and when it saw us it took off waddling briskly towards the village, looking back regularly to see if we were still in pursuit.

Did a few miles on the Heath, skirting round the Kenwood grounds, which are closed until further notice, and then back along Spaniards Lane. The girls were still sleeping when we got back.

I fixed fruit salad and yogurt for everyone and left the bowls in the kitchen for people to eat when it suited them. I find that works best in terms of keeping track of the food available and minimising traffic/mess/noise in the kitchen when I am trying to work upstairs.

Lunch was Greek salad with the last of the kalamata olives. I hope we can get more of those at some point. I love Greek salad and eat it at least twice a week. If I had to choose one dish that I had to eat every day for the rest of my life, it is definitely what I would go for…

We were hoping to maybe launch the beauty website today, but by 6pm there was still a couple of small but knotty things to sort out. So close and yet so far…

Dinner was sausages, mash and corn, prepared by Lyra. We started in on our nightly Articulate session, breaking off at 8pm to open the front window and applaud the NHS. There was a pretty good, sustained response echoing up around us. A very nice moment…

We only played on game this evening. Lyra paired with Adam, which she really wasn’t keen on. “We just don’t get each other,” she kept saying and it’s sort of true. Though “argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours” and all that…

I refused to play another round, and headed off with a small whisky for a bath before bed…

March 25, 2020

No meditating this morning… It turns out that the task for day five of the Deepak Chopra thing is to set up your own group Ponzi-style. That stopped everyone in their tracks. I’ll have to think what to do about that…

I did some yoga instead, which has a similar effect on me, especially if I take time to do the breathing exercises at the beginning at savasana at the end. After that, I set out the breakfasts, cleaned the kitchen and put on laundry, before getting down to work.

Toasted a couple of semi-baked ciabatta from Costco for lunch and made tuna melts (chicken melts for the girls). Had a phone meeting with my massage therapist client. I spent an hour taking her through the back end of her new website, which is pretty much ready to launch now, aside from a bit of tweaking I need to do to her events plug-in.

Dinner was farfalle with broccoli sauce and parmesan. Nova took the lead on making that. Played two rounds of Articulate afterwards — the girls played together both times, and are certainly formidable opponents…

March 24, 2020

Slept straight through until 6:30am — result! That is an unprecedented amount of sleep for me, pretty much nine hours unbroken. Adam was already up again by the time I woke, but he returned with coffee and we did day four of our Deepak Chopra thing.

He was hosting a B Corp breakfast from our bedroom, so we all refrained from using the internet and kept quiet while it was running. Lyra and I did an exercise session in the patio area — skipping, then a series of exercises, sometimes using my exercise band — then some stretching. Felt better for it and had a laugh as well…

Muffin and some strawberries for breakfast. Made and froze my chicken stock, and dug my sprouter out from the back of the cupboard and started some alfalfa sprouts. They’ve been there for a while, and it will be interesting to see if they are still viable.

I’m finding it quite difficult to focus on my website work. There’s having the whole family around and wandering in and out of my work space. There’s the extra work that self-isolation entails — feeding four people three times a day, clearing up after them, extra laundry, the surface disinfecting. There’s all the additional social contact with people (which is great, and sometimes initiated by me). There’s the temptation to dip into the news and Twitter to see what is going on…

It’s a wonder I’m getting anything done at all. Scheduled meetings help, and I had two of those today — one on the UN work, and another on the interminable beauty website.

Dinner this is evening was sweet potato and black bean tacos. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to buy tortillas the last few times we checked. I found a bag of masa harina and we had a go at making them ourselves.

Were finally getting the hang of it as I reached the end of the dough. They tasted alright though, and in some ways better — more fresh and authentic, and sort of healthier.

Played three rounds of Articulate afterwards. The first two matches were Lyra and me versus Adam and Nova. The girls are both very good, and although Lyra is handicapped by her age (and the vintage of some of the questions: Who is Koo Stark? ffs) she is a demon describer.

To bed before 11pm…

March 23, 2020

So begins our second week of staying in… The weather is now perversely glorious and I would have liked to go for a run, but the thought of all the other people with the same impulse that would be out pounding the trails gave me pause.

Adam and I did day three of the Deepak Chopra thing, then I roused Lyra and we went out for a brisk walk. It was a good opportunity to practice social distancing with her.

Whenever we met someone coming the other direction, we stepped as far aside as possible or tucked into a driveway until they passed. In a couple of instances, our best move was to cross the street. It feels a bit weird, but it’s necessary that everyone does the same.

