September 2020

September 30, 2020

Same old, same old… Rachel Maddow, coffee, meditation, fix breakfast for Adam and Lyra. I’m doing the 8-hour eating window type of fasting — we eat lunch around 1pm and finish dinner by 9pm.I’d hoped to get out for a walk before starting work, but time got away from me. Spent my morning on the beauty website, and my afternoon going into the backend of my ongoing clients’ sites, taking a backup and updating plugins and themes.

I’ve tended to do this for free as and when, but think I should be more rigorous about it — at least once a month, I could spend a half an hour doing a quick site review and tidy, maybe a speed test, backup and update things, then billing them for it as ongoing site maintenance.

Did a yoga session, then fixed dinner. I’d had such a large, proteinous Cobb salad for dinner that I didn’t have much appetite. Made sausages, mash and corn for Lyra and Adam (who was in meetings), and a snack plate for me.

Lyra and I watched Bake-Off (biscuit week), after which I polished off the first episode of the Memphis Three thing. I can’t decide what I think about it… The documentary style is annoying, but I’m hopeful that he might be able to shed some light, what with DNA developments and the shambolic first investigation…

September 29, 2020

There’s currently no reason to wake up at 6:15am, but my mind doesn’t seem to have taken that on board… At least I was able to download the latest Rachel Maddow show the minute it landed. Since RBG died, I’ve been too demoralised to tune in to US politics, but the Trump income tax exposé has given my a boost…

After meditating, the first order of business was to finalise the grocery shop. I also had to prune back my email, which had crept well above a hundred, and my computer desktop, which was a blizzard of downloads, word docs, project folders and image files.

Made a spinach soup for lunch, which I wasn’t crazy about. Too creamy, which I guess is what the keto folk do when you don’t use potatos or flour in your soups. Ended up saving half my portion for “later”. (Actually I’m thinking I’ll add a cup of peas to it, blitz again and serve it to Lyra.)

Did some image work on the architect site, then closed my computer and went for a walk on the Heath. It’s been a while since I’ve walked there properly, and it struck me fresh how beautiful it is. The late afternoon light was perfect for photography and I took quite a few.

Made mapo tofu and broccoli for dinner, which we watched in front of Gilmore. Series 6 is pretty weak thus far — they are packing too much action in and are playing for cheap laughs. I’ve invested enough time that I’m going to weather it a little longer, but it’s a slog.

Adam headed off to the pub (yet again!) for a drink with his brother and cousin Simon. I watched a crime documentary on the “Memphis Three” travesty of justice.

At bedtime, Cleo was not to be found. She has pretty much refused to leave the house since Dennis moved in, so we checked Lyra’s room, the garage, the dumb elevator, but no Cleo.

We called for her a couple of times, but no sign of her. I’d taken off her collar (given her new indoor lifestyle) so that her fur had a chance to grow back, which meant I couldn’t hear her distant jingling.

I was pretty sure she was okay, but found it difficult to sleep anyway. About 1:30am she came clacking through the cat flap and strolled into the bedroom. Gave her lots of praise and cuddles, dished out the sachet and tucked her up for the night.

I’ll definitely reattach that collar tomorrow. The fur hasn’t grown back, we can’t hear her outside, and if she was lost or injured/killed, she doesn’t have her name tag so someone can let us know…

September 28, 2020

No physical school for Lyra today means no 6:30am start, packed lunch and drive to Parliament Hill for me. We’re not much for lounging around in bed in any case. We’d made coffee and were about to start meditating when Lyra appeared. In the middle of the night, she’d turned over in bed and whacked her head on the wall. This morning she has a mild headache and blurred vision, which suggests that she’s concussed herself. She was feeling scared and distressed.

I checked her eyes to make sure her pupils were reacting properly, which they are. I did a quick scan of the health info on mild concussion and formed a view that we should keep a close eye on the situation and if it didn’t improve by lunchtime, I’d called for an emergency GP appointment.

I gave her an ibuprofen (for swelling), made her drink a glass of water, then fixed her a mug of hot chocolate and suggested she sit outside in the back garden with her headphones and listen to something relaxing.

She responded well to all of that, and was much calmer, even almost cheerful, by the time I settled her in a deckchair with a rug over her legs. So often parenting is about projecting competence to provide reassurance, regardless of your confidence in what you’re doing…

Meditated on my own as Adam had a meeting by this point. The rest of my morning was taken up with revising the corporate guidelines for my insurance client.

Made one of my favourite salads for lunch — green beans, raw mushrooms, tomatoes and walnuts in a basil vinaigrette. In university, a date took me out for dinner to a posh restaurant that served this salad — and I’ve had a soft spot for it ever since. I didn’t know you could do that with mushrooms — it seemed so sophisticated.

Lyra’s feeling pretty bummed about the self-isolating, which is understandable. Adam and I can carry on as normal for now, unless Lyra develops symptoms. At that point, we’d attempt to get her a test — not as easy as it should be with this shambolic shitshow of a government running the show.

If Lyra tests positive, she goes into quarantine (in the flat, I’d imagine) and we start self-isolating. She will have had minimal contact with the girl, given she missed three days of school that week, and we didn’t get the notice sent to all the girls classmates and friends.

Went for a walk in Highgate Woods in the afternoon. I’d planned to listen to a podcast until I remembered that parent-teacher “evening” was starting. Managed to download GoogleMeet and log on. What a world…

At least two mums who didn’t know to block their cameras were doing something similar — one was on the top deck of a bus, and the other in a cafe. Hit the shops on the way home for a few groceries and bought Lyra a little treat. Not allowed anywhere except the back garden until October 8.

