May 2022

May 31, 2022

Worked on the recycling point project all morning. The main challenge now is getting importing the store data from the various brands. I had a pretty good result with Holland & Barrett last week, but the rest of the data is less clean. Managed to do Superdrug, L’Occitane and Body Shop eventually but it was a pain in the ass.

I was also scheduled to deliver some training to the accounting people on their new website. I didn’t leave myself enough time to prepare for it, and was feeling anxious when I logged onto the call. I think I can forget how well I actually know all this stuff, and it was straightforward enough to convey what they needed to know and answer their questions.

I tidied up a few things and was just about to sign off for the night, when one of the trainees emailed and said she was stuck. I hopped on a Zoom call and coached her through her first update. It was 8pm by the time I shut down the computer.

Adam had started making Japanese curry and rice, and I finished the cooking off. We had it with the leftover kimchi meatloaf. Watched a double episode of Stranger Things – only the finale to go. At least until the final two episodes of this season drop on July 1…

May 30, 2022

It’s half term week, which has come upon me by surprise. I didn’t even realise until the weekend. Adam got up early to go to Whitechapel and empty his work storage locker. I think they are shifting their base office to Spitalfields soon, but I’m not 100% sure on that – maybe he just needs to give up the storage locker.

I did my Spanish and then headed out for a 2.5 mile run in the Woods. I aim to do a couple more of those and then stretch it to 3–3.5 on the weekend as a long run.

The weather has turned chilly again, and dressed warmly after my shower so I wouldn’t get cold sitting at my desk all day. My main task for this week is getting the beauty recycling point interactive map live. That piece of work has been languishing on my to-do list for ages, and I can’t procrastinate any longer.

I also need to pull my finger out with regard to the soil solidification website. They have finally sent me the visual assets so there’s no excuse not to start work on the next phase of that project. Had a meeting with them today, which I was under-prepared for but managed to wing.

Cauliflower and sweet potato tacos for dinner. Watched a double bill of Stranger Things, which is finding its feet in this fourth series…

May 29, 2022

Slow start to the morning. Adam went off to play football, and I wrestled with the Wordle from hell (bayou). I’d planned to go for a run, but by the time I’d managed to crack it the moment had passed. Made buttermilk pancakes for when Adam got back and Lyra woke up. She had some sleep to catch up on after Friday’s sleepover.

In the afternoon Adam and I caught the tube to the West End to see Jerusalem with Mark Rylance. I saw it in 2010, but Adam couldn’t make it at the last minute. It was as good as last, but had a poignancy to it I hadn’t remembered. Maybe because Rooster Byron is that much older, or because I am… And as good as Ralph Fiennes was the other day, this certainly put him back in his box.

I texted Lyra when the show ended and she popped the moussaka in the oven. Stopped for a few Asian groceries since we were in Chinatown anyway then caught the tube home. Ate in front of the second episode of Stranger Things. I haven’t really engaged with it yet, but they did get me with a couple of jump scares.

After Lyra retreated to her cave, Adam and I finally finished the last episode of Ozark. I found I couldn’t really watch it as I knew there would have to be some sort of final reckoning for those characters I’d grown so close to. I didn’t expect the ending – I thought the cards would fall another way…

May 28, 2022

Started our Saturday morning with the cryptic crossword and a coffee, then moved to the balcony with the paper and another coffee. There was nice warmth to the sun for a change – most of the bright days we’ve had lately still have a bite to the air.

Adam went off to Pilates at noon, but I didn’t fancy it. I’m definitely more of a yoga girl. Just as well he did – aside from Nick and Tessa, he was the only person there. I think Pasc has dropped out for good as it was proving too much for her hip. She’s already had one replaced, and it seems like a second replacement is on the cards.

Huevos rancheros for lunch, after which I got busy cobbling together a sort of moussaka bake thing to use up some ground lamb that was hanging around. Will and Sara texted to invite us round to watch the Champions League game tonight, so I’ll save it for tomorrow. Lyra was babysitting next door, but we had time to watch the opening episode of Stranger Things, which dropped yesterday.

Rum punch, veggie chilli with tortillas, and strawberries and ice cream for dessert. The game was a complete snorefest – not helped by the fact I didn’t care much who won. Liverpool over Real Madrid of course, but I’m hardly a Liverpool fan. Will’s dad died last week, and he was feeling fragile and Sara had a stonking cold. It was a pretty subdued evening.