Stopped at the North Hill shop on the way home. They now have a sign limiting two people at a time in the store, and asking you to stay two metres apart outside. Bought some fresh fruit and veg to keep us going another few days.

Fruit salad and yogurt for breakfast. We tend to eat breakfast separately, but come together for the other two meals — which were ham & cheese sandwich, and cauliflower & potato curry with rice.

Adam went to the shops to pick up groceries for a couple of elderly households in the street. Jemima has a regular Ocado order, and she has been adding things for neighbours onto that as well. (She has to set an alarm for the middle of the night to amend her order, as that’s the only time she can get on the website). She called me to vent a bit about one neighbour requesting a special type of fish paté…

Johnson made a broadcast at 8:30pm, and we are now on what he calls lockdown for at least the next three weeks. All non-essential shops are now shut, and no one should go out except for: essential groceries (as rarely as possible); medical supplies or treatment; essential work that can’t be done at home; to exercise once a day; to support an elderly person.

I went to bed at 9:30pm intending to read and more or less conked out straightaway…

March 22, 2020

Mother’s Day in the UK. Started the morning with coffee in bed and our second installment of the Deepak Chopra meditation. I’m yet to be convinced by the whole thing (which is fair enough on day 2), but the meditating is definitely hitting the spot. When the little chime goes after fifteen minutes, my mind feels as clean and clear as a polished window. Adam headed to the village to buy me some tulips, then made banana walnut muffins while I did my yoga. Would rather have gone for a run, but after the crowds on the Heath on Saturday, it doesn’t feel like responsible behaviour.

Put in a long shift in the garden instead, clearing out the raspberry bed and around the rhubarb. Swept the greenhouse roof clear as well, not that there’s much point in using it with that wretched cedar tree throwing so much shade.

Adam and Lyra are painting the bathroom today. I fixed sandwiches for lunch, which we ate when Adam had finished doing the walls and ceiling and before starting the trim. It’s looking great.

Nova went out for a short walk, and didn’t return for almost two hours. Turns out she’d arranged to meet Shira in the park and hang out. I was pretty cross about it, as was Lyra who I’d prevented from doing the same thing.

I can understand how frustrating it is for young people to be cooped up with their families when they should be spreading their wings at uni or exploring the world on the gap year, but here we are…

Cottage pie and peas for dinner with the last of the birthday cake. Played some Uno, then Lyra headed to her room while the three of us watched The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Quite different to the book, but very good all the same…

March 21, 2020

My friend Silvia, who is a mental health practitioner has set up a virtual group to work through Deepak Chopra’s “21 Days of Abundance”. Not the sort of thing I’d seek out for myself, but in these unsettled times, why not? Adam wants to do the meditating bit, and we did the first installment this morning before going for a walk on the Heath. Worryingly busy out there — actually not the busy part, but the groups of mates running together, and the people not bothering to keep enough distance when they passed one another.

Greek salad and half a hummus pitta for lunch. I’m consciously cutting our portions a bit, which seems sensible when we don’t know how things will unfold, plus we aren’t getting our usual amount of exercise.

Hoovered the bejesus out the house, which took a good hour. This place gets extremely dusty very quickly, so that’s some exercise…

Minestrone soup and freshly baked sourdough for dinner. One regret I have is not stocking up on flour when I had the chance. It’s rare as hens’ teeth now… Watched Erin Brockovich with the girls afterwards. An excellent film, which we all really enjoyed.

March 20, 2020

Happy birthday, Adam! Definitely an odd one this year…
He had some early meetings scheduled, so we waited until 10:30 to do presents and egg muffins.
I bought him new slippers, a back stretcher to help with the lower back tightness, and a book by Ariana Neumann called When Time Stopped. Nova got him the Thunberg family’s book, and Lyra bought him some Bulldog grooming supplies. So, a pretty good haul…

Doron stopped by briefly with a birthday present. He washed his hands in the laundry room, stood in the livingroom while we were sat at the dining room, and tossed Adam his present. Seems a bit much, but probably isn’t enough…:( We were meant to be going to a Chinese pop-up supper club on the top floor of the Archway Tower this evening, but that clearly is off the cards…

Adam met Eytan at the Ponds for a quick birthday dip (the water was 9°C). We had a small salady sort of late lunch, then Lyra and I tackled the cake mix. I was hoping to get away with using two large eggs (instead of three medium) but the batter seemed too thick so I added the third egg after all.