Attempted the yoga class for the third time in as many days, and was marginally less bad. It certainly works up a sweat, not like my trusty Sivandanda Centre routine I’ve been doing for the last 30 years.

Made ratatouille for dinner — I’ve been doing that recipe for the last 30 years as well. Watched a Gilmore then saw the back of Dennis Nilson — what a fucking monster that guy was…

September 27, 2020

Morning coffee with the crossword before getting out of bed, followed by meditation and a walk in Queens Wood before brunch. I’ve ordered a few low-carb cooking ingredients online, mainly to experiment with low-carb baking. First up, the mug bread — a concoction of almond flour, butter, egg, and baking powder.

It came out looking just like an English muffin and toasted nicely, though the taste of it was a bit eggy and more like a crumpet. Definitely an acceptable alternative for my mcmuffin.

Had a housework blitz — hoovering, tidying the living room, mopping the kitchen floor. Adam and I did the fish tank together and he ran a few bags to Oxfam as well, which has a cleansing effect.

Attempted the yoga class again. They boast that you never get the same lesson twice, but I couldn’t see the point of that when don’t have a clue what the difference between these animal-themed lunges are. I saved workout one and intend to do it on repeat until I get the hang of it.

Sausages, mash (cauli mash for me), and steamed spring greens for dinner, with these little chocolate tahini numbers for dessert. They are like a frozen peanut butter cup. Keto people call them “fat bombs” because you can use them to whack up your fat intake if necessary at the end of the day.

There was a flurry of emails from Lyra’s school this weekend. A girl in her year has tested positive for Covid19. They sent out emails to all the kids she was in contact with — her classmates, friends and such, which didn’t include Lyra.

Next, the school decided to cancel physical school tomorrow. And now — “in an abundance of caution” as the British say — they’ve decided that every girl in year 9 must self-isolate for two weeks from last Thursday.

Lyra is not amused… She understands the principle that there is a small chance she may have covid, that it takes time to develop, and is okay with that. But she’s convinced that lots of people won’t make their daughters self-isolate, and she’ll be subjected to a stream of schoolmates on social media shopping in Camden Town, vaping on the Heath and posing in each other’s bedrooms on illicit sleepovers…

Adam headed off to the Wrestlers with his friend Lawrence, while Lyra and I watched 13 Going On 30, which was great fun. Bath and bed…

September 26, 2020

Woke to weather nicer than what had been predicted — “November temperatures” were mentioned on the news last night. I was keen to go for a walk to catch the sunshine, but it didn’t happen. At least we managed to meditate… I’m missing my running. The foot thing is still bugging me. I’m pretty sure it’s a stress fracture, but it could be some type of plantar fasciitis. I’ve had both in the past, and either way, all you can do is rest while it heals.

Adam spent most of the day preparing a slide deck for a presentation he’s giving on Monday. I read the papers, made muffins, then did some yoga.

Last January, I bought a yoga app in a NewYear/NewYou sale. I fully intended to get stuck into it, but never did. You’d think lockdown would have been the motivation I needed, but no. Tried one of the advanced beginner hatha workouts today, and man oh man… Not only was it physically difficult, it was fast moving and sort of choreographed…

It felt like one of those rare, scarring occasions when I’d find myself in an aerobics class back in the 80s. Everyone prancing around in synchronised perfection like the chorus line from All That Jazz. In the merciless full-length mirror behind the instructor, there’s me stumbling around like a hobbled heifer, improvising footwork, turning in the wrong direction, clapping solo on the off beats. Ah, memories…;-)

Dinner was ginger-lime chicken thighs on a bed of sesame slaw — excellent. Afterwards, Adam and I headed up to the Flask to meet Niall and Tanja for a drink. First time we’ve seen them since lockdown, and it sounds like they’ve had a pretty good run of it.

Pubs close early now, and we were home by 10:15pm. Tried to watch the second Dennis Nilson episode, but crashed almost immediately…

September 25, 2020

Slept abominably… Awake at 2am, 4am, 6am… I got up at 6:30am, took a couple of nurofen and headed upstairs to make Lyra’s packed lunch. When I woke her at 6:45am, she reported that she was too sick to go in again… I’m sure she’s not feeling a hundred percent, and probably does have some low-level bug, but I think there’s something else going on — anxiety about school or travel or something.

Left another message on the absence line, downed a strong coffee, chucked the first sourdough loaf I proofed overnight in the oven, did my meditating and was at my desk by 9:30. Not bad, considering…

Plugged away at the story, and had a reasonable draft by mid-afternoon. At over 500 words, it was longer than I wanted. Adam did an edit, I did another, then I printed it out and between the two of us we cut it back to about 340 words.

I’m pretty pleased with it, and I was even happier when the client emailed my back half an hour after receiving it to say that it was great. Shut my computer at that point and took an afternoon nap on the sofa.

Adam and I went for a neighbourhood walk before dinner — round the Miltons and back over suicide bridge. Dinner was crustless quiche Lorraine and salad, eaten in front of Single White Female. Half of Single White Female, as it turned out not to have recorded properly.

