November 2020

November 30, 2020

Monday morning came too early… It feels like I’ve done a week’s work already… My email inbox is a nightmare. It pushing two hundred items, most of which require some action on my part. I’m happiest when it’s sitting around 30. Started by clearing out the most urgent stuff and sending holding replies for a bunch of other stuff.

The gay mens’ health popup thing has returned, and is now urgent as well, so I wrestled with that some more. The main thing I achieved was launching Millie’s personal website late evening. Yay to that!

Made kedjenou for dinner — chicken, aubergine, chillies and tomatoes cooked slowly in a tightly sealed pot. It was definitely more watery than the last time I made it — maybe I managed to seal it better this time. Gave it a stretch of time in the oven uncovered to brown up and concentrate. Delicious…

Breaking Bad, bath, bed…

November 29, 2020

Had a bit of a later start this morning, being Sunday and all. A bout of cryptic crossword with coffee in bed, meditation, a short walk round the Mallinson and home via North Hill.

Bumped into the next-door neighbours, and stopped for a bit of a chat. We see surprisingly little of them, considering that we’re all working from home. I guess winter weather is keeping us indoors more…

Heuvos rancheros for lunch, and report editing all afternoon. Adam headed over to see his mum for a good chunk of the evening, but otherwise we both worked until gone midnight. This report is a bit of a beast…

I didn’t have any more editing in me, but Adam stayed up to finalise the exec summary and draft an email about what we’d done. We’ve made significant improvements but there are limitations imposed by the quality of the report itself. Silk purse and sow’s ear and all that…

November 28, 2020

Saturday at last, but no rest for the wicked… Whipped up a batch of banana-walnut muffins with some manky bananas that have been hanging about. I think I must have been the only person in the house who regularly ate fruit. I’m now limiting it for carb reasons, Lyra won’t eat it (god knows why), and Adam is scarcely eating at all, unless I prepare something for him.

Went for a cold, foggy Heath walk, cutting our five mile route short by a bit. Bumped into the girls — Lyra, Ellie, Sissie and Lucia — on Spaniards Lane. They were heading off to Hampstead for a birthday treat, Jess having given Ellie money to have fun with.

Ally’s birthday present appears to have gone missing, which is annoying, especially as I got a message from Royal Mail saying that it was successfully delivered on her birthday. Delivered where? That is the question… I’ll start trying to track it down on Monday…

Devoted most of the afternoon and all of the evening to Middle East finance report editing. Lyra called to ask if she could stay at Sissie’s overnight. The other three girls all have birthdays over these three weeks, and she was pitching it as a low-key, impromptu birthday celebration. The other mums having already agreed, I decided to say yes…

Worked until 10pm, fixed a plate of cold cuts, watched an episode of The Crown and hit the sack…

November 27, 2020

Meditate, school run, run run, the same old routine… Did the four-mile route again. I think that’s long enough for now. I’m going to work on speeding it up now — lots of work to be done in that regard…

Had the veggie+bacon fry-up for lunch — I do enjoy that, especially now that I’m getting used to my low-carb bread. I toast one slice, and eat little bite-sized morsels as I go along, stretching it out across the whole meal.

I was tempted to totally ignore Black Friday, but in the end I decided it was worth checking if anything the girls had requested for Christmas was on sale. Picked up a few things that way…

Switched to paid work in the afternoon. Lots of editing on the Middle East finance report, and then more wrestling with the aggravating popup for the mens’ health website. They have a crappy old pop-up maker plugin, which makes ugly, basic pop-ups. Having migrated their site to Elementor earlier this year, it seemed a good idea to build a good-looking plugin instead.

All well and good until it came time to set parameters for the damn thing. There was no option to put it to sleep for a week after people have seen it, or to only display it once during a session. I thought I was missing something, but half an hour spent Googling turned up a hornets’ nest of angry Elementor developers bitching about this very problem.

Lyra’s been wanting Mexican for takeaway, but having just got groceries yesterday so it doesn’t make sense to order in food. I made chicken and pepper fajitas, trying out some low-carb tortillas, which were nothing to write home about.

Somehow it was Lyra’s pick for movie night yet again. Watched Juno, which is a very good film, not least because of its excellent cast…

November 26, 2020

Ran Lyra down the hill as per usual, meditated then set out for a quick morning walk. Deliberately chose an obscure side street route to reduce the chance of bumping into neighbours.

Aimed for the Archway Road & Jacksons Lane intersection where a new grocery store/deli has just opened up. They were talking a big game in their pre-opening advertising, but the shelves were pretty much devoid of food. Bought a couple of things we didn’t need to welcome them to the neighbourhood, but I’ll give them a couple of weeks to up their game before trying again.

