November 2019

November 30, 2019

Such a dreadful night’s sleep… I was awake on the hour between 2am and 6am. I think Adam’s cough was the main culprit, though red wine can make me restless as well.He completely redeemed himself by appearing at 8am with a breakfast tray — coffee, orange juice, pastries from Gails — and this morning’s Guardian. Had a lovely relaxing morning until Lyra came back at 11am.

Flew into housework mode at that point. We missed last weekend (being in Bristol) and the place was looking a bit neglected. Lyra hoovered, Adam did the bathrooms and I tackled the flat.

Pat is flying in on Monday morning, and his son Adam will be arriving shortly afterwards from Hamburg. There is some sort of crisis in play — Pat alluded to it in his email, but I don’t know any details. I’m thinking a break-up with the girlfriend he brought round in September, but we’ll see. In any event, it will be good to see them…

Lyra headed off to ensemble, which somehow morphed into Ellie’s, then dinner and a sleepover with Lucia. Adam and I made a visit to Waitrose and cooked ourselves a nice meal of gochuchang glazed salmon, rice, broccoli and beansprout salad.

Finished Giri/Haji — breathtakingly good television…

November 29, 2019

This week has whizzed past… Haven’t done as much work as I’d have liked but there are other things requiring my attention at this time of year. I’m chipping away at the Christmas shopping for example, getting things here and there. I’m pretty sound on Adam and Lyra already…

Headed into town about 3pm. Got off at Leicester Square and made my way through Seven Dials to Clerkenwell, looking in the shops. I specifically wanted to visited Jones, where I have my eye on a pair of loafers, but neither of the two branches I checked had them in stock.

Made my way to the Coach pub at 5:30, where I’d arranged to meet Adam. It was heaving with post-work drinkers, and it was hard to find somewhere to stand, letalone sit.

Nursed my pint until Adam finally showed up about 6:15…>:( We ended up eating dinner there (very nice — charcuterie and a chicken pot pie) before heading back to Highgate.

There has been a terrorist incident in London Bridge… Details are trickling through, but it seems a known extremist, who was out on bail tricked himself out in a fake explosive vest and stabbed a couple of people on the bridge before the police shot him dead…

November 28, 2019

Got the swimming routine back on track this week. I was dreading it a bit when I was standing in the drizzly half-light waiting for Kate to swing by for me at 7:40am.It was bloody cold as well, but once I was in the water and ploughing up and down, I was very pleased to be there. Went for a coffee with Kate and Helen after doing our mile and then back to Highgate.

I was going to start on the Christmas baking this morning, but was stymied by an unexpected lack of butterscotch chips. I was sure I had a bag downstairs, but it seems to have disappeared. I blame the children…;-)

Lyra had cried off the personal training session, so we ate earlier than usual — lemony lentil soup and toast in front of Asymetry. Only two episodes to go and we’re all caught up.

Adam had gone straight to the Arsenal game after work, and I was in bed by the time he got home. Apparently it was the worst football match he has ever attended, and I’m sure that’s a pretty low bar. How the mighty have fallen…

November 27, 2019

Into the office today. I’m on a plan that allows me access to the shared workspace four days in a month, or roughly once a week. I’m happy to go in — it is a nice space to work in, I avoid home distractions, and it’s companionable to sit there with my fellow Junxionites tapping away.

Adam went off to a meeting in the afternoon, but I stayed until almost 5pm, wrestling with an issue on the Beauty Council website, which isn’t letting me merge the content of two pages. After some trial, error and research, I’ve discovered that the problem is a server setting that limits the length of their web pages…

When I got in, I threw together a wokful of pad thai for Adam and me, which I had just time to scoff before going out. (Lyra is at Ellie’s birthday gathering — party is on Friday.)

Adam drove me to Tufnell Park tube, which helped — I was only a couple of minutes late meeting Jane at the Islington Vue. We saw Knives Out, which was great fun. Home and to bed about 11pm.

November 26, 2019

Big improvement in the lump/cyst after only 24 hours on the antibiotics, which is encouraging. Really hoping it resolves itself by the time I go for my follow-up appointment next week…

Managed to fit in a run after dropping Lyra down the hill. Did the 3.3 mile route to Ally Pally and back. Feeling quite sluggish and my time was a bit slower than my last effort.

Made a few adjustments to the Beauty Council mock-up and then forwarded it to Millie. I think it’s looking really good, but don’t want to over-invest in it until I get some client feedback.

Had the electrician round this afternoon to sort out the toilet light pull that has been broken for the last couple of months. Nice to get that fixed, so that we can resume closing the door when we use the loo of an evening…

I’d rescheduled Lyra’s violin lesson for today (she missed yesterday so we could attend parent-teacher evening), so I had to make a run down to Belsize Park to collect her at 6:30.