Switched to the three-parter on Dennis Nilson — the “Muswell Hill Murderer” and necrophiliac who killed fifteen men in the early 1980s. David Tennant is playing Nilson and doing an excellent job of it…

September 24, 2020

Lyra felt up to going back to school today, so it was back to the 6:45am start for the household. Once she was dispatched, we did our meditating then went for a walk in Queens Wood. I met Kate and Jenny for a coffee post-swim at our usual spot. I’m not going to risk aggravating my ear quite yet, but if it’s quiet over the coming days I will join them next week.

Put in a couple of hours on the neighbourhood forum website, which has been pretty much moribund since lockdown — posting the approved minutes from last night’s meeting, updating everything on the backend, and drafting new copy that ties in with and promotes the Highgate Festival.

Made some good progress on the founder story draft, with some help from Adam. He’s great at this stuff. At heart, all founder stories are “I wanted something but I couldn’t find it so I made it and now you can enjoy it too.”

My client has created a line of products that improve the appearance of women’s legs. Her insights that I’m trying to get across is understanding the relationship between lymph and cellulite, creating products, devising a lifestyle approach and a subscription plan that will keep women motivated long enough to achieve results.

Met Jane for dinner at the Landseer. First time we’ve got together since lockdown — hard to believe… We used to meet up pretty regularly, usually for the cinema, which has been off the cards.

Didn’t go too off the rails, but I did down a few glasses of red, which I’m going to feel tomorrow…

September 23, 2020

Reported Lyra sick again… she’s not all that sick, but I guess she isn’t better either… Adam was still plugging away having worked all night, and was in no shape to meditate, so I did it on my own.

Heard back from the ecommerce client before noon. I didn’t know what to expect and was dreading reading the email a bit, but she was really positive about all the recommendations I made.

To my surprise, she took me up on my offer to write the first draft of the founder story (she’s a career journallist who has written for the major broadsheets and fashion magazines). So that’s my next challenge, workwise…

Made a Cobb salad for lunch — perfect fare for a low-carb diet. So far, I’m reasonably content eating this way. It’s pretty different to what I’m used to, but that’s fun in it’s own way. I’ve decided to embrace it for a couple of months and see where it takes me. To that end, I’ve bought a keto cookbook, and a few key ingredients like almond and coconut flour, and sugar substitutes.

I had a Zoom committee meeting this evening — fifteen cantankerous attendees in the end. I didn’t envy Alicia chairing that bunfight…

Dinner was something called “egg roll in a bowl” — basically everything you’d find in an egg roll without the roll. I made rice for Adam and Lyra, and more of the cauliflower rice for myself. It’s nothing to get excited about it, but I don’t mind it either.

Watched a Gilmore, then called it a night. Adam had crashed in his chair immediately after dinner, and Lyra’s thinking she’ll head back to school tomorrow…

September 22, 2020

Checked on Lyra first thing, but she’s still not feeling well, so I called the school at 8am and reported her absent. Did our meditating again (we’re putting together a little streak here), but didn’t go for a run. I’ve got an issue with my foot, which I’ve self-diagnosed as a stress fracture in my metatarsal. I don’t think it’s a bad one, but I definitely notice it whenever I walk. The best thing is to rest it and hope it goes away on its own.

Had a little flurry of activity around the UN webpages I made live last night, before the official launch event later this morning. It’s a nice piece of work and I’m pleased to have been a part of it.

I’ve been neglecting my other clients — some more than others. In particular, the ecommerce client, for whom I’m providing strategic content advice. She chased me on Friday for something I hadn’t done, then again on Monday and I ignored her both times.

With Adam’s moral support I fired off a holding email, and committed myself to finishing a piece of work for them by the end of the day (which I managed to do).

I’ve been deliberately eating a low-carb diet for the last few days and am feeling pretty good. It feels like I’ve turned my usual eating on its head — less fruit, veg, grains and beans; more meat, eggs, leaves, fat and nuts.

We’ll see how it goes… I notice my mouth taste funny — sort of metallic — which apparently is a sign that I might be in ketosis (burning fat for energy instead of carbs).

The whole low-carb diet phenomenon has passed me by up til now. Aside from bread, rice and pasta, I had a pretty fuzzy idea as to what foods were high and low carb. But there’s a lot of research that shows it’s effectiveness against type-2 diabetes.

Made salmon with walnut pesto, green beans and rice for dinner (550 cal, 6g carbohydrates). Actually, cauliflower rice for me, which to my surprise was rather tasty…:) Bath and bed at 11:30; Adam is pulling an all-nighter…

September 21, 2020

Welcome to the working week… Unfortunately, I was the only one fully equipped to meet it around here. Adam had a bad night with one of his stomach upsets and Lyra is still feeling a bit iffy — scratchy throat, mild headache, and now her stomach hurts…

I talked to her about going in to school. She’s worried she might have covid-19, which I very much doubt, but it this climate it’s better to err on the side of caution. She decided to go after all, so I made her breakfast/lunch and ran her down the hill to meet Ellie.

Meditated then sat down to work. Lots of dross has accumulated in my inbox over the weekend, which took a while to plough through. Was just getting down to some client work when my mobile rang.

It was Lyra’s school telling me that she felt poorly and we needed come and collect her. I wasn’t keen on driving in myself, mainly because I’ve never done it and had no idea where to park so I could collect her.

Adam shifted a meeting round, and we both went, so that I could go into the school if necessary while he avoided parking wardens. The route itself is straightforward, and we were able to hover briefly in the little church parking lot, so overall it wasn’t too bad.