When we transferred the batter into our prepared pans there didn’t seem to be enough it, and what there was was curiously stretchy. At this point I realised we’d forgotten to add a cup of water…

Scraped it back out of the pans and blitzed it again with water. Much better this time… numpties…;-)

I left Lyra to do the decorating and moved onto dinner prep. Chicken thighs roasted with fennel and oranges, quinoa and a spinach salad. Everything came out really nicely, aside from the quinoa, which went a bit gummy for some reason. I never have great luck with quinoa.

Played four hands of Uno, caught up with the alarming news, and called it a night…

March 19, 2020

Adam ventured out to see the state of our local shops and get more fresh food. He discovered them to be somewhat ravaged but still moderately stocked. He ran into a bunch of neighbours as well, so a good opportunity to catch up on how people of adapting. I had a video conference with the Beauty Council at 9:30am. Clearly more image conscious people than I am — only two of us opted to show our faces. The others crying off on account of bad hair, dark circles under the eyes, and lack of make-up.

I read a tweet yesterday that said, we are only three month’s quarantine away from learning everyone’s real hair colour. Interesting thought…

Worked pretty steadily until 5pm, at which point I realised I hadn’t been outside yet today. Closed my computer and headed out for a little walk. The corder store on North Hill still had a fair amount of fresh food, but staples are running low. They were wearing masks and latex gloves and looked pretty stressed out, as it’s been very busy all day.

Bought a cake mix for Adam’s birthday tomorrow, as it will have less impact on our staple cupboard — just water, an egg and some oil and bob’s your uncle as we say in this country.

Adam drove to Paddington to collect Nova, who’s coming home from Bristol for the foreseeable future. Bibimbap for dinner (sans Adam, who was on a call) and some Parks&Rec, after which the girls and I played several hands of Uno.

Texting with our friend Pad online this evening. A PhD in physics and high-flying environmental campaigner, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia about twenty years ago. He has been unable to work since, and is very socially isolated.

He’s hanging in there, but anxious about no longer having access to his osteopath and guitar instructor, as well as being unable to interact with his elderly parents. We were going to meet in a couple of weeks to celebrate his 60th birthday, but that won’t be happening now…

March 18, 2020

I was debating whether to go for another run this morning (while we still can), but Adam was keen to get some exercise in as well, so we opted for a brisk walk round the Woods together instead. Lyra’s first day of online school. They don’t have it all set up yet, but a number of her teachers had set assignments and she sat at her desk and completed them — at least she says she did…;-)

Adam and I sat at our desks too. In his case, he spends a lot of time on the phone. In mine, I punctuate my work with cleaning, cooking and tidying up behind people. We’re going to have to take a look at that, especially when Nova arrives tomorrow, maybe get a rota of daily tasks set up.

(Though it won’t be the first time I’ve tried to implement something like that, and never with much success. It comes down to whether I want to spend the time chasing and nagging people to do their share, or just cut to the chase and do it myself.)

I have a couple of projects I’d really like to see launch — the therapy website in Canada, and the beauty website here. With the second one, we’ve had a lot of feedback/suggestions late in the day that I’m working through, plus one gnarly issue around the newsletter plug-in. Once those are resolved, it should be good to go.

Leftovers for dinner, all eaten at different times. Lyra and I watched Clueless (her pick), after which I spent a half hour on the phone to Beulah. She appears to be holding up admirably. My only concern is that her seventy-year-old cleaner Mariamo is still travelling across London on public transport and spending half a day in the house twice a week…

To bed with my novel. I finished Case Histories, which I really enjoyed and have since discovered is the first in the Jackson Brodie mystery series (so I have that to look forward to). Next up, The Wall by John Lanchester…

March 17, 2020

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone (which has passed completely unremarked around here). Dropped Lyra down the hill to catch the bus to school, and picked up a few things at the much depleted Tesco mini-shop. Headed out for a three-mile run in the Woods before starting my working day.

I was thinking it’s the last day that Lyra should attend school, regardless of government advice. As it happens, events overtook us. She was sent home from school in second period with a headache and queasiness, and by the end of the day the school announced it was partially shutting — only years 10, 11 and 13 will still have scheduled classes.

Wonder how long they’ll maintain that position… It seems that the only way to go is for us all to self-isolate for the next few months to reduce the spread. And even that doesn’t seem enough to get on top of it. I sincerely hope I’m wrong…

Minestrone soup and matzoh for dinner. Ate an hour earlier since we’re all around anyway. It was my turn to pick the film — I chose The Artist — the Oscar-winning silent movie about the dawn of the “talkies”. Lyra rated it 4.5/10 on account of boringness. Harsh…;-)

In bed with my novel by 10pm. I’m reading an excellent book called Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. I’d classify it as a mystery novel I guess, but it’s more than that. Quite funny too…

March 16, 2020

Lyra’s school (and most British schools actually) are remaining open. This is increasingly at odds with the rest of the world, but we’re going to decide on a day by day basis. I drove her down the hill to meet Ellie and to minimise her exposure to public transport.