Made rosti topped with a fried egg for dinner, with sautéed cavolo nero on the side. Pannacotta with raspberry sauce for dessert. I set them in my smaller ramekins this time, which made six rather than four portions. I thought they were better for it, though Lyra preferred the bigger ones…;-)

November 25, 2019

Got up at 6:30am to sort Lyra out and run her down the hill. I was back in good time to nab an early appointment with a GP. I have a painful lump which I assume is a cyst but it hasn’t cleared up in over a week, and if anything is getting bigger.

Same day appointments are always luck of the draw — mine was with a very pleasant trainee doctor who examined me briefly, took my temperature and prescribed a week’s course of antibiotics.

She didn’t inspire complete confidence, so I’m glad that she’s arranged a follow-up appointment in a week’s time with a more senior doctor to check that it was responding to treatment (and probably to doublecheck her diagnosis).

Swung by the post office afterwards and then up to the pharmacy to collect my prescription (which she’d messed up and not sent through), all of which took until nearly 10:30am.

Had a few hours to do house things and some work before I needed to head into town for Lyra’s parent-teacher evening. Left a bit early so that I could pick up some new underpants from M&S #livingthedream…

Lyra had done a great job of booking appointments with all her teachers, and we sailed around the place, knocking nine appointments on the head within an hour.

Her teachers couldn’t say enough positive things about Lyra — her coursework, regular contributions to classroom discussions, maturity, attitude, personality.

The music teacher thinks she should give orchestra another try, the PE teacher thinks she should play on the school netball team, the Spanish teacher thinks she should use more complex vocabulary in her written exercises — that was about it in terms of areas for improvement.

Made her pesto pasta for dinner, then ate sardines on toast with Adam when he got home. Watched another episode of Giri/Haji before bed.

November 24, 2019

Slept marvellously well. The bed is exceeding comfortable and there’s something about the smell and clutter of the place the makes me feel weirdly at home.

Drove back into Bristol about 10:30am, collected Nova and went for breakfast at a cool little café in Montpelier, before dropping her back again and heading for London.

As soon as we were back, Lyra struck off for Lucia’s. Adam and I had a cup of tea and a little doze on the sofa.

For dinner we had the frozen pizzas from yesterday. I pimped them up with capers, extra cheese, herbs, olives — definitely made silk purses out of those sows’ ears…

Dove back into Giri/Haji — very intense stuff…

November 23, 2019

Got up at 6am to bake bread before we left for Bristol. Got both loaves done by 9am, and we had freshly baked sourdough for breakfast. Stuck half a loaf in Nova’s care package as well.

Set off for Bristol about 10am. The traffic okay, but the weather lousy (rainy with a lot of spray on the motorway). Still, we made it in under 2.5 hours, even with a bit of a detour to find a petrol station, which is fair going.

Nova was waiting for us on the street in front of the dorm, but we were keen to go back to her flat. Lyra hadn’t seen it, plus we had the care package to drop off.

Nova was pretty keen to get us out of there — I think she was worried we might bump into someone she knew and dent her image…

Ate lunch in a nearby burger joint, then walked along the waterfront and made our way to Clifton to meet Doron and Antonia for coffee.

Maureen came along too — it’s always lovely to see her. After a coffee and a chat we turned our steps back to the centre of town. Nova had a party this evening, and seemed ready to see the back of us, but it wasn’t for hours yet so we hung out in her room for a bit.

When we left, we grabbed something for dinner in the quicky mart across the street and headed for Dave’s flat in Keynsham. He’s in Ethiopia at the moment, but offered us the use of it.

Keynsham is about five miles east of Bristol, and Antonia and her mum expressed amazement that we were staying there. I’m not sure why… it’s free accommodation, and it’s not as if they had offered to put us up.

Despite Dave’s exhaustive photo instructions it took a bit of doing to identify the correct flat in the dark, locate the keylock box and get inside. It’s actually his ex-girlfriend’s deceased parent’s flat and full to the brim with books, papers, cassette tapes, files and triffid-like plants.

Actually it reminded me of my parent’s house, particularly the Kelowna one. It even smelled a bit like it. There was lots of evidence of DIY in the shelving, unorthodox wiring on display, and the gerry-rigged toilet pull.

Unfortunately there was no oven, rendering our intended frozen pizza dinner a non-starter. Adam ventured out again to find a local shop, returning with an insipid superfood salad and packs of crisps.

Some of the radiators aren’t working, plus the place hasn’t been occupied for a few weeks, so there was a definite chill. The master bedroom was clearly the most inviting room, so after eating I filled a hot water bottle for everyone and we retreated under the covers for the rest of the evening.

November 22, 2019

Once my morning/house duties we out of the way, I devoted working on redesign of the Beauty Council website. As is usually the case with new web designs, I had some anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything nice/original but after a few hours I had something I was pretty happy with.

We went round Jess’s flat for dinner this evening. When I texted her this morning to confirm it was still on and ask what I could bring, she said “pudding”. Broke off work about 5pm and threw together a batch of margarita brownies.