Back home, Lyra headed for bed and I made a belated lunch of avocado tuna salad. Worked on the UN pages that we are launching tonight — unpublishing the draft pages, changing the paths etc. I scheduled them to go live at 9pm, and will check then to make sure everything has worked.

Chicken caesar salad for dinner — Lyra doesn’t have any appetite but she was well enough to watch the penultimate Gilmore episode.

We didn’t have time to finish the series before we had to check the launch pages. There were some issues their end — mostly around them mucking up the youtube videos, but it was looking good by 10:30. We’re both pretty pleased with that project…

September 20, 2020

Started the day with twenty minutes of meditation — I’m putting together a bit of a streak here. It went better than yesterday as well. I was more focused, aside from a major cat incident in the back garden that was difficult to ignore. I think there’s another new cat in the area — a big black dude that looks very similar to Cleo and Darwin. The beggar actually came in through the cat flap a few days back, much to Cleo’s dismay. I’ve now set the flap so she can go out but not come in again. Not that she’s leaving the house at all these days…

Made a ham and cheese omelette for brunch, then tackled some overdue housework. I did the upstairs, Adam did the bathrooms and we cleaned the fish tank together. Lyra was not keen to help, but did tidy her room and hoover the middle floor under duress.

Afterwards, Adam and I went for a walk on the Heath. We’d planned to retrace our lockdown route, but bumped into Donna on the private road. She mentioned that the allotment was having an open day, and we ended up going along to that and taking a little tour.

It was okay and interesting enough, if a bit too long. There was a woman carving spoons — apparently spoon carving is a growing fad. Who knew…?

Trimmed the rest of our walk back to ensure we got home within two hours. Settled in our marvellously clean livingroom with a gin and tonic for our efforts, and spent an hour with the weekend paper.

Beef stirfry for dinner, which we ate with the Gilmores. Narrowing in on the end of series 5…

September 19, 2020

My digestion is not happy with me this morning… Too many carbohydrates I think, or too many meals. I’m certainly not used to eating five times a day. The feeds themselves were relatively small, but my digestion prefers a good gap between installments…

I”m going to take a look at following a low-carb diet for a while to see how that agrees with me. There are a number of studies of low-carb diets that show good results with reversing type-two diabetes. I’ll still do the intermittent fasting, but not the whole day off version, which isn’t feasible with people around all day.

Did some meditation, then drove Nova to Paddington Station so she could catch her train back to Bristol. We weren’t planning to mention her visit to Beulah, but she happened to call while we were out and Lyra let the cat out of the bag.

We’d arranged to drop round for honey cake this afternoon to usher in the Jewish New Year and didn’t want Beulah to feel sad/annoyed that Nova had come to London and not visited. Now that she’s mingling with more new people, travelling on public transit etc, Nova felt anxious about potentially exposing her grandmother to covid-19. Better safe than sorry…

We’d stopped in a Middle Eastern shop on the Edgware Road for groceries on the way home, had a mezze sort of a lunch — tomatoes, labneh, leftover chicken, salad. After that and the honey cake, we didn’t bother with dinner.

Watched Casablanca successfully this time. Probably the first time I’ve seen it in thirty years. I was struck by how young Bogart looked — he was practically geriatric to my twenty-something self…

September 18, 2020

Happy birthday to me! Not the most auspicious start to my 57th year… I woke up at 5am, my face wet with tears. I’d had an awful dream where Adam had somehow helped Lyra moved to a new universe for some sort of adventure. She had left without saying goodbye and I was distraught.

It was a permanent thing, and not like going into outer space, more of a parallel world idea. At first he’d gone with her, but later in the dream he was still with me. We lived in the McBride Crescent house and I was bawling my eyes out, crying, “How could you do this? You’ve ruined my life! She’s my baby and she’s gone!!” I was crying so hard my chest felt like it was tearing, but woke to find I was quietly whimpering.

The day looked up from there… Rachel Maddow, coffee in bed, pressies — earbuds from Adam, a card and cool teeshirt from Lyra, Popism by Andy Warhol from Nova. Veronika came by with a handmade card and pressies, then Nova made me mushrooms on toast for breakfast.

Just before noon, the doorbell went. It was the delivery guy from Jayne’s flowers with an enormous bouquet from Wade. I’m feeling very spoiled…:)

Did some UN work for Adam, then set off to Hampstead with Nova to see an exhibition of Terry O’Neill photographs. Bought a empanada from Chango which we ate in Pond Square. Should have bought two — they aren’t very big…

The exhibition very small, maybe twenty photos at the most, but some very good ones. Browsed round Waterstones afterwards. Bought myself the first book of the Ali Smith quartet, and a novel for Nova as well.

Stopped for a sandwich at a café at the top of the hill. We both went for chakshouka in a roll. It reminded me of Roselle’s restaurant, where mum would occasionally take Wendy and me for a girls’ lunch out. They did soup or stew in a bun as I recall…

Caught the bus home from Whitestone Pond. I’ve done something annoying to my foot — it feels like I’ve broken a small bone in it (though surely that would be more painful). Anyway, it was increasing difficult to walk, and Nova wanted to get started on my birthday cake. The festivities are landing pretty squarely on her shoulders this year.

Elevated my foot for a bit and had a good phone call with Wade — lots of laughs as always. I don’t think there’s anyone who makes me laugh as much as Wade does…

Did another swathe of UN work, embedding the final videos on the pages I’ve built. Got through it just in time for our booking at Red Lion and Sun with Richard and Rachel.