Adam’s first day of working from home in response to the virus. He was only half a day ahead of government guidance this afternoon that everyone should work from home if possible.

Just as well, as he’d had one of his stomach episodes last night. He’s not feeling too bad today, though his stomach is always sensitive for a day or so.

We mostly stuck to our own floors. I worked on the beauty website, which is moving into testing, while he had a series of phone meetings from the bedroom, though we ate a late lunch together.

We got an email from Adam Boeker this afternoon. He’s currently in Germany and not doing well. His university has closed and it sounds like he has nowhere to stay and is feeling pretty bad.

He was hoping to come and stay with us for a while, but I think it’s a no-brainer that he heads home to Canada asap. I called Pat who agrees — he’s going to get on that today. I hope they can swing it — the window for international travel is definitely closing fast. (Their other son Nick is in Australia and needs sorting out asap as well…)

Got a call from the school just as I was heading out to pick up a few groceries. Lyra has had her phone confiscated for looking at it during lunch break. It’s her second offense and it is school policy to confiscate the phone and require a parent to come collect it.

I’m surprised they think that makes any sense at all in this current semi-lock down, swiftly changing situation. I politely but firmly said that I appreciated she’d broken a rule and would speak to her about it, but that I would not be travelling into town in the middle of my working day to collect her phone, and that I expected them to return it to her tomorrow.

Adam collected from violin lesson while I made dinner — chilli sin carne with rice. The usual Parks&Rec double-bill, which included a “hilarious” episode about a flu epidemic in Pawnee, where people did things like lick other people’s coffee cups and insist on giving a presentation to a large group despite being delerious with fever. Not so funny now…

March 15, 2020

Awake at 6:15am as per usual… It is an exceedingly rare thing indeed for me to sleep past 6:30. With all the evidence about the benefits of a good night’s rest, I’d love to be more of a sleeper, but it continues to elude me.

Caught up on the alarming pandemic news pouring in from every corner of the world while I had my coffee, then pulled on my running clothes and set off for the Woods.

Did the three-mile loop to Ally Pally and back. It had obviously rained heavily in the night, and it was mucky even on stretches that are usually dry. This route avoids the western side of the Woods though, which is likely a complete bog today.

Adam had made banana walnut muffins while I was out, on phone with neighbour coordinating contact details so that we can support each other through this disaster.

After that, he headed off to visit his mum. I did some cleaning (house is looking increasingly shiny), and started a pot of minestrone for dinner. I was going to run the hoover round, but wasn’t working…

The roller in the suction head isn’t spinning, and when Adam got back we spent half an hour clearing it of Christmas tinsel and hair, before discovering that there is a button that turns it on and off. I’m sure it’s been improved by our efforts…

Lyra and I baked chocolate chip cookies to go with the minestrone and fresh bagels from Carmelli’s. Comfort eating indeed. Watched Ladybird, which I’d meant to see in the cinema and not got round to.

I was texting with my friend Claudia today who lives outside Milan. Life there is very grim indeed:

Here everything is closed. After uncertain rules to follow at the being, now people are really scared and very disciplined. There have been some situations when they reacted fearfully (the prison rebellions). The deaths are rising every day, doctors and nurses working without stop. Hoping that the care system won’t collapse. My region is the one most involved. The government is doing everything in its power so people don’t feel abandoned. Certainly it’s a terrible moment, a nightmare from which we hope we can wake up. Schools, university, the majority of factories closed; only supermarkets and pharmacies are open. I don’t understand how your government is taking things so superficially. They have an example in front of them, but they don’t really care.

March 14, 2020

We’ve arranged to do an inventory at the flat with the new tenants this morning. I drew up the inventory spreadsheet after spending a day cleaning the place, so I have a very good idea of everything in it and its condition. It’s a shame the building works aren’t quite finished. The letterbox is still loose (requiring a new bolt) plus the kitchen door handle has some issue related to the piece that connects the two handles (across the width of the door) not being long enough.

That aside, the place looks great and the tenants seem very happy. That lead tenant is a veritable domestic goddess. He was washing the living room curtains when we arrived, after which he was planning to do the sofa cushion covers. (When I mentioned some stubborn mould on the washing machine seal, he showed me a cleaning product he’d bought that works wonders apparently.)

Did a bit of shopping on Junction Road before we headed home: a gang of neon tetras for Lyra’s depleted tank, pastries from the Turkish bakery and a few groceries from the Turkish grocers next door.