May 27, 2022

Bring on the weekend… I got Lyra’s morning sorted, then headed out for a run after they set off. Stretched my distance to 2.5 miles for the first time since my cold. I’ll be happy when I get my regular run up to 3+ miles – my comfort zone. The older I get, the less inclined I am to rush things. Pretty much all the running injuries I’ve ever had were the result of overdoing things (too much too fast).

Finally put in a good chunk of work on the store finder for the beauty site. First thing was to set up their Google map APIs (always a fiddly pain in the ass). After that I bought a data importing add-on so that I can shovel in the store data Ruth keeps sending me. That turned out to be quite persnickity as well, but I finally worked out how to import the 800+ Holland & Barrett stores, which seemed a good place to get to.

Lyra is sleeping over at Lily’s tonight – she popped by briefly with Ellie to change out of her uniform and grab some pjs before heading off. I’d intended to stop after the store finder success and make some dinner, but got sucked into another piece of work sorting out the Jx newsletter template. That took until gone 8:30pm, and it felt too late to start cooking.

Adam mixed the G&Ts and we ordered sushi. Watched an episode of Ozark, and attempted a second but we both started dozing so we called it a night.

May 26, 2022

Got up before 6am to see John and Jackie off. We’d arranged for a mini cab to collect them and the guy was right on schedule. They shouldn’t have any issue on the roads at this time of day.

After they drove off, I discovered they’d left us a lovely card, their UK money and some silver earrings. I’ve claimed the earrings but we put the money towards Lyra’s Ecuador trip next summer. There was no need for them to leave anything – they were so generous the whole time they were here and it was an absolute pleasure. Felt quite blue the rest of the day…

Managed some client work, but my heart wasn’t really in it today. Sorted some dinner (kimchi meatloaf, rice, broccoli) before we headed out to the neighbourhood forum AGM. I’ve been elected for another term, but given that there were exactly the right number of people standing for the number of places on the committee, there wasn’t a vote like we’ve had some years.

Got back to discover that Lyra had put the meatloaf in the oven, but not turned it on properly. There was time for a bowl of crisps and an episode of Bojack before we could eat. Sounds like her RS exam went okay – she wasn’t thrilled with it, as the two topics she put the most time into preparing didn’t even feature, while social justice, which she’d gone light on had two essay questions. Good experience however it turns out and she’s glad to have it behind her.

May 25, 2022

Considered going for a run this morning but decided against as I’m taking the afternoon off to go to the theatre with John and Jackie. Got Lyra sorted and out the door, did my Spanish, then spent the best part of an hour catching up on the news – a school massacre in Texas, war in the Ukraine, “Partygate”… Would have been better off running…

Set off for town about 12:30pm. Got to London Bridge with plenty of time for Jackie to pick up a couple of gifts for the grandkids and Adam and me to grab a sandwich before carrying on to the Bridge Theatre. It’s a relatively new venue and not one I’ve visited before.

The play – Straight Line Crazy with Ralph Fiennes – was excellent, and we all loved it. Quite something to make a story about town planning so compelling. Afterwards we walked back across Tower Bridge and through the City before catching the Tube home from Monument.

A final dinner at the Red Lion and Sun before they fly back to BC in the morning. Lyra begged off as she has her second RS GCSE tomorrow, but she joined us for a bit after we got back. To bed about 10:30pm…

May 24, 2022

Miserable weather today. It rained hard enough in the night to disturb my sleep. Now that I have my super mask, sound is the most likely thing to wake me (that and getting too hot).

Food prep, meditation, Spanish and down to work. Spent an hour installing Yoast on a client’s website and configuring the main pages, put in some time on the Festival website, and dealt with emails (that endless task).

Towards the end of the day it was time to launch the accounting website. I did the DNS amends, then prompted the host to do their steps. It didn’t go as smoothly as some launches, but everything was working within a couple of hours. I find launching websites to be the most stressful part of my job. It always takes just that little bit too long to propagate and I start thinking something has gone wrong, then poof! there it is…

John and Jackie were meeting their friend Brooke for dinner in Swiss Cottage. While it’s a bitch to get to by public transport, it’s not actually far at all so Adam ran them over in the car. Nachos for dinner and the final episode of Derry Girls (much better than the previous episode, which we also thought was the final episode.)