I had half a dozen oysters, seafood curry and rice and some sauv blanc. Very nice. Home for Nova’s double lemon drizzle cake. (When I asked what she’d used to hold the layers together, she said ‘gravity’!)

Attempted to watch Casablanca, but Adam and I crashed out before the half way point. Nova saw it through and really enjoyed it…

September 17, 2020

I’ve had an ear infection threatening to develop for the last week and it’s definitely making its presence felt now…:( I was half inclined to make a doctor’s appointment, but did some reading on chronic ear infections, which dissuaded me (at least for a few days).

It was enough to put me off running yet again. Got Lyra sorted and down to the bus stop, then sat down to work. I had a bit of follow on from my client debrief meeting last night, something on the beauty website I needed to look into, and an internal Junxion meeting about SEO. Nothing very exciting…

Adam was busy with work and meetings the entire day. Zapped some leftover curry and ate lunch on the balcony, to enjoy a bit of the lovely Indian summer weather. I marinated some chicken thighs (mayonnaise, fresh ginger, lime zest) for dinner, but didn’t have a clear idea for a meal.

Adam surfaced at 6pm, and I was just about to suggest a walk when he announced that he had his book group this evening. He insisted he’d told me (he hadn’t), and feeling fed up I stropped off for a walk.

Met Nova at the top of the path. She’d got into London mid-afternoon and met Lyra at the school gates, but then popped in on a friend who’s leaving for uni in Cardiff tomorrow.

We headed to Waterlow Park for a bit, then bought a few groceries on the way home. Mixed gin and tonics, and hung out until it was time to cook dinner. Fried the chicken in a grill pan, and served it with egg noodles and tenderstem broccoli.

It’s lovely to see how happy the girls are together…:)

September 16, 2020

Did my Lyra stuff, then put in a good hour’s work on the UN web pages before I had to head off for a Festival planning meeting. There’s been a lot of back and forth about whether to do it on Zoom, but we landed on a socially distanced physical meeting in the Highgate Society.

I was dreading it a bit. There’s a woman on the committee who’s a real pain — one of those people who will not let things go if they don’t go her way. The Festival was started by the Neighbourhood Forum (the committee I sit on that is responsible for delivering the Neighbourhood Plan for Highgate).

We’ve done it for three years now, and in that time we’ve drafted in a few community members that were interested in helping deliver it. Not so bad as I feared, and actually kind of nice to see everyone after a good break.

Another “fun” meeting this afternoon — a debrief on the sustainable living website. It started well — the main client seems very happy, and they won three year’s of funding for the initiative based on the back of it.

The SF-based “creative consultant” was another story. She tore strips off Garth’s project management, damned my web skills with faint praise, insulted Junxion’s ethos, and also complained that we’d overburdened her with “heavy lifting”(!) throughout the project. (For the life of me, I could not think of an actual piece of work that she had done. Garth handled it all most diplomatically, but on our internal debrief afterwards he was fuming…

Spinach salad for dinner again — becoming a bit of a go-to meal round here…

September 15, 2020

Feeling much better today, and planned to make up my missed run. After sorting Lyra, I got so far as changing into my running clothes before a massive work-related conversation with Adam derailed me. Changed back into home clothes and sloped upstairs to my computer.

Somewhat more productive today. I did a bit of work on Sara’s analytics and updated the Festival website in readiness for our meeting tomorrow. The beauty site is loading slowly again, so also invested some time trying to resolve that.

They have a bad habit of uploading enormous images, so I went through and compressed everything, but it didn’t make as much difference as I would have liked…

After inspecting the contents of the fridge, I had the mad idea of making moussaka for dinner. One of those dishes (like fish pie) that are just too fiddly for their own good.

I’d spend some time on my computer, then hop up and slice and salt aubergines, or fry them off or make béchamel. All I really felt like doing was shutting my computer, turning off the oven, pouring a glass of wine and heading to the garden with my novel to catch the last of another glorious day.

Had a good, long chat with Nova who’s planning to come home for my birthday on Friday. I’d told her not to feel obliged, as she’s only just got settled in Bristol and the travel is an extra expense and health risk, but she’s keen to come. I’m really pleased and looking forward to seeing her on Thursday afternoon.

It was 8:30pm by the time we finally sat down to eat in front of Gilmore Girls. Lyra went downstairs to shower and do homework and Adam and I promptly fell asleep in our chairs like a couple of old farts, waking at 11pm to take ourselves to bed…

September 14, 2020

6:30am came too early after my late night… Stumbled upstairs to find Adam still plugging away. I got Lyra’s lunch sorted, ran her down the hill then blew off my run and spent another hour or so finishing the UN web pages. We don’t have the final videos yet, but they are otherwise ready for the webinar later this week.

Spent the rest of the day in a low-grade fog. Shame, as it was another beautiful day. I couldn’t get anything like enough work done to justify turning off my computer and going outside.

After lunch, Adam and I had a 90-minute afternoon nap, which did me a power of good. Though not on the work front… I cleared a bunch of email, and did a few minor bits and bobs but only billed two hours across the whole day.

Made banh mi for dinner with some turkey mince that came in our first Waitrose online shop today. A couple of weeks back, Ocado abruptly announced that they’d parted ways with Waitrose and were now partnering with M&S.

I have nothing against M&S, but I never buy groceries there and have no desire to. I managed to sign up to Waitrose online (an impossibility during lockdown) and ordered some groceries. I imagine I’ll keep them both going for now — who knows what the coming months will bring food and lockdownwise?