Adam headed for home and I swung round to North Hill to buy the what I needed. Editing the Middle East finance report took up most of my day, plus an unexpected headache that has cropped up with a pop-up I’m making for a gay mens’ health website.

Salad plate for lunch, mapo tofu for dinner with green beans. Snapped a quick phone photo and posted it to instagram. Trying to build up my following there, which requires a small but steady application of attention. I’m over 500 followers now, which is respectable, but a thousand would be better…;-)

November 25, 2020

Meditation then a four mile run — Ally Pally and back, plus an extra couple of loops in the Woods. I was planning to do 3.75 miles again, but the sidewalks were so choked with school children that it barely counted as running down to the Archway Road.

In the Woods, I went about a hundred yards before bumping into Millie and stopping for a chat. Adding the extra distance was a way to redeem what would otherwise have been a pretty crappy run.

Cheese and meat plate for lunch, lemon chicken and broccoli for dinner. I played up the Greekness this time, tossing the chicken with kalamata olives and chunks of feta before serving. That’s evolving into a very nice recipe, and one I should add to tenmorebites when I get the chance…

November 24, 2020

Went for a pre-work walk in Waterlow Park after meditating. The plan was to do two laps like I did with Pasc yesterday, but we bumped into so many people that we ran out of time.

Made the beef with cabbage noodles thing for dinner again. It’s the most popular recipe on my CarbManager app. I didn’t think it sounded like any great shapes, but with over 1200 five star reviews it was worth a try. Turns out it’s surprisingly tasty — sort of a deconstructed cabbage roll, without the rice.

After dinner, Adam headed off to visit his mum. She’s managed to jam her new printer the first time she went to use it. Apparently the problem was a loud noise outside that caused her to press the wrong button. Happily, he was able to sort it…

November 23, 2020

Lyra had to get herself to school today, as the car is going into the shop to get the side mirror repaired. Did our meditating, then went for my run. Stretched it out a bit, adding a quarter mile to take the distance to 3.75 miles, which felt fine.

By the time I got back, showered, sorted the laundry and a few other sundry jobs, I managed only an hour’s work before it was time to meet Pasc for a walk in Waterlow Park.

It was pretty cold out with a sharp, biting wind, but actually not much different to the temperature inside the house. Part of the problem is the sitting still — it’s harder to keep warm when the only thing moving is your fingers.

Did a couple of laps of the park and caught up on each other’s news (not that there was much of it). Back at my desk, I dived headlong into the Arab finance report and didn’t surface until Lyra got home.

She was in the grip of a nasty migraine, so I took a break to sort her out: hot water bottle, cool drink, migraine tablets, eye mask etc. She went straight to bed and didn’t surface again until she came upstairs to say goodnight at 9pm.

Made a broccoli, stilton and walnut crustless quiche, which turned out very nicely despite me overcooking it a bit. Watched the second episode of The Crown before bed. Maggie Thatcher stalking for deer in the Highlands in a tailored suit and court shoes was quite the image…

November 22, 2020

Decided to be lazy and not run this morning. I’ve already done three runs this week, and I always like to leave a day between workouts to give my fifty-something legs enough time to recover.

Tackled the Week cryptic crossword, but we weren’t feeling it and only managed about a quarter of it. Lyra started her dog walking job this morning, and was out of the house by 10:30am to collect Luna.

After meditating, I went for a walk on the Heath with Millie. We grabbed a coffee in the village then ambled down the private road, around the ponds and back via the Swains Lane shops and Waterlow Park.

Fixed a veggie+bacon fry-up for Adam and me. Lyra had connected with Sissie and Ellie by this point, and was actually eating lunch round at Sissie’s. That is a lockdown violation, but the rules are so random and inconsistent by now that it’s hard to take them seriously.

Gave the house a hoover and a tidy, then finished reading the weekend Guardian. Had a good catch-up phone call with Nova before fixing dinner. To my surprise, she was actually in the library when I called originally and couldn’t talk. Not expecting that one…;-)

Dinner was Greek chicken, Greek salad, spinach-yogurt dip, hummus and pitta. Even made dessert — pannacotta for Adam and Lyra, and a chia pudding for me. Watched an episode of Breaking Bad with dinner. We’re all pretty hooked now…

November 21, 2020

Lousy sleep last night, tossing about and waking multiple times. Did my meditation, had a cup of coffee then decided to knock a piece of project work on the head. Sometimes it’s not just the volume of work, but also the fact that I’ve got about fifteen projects on the go.