Watched the Panorama episode on Partygate, which somehow managed to be both boring and flattering to Johnson – “the most gifted politician of his generation”? FFS…

May 23, 2022

I entertained the idea of going into the office with Adam today as I had a meeting with my Jx colleague Charlie, and it can be tricky to work from home with houseguests. Decided against in the end, because I had a couple of other meetings, and the commute takes a bite out of working time.

John and Jackie decided to have a down day, but they mosstly kept to themselves and I was able to do my meetings, plough through the final snags for the accounting site, install the pro version of Event Calendar on the festival site, among other things. A pretty good work day all in all.

When Adam got in we pulled together an Indian meal – chicken curry, spinach potato curry, raita, poppadoms, naan. Had a really nice evening sitting round the dining room table until about 11pm. It is lovely having John and Jackie here – they couldn’t be better guests, and are more like family really.

May 22, 2022

Another glorious day, and perfect for a morning walk on the Heath. With John being immuno-suppressed it seemed a good idea to avoid public transport when we can. Drove and parked up behind the Old Bull and Bush, then headed for the pergola. Definitely more wisteria out this time, and a number of roses were blooming as well.

Continued into the extension then round Golders Hill Park before returning to the car and home again. Had a bit of time at home before Brooke turned up and we made our way to The Gatehouse for a pub lunch.

Like most pubs they do a big Sunday roast, but it didn’t appeal in the warm weather. Jackie, Lyra, Adam and I shared some tapas and Brooke and John went for fish and chips. We’d intended to treat them to lunch, but they deked us by Jackie sneakily settling the bill on a trip to the loo.

Back home, we settled in to watch the final football matches of the season. It came right down to the wire, and we were all rooting for Liverpool, but favourites Man City pipped them in the end.

No one felt like dinner. J&J retired to their quarters, Lyra needed to study (she has another GCSE paper this week) and Adam headed off to see his mother. He had to take the bus after drinking beer most of the afternoon. I read Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which I’m really enjoying. Took a while to get into the writing style but it’s working for me now…

May 21, 2022

What a beautiful morning! Did some cryptic crossword then hopped up and headed downstairs to give the flat a final going over before John and Jackie arrive. Built the new table as well, which looks great and goes much better with our chairs. I like that it’s extensible – we used to have to drag the kitchen table out of the flat when we need to seat more than four people.

Jackie texted at noon to say they were in the baggage hall. That lit a fire under us and flew about upstairs hoovering, mopping the kitchen floor etc assuming they’d be here in about an hour. Turns out their flight was into Gatwick, and that their friend Brooke had driven out to collect them. As a result, they didn’t turn up until quarter to three by which time we were chilling out with the weekend papers.

It was so great to see them! It’s been five years, and as always initially you see the changes, but within minutes they looked the same to me as they always have. Let them settle in a bit then convened upstairs for a drink and a visit before they headed out again to meet John’s cousin at a pub in London Bridge.

In a turn up for the books, Adam and Lyra fixed dinner – chicken burgers and green salad. It’s always a treat for me when someone else cooks. For movie night we chose The Lost Daughter, which we all really enjoyed. That Jessie Buckley is certainly a talent to watch. To bed at 11:45.

May 20, 2022

Got Lyra away then went for a run in Woods – doing 2.25 miles at the moment, which feels about right. The second table arrived just as I was getting back – we’ll aim to build it tomorrow…

I had a meeting with my coaching client about the SEO on her website. Not an area I’m particularly strong on. I can’t be on top of everything, but I should redo my Google Analytics certificate as a minimum. It has changed so much that I barely recognise the interface anymore…

Spent too much time adding festival events to this year’s website. There’s going to be an article in the Ham & High next week, as well as a printed copy of the programme, and we need the site refreshed up to date by then.

I used to have a team member who could help me, but you do need to have a modicum of web experience to do it, and I’m pretty confident any “help” from the current team would only increase my workload.

It’s turned out to be quite a hectic week, and I was sitting on a few relatively urgent emails from clients that were giving me guilt. Managed to cross a few such items off the to-do list, and at least send a reply to most of the others right at the end of the work day.

Adam made me a nice gin and tonic – which is one of my favourite moments of the week, and a nice punctuation point to start the weekend. Eytan and Dina came round for dinner tonight. Once I finished my drink, we got stuck into the food prep: Spanish seafood stew thickened with ground almonds, a fennel-endive salad, Jersey Royal potatoes, lemon ice cream and berries for dessert.

They brought a loaf of challah, which went beautifully with the stew – I might serve it that way next time. Lyra was out at Ellie’s but popped up for a visit when she got home.