I shop there pretty regularly and have never seen the place so busy. At the front of the queue to check out was a man with a teetering stack of pasta. I noticed that the shopkeeper was looking pretty pleased..

Ran a load of laundry (I’m doing one most days now) and watched the final episode of Noughts & Crosses. The way the story was panning out gave me the sinking feeling that it wasn’t going to be the ending, which is in fact the case. Turns out there are five novels in the series…

Lyra never returned from her afternoon visit to Lucia’s. I hadn’t heard a peep out of her, and when I called her phone went straight to voicemail. Texted Millie, who had long since fed her dinner and hadn’t realised she hadn’t checked in with me about sleeping over…Grrr…

March 13, 2020

Happy Friday 13th everyone… like we need any bad luck right now…
On Rachel Maddow this morning, there was a journalist talking about how they dealt with the outbreak in China.There was much greater medical capacity, specialist fever centres with on-site testing, quarantining away from the family, and really sensible triaging to reduce pressure on critical care. no possibility of anything like that happening here.

Instead, our government is promoting an approach at odds with the WHO and pretty much every other country, of letting the virus move through the population to generate “herd immunity”…

Ran three miles, showered and was at my desk around 10am. Reasonable morning’s work, pausing to bake bread and do laundry. I’m doing a lot more laundry these days…

Headed out to the shops in the afternoon to get a few things for dinner. So far, we’re not going down the panic buying route, but I have reversed my policy of using up things in the cupboard and freezer. I’m aiming for a well-stocked pantry and freezer, plus picking up a tin or two of something when I’m out.

Lyra at Iris’s for a sleepover this evening, which was a good opportunity to cook with mushrooms. Opted a pork loin, mushroom and mustard dish. Not long after I returned, Adam dashed off to an emergency Jackson’s Lane meeting, saying he’d be back at 7:30.

I’ve been around this particular block enough times to know that was never going to happen, so I decided to put off the cooking until he got home. By the time he rocked up at 8:40, I no longer had the slightest inclination to make us a nice dinner.

Instead I finished a document I was laying out for my insurance client while he fixed us a Greek salad. Caught up on a couple more episodes of Noughts & Crosses — going off it a bit. Only one episode to go…

March 12, 2020

Went for a swim with Kate and Lynne. It was a beautiful morning for it, and I ploughed through my mile in pretty good form, setting me up nicely for the day…

Interesting conversation in the change room afterwards with other swimmers (mostly older women in their late 60s or 70s). A definite effect of the pandemic is more conversation between strangers.

It’s not likely that sports centres will be open much longer, but while they are I’d consider swimming laps in an outdoor pool to be an activity whose benefits definitely outweigh the risk.

Web work, laundry, started some bread. Spent fifteen minutes going round the house disinfecting all the handles and switches, as per advice. It’s hard to see how well that’s going to work, and when is best to do it?

As soon as one of us comes in from outside and touches something before washing hands it’s potentially infected again. You could drive yourself crazy if you think about it too much. Which is what OCD is I guess…

Black bean sweet potato tacos and a Mexican slaw for dinner while carrying on with Parks&Rec. I’m trying not to consume too much news, but it can be difficult to switch off. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson infected, as are two UK health ministers, and Trudeau self-quarantining after his wife tested positive.

The cases are ramping up daily, they way things that grow exponentially do…

March 11, 2020

Adam and our builder Rob have fallen out, and are pretty mad at each other, engaging in epic WhatsApp exchanges about the remaining work. I know I’m biased, but Rob seems well out of order. He leaves multiple, rambling phone messages complaining about Adam asking when the work will be finished and telling him to “be reasonable, my friend!” If he wasn’t sending them at 2pm in the afternoon, I’d wonder if he was drunk. There must be something else going on in his life that is stressing him out, and he’s using this opportunity to vent…

Drove Lyra down to the bus, had a bit of time at home then walked down to the high school to invigilate. Remembered to take my tracker — I’m currently participating in a two-week survey about travel patterns to inform improvements to public transport.

Unfortunately for them, my travel is now pretty atypical due to the pandemic. Maybe it will provide an interesting insight into how people adapted in this time of crisis…

I was invigilating an English functional skills exam. They can be a shit show but it was fine, even with the other invigilator calling in sick. Walked home afterwards, picking up a few things in local shops.

Managed some web work in the afternoon, and am also trying to do more daily housecleaning instead of the weekend blitz approach. Having spent an hour cleaning that oven for the new tenants, I thought I’d give ours a spray as well.