To bed before 10pm and straight to sleep…

September 13, 2020

Unusually social day for us in these socially distanced times… Pete and Pasc came round for a coffee and a catch up about 10:30. They were concerned to hear about Cleo’s troubles with Dennis. Apparently the little bastard attacked Darwin recently as well…

Kiran and Birgit turned up at 11:30 for our walk in the Chilterns. They drove us all to the little village of Fingest, where we had Sunday lunch in the garden before striking out on a six-mile walk.

The weather was gorgeous — bright blue, cloudless sky and the temperature pushing 30°C. It was hillier than I expected, which was nice — once we got up on the ridge there were lovely views across the countryside.

All seems well in their family — Birgit is a GP, so her work has been steady, but I think Kiran’s architecture business has been strugging a bit. Their girls are both off at uni — Bea doing her fourth year in St Andrews and Sophie starting at Liverpool after a gap year.

Home just after 6pm. Lyra got in a bit behind us — she’d been on the Heath with her friend Olive watching the sunset from Parliament Hill. None of us felt like dinner. Adam and I finished the rest of I’ll Be Gone In the Dark, then got down to the United Nations work, which kept us busy until 2am.

I left him to it at that point, and came to bed…

September 12, 2020

We were all up early this morning, despite it being Saturday. Adam and Lyra headed off to Cambridge with Richard and Rachel before 8am to choose their new schnauzer puppy, which is exciting. The original plan was for Adam to drive them, but a wire got crossed somewhere and they ended up hiring a car. I baked muffins then flew at the housework, which we’ve been neglecting — hoovered, mopped the kitchen floor, did the toilets and a couple of loads of laundry.

I spent a couple of hours trying unsuccessfully to connect our TV satellite box with our new wifi network. When Adam got back, we finally managed to crack it together. Not the most exciting of days…

I was keen to get that sorted so I could download I’ll Be Gone In the Dark, the six-part documentary about Michelle McNamara and her book on the Golden State Killer. Watched a couple of episodes, and it promises to be very good indeed.

Cauliflower and green bean curry for dinner with a side of Gilmore Girls, the show that keeps on giving…

September 11, 2020

Nineteen years since the World Trade Center came down — Nova’s entire lifetime… I remember sitting on the edge of the old coffee table with her in my arms mesmerised by the news coverage. I spent hours doing that…It has been a shit week on the working front. Once I got that photoshoot work out of the way and the images sent across, I lost my focus and never got it back. Managed a few things on the house front, and had a good run so that’s something.

Made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, which we watched in front of Gilmore Girls as per usual. Finished a nice bottle of Sicilian red I bought from the Wine Society the other day.

I nearly always buy from the bottom of their catalogue on the assumption that the Wine Society isn’t going to sell you a crappy bottle of wine, whatever the price and I haven’t gone wrong yet…

September 10, 2020

Another week day, another early start… Lyra is out of the habit of eating breakfast early, so I’ve been making her a smoothie while I fix her packed lunch. I was pretty pleased with today’s effort of plums, ginger and frozen raspberries.

Adam worked late, so I left him to sleep a bit longer and ran her down the hill in the car. After Chris died, I did nearly all the car runs so she could travel with Ellie on the bus. Adam thought I kept it going too long, but now that it’s a minimising public transport thing, he’s more on board.

Still struggling to refocus on work. I did a few more project page updates for the architecture site, and watched an SEO training video, but I felt pretty unproductive.

Adam was out with our friend Rupert (the jester), who is up from Devon for the week. With jesting and his school-based science/circus work dried up, he’s taken some decorating work.

I hung out with Lyra for the evening — we ate a crustless quiche/flan thing with green salad and watched the rest of Dead to Me. It was pretty good, and I’m hopeful that they will leave things where they are, but no doubt there will be a third series if they can possibly stretch that storyline a little bit longer…

September 9, 2020

After my early night, I woke up ahead of the alarm with time to listen to Rachel Maddow’s interview with Michael Cohen before I had to get up. I thought he came off pretty well — sincere, fair and personable. Not what I was expecting…

Went for a 3.25 mile run in the Woods, which felt good for a change. No grief from the glutes — I could tell I have them — instead of it all feeling like “leg” — but they didn’t impact on my running at all. Even sped up a little bit…:)

Did some more work on the architecture site images, but feeling less than inspired at the moment. We were so overdue for a holiday, but since coming back I’ve struggled to regain my work mindset.

Knocked off mid-afternoon to get my hair done. I knew it had been awhile but was surprised to discover that I hadn’t been since the end of last September. Any highlights I had were long gone.

In fact, as the top of my hair is now quite silvery, Becky suggested introducing some blonde highlights into the sides and back to break up the brown, which was fine by me.

We were both masked throughout (probably the longest I’ve ever worn one) and the whole thing felt pretty safe. I’m pleased with how it turned out:

Spinach salad for dinner, with flapjacks for dessert. Watched a Gilmore, then switched to CNN to see the coverage of Trump’s latest fuck-up — the eighteen taped interviews he gave to Bob Woodward where he talks about how he deliberately downplayed the severity of covid-19. Words fail…

September 8, 2020

Up at 6:45am today. Lyra and Ellie got to school too early yesterday, and had to hang about on the street until they opened the gates, so we’re shifting everything fifteen minutes later.