May 19, 2022

Predictably the cancelled table arrived today… The delivery guy was au fait with how to process refused deliveries – I get the feeling it might be a common occurrence. I emailed him a return label from my phone, which he will print out back at the depot. I’ll never know whether the table would have arrived if I hadn’t cancelled the order…

I was going to make kimchi meatloaf for dinner, but kept on working until it was too late. Made a quick mapo tofu style stirfy instead, which we ate in front of Bojack. Ozark and bed. The attrition rate on that show… it’s as bad as Squid Game…

May 18, 2022

Went swimming with Kate today. She encourages me to come along every week – usually I’m too busy or just don’t fancy it, but this time I said yes. In a series of texts she said she’d meet me there as she was going to cycle. She ended up changing her mind and sending a text I didn’t see.

By that time, I’d already driven to Crouch End and was in the change rooms when she called to say she was waiting for me in Highgate. There was no point in waiting for her to get to the pool, so I got in and swam a slow mile. Felt pretty slow and sort of weak – I don’t get out of breath but I definitely have less upper body strength.

Caught up over coffee afterwards, which was nice, but takes a big bite out of my work day. The groceries arrived late afternoon. Made a recipe from the NYT food section for roast salmon on a bed of asparagus and peas in a caper butter sauce, which was very nice.

It pisses me off that I pay a monthly subscription to the New York Times but get partial unpredicable access to the food section and puzzles. I can understand them selling access to just those things, but if you subscribe to the paper you should get the whole damn enchilada imho…

May 17, 2022

I am sleeping so well these days. I credit the new, improved eyemask. I’m also trying something called compressed sleep, where you avoid going to bed too early. Both so that I build up my sleep drive and also to avoid awake time in bed – scrolling, reading etc.

Sorted Lyra’s meals, meditated, did my Spanish, then got down to work. Managed to finally launch the cricket website today, and am pretty pleased with how it looks. That project has certainly dragged on… They finally paid me the full amount in April, which was nice but also meant that the final snagging and launch is working for “free”.

Had a long call with Beulah, who spent yesterday in hospital undergoing a colonoscopy. Apparently all looks well (aside from the biopsy results, which she is still waiting on) and she was full of praise for the staff, facilities and food at the St John and Elizabeth, which she said was like a “five-star hotel”.

Ongoing saga with the delivery of the patio table took a bite out of my day as well. The delivery company (Evri) keeps bailing on the delivery, claiming that the property is inaccessible, which is untrue. They also have the annoying habit of saying the tried and failed to deliver at 2pm say, but posting that message at 12:30pm.

Have spent two days in a row in long support chats about it, to no avail. They are now listing the delivery as cancelled, which is news to me. Anyway, I was cooking dinner when I saw a van pull up and deliver something to our next door neighbour. I raced down there and spoke with the guy. According to him, Evri assigns a single driver to a few streets and we are on his patch. There has been no parcel for us this week, or he would have collected and delivered it. So the problem is with the dispatch office, or the parcel itself.

Chicken enchiladas and Shameless for dinner, Adam being out for the evening at a leaving do. After more support chatting, I have now cancelled and reordered the table, which is to be delivered by Friday using a different courier company. Sods law, the first bunch will now miraculously be able to deliver it to us, but if they do turn up we’ve been told to refuse delivery…

May 16, 2022

It’s the morning of Lyra’s first ever GCSE. She headed off a bit early as the exam starts at 8:30am. Ran 2.25 miles in the Woods, a slight increase on last week’s distance.

Adam was around until noon then headed to the office. I did mainly house stuff and had a client meeting. I’ve let my email get out of hand again so I also tackled that. Three parcels arrived today – a new frame for our Seville poster, the table for the balcony and a replacement bin/toilet brush set Adam bought for the flat. We are still waiting on the larger table for the patio, then that’s the upgrading effort complete.

Adam has signed us up for a plastic counting survey where you are meant to log every single item of plastic you consume by type. Needless to say the burden of this task has landed on me. It’s a shame that it has coincided with us buying household goods – we can go weeks without receiving a parcel now that lockdown has ended. It will definitely be a more “plasticky” week than usual, but it will be interesting to see it all written down. 

Made a batch of strawberry ice cream in the new machine. It seems good aside from some added unnecessary fiddliness imho, despite choosing the most basic one I could find. The ice cream turned out well, and churned more quickly than it would have in our previous machine. 