Leftovers for lunch, then headed out for a Saturday afternoon walk with Adam. Ended up down by the new shops in Swains Lane where we picked up half a kilo of mussels.

Added them to my usual salmon/prawn Thai curry to stretch it a bit, as we were light on the other seafood. Delicious, though its a bit of a pain to be contending with mussel shells in the middle of your bowl of food.

My pick for movie night was Rainman. I’d forgotten what a good film that is, and happily Lyra enjoyed it too. Fell asleep on the sofa afterwards — I almost never do that anymore. It was 1am before the cat managed to wake us and we headed to bed…

November 20, 2020

Started our day with a nice spot of meditation, then almost immediately fell to squabbling over who would drive Lyra today. We’re both too busy and under pressure. Adam said he’d do it, but then was so passive aggressive with the snide remarks that i I said I’d do it and stropped off downstairs…

There was a taxi idling for Nicolette at the bottom of the path. When the driver noticed me she unhelpfully pulled into where I reverse into to turn, which meant I needed to make a sharper turn into the one free parking space. I also needed to keep an close eye on our neighbour’s car, which he always parks at a right angle to ours up against their garage door.

With all that going on I managed to crush the left wing mirror against the pillar that juts out at the end of our drive. I managed to reverse into that skinny little parking space and carried on with the journey, though I suppose I shouldn’t have. Adam managed to book the car in for repairs on Monday, so that’s us without a car for the weekend.

Did my run but was still feeling pretty hacked off and it wasn’t my best effort. Got back in time for my first meeting with my Kenyan client, about integrating PayPal into their membership page, as well as a few other sundry changes.

I have two websites I need to work on for Canada,so did that and then had another meeting about yet a third website. Junxion is doing an exchange of services with their accountants — we’ll redo their website in exchange for accountancy.

Lyra has hired by Richard and Rachel to be their dog walker. I bumped into him earlier today and he mentioned they thought the puppy was ready. He half jokingly suggested she make a Powerpoint presentation, which I thought was a pretty good idea. You can think about all the points you want to make but might be embarrassed to say.

Her main business case was:

• she’s 1/3 the cost of local competitor Camden Hounds
• the dog get 1-1 attention instead of being in a group of dogs
• she’s super local and flexible
• she knows a number of well-behaved young dogs that Luna can socialise with

They’ve hired her for £20/week to do three walks — two in the week and one on the weekend, and occasionally puppysitting on top. Pretty good result for a thirteen-year-old in a pandemic.

Tonight would normally be takeaway night, but I’m feeling like I should claw some money back to compensate for the car repairs. Made pizza dough (and a cauliflower crust for me), and we had pizza for supper. Lyra’s turn to pick the film. We ended up watching The Princess Diaries — a surprisingly enjoyable film…

November 19, 2020

Got up at 6:45am, but because Lyra’s sorting herself out these days, we were able to meditate before I ran her down to the bus stop. We’re starting a new meditation course on mindful communication today. There’s a short video/lecture on an aspect of mindful communication and then guided meditation. I think its going to be good…

Started my work day with the report editing, My brain is better for that sort of stuff at the beginning of the day. It’s freezing today, and my feet went numb sitting at my desk. I cranked up my electric lap blanket, which takes the edge off, but it’s still pretty chilly.

Zapped the leftover Greek lemon chicken and ate it on a bed of spinach for lunch. Adam is working different hours to me today, and popped up for something to eat when his schedule allowed.

Did some fine tuning of Millie’s website in the afternoon. She’s lined up Bryn to design a logo, and he wanted a quick meeting about that. He’s given me some design suggestions that I’m implementing. I need to sort out her domain name pointing and web space then I can recreate my build in the right place.

Dinner was ginger-lime chicken thighs. They are coated in mayonnaise first, which makes them cook just beautifully. Slaw for me, slaw and quinoa salad for the other two. Carrying on with Breaking Bad, we started season 2 tonight.

After that, Adam and I watched the first episode of season 4 of The Crown. Excellent as ever, though if I had to pick holes, I’m not entirely convinced by Gillian Anderson’s turn as Maggie Thatcher. It feels like a cariacuture. No doubt it’s harder to storytell about events that are nearer in history to people who have actually experienced them.

November 18, 2020

Started the day with meditation and 3.5 mile run. I had a piece of work to do for Kate today, which I got out of the way before turning to the report writing.