At the first whiff of that oven cleaner my chest tightened up and a headache set in. Pretty conclusive evidence the stuff doesn’t agree with me. Though why would it agree with anyone?

Made cauliflower soup for dinner. Just time for a quick bowl before we headed out to the Hampstead theatre. The world already looks so different… I’ve always liked the feeling of being in a crowd — now I see the potential viruses in people’s exhaled breath and on every surface.

Speaking of touching, as I followed Adam down the stairs to our seats, he casually ran his hand along the railing, took it off to rub his nose, the returned it to the railing. We all need to be a whole lot more aware of what we touch. Keeping your hands in your pockets is a good start imho…

The play, which was called The Haystack, was great — a worrying look at government surveillance in the 21st century…

March 10, 2020

Woke with a sore throat, a tight chest and aching muscles. I’m pretty certain its from the marathon cleaning efforts and inhaling nasty chemicals for the last two days, but I could do without it…

Managed to get a bit of work done before it was time to go for a coffee with Jemima in the village. We do that regularly and have been friends a long time.

After that, I caught a bus down the Holloway Road to buy a lock mechanism for the kitchen door. Chris Stevens didn’t have one long enough had to carry on most of the way to Highbury Corner to a specialist locksmiths called Franchi. I love shops that are dedicated to one particular niche like locks, or rope, or whisky…

Headed back to Archway on the bus, taking care not to touch anything and gelling my hands as soon as I got off. After I dropped it round the flat, I headed home and hopped straight in the car. They also need 20 more litres of paint, which I was able to buy at Jewsons. (A name I’d never considered the implications of until just the other day…)

Back down the Archway Road. Managed to park nearish the flat, humped the two big buckets to the front door for the guys to take inside and hustled back to the car before got a ticket.

I was starving by the time I got home. Fixed myself a tricolore salad with sourdough croutons (my second favourite lunch after Greek salad) and caught up on the section of Homeland I dozed through the other night.

With all the to’ing and fro’ing, I didn’t get much paid work done. Plus, the news is distracting — things are happening fast enough with this covid19 epidemic that it’s worth checking in a few times a day.

Lyra’s not feeling well again… Her stomach is unsettled and she didn’t want any dinner. Switched from my taco plan to a simple stirfry with the leftover chicken from Sunday.

March 9, 2020

Happy 17th birthday, Liam!
Headed down to the flat at 9am to meet Rob the builder. This project hasn’t gone smoothly unfortunately — he didn’t start until nine days after we agreed, the brief has grown, the work is not going to be completed before new bunch move in, and he and Adam are locking horns. Frustrating…

My first order of business was the oven cleaning while Adam fixed the bed slats. What a nasty job that is. The Mr Muscle spray made me feel sick and chesty despite having the French doors wide open. Not a great time to be experiencing shortness of breath…

Headed home for about an hour, then back down to let the new tenants in, exchange keys etc. There’s no point in doing the inventory while there are still works being done. We’ll arrange a time for later this week.

Went for a late lunch at Turquoise — a falafel wrap and a glass of wine — to celebrate the successful renting of the flat. One down, one to go…

Nova is in Dublin, on a solo mini-break. It’s not a great time to be travelling imho, but things are going to get worse before they gets better, so maybe it makes sense to do it while she can.

Her Easter trip to Tel Aviv is looking extremely unlikely. Israel has imposed a mandatory fourteen-day quarantine on anyone entering the country. This is longer than the entirety of her trip, so unless that is unexpectedly lifted she won’t be going anywhere at Easter.

Made a salmon noodle soup for Lyra and me (Adam is out at a meeting). We waited until Adam got back to call Liam for his birthday, but managed to miss him so we treated him to a singing message. Lucky boy…;-)

March 8, 2020

No exercise again today — just too busy. I quickly marinated some chicken for this evening’s dinner and said goodbye to Nova, who’s heading back to Bristol this morning, then headed down to Archway.

Adam went straight to the flat, while I hit the shops for cleaning products, door mat, outdoor broom to sweep the balconies etc. I was still a bit early for shops to open, and ended up in conversation with a random group of customers and staff outside Poundland.

The customers were after antibacterial soap and hand sanitiser, which the clerk confirmed was out of stock. Rather than people hoarding the stuff (or price gouging on Amazon marketplace), we should be distributing it as widely as possible. The more people who have and use it, the safer we all are…

Cleaned that fucking flat for about five hours straight, until we needed to go home for Adam’s phone meeting with the second bunch who are interested in buying his company. I was pretty much done — the outstanding things are spraying/scrubbing the oven and fixing broken slats on one bed, both of which we can do tomorrow morning.