Lyra went straight from school with Ellie, Adam came from work, so I walked down on my own. Jess had suggested getting there at 6:30pm. When I arrived, she hadn’t made a start on the cooking — we sat in the kitchen drinking cava and chatting while she produced an original, lovely meal. Both dishes came from from the Green Roasting Tin cookbook.

The girls didn’t make an appearance until dinner time, though I discovered later that they had sloped in and got their hands on my phone:

It had gone 9pm by the time the six of us sat down round the dining room table. The girls were very entertaining and we had a laugh, but there was an unspoken sadness to the evening as well. It hurts my heart to look at them sometimes…

Left not long after 11pm and walked home. We would have caught the bus but as usual one didn’t turn up until we’d crested the top of West Hill…

November 21, 2019

Everyone bailed on the weekly swim this morning. I was half-disappointed as I’ve enjoyed the streak we’re on, and half-relieved, as it was about two degrees outside. Of course, I could have gone on my own… I didn’t really fancy running either, after running yesterday. I decided to walk to Wood Green for my audiology appointment, which is about three miles.

Set off in good time and strode along through the mist, listening to my “I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats” podcast. Arrived with fifteen minutes to spare, which was just as well.

There was a long queue at reception, after which I wasn’t entered into the system. They’ve been peppering me with text messages about not missing the appointment for days so I was pretty sure it was meant to be happening.

Eventually, the receptionist lead me to a cavernous, empty reception room, where the time for my appointment ticked past. After about ten minutes, a woman came out and led me to an office.

The audiologist had a strong Dutch accent and wasted no time in telling my that I have a “mild to moderate” hearing loss in both ears likely caused by “wear and tear”. When I asked what might have “worn and torn” my ears, he said it was just a function of reaching middle age.

Apparently, it’s a little bit early for age-related hearing loss to manifest, which may be genetic. There is nothing I can do to improve my hearing nor is there anything to be done to prevent further loss. I can opt for hearing aids if I think they would help, and I should start practicing techniques such as lip-reading in readiness.

It wasn’t a great diagnosis, but it was the absolute lack of empathy or even interest that bothered me most. Left the office and wandered round Wood Green for a couple of hours, drifting through shops and not buying anything before I caught the tube back to Finsbury Park and a bus home.

Lyra was very sweet when she got home and asked me all about it. I fixed us some dinner and we watched an episode of Atypical together, which was nice. Had a good laugh singing Disney songs while we did the washing up, which restored my spirits.

Adam was out at Jackson’s Lane for an event this evening — I could have gone along but didn’t feel very sociable…

November 20, 2019

Got Lyra efficiently dispatched this morning, then put on my running gear and repeated my 3.5 mile loop to Ally Pally that I did last Sunday. It was a very cold morning, and it took a while to warm the stiffness and numbness from my muscles and extremities.Once I got past the boggy section in the Woods, I picked up the pace and ended up finishing a couple of minutes faster than last time.

I had an afternoon meeting with the Beauty Council to talk about next steps for the website. Did some prep for that, packed my workbag and then proceeded to make a complete hash of things…

I was at the top of the path when I realised I’d forgotten to transfer my Oyster card to my work bag. You can use any contactless card on the Tube these days, but I decided to go back for it anyway.

Just as well, as I’d forgotten to transfer my wallet (containing all my contactless cards). Put my pass in my pocket, my wallet in my work bag and then headed out again.

On the train platform I realised that after transferring everything from my handbag to my workbag, I’d then left the house with my handbag, leaving my computer, work notebook, wallet and phone at home.

As a freelancer, I’ve learned that the best approach in a situation like this is to front it out. Apologising, making excuses or running yourself down (“I’m such a ditz!”) is not a good look in someone being paid for their competence.

I rummaged around in my bag for another notebook and pen, jotted down what I thought we should cover, made no mention of my lack of laptop, and it ended up being fine.

It was annoying not having my phone or any money when I was in town, as I’d intended to pick up a particular Christmas gift, as well as a couple of things from Seoul Plaza. Oh well…

Back home, I worked in front of the telly so I could watch some of the Sondland testimony. I realise I’m completely biased, but Trump seems so blatantly guilty to me, it’s hard to believe anyone could think otherwise.

Met Millie for a drink at the Woodman this evening, partly to continue our work conversation but mostly to catch up. Got home about 8:45pm, and watched an Atypical with Lyra before she went to bed.

Dozing on the sofa when Adam got home from Switzerland. Sounds like his workshop went really well, which is great news…:)

November 19, 2019

After doing my usual morning routine with Lyra, I blew off my run to go into the office. Our new consultant Rachael is starting today, and Adam has to leave for Switzerland at noon. When I got there we had a ten meeting with all four(!) of us to officially welcome her aboard and run through all the current projects. It’s as busy as we’ve been in a long time, which makes a nice change.