Had a long call with Nova, who was in search of a bit more money as she has some extra social things planned this month. Looking forward to being out there again next month!

Lyra was a bit disappointed with how her exam went. She had no trouble with any of the questions, but miscalculated how to allocate her time, and had to rush to attain the last 21 marks. Once she realised, it sounds like she handled it really well, and got a skeleton version of her essay answer in place, with the two requisite quotes. Fingers crossed…

Adam stayed late at the office, so Lyra and I ate together (chickpea pasta soup) in front of Shameless. Carried on working on the accounting snagging and by the time I was done too late for Ozark. Watched a What We Do in the Shadows (a bit of mindless fun) and to bed.

May 15, 2022

Feeling the prosecco enough that I decided against going for a run. Adam headed off to play football (for the first time since the rib incident). I lounged in bed finishing my book – The Believer by Sarah Krasnostein, which I’ve really enjoyed. Lyra (bless her) brought me breakfast in bed – French toast with berries.

Got up about 11am and put some work in sorting the desk in the flat. It’s looking okay in there now – if the McLaughlins unexpectedly turned up this afternoon it wouldn’t be a crisis, but I aim to give the whole space another good clean before Saturday afternoon.

Adam went over to visit with his mum. She had a fall getting on the bus on Friday morning on the way to meet Doron at the cricket and is feeling bruised and sore. Doron didn’t mention it to Adam until today, which he’s a bit miffed about. We both thought she sounded a bit groggy on the phone, and she did hit her head in the fall…

He thought she seemed better in person than she sounded, which is reassuring. Beulah is going into hospital for some tests tomorrow to investigate her continued weight loss, so I hope they notice/follow up if there’s anything that needs checking out.

Dinner was cottage pie and broccoli in front of an episode of Bojack. Helped Lyra revise her RS flashcards for her GCSE paper tomorrow. I’d say she is extremely well prepared in terms of knowing the content (Christianity and Islam), but performing under exam conditions is a different story. Ozark and to bed.

May 14, 2022

No Pilates this weekend – I think Tessa is away, and no one felt like stepping up to lead the class. Finished a cryptic crossword, read some newspaper, did housework, set up next week’s grocery order etc.

Adam took a bunch of stuff off to Oxfam that we cleared from the flat – continuing to make progress on that front. We also wrestled the tile table from the balcony downstairs. It’s crumbling before our eyes and I’ve ordered a replacement that will arrive next week. We considered taking it to the tip ourselves, but the base/leg piece is unwieldy and in the end we found a “man with a van” to come collect it.

It made sense to get rid of the one on the patio, which is cracked and crumbling as well. It might have one more year in it, but the timing was right. After looking at recycled plastic and secondhand ones on Gumtree, I ended up ordering an extendable aluminium one that will work well with our existing chairs.

Troy’s leaving do at the school this evening. They were worried about the numbers but the turnout was pretty good. Quite surreal to be back there with all those faces from the past, including teachers long since retired. Adam’s dance went well. He managed to get five guys to do the dance with him.

He came on in a high-vis vest pushing a broom a la Troy, and the other four vested guys emerged from the audience to join him. I wasn’t in a position to video it, but here’s the rehearsal tape:

There was rum punch on offer, but I avoid rum and ended up with a glass of prosecco. I should really avoid prosecco as well – it seldom agrees with me. We stayed until the end and even managed a bit of dancing. Fun night…

May 13, 2022

Since my new sleep mask arrived on Monday, I’ve been getting a better quality sleep (at least according to the Fitbit). I didn’t think I was particularly sensitive to light, but it does get light pretty early these days.

Lyra is very focused on her RS GSCE, the first paper of which is next week and headed into school early so she could do some revision with friends. I’m pretty impressed with how responsible she is about her studies.

Went for a two mile run, did some Spanish and meditating then got down to work. The Canadian accounting site is in the final stages, so there was snagging for that. I had some technical stuff with one of my fitness clients to resolve, and progressed the soil stabilisation planning. Not a bad day overall.

Adam was out at bookgroup this evening, so Lyra and I had leftover chicken curry, poppadoms, raita (and a G&T for me). Watched a film called Whiplash about a sadistic music teacher which we both really enjoyed. To bed about midnight.