She’d prepared a slide deck for our insurance client, and wanted me to tidy it up, make the backgrounds consistent etc. I would have been easier if she’d given me the whole job rather than starting it herself. Much of my time was spent undoing things, and the end result is less coherent than if I’d built it from scratch.

Fry up for lunch; and sausages, mash and green beans for dinner. We finished the first season of Breaking Bad. Great stuff…

November 17, 2020

Lyra did her own food again today, but we’re back to driving her down to the William Ellis bus stop now that the roadworks are finished. Adam did it today. I prefer to avoid Tuesdays if I can — the garbage and recycling trucks out and about in Highgate, making a mess of the traffic.

The Arab finance report from the UN has arrived. We had a kick off meeting with the client this morning. They very much want and expect Adam to do the work, so we’ve agreed that I’ll remain in the background, do the heavy lifting as far as the editing goes, but leave it for him to finesse. To that end, I sat out of camera, listened in and took notes, but wasn’t introduced as part of the team.

Went for a walk with Kate afterwards, down to the Heath and around to Waterlow Park.Good to catch up with her — we’re not working together that much at the moment, and of course our weekly swims are off the cards.

Started in on the report this afternoon, reading it through and then doing basic structural and formatting changes while I familiarised myself with the content. Kept at it until gone 9pm — and too late to make any dinner.

Adam and Lyra had toast and I made myself a salad. Watched the latest episode of The Undoing — I’m developing suspicions about the grandad Donald Sutherland character.

Years ago, when I was a hardcore Law & Order viewer, I noticed that whenever there was a famous guest star — say, Julia Roberts or Justin Bateman — they were inevitably the murderer. Which made perfect sense. Obviously, you’re not going to cast Julia Roberts and then give her a minor role. But it killed any suspense as to who the murder might be.

November 16, 2020

Lyra got up even earlier this morning, did her own breakfast/lunch and left in time to catch a bus down the hill. Highgate Village has been closed to through traffic this weekend while they repave the road.

There were about fifteen guys working on it yesterday afternoon, heavy equipment, the pavements blocked off etc. It seemed very unlikely to be finished by this morning, making traffic a nightmare, but Lyra reported later that everything was sorted.

Meditated then ran 3.5 miles to Ally Pally and back — I tacked a small loop in the Woods to the end of the run. Felt pretty good throughout and my pace seemed steady, so I was surprised when the average pace was still on the slow side.

I’ve noticed though that relatively small delays (waiting for a traffic light, or cars to turn in front of you, or weaving your way through the parents and kids streaming to school has a surprisingly large impact on pace.)

Spent most of my time on the first of two Canadian projects I’ve been assigned to, fixing a number of minor issues on the mens’ health website, and working out how best to deliver their Christmas giving campaign.

Had a meeting with Adam at the end of the day about the UN report editing job which is landing tomorrow. That’s going to be a big time suck — six full days work over two weeks.

Made pesto meatballs in marinara sauce for dinner, leaving them to simmer while Adam visited his mum and I did some yoga. I haven’t seen Beulah since this new lockdown started, though we did talk on the phone for an hour today.

Lyra had a migraine after school, but felt well enough to join us for dinner and an episode of Breaking Bad…

November 15, 2020

Weather dreadful again when we first woke, but just after meditating a little blue sky broke out. Make a quick, impromptu plan to go for a walk with Richard and Rachel and the new puppy. Strictly speaking, you are only supposed to do things in pairs at the moment, but we got round that by me walking mainly with Rachel, while Adam and Richard brought up the rear talking sports.

The Heath was so rammed it actually didn’t make any difference. Social distancing wasn’t really an option, at least not on the paths. Struck off across the fields as soon as it was practical. The ground was squelchy with rain, but at least there was some space.

Bumped into a few people we knew while we were out, and inevitably the conversation was about how insanely busy the Heath was. The thing that always strikes me about this topic is the person’s disapproving tone, as if it’s right and proper that they are out enjoying the Heath on this brief sunny interlude, but the other people should show some consideration and stay home.

Made a big fryup for lunch when we got home — veggie, if you don’t count the bacon — with eggs, toast, avocado, halloumi, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. Relaxed with the paper for a couple of hours after that. I’d been aiming to do some client work this weekend, but just didn’t feel like it…

Dinner was the Indian takeaway leftovers, plated up according to diet and preference then zapped in the microwave. I’d been thinking that we’d ordered too much (we still tend to cook/order like Nova is with us) but leftovers are a very good thing.

Breaking Bad and bed at 11pm.