Rachael and I did some work on the UN comms strategy proposal and the three of us had lunch together, where I got to know her a bit better. I think she is a good appointment. She clearly super bright (Cambridge English degree, law conversion), has set up her own social venture, and is married with a young son.

Left at 4:30pm to get home for Lyra. She is supposed to have Latin on Tuesdays after school but it seems to be cancelled half the time. Made us a batch of pad thai for dinner and watched a couple of episodes of Atypical before bed.

November 18, 2019

This is the third night in a row I’ve woken at 3am and then again at 4am… I usually pop on an episode of You Must Remember This and then fall straight asleep again. Multiple listening of the Marlon Brando story today…

I got Lyra breakfasted and lunched, then Adam drove her down the hill to do his bit, as he’s not going to be around on Tuesday and Wednesday (off to Switzerland to present the sustainability strategy he’s been working on to the sporting goods retailer).

I have nothing pressing on the client front, so made house stuff more of a focus. Assembled a batch of kimchi from the cabbage I’ve had salting over the weekend, then went to the shops and got the missing supplies for making the Christmas cake.

I’d floated the idea of making a small one this year, but Lyra (who isn’t even a particular CC fan) came down hard for the big cake. In a way, I tend to agree.

It’s such a palaver — soaking the fruit, the craft project effort of lining the cake tin with multiple layers of brown and greaseproof paper, the arm-aching stir-a-thon of combining two kilos of dried fruit with an inadequate amount of stiff batter, the-four hour bake, the painting, the wrapping, the re-wrapping, the storing and re-painting. You might as well end up with a decent amount of cake after all that effort.

Made bibimbap for dinner and watched an episode of Atypical when Adam got home. We are blitzing through the second series, especially as the episodes are only half an hour.

After Lyra went to bed we also watched an episode of Giri-Haji, a Japanese-British crime drama that we’re both really enjoying. Sometimes I try to listen to the spoken Japanese instead of reading the sub-titles, which seldom works as it’s fast and slangy (and my Japanese is rudimentary), then Adam tells me what I missed.

November 17, 2019

Cold this morning — only a few degrees above freezing when I set out for a run. Did my route to Ally Pally, round the first field and back. This used to be my bread-and-butter run — at 3.5 miles, it counts as a long run these days.

Lyra headed off to Camden around noon to meet her friend Ava, before travelling to the twins’ house for the rest of the day. Without her in the food mix, I made scrambled eggs and smoked salmon wraps for brunch.

Spent some time tidying the top floor in the afternoon. There was a low-level amount of disarray that has been creeping up on us — piles of papers (mine), books that needed shelving, clutter on the window sills and random paper on the printer.

Made a simple aubergine ragu for dinner in the Remoska, which I served with cauliflower rice. I’ve been resistant to the idea of cauliflower rice — it seems affected and unnecessary (six billion people eat rice most meals) but it was part of the recipe so I decided to give it a try.

The verdict? It is perfectly nice to eat and less filling, though you would never mistake it. I’d make it again I suppose…

November 16, 2019

Mooched around finishing the crossword until it was time to collect Lyra from her grandmother’s house. When we arrived at 10:30am, she was at the kitchen table doing homework. Apparently she’s done all the homework that has been assigned for the rest of November or something. We should send her to Beulah more often…;-)

Left her there a little longer and popped up the road to Waitrose. I’ve gotten into the habit of shopping at Tesco, which is cheaper, but I’d forgotten how much nicer it is to shop at Waitrose.

The food is nicely presented and of better quality. The shelves are full of tempting items. The other shoppers are quiet and polite. The staff is knowledgeable and helpful. There are no spills or smells or mysterious squashed blobs in the aisles. They have an in-store sushi bar. The Alcohol section inspires joy. They treat their suppliers ethically, and are an employee-owned business. They haven’t been prosecuted for illegally selling horsemeat.

Yes, Waitrose costs more but when you think about it you get a lot for the extra money…

Adam cooked tonight — chicken and shallots in sherry, with new potatoes and peas. Divided the last two pannacotta between us for dessert. Tried to watch an episode of Giri-Haji but we both fell asleep half way through…

November 15, 2019

Travelled to Aldgate East and put in a day’s work at the office with Adam. Spent some time on my client work — yet another take on the video background for the website mainly.

Gave Adam some support with his presentation to the major Swiss sports retailer he giving as part of next week’s workshop in Bern. Asya was in as usual, and next week our new recruit Rachael is starting at three days a week. Would be good to overlap at least occasionally…

Ate a quick and early dinner at the Indian restaurant next door, splitting a bhel puri and having a dosa each, before heading to th O2 for our annual date at the ATP tennis finals.

It’s always the luck of the draw who you end up seeing. I don’t follow doubles (unless its Daniel Nestor) so don’t particularly care who we see there, but for our singles match we got Medvedev v Zverev, which turned out to be an excellent match.