May 12, 2022

My long-awaited opthamology consultation has finally arrived… Got Lyra fed, watered and off to school, then opted to walk to Crouch End for my 9am appointment. Not that I had a lot of choice as Adam had parked in Swains Lane and met Doron on the Heath as per usual.

Same guy I saw seven years ago when I had the eyelash cyst. I liked him then and liked him now. He’s a good listener and pretty much confirmed everything I’ve experienced around the injury, unlike our unsympathetic GP.

There is some nerve damage in the brow (not the eye) which is causing my eyelid to droop a bit. I have a good-sized floater which is what is obstructing my vision. I’ll probably get used to it (and stop “seeing” it so much) and it might also break down into smaller bits. The retina doesn’t appear to have torn.

He is recommending a procedure to restore the eyelid to match the other eye, but it not confident it will be approved. While I can now see the edge of that eyelid in my peripheral vision, it might not be deemed significant enough to warrant treatment. Not holding my breath.

The consultation involved putting those drops in the eye that force the pupils wide open. When I stepped outside afterwards I was practically blinded. Staggered down Park Road to the path to Queens Wood and made my way home.

I tried removing my glasses and wearing my sunnies, but I felt like Ray Charles. Instead, I opted not to wear my glasses at all and keep my eyes sort of half closed as much as possible. Must have looked a right berk…

Back home there was no way I could read or look at the computer. I made a lovely enchilada sauce from scratch using dried poblano chillies, then watched an episode of The Staircase, fixed some lunch, and finally found myself able to do some work. Had a long call with Wade – been too long since we’ve caught up…

Dinner was chicken enchiladas, curtido and guacamole with an episode of Bojack, followed by Ozark when Lyra retreated to study. Afterwards Adam and I worked out a YMCA-based dance routine for Troy’s (the school caretaker’s) retirement party on Saturday. Chris R has written a song called TROY and Adam is organizing the backing dancers.

Filmed him doing the moves to Chris’s backing music so he can send it to his fellow dancers tomorrow.

May 11, 2022

Usual morning routine and had the house to myself by 8:30am. Meditated, knocked a few household/admin jobs off  my list – such as booking a ticket to visit Nova in Madrid in June, or ordering a new balcony table to replace the current one which is deconstructing before our eyes – then got to work.

Spent a good chunk of my day working out the navigation for the next phase of the soil stabilisation website. Did a content audit of the original site and phase 1 site, looked at what they want to add, and figured out how it should all fit together. Sent it off to the client to review and ideally agree, after which I’ll wireframe the top-level pages then start building.

Cod with salsa verde, green beans and new potatoes for dinner. Watched the penultimate episode of Derry Girls – will be sorry to see the back of that one. Watched an episode of Ozark and to bed.

May 10, 2022

Finally got out for a run – just a gentle two miles in the Woods, but still pretty pleased with myself. Meditated as well 🙂 Work feels a bit less frantic. I still haven’t launched the cricket or accounting sites, but the ball is very much in the client’s court in both cases.

Adam was working from home and we managed to have lunch together, plus I took mini breaks throughout the day for a bit of cooking, to water the balcony, or read last week’s magazine section of the newspaper.

Dinner was hamburgers with homemade buns, potato salad and coleslaw. Bojack, Ozark and bed.

May 9, 2022

We’re sticking with me doing the kitchen end of things and Adam doing the driving. Got everything sorted that end, then sat down with a coffee and the weekend paper, which I hadn’t had a chance to look at. I wanted to read all the election coverage.

Feeling yesterday’s gardening and even a bit of soreness from the Pilates on Saturday. It never feels like we do much, but I guess I haven’t been for a while.

Lyra came home from school in a good mood. She got her latest English and History exam results today – A* and an A** – very impressive!

Checked on yesterday’s planting, and Clementine’s tomato seedling isn’t faring well. I think the shift to outdoors was too much for it. I transferred it back into a pot and brought it back inside, slipping the third one I’d originally intended to plant into that slot in the grow bag. I hope it perks up, but if not I’ll just lie shamelessly if she asks about it.

Chicken and green bean curry for dinner with lots of fresh curry leaves that I bought in Muswell Hill the other day. Watched a Bojack Horseman then Adam and I started season 4 of Ozark. That show is relentless…

May 8, 2022

Adam and I spent a couple of hours this morning cleaning and sorting out the flat. The McLaughlins are coming to stay in a couple of weeks – the first time we’ve had guests in about three years – and Nova left it in a parlous state after her last visit. I’m chipping away at it steadily, so that it’s fit for human habitation by the time they arrive…

Adam headed off to the Arsenal match in the afternoon. I drove Lyra to Crouch End to see her friend Alex, then carried on to the garden centre. Bought lobelia, a new fuschia (ours didn’t survive the winter), some herbs and tomato seedlings. Spent the rest of the afternoon planting things out on the patio and balcony.