Came home to discover Lyra’s posse hanging out upstairs, waiting for the turnovers they’d made to finish baking. While Adam had his meeting, I unloaded the car, which was a pretty big job.

The previous tenants had abandoned a lot of stuff — food, dishes, pots and pans, broken electrical goods. Some of the stuff might be useful for Nova when she moves out of halls next year. Otherwise we’ll take it all to the charity shop.

Dinner was tandoori chicken, served with kachumber and grilled naan. Started watching Noughts and Crosses. It was a huge book when Nova was in school, though I can’t actually remember her reading it.

An alternative UK called Albion, where black people are in power and authority and whites are the suppressed underclass. It was interesting to see the way they’d woven the cultural impact of that into the story: African prints/textiles on everyone’s clothing, lots of white people with permed hair, African slang words in common use, the architecture and bridges reflecting a different aesthetic.

March 7, 2020

Started our morning with a trip to IKEA to replace a broken kitchen chair for the flat. Stopped at Costco on the way. I don’t know if I’ve ever been there at opening time before, so have no idea if it’s normal for the whole entry ramp to be full of people waiting with their trolleys.

There was definitely big action around the paper goods aisle — seems the toilet paper hoard virus has spread to the UK as well. We did buy our usual pack, as we are down to four rolls at home, but I felt no need to buy more.

I can understand people feeling anxious and wanting to do something that gives them a sense of preparation or control, but if they are doing it with a view to flogging it at inflated prices then that is just wrong. I know I’m an old leftie, but I think stores should already being limiting sales. We need much clearer government messaging as well.

Headed straight down to the flat with our chair, then went through the inventory with the guys. They haven’t taken bad care of the place, but there’s some wear and tear for sure — plus the carpets need proper cleaning.

Lyra is helping do make-up for the panto this evening. Adam managed to get a ticket as well, so on my own for the second Saturday in a row…

March 6, 2020

Headed down to Archway first thing to drop off some white spirit for the builders. I also posted Andy his bills from the works next door which we collected for him picked up some food from the Turkish grocers, and found a birthday present for Antonia.

Put in a good chunk of work on the massage therapist website, which is turning out to be one of those never-ending projects. The client is a close friend of Adam’s business partner Mike, and I’m doing it at my mate’s rate, though at this point it’s practically a freebie…

Family dinner at 500 with the whole family for Antonia’s birthday. I’m oncreasingly aware of this wretched Covid-19 virus, and how important it is to be careful around Beulah. She’s 88-years-old, still smoking (a bit), and socially active — all of which put her in a high-risk category.

Started baking my sourdough when we got home, although it was a bit late. I fell asleep almost immediately, leaving Adam to do the ins and outs. One loaf a bit overdone, but will still be delicious…

March 5, 2020

I was planning to go swimming with my girl group this morning, but Kate cried off last night as she had to go see her parents in Kent. I thought about going on my own for about a nano-second — it’s cold as fuck out there. Did a 2.5 mile run in the Woods instead…

Nova returned from Newcastle this evening, where she was visiting her friend Izzy. To my surprise, she really liked it — I wouldn’t have thought it was her kind of place at all.

Our theatre tickets for this evening were cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. They offered us our money back, but we’ve opted to shift them to next Wednesday instead…

March 4, 2020

Happy birthday, Ceinwen! Headed down to the flat first thing to drop off keys and paint so the guys could start work. Adam ran me to the high school afterwards, where I was invigilating a chemistry exam. No behavioural issues whatsover. The candidates are in year 13, and have no interest in messing about by this point. There were no unnecessary bathroom breaks, chair scraping nonsense, or accidently-on-purpose dropping of rulers and water bottles.

They just put their heads down and worked, and I had nothing to do except fetch a couple of rulers or shush noisy junior students in the hall outside.

Afterwards, I walked to Chris Stevens on the Holloway Road to buy some trim paint. There was some discussion about whether they’d be touching up the paint or just redoing the whole place. In the end we came down on doing the whole place — which will definitely look better at the end.

Schlepped it up the Holloway Road and dropped it at the flat then walked to the flat with it, then caught the bus home. I felt like I’d done enough work by that point — it was already 2pm — and I hadn’t even turned on my computer.

Heated some leftovers for lunch and worked through my emails, but it wasn’t much of a day for web work. The flats are dominating a fair amount of our time at the moment, especially with them both coming vacant at the same time. Not something that happened before, but it will be good when it is sorted.

Headed down to Archway at 6:30pm for a couple of viewings. Adam was running late so I started the schtick without him. Personally, I think it’s better if we both meet the people so we can discuss it properly afterwards.