As yesterday, I did breakfast/lunch and Adam ran Lyra down the hill to the bus stop. I like that the girls get on at the start of the route — they are certain to get seats (maybe even bag the ones up top at the front). There’s minimal contact with other passengers, and no strap hanging.

Adam and I meditated for the first time in a few weeks. I’ve lost a bit of ground there — my hip flexors complained loudly about sitting cross-legged and I could barely remember to listen to Joseph. It was pretty much a fifteen-minute daydream. Still, I felt better and clearer headed for it.

Went for coffee with Kate and Ruth at Gails. My first time sitting indoors at a coffee shop — I didn’t much like it, and was very aware of how close people were to us. Covid19 cases are climbing again in the UK — I wonder it’ll be before restrictions are tightened.

Spent the afternoon retouching the shortlisted photos from the weekend. Most of them I just colour balanced and tidied up, with a bit of spot retouching, but for the best six I did full-on skin smoothing and wrinkle reducing techniques to really polish them up. Sent them to the client at the end of the day along with my invoice.

Made beef barley soup for dinner. Started the evening with a little cheese and wine course with Adam while Lyra had her online violin lesson. (We’ve agreed she’ll continue with the lessons until she passes her grade 5 exam after which she can quit.)

Thanks to money Adam recently received through his dad’s estate, we were able to pay the balance of the mortgage on our flat today, and are now debt free. Quite a moment… (We’ll now be paying taxes on the rent rather than interest on the loan, which I find far more palatable.)

Adam was on his Map of Meaning course this evening, so I ate soup with Lyra and watched an episode of Dead to Me. I’m really tired this evening, and headed to bed while Adam still on his call. Texted Nova and fell asleep before she had the chance to reply…

September 7, 2020

The alarm clock is going to be a feature of our life going forward… Up at 6:30am to ensure Lyra got off to school on time. I did her breakfast and packed lunch, then Adam ran her down the hill to meet Ellie at the bus stop for 7:15.

Went for a 3-mile run in Highgate Woods before work. Felt sluggish but finished okay — not breaking any land-speed records at the moment… The house felt empty today. Adam has very busy week, and barely emerged from the bedroom all day. With both girls gone, and no one to eat lunch with, it was surreally quiet…

Lyra got back a bit earlier than I expected — they are staggering the lunch hours and departure times to minimise contact. Otherwise, she says she can hardly tell the difference from before, except that she has to disinfect her desk at regular intervals…

Popped to grocery store on North Hill to pick up a few things. I made a recipe from the NYT where you roast chicken thighs with plums and red onions. It didn’t quite come off — but there’s a good recipe in there for sure — I’m going to tinker around with that one.

Ate in front of Gilmore Girl, after which the little menace engineered the watching of an episode of Gossip Girl. Really not my cup of tea at first glance, but I’ll watch a couple more before forming an opinion.

It was getting on for 10pm by then, so we tidied the kitchen and headed for bed…

September 6, 2020

Up at 6am to finish packing Nova’s stuff and get an early start for Bristol. It took a couple of hours to sort through the last of her belongings, figure out how to fit it all into the car (my speciality), and have a quick coffee before hitting the road.

Traffic was pretty light, but as ever there are major roadworks on the M4. We attempted an alternate route via Oxford in order to miss the closed stretch between junxion 13 and 14, and the diversion at Newbury. Managed to mess it up somehow, ending up back at the M4 just in time for the Newbury diversion, which fortunately wasn’t that bad.

Adam and I fundamentally disagree in our approach to driving routes. I would always opt to take the M4 (ie, the straight line between London and Bristol), suffer through the diversion round Newbury, and resume zipping along the M4.

Adam prefers to spend half an hour poring over Google Maps and road atlases to devise a complicated alternate route that patches together bits of motorway and A-road, involves multiple roundabouts and requires continuous navigating instructions from a passenger (generally me).

This invariably ends up in arguments, unexpected variations from the route, U-turns, foul language, furious sulks and makes little difference to how quickly we arrive at our destination.

Happily, Nova’s new accommodation is in a part of Bristol easily accessible from the M4 and avoids the centre of town. In a matter of minutes after leaving the motorway we were pulling up outside her house in Redland.

She’s sharing a seven-bedroom place with a group of students in year 2 and above. When they drew lots for rooms, she won first pick and nabbed a large, high-ceilinged room on the ground floor with a desk in the bay window and a view into the little back garden.

Spent an hour unpacking her stuff, then walked out for some lunch at a local restaurant on Whiteladies Road. Bought her a load of groceries afterwards (my first time in a big supermarket since March) before heading back to London.

Traffic was okay this time as well, though the roadworks slowed us down, and we got back just after 6:30. I wasn’t hungry, but fixed poached eggs on toast for Adam and Lyra, which they ate in front of Gilmore Girls.

Both Adam and I were feeling a bit blue about Nova, and made an early night of it — bath and bed by 11pm.

September 5, 2020

I didn’t sleep that well last night. Anxiety about the photoshoot mainly… Adam made me a coffee while I got my stuff together — two cameras, tripod, reflector and clips, spare batteries. Set off about 7:45am for our 8am meeting.

We’d arranged to do the shoot in the shared garden of Lesley’s apartment complex. It’s a massive garden, with benches and pergolas, stairs and statuary scattered about — but most of it was still in shade.

Shot the first batch of pictures with her sitting on a bench, with the sun coming from the side. They looked okay but I was worried about shadows, despite the reflector bouncing light back on the other side of her face.