The neighbour Tim offered me one of his kids tomato seedlings, so I popped that into the grow bag instead of one of mine. I’m not going to use the greenhouse or the back garden at all this year – there’s just no point with that wretched cedar tree.

Down to Will and Sara’s for dinner – roasted veg lasagne, tomato salad, strawberries and ice cream – all very nice. Will’s dad is dying, so the invite was hanging in the balance, but he’s decided to go to Kent tomorrow. His dad has advanced dementia and is on dialysis,which isn’t working any more. His lungs have filled with fluid, his limbs are swollen and they are moving him to hospice tomorrow…

Watched the finale of Ozark season 3 when we got home. Ay caramba…!

May 7, 2022

Back to Pilates for the first time in a good while. It was nice to see everyone, but I found myself restless and bored, surreptiously checking my watch every ten minutes as the time crawled by… I don’t think I’m a Pilates person – I’d much prefer it if this was a yoga class.

Made huevos rancheros for lunch. After we’d eaten, Adam went off to the opticians and to visit his mum, while I did house-type things.Ate dinner round Doron and Antonia’s this evening. Walked part of the way and then caught the 271. Doron made a nice chicken tagine with cous cous, and we got through a couple of bottles of wine (and some port). Really nice evening…

May 6, 2022

Pretty much back to normal now, healthwise. Out of the running habit though, and didn’t go again this morning. I need to refocus my efforts in that direction. I did meditate, which has been a bit patchy lately as well, so that’s something.

Caught up on other bits of work and also advanced the insurance site some. The client is finally producing some actual copy so I flowed that in. My work day always seems to zip by…

We often get a takeaway on Friday, but I decided to cook a nice meal instead and popped to the village for steaks. Lyra was asked to babysit next door at the last minute, so it was just Adam and me. Sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce, green beans, baked potato with sour cream and bacon. Lemon ice cream and berries for dessert.

Watched two episodes of Ozark – only one more episode to go and that’s season 3 put to rest.

May 5, 2022

Forgot to wear my eyemask last night, which meant I was awake at 5am when it gets properly light. I would have woken at 6am in any event, but would have appreciated the extra hour.

Adam and I are trying a stricter division of morning labour at the moment, which seems to be working alright. Formerly, I did Lyra’s breakfast and lunch, he emptied the dishwasher and made coffee; I drove her to school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and he drove on Tuesday and Thursday (when he goes to the Heath anyway to meet Doron for a walk).

The current arrangement is that I still do all the breakfast and lunch prep, and also do the dishwasher and make coffee. Adam does all the driving. Seeing it laid out like this, I’ve swapped three drives for five coffee/dishwasher stints and am still doing the bulk of the work.

What’s potentially better is that there isn’t a kitchen bottleneck and I’m not pressured to do all the food stuff plus get ready to drive her. We’ll see…

It’s local election day in the UK, so after a Festival meeting and an initial stretch of work, we headed up to the school to cast our ballots. I’m usually Labour straight down the ticket, but they have chosen an absolute viper of a woman as one of the local Labour candidates, so I had to take care to avoid her. Fortunately, you get three votes for three individuals – I went for the other two Labour candidates and the Green.

Something is up with the BC insurance company hosting and I’m unable to access the website. A bit of a problem as we are presenting it to the client at 9:30am (PST). The support line didn’t open until 9am… Fortunately, they were able to sort it out immediately and I made some final tweaks in time for the presentation.

They were very pleased with it, and the feedback was minimal – a colour tweak here, a change to the footer email optin was about it. Didn’t feel like working much after it wound up. Shut down my computer and caught up on election coverage. They are predicting a drubbing for the Tories, but the swing vote is likely to be divided between Labour, Lib Dems and Greens. I’ll take it…

Adam wasn’t around, so Lyra and I had a plate of salad and cold cuts and watched an episode of Shameless. 

May 4, 2022

I feel like I’ve turned a corner with my head cold at last. I slept better than I have in ages, and woke clear headed and full of purpose. I even briefly considered going for a run, but am still coughing so will leave it for a bit longer.