It was really nice to arrive on time and fed (possibly the first time we’ve managed to do that in the ten years we’ve attended). Both matches only went to two sets and it was all over by 10pm.

The Jubilee Line was in disarray and we were held outside the station for a good ten minutes to prevent overcrowding on the platform, but once we were on our way it was a smooth journey.

Lyra had gone to Beulah’s for the dinner and spent the night. Poor old Cleo was hanging about under the car. She probably popped out for her a morning poop, not realising she’d be out for another fourteen hours. (I meant to reset the cat flap for her but forgot…)

Straight to bed and spent some time catching up on the impeachment hearings before lights out. An event-filled day with Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony, and Trump sending intimidating tweets in real time, which Schiff then read out. And Roger Stone found guilty on all four counts. A good day for the good guys…:-)

November 14, 2019

Happy 50th birthday, Wade!!! So that’s all of us settled on the exclusive side of the hill…;-)

Got up a bit before 6:30am so I could get on top of everything and Lyra off to school before I had to meet Kate for our weekly swim. It was 4° outside, and the lido was swirling with steam like a witches cauldron.

We’d decided to up our distance a bit, adding 200m to our usual mile swim. I felt so good today that I could have easily done two kilometres — next time…

Had a quick coffee afterwards then headed back to Highgate. I’m really enjoying this change to my fitness regime. I don’t know whether it is more or less effective than the running, but it’s using my upper body and is also has a social aspect.

Fitted in more cooking than usual into my day — I made Grasmere gingerbread, pannacotta, raspberry sauce and a Spanish tortilla to take for lunch tomorrow. When Lyra got in, we had a tofu noodle stirfry for dinner and two of the pannacotta, which I was pleased to see had the requisite wobble.

Started the second series of Atypical, and when Adam got back from Brighton we watched the finale of The Accident. Actually, I’m pretty sure I slept through some scenes. Not that bothered… I found it to be less than the sum of its parts…

November 13, 2019

Woke up feeling rested and refreshed again… I could get used to this. I had Lyra fed and sorted by 7:20am, and sat down with my coffee and Rachel Maddow podcast. Now that the impeachment hearings are looming, I’ve become addicted to hearing her take on events every day.

Had a Festival meeting in the village, getting back by 10:30am to start my actual working day. Adam was just finishing up a important conference call with his Swiss sporting goods client, so we crossed paths before he headed off to work (and then on to Brighton for a couple of days).

A bitty sort of a day — tying up some loose ends on the Committee website, drafting a LinkedIn post for the insurance client, clearing rogue spam off the Junxion website.

Our new Vax hoover arrived, which was exciting (in a boring sort of way). Seems more complicated than the Dyson — I’ll have to invest some time in figuring out how to do all the cool things it does and when to use the various doodad attachments.

I made a pea and tarragon soup for dinner, which turned out kind of meh, and finished the first series of Atypical with Lyra.

November 12, 2019

It’s very cold today, and just a couple degrees above zero when I ran Lyra down to the bus stop.I’d committed to going for a run this morning, and despite the weather, I saw it through. It was very mucky underfoot, but least it wasn’t raining — that came later.

A hot shower brought some feeling back to my fingers. Despite my heated desk blanket, it got cold if I sat for more than half a hour. I to go downstairs to put on a second pair of socks, and I dropped and cracked the coffee pot when I was making lunch, my hands were so cold.

Put in a chunk of work on the Committee website — we’re introducing a new process to assess bids for community infrastructure funding, and I needed to create a section for that on the site.

Made bran bread in the afternoon, something I’ve been wanting to do for ages. It was a great favourite of mine when I was a girl and it turned out just like I remembered.

Leftover cauliflower curry for dinner, then I headed out to see La Bohème at Jackson’s Lane with a couple of mum’s from Lyra’s old school. It was put on by a local opera society, the Hampstead Garden Opera, and was absolutely wonderful.

It was beautifully sung and acted, and both funny and sad. There’s something visceral about sitting ten feet away from people singing their hearts out like that — it gave me full body shivers more than once. I clapped so hard at the end my arms ached, and would happily go see it again before it finishes on the 17th if I get the opportunity.

November 11, 2019

Remembrance Day… not a holiday in the UK, which I’m sure I’ve grumbled about before… For the last few years, I’ve been able to participate vicariously in Highgate School’s remembrance service which they hold on the parade ground. School choir, cadets going through their paces, speeches, a trumpet solo, a minute’s silence — all from the comfort of my work station.

My email has gone crazy of late. I’m finding it takes vigilance to keep it below a hundred things I need to deal with. I slashed away at it today, while also watching a minor scandal unfold on Twitter.

On Sunday, at the Remembrance service in central London, Boris Johnson made an absolute tit of himself. Turned up looking disheveled and hungover, stepped out to present his wreath at the wrong time, and laid it upside down.