November 14, 2020

Happy birthday, Wade! Despite it being Saturday, I was awake at 6:15am. Adam was already up and working on some text he needs to have ready for the UN on Monday. Before long, he came back downstairs and we worked on it together until it was time to meditate.

Hoovered and made muffins for Adam and Lyra — banana walnut bran with a generous splash of coffee. They seemed to like them…

Went for a walk with Millie through Queens Wood and back through Crouch End and along the Parkland Walk — about four miles in total. Unlike the last lockdown, people are allowed to meet in pairs outside the house/garden so long as they social distance.

It pelted it down most of the time we were out, and I had to change into dry clothes when I got home. I’d planned to do some work today, but didn’t remotely feel like it. Mooched around with the paper instead, had a long birthday call with Wade, then switched to dinner mode.

Made a kimchi meatloaf, which I served with rice and broccoli roasted in coconut oil. Watched two episodes of Breaking Bad, which seems to be going down well with everyone. That Jessie Pinkman character just breaks my heart…

November 13, 2020

Lyra has an inset day today, so there was no need to get up early for school, but that doesn’t actually make any difference to when I wake up.

I have a busy day with three separate project meetings, so I got my meditating and my 3.4 mile run to Ally Pally and back out of the way first thing. It started unexpectedly pissing with rain about ten minutes in, and I returned wet and shivering.

Didn’t have time to change out of my running kit before my first Zoom with Millie to go over the personal website I’m building for her. She wants the home page to have a sort of cluttered desk effect, and it took a while to figure out how to do that. I’ve gone with a horizontal accordion slider that opens on different strings in her bow — branding, retail, campaigning, product development etc.

Had a few minutes to sort myself out before my next meeting, to go over two Canadian web projects with Garth. Both are on websites I’ve worked on before and are reasonably straightforward. Will try to make a start on them this weekend…

Made some lunch for Adam and me — the usual salad plate scenario. I was determined to finish drafting the letter of agreement for a coaching site I’ve agreed to build, and nearly got there before my final meeting of the day to discuss yet another Canadian project — a rebuild of an accounting website.

I dimly recall thinking last month that I had the perfect amount of work on — I’m starting to feel overwhelmed again…

Ordered takeaway from Kiplings — tandoori salmon for me, and side dishes that work with my low-carb eating, ie. no potatoes, peas, or lentils. Everything was excellent — their food waxes and wanes, but no complaints this evening.

Watched A Fish Called Wanda for movie night. I thought Lyra would like it, but she didn’t really give it a chance, spending half the time looking at her phone and then complaining that she didn’t understand what was going on. (Good analogy from Wade: if you read every fifth page of a book, you wouldn’t understand what was going on either…

November 12, 2020

Lyra is making a habit of doing her own breakfast/lunch routine — at least this week. I just make myself available to drive her to school, though actually Adam did that today.

When he got back, we meditated together, then I struck out for a quick walk before hitting the keyboard. At least that was the plan… The reality is that I can’t walk anywhere around here without bumping into people to talk to.

Ran into Tanja in Southwood Lane, and my former employer Azad (who runs the examinations team at the high school) at the bottom of West Hill. I’d still be happy enough to invigilate, but not while infection rates are running so high. It would be pretty unfortunate if either Adam or I were to fall ill — we’re not in a situation where someone else can take over our work, or to claim sick pay.

I’ve got some UN editing work starting next week — a report on green finance initiatives in the Middle East. We were sent a draft copy yesterday, so I got a sense of what I’m going to be dealing with. Kick-off meeting next Tuesday…

Put in some time developing Millie’s website — I really pleased with how that is shaping up — it’s really fresh and dynamic, and will make a good sample on my own website. (Note to self, develop my own website.)

Fryup for lunch, and a sort of Greek dinner. I roasted some chicken thighs with olive oil, garlic, lots of lemon juice and chopped lemon, then served it with a tabbouleh salad and tzatziki. Delicious…

Lyra convinced us to watch Pitch Perfect 2, which she insisted was just as good as the first one. Iouldn’t say that myself, but it was entertaining enough and had its funny moments…

November 11, 2020

Lyra took charge of her own morning routine again, so I hung out in bed reading the news until it was time to run her down the hill.

Meditation and my usual run. Felt much better today — I don’t know what was going on last time. I did have a long walk the day before, which would have tired my legs, but it felt like more than that.

I’m still surprised by what a non-event Remembrance Day is in this country. It’s not a holiday — they just stuff it into the nearest weekend. They don’t even do the two minute silence in any meaningful way.