The two groups are both very nice and keen to take the place. I definitely get the sense from people that there are a lot of shitty properties and unscrupulous landlords out there.

Headed on afterwards to meet Jane at the Islington Vue to see Emma. Wouldn’t have been my first choice of film, but in the event I quite enjoyed it. Home again just after 11pm.

March 3, 2020

Went for a run in the Woods first thing — the 2.25 mile route again, which was fine, aside from the mucky patches… Headed down to Archway to meet the third person from the group who say the place last night. When she texted to say she was running late, I fitted in a quick grocery run to the Turkish grocers.

All this Covid-19 excitement has people stockpiling. There is talk of generic drugs running out as producers can no longer get the raw materials they need from China.

It has got me thinking about what I’d want to stock up on. Not that fussed about toilet paper (we buy a bumper pack from Costco a couple of times a year, and that does for us). I’d be more inclined to lay in bars of soap, painkillers, dried pulses other sources of protein (tinned fish, fish/meat in the freezer).

Ate lunch with Nova — miso mushrooms on toast — another Guardian recipe, which is very tasty.

Spent far too long ordering paint for the flat, one of those annoying jobs that should have taken fifteen minutes but somehow expanded to fill two hours. Got there in the end…

Had a phone call with Wade around dinner time. It’s always great to talk to him and we always have a good laugh. I hadn’t got organised to make any food beforehand. Flew into gear, and produced harissa-marinated chicken breasts on a bulghur wheat pilaf, which was pretty good.

Watched a Parks&Rec with Lyra, then switched to True Detective after she headed off. I’m really enjoying this third series. It’s interesting how effectively they’ve been able to tell a story that spans forty years using the same actors and cutting back and forth across the decades without producing a confusing muddle.

March 2, 2020

Nova is around today, but I barely see her. She tends to sleep until noon, pop upstairs for something to eat then go out and about her day. She has a nannying shift then is spending the evening with Iris…

Broke off work at 5pm to collect Lyra from her violin lesson, then threw together a quick kungpao chicken for dinner. It was excellent and would be a good one for the food blog, if I ever find time to write it up. I’m really into Szechuan peppercorns at the moment…

Lots of potential renters have responded to our ad. We’ve lined up a viewing for tonight — we would have preferred to do a few together on Tuesday, but that isn’t convenient for the current tenants.

I was pleased to see that the flat is looking good. It’s very homey the way the’ve decorated it, and they’ve managed to pack an awful lot of stuff into all the rooms. Not surprising, given they’ve lived there for seven years.

Headed round to Pete and Pasc’s afterwards. It’s his birthday today, and they wanted us to play his new game, Wavelength, that he got for his birthday.

I’m not a games person anyway, and Wavelength wasn’t the one to convert me. Overly complicated, confusing, with a cumbersome dial thing that didn’t work properly. Still, it was nice to mark the day together.

I remember celebrating his 40th birthday. I made him an “old git kit”, and we’ve been receiving travel offers for Saga Holidays I signed up for so they would send me some brochures ever since. We are now old enough to avail ourselves of those holidays…;-)

March 1, 2020

Happy birthday, lovely Lyra — thirteen years old today, what a thing that is…! We’d negotiated a 7:30am start for presents (no earlier), and she came into our room on the dot. Rousted Nova out of bed and headed upstairs. There weren’t a lot of presents, or any large parcels, but that’s how it goes as kids get older.

Lyra seemed very pleased with everything: a leopard print handbag from Nova, money from Wade, beauty products from Margo and Aaron, a novel, make-up and airpods from us.

I haven’t tried airpods before and was surprised at how much I liked them. They are incredibly comfortable and secure and the sound seems markedly better. Plus I read an article the other day about article about how they might be the future of hearing assistance.

Adam made blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and I went for a run while the batter was resting. Didn’t get up to much after that, aside from a visit from Pasc who dropped by with a birthday present.

We need to advertise our flat online, which requires up-to-date photos. We’d wanted to go round and take some but the tenant offered to do it instead. So we are now chasing for those…

They came through mid-afternoon and we managed to get the advert posted just before Beulah and Doron’s family came round for birthday cake. I’d made a chocolate cake from this weekend’s paper, which turned out pretty well. Baking is definitely not my thing, but this counts as one of my better efforts.

The four of us went for dinner at the little Japanese izakaya in Finchley that we tried the other day. We let Lyra go for it — edamame, two types of gyoza, a big platter of sushi, two plates of their special fried chicken, dessert. Everything was delicious, and we left full as ticks, having spent less than £100.