Got Lyra out the door, then turned my attention to the insurance site bug/snag list in preparation for an internal review this afternoon. It’s looking pretty good and the comments were relatively minor.

Stopped work at 7pm and made bibimbap for dinner  – with a carrot side dish instead of beansprouts and the addition of a Korean-style ground pork. Very tasty… Watched the latest Derry Girls – only two to go and that pleasure is forever behind us. After Lyra headed downstairs for the evening Adam and I watched an episode of Ozark. I have too many things on the go – Ozark, Peaky Blinders, Bojack, Shameless – I need organize my TV watching better…;-)

May 3, 2022

Appreciated having a proper weekend for a change, without a lick of client work in it. Felt ready to shoulder the work routine again after a few days’ downtime. First order of business, getting my April invoices out. I’ve had my biggest month ever, but so much of it was Jx work that the invoices weren’t more onerous than usual.

There were a few interruptions to my morning – a scheduled delivery vehicle that couldn’t get through the roadworks on Sw L (I had to walk up to the village, locate the guy and shlep a hefty parcel home from there); the grocery delivery; the window cleaner (which requires clearing off all the window ledges before he comes and putting it all back after he leaves).

Adam was home this morning, which helped with the window job anyway. We also managed to eat lunch together –  a rare occurrence.

Cod fillets with Moroccan roast veg for dinner. Dined and dashed, as the sons and wives had been summoned to Beulah’s this evening. She said she had something important to discuss with us, which turned out to be did we both want one of her two Oxford pillows, and how best to divide the family cutlery sets.

She’d laid out two full settings of Freddy’s mother’s cutlery. There are twelve place settings in total, so we are going to take six each. There are also 18(?) place settings of Beulah’s wedding cutlery, which she wants to keep for now.

In due course, we’ll each get six settings of that service as well (with the additional six settings going to her housekeeper Mariamo). At that point, we’ll either do a swap, so that each of us has a matching cutlery service for twelve (instead of two six-piece services) or we’ll maybe pass them on to our children who can each have a service for six each (though Nova and Lyra will get different ones, unless we reunite the split services anyway). Beulah has an unparalleled genius for complicating things…

May 2, 2022

Despite it being a long weekend, we were both awake by 7am. Decided to make lemonade from that lemon and set off for our bluebell walk bright and early. We were pulling into Ashford estate in Hertfordshire at 9am.

It was a gorgeous morning and they were clearly expecting big numbers. Instead of the usual parking arrangements, we were steered off to a large field where they were shepherding arrivals into rows. Switched into our walking boots and set off. The bluebells were awesome from the off, both in the estate and across the main road in an extension called Downey Wood.

It was about five miles to do the suggested loop at we were back at the car in under three hours. We hadn’t stopped aside from taking photos, so ate our snacks in the car before heading home. Back by 1pm and eating eggs and bacon with Lyra.

She’s finally feeling better, which is great news, and there are no side effects from last night’s dinner. Let’s hope she’s finally seeing the back of this.

Spent the rest of the day with a novel she was keen for me to read called My Dark Vanessa, which she’d borrowed from her friend Ava. Dinner was veggie soup, crackers and cheese. Watched two episodes of Derry Girl, and are all caught up now.

I’d heard about this novel when it came out but wasn’t convinced by the reviews. It was about a girl who’d been groomed as a teenager by a teacher at boarding school, and the repercussions on her life. I found the main character sympathetic and frustrating in equal measure. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but it was a compelling piece of writing. 

May 1, 2022

Rabbits! We’d thought we might go for a bluebell walk today, but Millie texted wondering if we wanted to meet up with her and Bryn, so we decided to do something local instead.

Found time to make my lemon ice cream base for dinner tonight before we set out. The paddle on my ice cream machine is broken – I was able to churn it to some extent, but that’s the end of that machine. It’s done good service over the past fifteen years…

Walked to the Spaniards for lunch then on through the Heath Extension to visit the pergola. I thought the wisteria might be out, but it was still a bit early. They hadn’t visited before and both loved it. The rhodos in Kenwood were amazing, and the handkerchief tree was in full bloom.

Beulah came for dinner tonight. Adam headed off to pick her up about 7pm, and we pulled dinner together on their return. Roasted asparagus (an Ottolenghi recipe with toasted almonds, fried capers and dill), lamb-feta meatballs and Jersey Royal potatoes with mint; strawberries and lemon ice cream for dessert.