For the last few years, Highgate School has held a ceremony on the parade ground, for which we have ringside seats, but it didn’t happen this year of course…

Fish tacos for dinner, though I skipped the taco part. I’m doing that a lot these days — substituting a bed of greens for bread, rice, taco shell etc. I used to see those photos of people eating a hamburger or something between two thick wodges of iceburg lettuce and think how silly it looked, but I get the point now.

Watched the second episode of Breaking Bad — just as good the second time round…

November 10, 2020

Lyra got up a bit early this morning to do her own breakfast and packed lunch. Actually, I was already up myself, but obligingly returned to bed for a “lie in” and listened to Rachel Maddow. She’s still quarantining, so someone else is fronting things. It’s just not the same…:-(

Did my meditation, then struck out for a quick walk round Waterlow Park before getting down to work. Started things off with a monthly meeting with my architecture clients to prioritise work for the next few weeks. I’m making some progress generating website traffic from their LinkedIn page — they liked the jump in the stats, but are very cautious about engaging with any social media.

Fixed myself a salad for lunch and left something for Adam (who was in a meeting). Finished reading The Bell Jar. It’s surprising to me that I hadn’t read it before now — it certainly never appealed to me, and I had a very different idea of the kind of book it would be.

Made chicken stock this afternoon from the bones I sav in the freezer. Turned it into a basic chicken soup by adding a few vegetables, some sliced chicken thighs and chopped cauliflower. Very satisfying supper…

Episode 2 of The Undoing, which took a more predictable turn this evening. Still worth carrying on with, but I’m not as hooked as I was after the first episode…

November 9, 2020

Monday, Monday… Got Lyra sorted, ran her to the bus stop, did my meditation then run my 3.4 miles. My legs were like lead today and my chest didn’t feel great either. I noticed at the end my heart rate never got up to the usual rate. Not sure what that was about…

Showered and got down to work. the usual Monday housework stuff — three loads of laundry, finalising the grocery order for later this week, fridge clearout, a couple of things to buy online, budget catch up and a ton of email to wade through before I did anything I could charge anyone for.

Adam had a crazy hectic day, but we managed to connect briefly over a Greek salad lunch. Stopped about 7pm and did some dinner prep and then some yoga before it was time to eat. Tomato mozzarella crustless quiche with salad.

Started watching Breaking Bad, which we are trying on as our next series. but Lyra only made it through half the episode before she wanted to go take a shower. We switched to The Undoing with Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman. Pretty gripped by the first episode…

November 8, 2020

Meditated for 45 minutes this morning, which is definitely about as long as I can manage at this point. It’s a new experience when you sit longer — my mind settles into a different sort of pattern…

Afterwards I went for a walk on the Heath. Ended up staying out longer than planned and got through three episodes of the MGM stories on You Must Remember This. Managed to do about six miles and felt a bit tuckered out by the time I got home.

Adam and Lyra and just finished a late breakfast, so I made myself some scrambled eggs and had a stretch on the sofa with the weekend paper. Adam headed over to his mum’s to do telly things. We found a good smart TV for her to purchase when we went to John Lewis the other week, which is arriving tomorrow.

Lyra off hanging out with Margaux on the Heath for the afternoon so had the house to myself. Such a rare occurrence these days….

Made a Thai prawn curry and watched Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner. I’d been listening to an episode about Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn earlier today, about how it was the last film they made together and how Tracy died just weeks later, which put me in mind of it.

November 7, 2020

Woke up still feeling angry with Adam. He was apologetic and after a half an hour or so we put it down and moved on. Meditated for twenty minutes then I went for a run. Did the 3.4 mile route again.

Sat down for breakfast together when I got back. Adam and Lyra seemed okay with one another, if a bit fragile. Had a long chat afterwards about violin and getting to the grade 5 exam in January.

The process is different because of covid19. Candidates must submit a video of themselves playing their four chosen pieces consecutively with accompaniment. Fortunately can do it to a taped recording, because I couldn’t possibly play the piano score to a sufficient standard and no one else is currently allowed in the house.

Had CNN on in the background hoping they’d finally call the election, but they seem to be incredibly cautious. Adam headed out for a walk before it got dark. Five minutes after he left, Wolf Bitzer announced that Biden had won Pennsylvania.

Such great news! When Adam got back we popped a bottle of prosecco. Needless to say, Trump hasn’t conceded, but let’s hope events can move forward without him.

Watched Rocky in honour of Philadelphia’s role in this happy event. I was about Lyra’s age when that film came out, and absolutely loved it, especially the training sequence where Rocky improved from a panting wreck to taking those capitol stairs three at a time.