On the BBC breakfast news today, instead of showing that footage (which had gathered some negative comment in the press), they swapped in footage of him presenting a wreath three years ago. It’s hard to see this as anything but a politically motivated attempt to preserve his reputation…

At 12:30pm I headed down to the high school for an afternoon shift. It’s the last maths paper in this year’s retakes. Students were allowed calculators and a whole lot of other equipment — none of which a surprising number of candidates thought to bring along.

There was a steady back and forth with rulers, calculators, pencils, rubbers, tracing paper, protractors. At least there were only 25 of them. The papers was only ninety minutes long, but it was a long 90 minutes.

At one point, a phone went off, so I had to sort that out and write up an incident report as well. There were only two invigilators working the hall plus Veronika with two kids upstairs.

My second seemed to be running upstairs every fifteen minutes to deal with something (turns out one of the candidates threw up in the exam room) when she wasn’t taking our candidates for toilet breaks. I was glad to call it a wrap.

Made avocado toast for a late lunch, then headed off to collect Lyra from violin. Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs, which I was just serving up when Adam got got home. Watched an episode of Atypical together — we’re all really enjoying it. We were both feeling tired and headed to bed at 10pm — almost unheard of around here…

November 10, 2019

I woke with an unusual sense of well being. Made me realise that I don’t feel this way as often as I should. Bounced out of bed energetic and happy and made a Dutch baby for breakfast then flew at the housework.

I hoovered, sorted the coffee table, tidied the livingroom and scrubbed the tub while Adam cleaned the toilet and mopped all three floors. Part way through this blitz, the hoover packed it in.

Between unplugging it upstairs and replugging it on the the middle floor it ceased to work. It gave an asthmatic groan then slowly powered down. We’ve fixed this hoover numerous times. We both quite enjoy stripping it down, sorting a blockage or replacing a worn part and rebuilding it.

On this occasion, there was a significant tear in a connector hose that I was able to patch with electricians tape. In the past, one of us has gone online and ordered a replacement part. However, we are no fan of Dyson after his pro-Brexit efforts, and have decided it is time for a new vacuum.

We’ve gone with a Vax this time — another British company that manufactures outside the UK. Henry Hoovers are the best “buy local” option, but unfortunately Henry’s squat, barrel shape couldn’t be less suitable for our narrow, vertical house.

Went for an afternoon walk on Heath via a quick cuppa at Pete and Pasc. It is so refreshing to talk with people who see eye to eye with me on the current political situation and the virtues of the Labour party — they gave Adam a bit of a bash on the Labour anti-Semitism non-issue.

Ate a late lunch at Al Parco before heading home — that makes twice in two weeks I’ve eaten there…

Dinner was a cauliflower curry using the entire cauliflower (stalks, leaves and all), which I liked the idea of. It had a certain worthy quality, but was none the worse for it. Adam made carrot halvah again, and I whipped up a quick shrikhand made using Greek yogurt.

Lyra was keen to watch a Netflix series called Atypical so we checked that out while we ate. It’s about a boy with autism who is keen to start dating, and the impact it has on the rest of his family. It’s surprisingly good, and interesting to see Jennifer Jason Leigh again after all these years…

November 9, 2019

Adam was up and out promptly for a Jackson’s Lane away day. I lolled about for a bit, then got myself up and into my running gear and headed out. I’m not back to running regularly yet, although I’m getting a bit more disciplined. Set my running app for half an hour and didn’t worry about pace. I choose a playlist with a good beat though, as I find the music I listen to makes a difference to how fast I run.

Lyra and Ellie returned from Iris’s sleepover around noon, then headed off to Willesden again for Skye’s birthday party. This whole event has been a confusing mess. I thought they were going directly from Iris’s to the party, as did Lyra.

It seems that there is now a sleepover element to the party as well — for all the guests aside from Lyra and Ellie, which had them out of sorts. Though when Adam collected them at 8pm they seemed to have had a good enough time.

Made a pad thai for Adam and me — my second time making it in the last little while. I’ve had mixed results with pad thai in the past, often ending up with a sticky mess, but I’m getting the hang of it now. A bit more fine tuning and I’ll be ready to share my efforts with the world…;-)

November 8, 2019

Had an extra early start this morning, as we are interviewing for the for consultant post today. Everyone was up by 6:30am, and we left Lyra in the house when we set off for the tube before 7am. I’m glad we are doing the interview at the new work space — it is really professional, with proper meeting rooms and catering.

While all three candidates were lovely and potentially appointable, we both felt one was clearly above the others. We’re going to discuss it further over the weekend, but I doubt we’ll change our decision.

Spent the afternoon in the shared working space, then headed for home. Had a horrible commute — the Northern line was in complete disarray.

One of those journeys where you can’t board the first three trains, manage to cram yourself into the fourth, where you spend the next six stops actively keeping your face from smooshing the back of a complete stranger.