We tried various other places, and eventually ended up on the street where I shot dozens of pictures against the weathered wooden fence. I think it was a combination of us being comfortable with one another and the light a bit higher, but everything clicked.

I left after an hour feeling very positive about the images and wasn’t disappointed when I saw them on my computer. I had a job whittling it down to 50 or so to send her on a digital contact sheet.

Made banana walnut muffins for breakfast, which we had with delicious coffees all round. Nova’s last day with us — we’re driving her back to Bristol tomorrow…:( Couldn’t muster much productive energy today — I felt like my work for the day was done.

Made a nice family dinner — kati rolls, coriander yogurt chutney and pickled red onions. Watched the third Godfather movie. It isn’t as good as the other two — the storyline is less clear, overly complex and the lack of focus on famly dynamics makes it less interesting.

That said, it would be an enjoyable enough film except for the acting of Sofia Coppola — who is so dreadful as his daughter Mary that she practically kills the film dead. She’s sharing the screen with some real heavyweights, but it is hard to see how she could have been any worse…

September 4, 2020

Ran 2.75 miles today, and felt okay throughout. I’m still at the stage of laying down a base, which for me means a few weeks consistently running at least ten miles, after which I’ll think about committing to a training program.

I’ve got a reasonable amount of work on, but it’s all a bit amorphous and I’ve found it hard to stick to it and make measurable progress. I was trying to focus on the e-commerce website today. The founder story needs work, and I’m trying to figure out what we should be saying to make a compelling argument for the subscription plan.

I’m getting there, but didn’t have a clear enough idea to want to send the client anything by the end of the day, which was frustrating. Did some more architecture website image work, and managed to log a few billable hours.

Algerian meatballs and chickpeas with steamed bulghar wheat for dinner (such a good dish), and strawberry ice cream for dessert. I was in a pretty grumpy mood due to lack of support with cooking and housework, failure to achieve what I wanted from my work week, and a looming photoshoot tomorrow morning with an acquaintance of Millie’s that I have never met.

Lesley needs a new headshot and other images for her website/business. Millie gave her my number and we had a chat earlier in the week. I was clear with her that I’m not a professional photographer, and sent her a few business portraits I have shot for other people so she knew what she was signing up for.

That didn’t dissuade her, and we now have a photoshoot scheduled for 8am tomorrow morning. Feeling quite anxious about it… :-{

September 3, 2020

Bit headachy this morning… red wine does that to me sometimes… Not a running day, which as just as well as I didn’t fancy it. Eased into my day with the Rachel Maddow show and an espresso from our fab new machine. We’re all pretty pumped about it 🙂 Simple pleasures…

I’ve been retained to do a day a week on the architecture website for the next few months, which is great news. In an ideal world, I’d have 2.5 days a week paid work, which I’d spread over 4 (about 5 hours a day), with Saturdays off. It never works out like that — it’s either feast or famine — but paid retainers are a good way to achieve that balance.

Craving something wholesome, I made a quinoa and bean salad for lunch. Nova was feeling queasy and wasn’t able to eat with us. She was sick to her stomach soon after, so maybe there was some issue with the meal last night that we are both processing.

Worked until 7:30pm, then switched into dinner mode — potato-egg curry with basmati rice and raita a la Gilmore. Adam and I ticked off another episode of Mrs America, after which I left him watching a documentary about Liverpool FC and headed for bed.

September 2, 2020

Much better run today. I managed 2.5 miles at a faster pace than last time. No walk breaks either, though my glutes were still a bit achy. Nice weather for running — bright and cool. Autumn is my favourite time of year to run outdoors…

Managed to make it to my work station today, and pretty much stayed there, aside from the usual household stuff — laundry, lunch, emptying the dishwasher etc. Didn’t manage that many billable hours, but better than yesterday…

Out for dinner at 500 tonight with Doron’s family — our treat to celebrate Ollie and Marni’s A-level and GCSE results. Ollie has a place at York University to study psychology after taking a gap year, and Marni got the grades she needed to secure a place at Camden School for Girls.

We booked an early table and were the first people in the restaurant, which suited me fine as it’s a pretty small place. Black olive bruschetti, trofie ragu, and a scoop of lime-mint sorbet for me.

Watched the last hour of the Godfather 2 with Nova when we got home. We’re going to try to finish the trilogy before she goes back to Bristol this weekend.

September 1, 2020

Rabbits! If I’d remembered to say it… I was woken at 6am by the sound of Cleo scratching at the door. “Is that the cat?” I asked Adam, “Was she out all night?” He had tucked her in when we went to bed, but she wasn’t clearly wasn’t in the laundry room now. Turns out that Lyra and Ellie weren’t in bed either. We checked the whole house, and they weren’t in it.

Not a great situation, especially when you’re responsible for someone else’s daughter, as well as your own. It was a relief when Lyra answered her phone to discover that they were at the top of the road with a blanket and flask of hot chocolate taking pictures of the sunrise.

That was us done as far as sleeping was concerned — plus it was a working day. Started slow, opting to trawl through my emails and do my invoicing on the sofa, instead of sitting at my workstation.

In the end, I avoided my desk the whole day, bouncing between work, phone meetings and house duties. Nova went off to see her grandmother for a last visit before she goes to Bristol at the weekend.

Lyra was exhausted by her sleepover and dozed off and on for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

Made prawn arepas for dinner and clocked another episode of Gilmore. Nova now informs me that there is a whole extra series set ten years later. That might be a bridge too far…

The new coffee machine arrived — exciting!