Things are so different now. You can watch whatever you want, whenever you want. It certainly wasn’t like that in two-channel Prince George. When good film hit the cinema or the telly, it was a big deal.

November 6, 2020

Still no election result, but the margins are growing for Biden all the time. None of the legal challenges Trump is raising are amounting to anything, as there is no evidence of voter fraud to be found. Got Lyra off to school, then meditated on my own before going for a walk on the Heath. Amazing sky and soft, mild weather, more like a September morning than a November one.

I’m still finding it difficult to focus on work. I have no shortage of things to do, but I lack motivation. Managed to do some social media work for the architect site and compiled a Google analytics report for a meeting next week. Chased an overdue invoice and that was about it…

Spinach salad for lunch and takeaway for dinner. Went with Nandos, which is a good choice for me — you pick your style of chicken, then add two sides. Where I previously would have had chips and coleslaw, I now opt for green salad and tenderstem broccoli.

Got through my yoga routine while Adam was off collecting our order in Finchley.Lyra chose Pitch Perfect for movie night, which we all enjoyed. All in all, a pleasant evening until I said something to Lyra about practicing violin this weekend, which triggered an argument.

Out of nowhere, Adam went ballistic, screaming, swearing and storming about. He ordered Lyra into the kitchen to clean up. Slamming takeaway packaging into the carrier bag, he punched out the bottom and strewed garbage and food waste everywhere.

He then screamed at Lyra to clean it up and stormed out of the house. I found her on her knees about to pick up his mess. There was no way that was going to happen… We left it for him to deal with and we went to bed. I was too angry to even speak to him when he returned an hour later…

November 5, 2020

The election results are looking better and better for Joe Biden all the time. He’s overtaken Trump in Pennsylvania and looking like doing the same in Georgia. No one is calling anything yet, but it’s starting to feel like a sure thing…

Did the usual morning routine — dispatch Lyra, meditate, run. Increased my distance today, running most of the way round the Woods then along to Ally Pally and back — about 3.4 miles. Pretty tired by the end, but pleased to have done it.

Another unproductive day at work. I can seem to focus on anything, and am continually distracted by news bulletins. Ate my lunch in front of CNN, where my lunch half hour managed to stretch to two hours of watching nothing much happen.

I only tore myself away because I had a meeting scheduled with Lucy, a woman I met on my Kings Fund course. She was recently been made redundant from the NHS and has retrained as a life coach. She was looking for advice on how to get a website, and by the end of the call she’d hired me to do the work.

Made mac&cheese and peas for Lyra’s dinner. Adam had I had charcuterie/cheese plate with a hefty glass of wine. Spent most of the evening watching “news” coverage and then to bed.

November 4, 2020

Woke a couple of times in the night — 2am, then 4am — and was unable to resist checking the election returns. Not great for my equanimity… I’d read a couple of articles warning about the red mirage — that the results would skew towards Trump initially, but correct as the massive postal and urban centre votes were gradually counted. I certainly hope that’s the case, because it’s not a very pretty picture. Certainly not the blue wave that was so confidently predicted.

Felt pretty bagged when it was time to get the Lyra show on the road. Meditated, scanned the news sites and Twitter some more (things are starting to look a little brighter fortunately) then put that aside and settled down to some work.

I’m merging a couple of pages on the beauty site and updating the content. It went okay but I wasn’t wowed by my efforts. The creative juices just weren’t flowing.

Turned the telly onto CNN when I ate lunch at 2:30 — lots of confusion and craziness, but it seems increasingly certain that Biden will be the next president of the United States.

Though, true to form, Trump will do everything he can to sow as much discord as possible. They showed a ridiculous montage of a mob of Trump supporters in Arizona screaming “Count the votes!”, spliced with mob of Trump supporters in Michigan screaming “Stop the count!”

Quick trip to the shops to buy kale for a pork chops with roasted celeriac and kale I’d planned for tonight’s dinner. We ate when Lyra got back from netball practice — her last session before our month of lockdown begins tomorrow…

November 3, 2020

Back to the old school routine for another half term… We were all up by 6:45am, and I got Lyra down the hill just in the nick of time to catch the early bus. Ellie was standing in the doorway pretending to search for her pass to give Lyra time to leap from the car and join her.

I’d got dressed in my running kit, and headed straight to the Woods after parking up at home. I was meeting Veronika for coffee at 9am and wanted to squeeze a run in beforehand.

We’d originally planned to go for a walk, but the forecast was so foul that we changed the plan. I should have remembered that before setting off without a raincoat or hat. It was pelting down by the time I reached the Woods, and the tree cover made little difference.