Adam headed straight out again in the car to collect things from his old office and move them to the new one. After that, he headed to his mums for a visit.

I changed into my pyjamas, poured myself a large glass of red wine, fixed a snack and relaxed with my book for a couple of hours before bed. I’m reading Out of Time, which examines the realities of modern middle age. It’s written by someone in her mid-forties, which adds an interesting perspective from my mid-fifties vantage point.

November 7, 2019

Just Kate and I were up for a swim this morning, both Lynne and Helen had other commitments. The fast lane was pretty busy — more to the point, there were a few very fast swimmers in it.

I did a head count and decided to join it anyway. I’m good at passing people but also good at being passed, which was the main thing if you are slower than some of the swimmers. They finished up after about fifteen minutes, after which I “ruled the pool”…;-)

Went for coffee afterwards, the back to Highgate. Worked on interations of the newsletter for most of the morning. They’ve been dragging their heels on that piece of work for so long that it has gone from being the Summer edition to the Autumn edition. If they don’t get the lead out, I’m going to have to update it to say Winter.

Nova spent the entire morning packing in her bedroom. I went down about noon to see if she wanted to have lunch together, but she was too busy or didn’t have enough time or something.

She set off at 12:30 for Victoria, texting an hour later to report she’d missed her coach. It had cost £5 to book, and she spent another £13 updating it to one an hour and a bit later.

Not long after that she texted again to say she thought it would arrive too late so she was going to buy a train ticket, try to avoid getting it scanned and then refund it.

Needless to say, I didn’t think much of that idea. A last-minute train ticket to Manchester cost £55 even with a student discount, and I was pretty sure they would be onto that particular scam.

Against my advice, she bought the train ticket and it was scanned, so she has now purchased three tickets to Manchester for £78. I don’t think much of yesterday’s conversation about money can have sunk in…>:(

Spent the afternoon on a formatting job (rebuilding a Word template from a pdf) and drafting questions for our consultant interviews tomorrow.

Just Lyra and me for dinner — Japanese pork and beans and steamed rice, with freshly baked sourdough bread and jam for dessert. Watched the last episode of The Politician while we ate — good stuff. Definitely looking forward to the next series…

Adam got home about 9:30pm and we promptly had a fight about politics. We don’t see eye to eye on the “issue” of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

I think the whole thing is an outrageous smear campaign, that Jeremy Corbyn is the least racist (or anti-Semitic) politician it is possible to find, and that there is no more racism in Labour than there is in other political parties or society at large.

Adam thinks Corbyn is “unconsciously anti-Semitic”, has said some stupid things or expressed himself clumsily, isn’t a natural leader and has demonstrated that by not handling this issue well.

I think there is no issue to handle, and that whatever Corbyn did would be considered insufficient because the whole thing is a cooked up, politically motivated pile of bullshit.

Said our goodnights with feathers ruffled and still feeling cross…

November 6, 2019

Invigilating again today. Drove Lyra down the hill then zipped back home, sorted myself out and walked back down to the high school, which is one bus stop past where I drop her in the morning.

Another English paper, and all was smooth and uneventful, aside from a bit of kerfuffle around extra time. There were two students who insisted they were entitled to it last time, but it turns out they weren’t.

I made sure that Azad was on hand when regular time ended to take their papers away. Even he found it difficult with one of the boys, and ended up taking him down to his office to continue the debate.

Walked home through Waterlow Park, picking up a couple of things I’d forgotten for Nova’s requested steak dinner. Worked on client work for the afternoon (plus did my invoicing — at least I generated them, still need to send).

Popped the jacket potatoes in the oven on schedule, and when Lyra got back from netball flew into gear — making bearnaise sauce, sautéeing spinach and grilling steaks. All very nice and much appreciated. Swiss chocolate for dessert…

Had a long conversation with Nova about money. She is taking out a student loan for her tuition, and a maintenance grant that covers 3/4th of her accommodation. Adam is making up the rest, and I’m giving her £300 a month to live on.

That should be sufficient to live modestly, the idea being that she’ll get a bit of work to have extra money for clothes, nightclubs etc. So far she hasn’t found any work and is spending over half her allowance on going out. Turns out she has only £20 to see her through the next ten days.

Adam gave her another £100, and we agreed she’ll set up a budget and track her spending — something her her online bank account allows her to do…

November 5, 2019

Managed to get out for a run today — makes a nice change and sets the day up in a positive way. Also, sometimes if I don’t go for a run it gets to late afternoon before I realise that I haven’t been outside all day…

Bumped into John’s son Martin again on my way home. They’ve decided to put John in a rest home for a couple of weeks to see how he likes it. I’m pretty sure I could answer that on his behalf.

It’s not ideal him being on his own of course, even with the carers coming in a couple of times a day. But the care home they’ve chosen is in Dorchester, which is conveniently located for Andy — and no one else.