It was Veronika’s birthday on Sunday, so I had a couple of little gifts for her and we had a nice catch up. Managed a couple of hours work before it was time to join my “mermaids” for a last swim before the close the lido.

I hadn’t intended to go, but when I made my feeble excuse of not booking on time to Kate last night, she devoted herself tracking the website and nabbing a cancellation and I ended up there in spite of myself.

It was bloody cold out — maybe 7°C with serious windchill — but at least they were heating the water, which was an improvement on last time. Managed a slowish mile, then changed discreetly out of my wet suit poolside and headed for the coffee shop.

Chilling with the “mermaids”

Made the rest of the mussels for lunch when I got home. Did them with a curry coconut sauce this time — it was delicious, and even better than the first batch. Note to self, eat more mussels…

Did some graphics work for my insurance client, and a quick estimate for website developments on the mens’ health site I worked on last year. Lyra returned home in a sunny mood — she definitely seems cheerier for a day spent at school instead of slouching around in her pyjamas with her face glued to a screen. Go figure…

Dinner was chicken sauté with a spicy peanut butter based sauce that I’ve been making lately. Rice for Adam and Lyra, the (inevitable) slaw for me… Watched the 10pm news before bed to see what was going on with the US election. Not a whole lot as it happens…

Hadn’t made time to meditate all day, so we did it right before bed. Actually sitting cross legged in our pyjamas with our backs against the headboard and the duvet over our knees. It was alright — my mind was naturally quiet and it settled me nicely for sleep.

November 2, 2020

Lyra has a school inset day before returning on Tuesday, so it’s our final reprieve from the tyranny of the alarm clock. I say that, but actually I’m awake by 6am almost every morning regardless of alarms. It’s still nice to know that you don’t need to get up.It was very definitely a work day though. I finished the last installment of the election sanity meditation challenge then hit my desk. I’m generally doing better at avoiding my computer/phone on the weekends, which means that most Mondays start with wading through the inbox and composing a new to-do list for the week.

Invoicing as well, which always takes longer than expected, plus my monthly computer clean-up and setting up our monthly budget. And a sort through of the fridge to make sure there was nothing I’d forgotten about. That necessitated making squash soup (from the jack-o-lantern), toasted squash seeds, crispy kale and roasting a wilty eggplant. With all of that to get through, it was well into the afternoon before I managed any paid work…

At 4pm I realised I hadn’t been out of the house or even moved from my chair for much of the day. Headed into the village to give the local shops a little love’: Brooksbys for some veg and a magazine for Lyra; the pharmacy for toothpaste and a birthday prezzie for Veronika; my hairdressers to buy some of their overpriced shampoo (and give them a little extra business before they lock down on Thursday)…

Adam headed out to visit his mum for a couple of hours, which meant I could squeeze in half a yoga workout before starting on the cooking. Steamed mussels for dinner (chips for Adam). I knew it wasn’t going to be Lyra’s thing — she had pesto pasta. I was in dining heaven — shellfish always puts a smile on my face.

November 1, 2020

Got my “rabbits” in first thing… belt and braces. Did my meditation then headed off to run three miles. I’m not really owning that distance yet — it depends how I’m feeling on the day. My ambition is to get comfy with that distance and also faster (how the fuck have I gotten so slow?!) before increasing the distance.

Made our delayed Costco trip at noon, using the journey round the North Circular as an opportunity for a speaker call with Nova. She sounds happy and well. There was a guy directing cars arriving, which was a worrying sign. He steered us around another route to the car park, but there seemed to be reasonable amount of space and we parked up easily.

It wasn’t until we collected a car and went to join the line that we realised the full situation. The line stretched along both ramps, and around three sides of the massive parking lot. Of course people were somewhat socially distanced, and it moved pretty steadily, and it wasn’t that bad. It took maybe half an hour to get in.

I wasn’t sure what we’d find inside, but they were carefully controlling the numbers and if anything, it was quieter than usual. The shelves weren’t ravaged and the only thing we couldn’t get was kitty litter. There were only a couple of people queueing in front of us at the checkout, so that was nice.

Made shakshouka for lunch when we got back, then relaxed with the paper for a couple of hours — I felt like I’d done quite enough for a Sunday…

Banh mi for dinner (breadless for me) and made a start the Gilmore Year in the Life — they drop in on the residents of Star’s Hollow when Rory is the age her mother was when the show began. At least there are only four (admittedly long) episodes (not the 154 regular ones we’ve trawled through).

Bath and bed by 11:15pm…