For a 99-year-old, John has a decent social life. He has family come to stay most months — Martin, Andy, grandkids. His friend Pauline drops in regularly, as do other neighbours on occasion.

He spends half of Sunday at his nephew Philip’s church in the city, where he is made a great fuss over. None of that will be possible in Dorchester.

Speaking of grandparents, Nova headed off to her grandmother’s for lunch. Saved me having to fix anything — I just had the green smoothie I hadn’t got round to making for breakfast.

Stayed at home until the new mobile phones arrived. I was also waiting for a bathroom caddy from Dunelm, which was meant to come today but there’s not sign of it.

Mid-afternoon I tore myself away from the computer and headed to the supermarket. I told Nova she could have whatever she wanted for her “last supper” tomorrow, and she requested steak…

Tonight was sweet potato and black bean tacos for the three of us. Not sure where Adam was, but he wasn’t here (maybe Switzerland?). Carried on watching The Politician — we’re all liking it.

November 4, 2019

All up early this Monday morning. I had to get Lyra off to school then be at the high school for a morning’s invigilating. Adam was heading off to Switzerland for a couple of days. And even Nova had a dentist appointment to get up for.

GCSE rewrites this week — this morning was twenty-five candidates sitting a two hour English paper. The group included a handful of jokers from last spring who preferred disrupting proceedings to writing exams. I guess they stopped laughing when their results landed on the doormat this summer…

Afterwards I met Nova for lunch at Al Parco — we were going to do it on Wednesday, but turns out she has to get a filling in one of her wisdom teeth on that day.

Spent an hour raking wet leaves off the forecourt of ours and John’s — they were getting compacted and slippery. Part of the reason it took an hour was because John’s son Martin was over from Canada and popped out for a chat.

Not much time for my client work before I needed to collect Lyra from violin. Made her some dinner, then hurried off to a forum meeting this evening. It was gone 9pm before I felt that my time was my own…

November 3, 2019

Woke in a gloomy mood. Not particularly hungover, but with a definite sense that I had borrowed fun the night before, and was running a deficit today… Made carrot cake muffins for breakfast and gave the fish tank a thorough cleaning. Feeling bolstered by that activity, I then scrubbed the hell out of the bathtub and wall tiles, which were getting a bit grotty.

Repaired to the sofa for an hour with my book, Out of Time, a look at modern middle age. Lyra returned mid-afternoon, having gone for a walk on the Heath with Millie and Lucia first.

Made a simple amatriciana for dinner. Started watching The Politician on Netflix on Nova’s recommendation — pretty good. Bath and bed…

November 2, 2019

I considered going running for about five minutes… It was pouring with rain and I just didn’t fancy it. Plus Lyra was making waffles and I quite liked the idea of a family breakfast.

We had a family lunch as well — chicken caesar salad — before people went off to do their various things. Adam to the Arsenal match, Lyra to ensemble. Nova and I hung out together and watched Apocalypse Now.

At 7:30pm I headed down to Ben Schneider’s for dinner. Adam had gone back there after the match to help with the cooking and drink copious quantities of wine no doubt.

Nova was out with friends, and Lyra was at bonfire night at her primary school. She didn’t have a ticket and was planning to scale the fence from Sissy’s garden, which borders the school, but Millie blagged her past the front gate. She headed back to Lucia’s to sleep afterwards, so I didn’t have to worry about her being home alone while we were out.

Ben’s cooking was as excellent as ever — a fennel, orange, olive and pomegranate salad, followed by fish pie, then a delicious rum and raisin cake. Too much delicious wine.

Ben always goes large then crashes early, and tonight was no exception. Not long after we’d had the pudding, he staggered over to the sofa and feel asleep. Said our goodbye to Lou and were home by 11:30. Straight to bed ourselves…

November 1, 2019

I remembered to rabbit Lyra this morning, but we had been awake and talking in the early hours so that did for us this month… It’s Veronika’s birthday today. I sent her a text first thing, thinking that maybe we could meet up for thought we could meet up for breakfast but she never got back to me.

Left me more time to do some video work I’ve been putting off in advance of a website meeting. Drove down to Kate’s to arrive in time for the conference call.

They were positve about the video clips I’d provided for the website background, but it turns out what they were really after was something they’d found earlier on Youtube — a three minute professionally produced advert. (It would have been helpful if they had shared this with me, but hey ho…)

I pointed out diplomatically that I wasn’t able to do anything like it with some stock footage, blurred out video of a team meeting and a still of the CEO, but Kate feels that I’m “selling myself short”.

Back home, I wrote a storyboard for the video that they like — all fifty clips, ten actors, several locations, dollies, multiple cameras worth. Fired that off in an email, and declared my work week at an end…

Went for dinner with Richard and Rachel at the Bull. They insisted on treating us as thanks for helping collect Rachel when she tore her hamstring last week. Completely unneccessary, but they prevailed in the paying standoff when the card reader arrived.

Bought a round at the Wrestlers on the way home…