September 2021

September 30, 2021

Went swimming at Park Road lido with Kate and Lynne this morning. First time I’ve done that in ages. I was feeling a bit nervous about it actually, but once I was in the water by body just kicked into gear and I managed a mile without too much effort. I felt slow and a bit weak in the arms, but I was pleased to be able to do the distance.

Went for a coffee afterwards. Kate was running low on petrol so we checked the local service station on the way back but they were completely dry. The situation doesn’t seem to have improved since the weekend. If anything, it sounds like it’s getting worse, at least in London…

Made myself some baked eggs for brunch when I got home, then got to work on the Irish fitness site. I wanted to set up the payment mechanisms but encountered a hitch. Because the client is based in Ireland, I was unable to enter a UK business address. I decided it was time to transfer the site to her, and at our meeting at 4pm I talked her through how to set it up herself.

Richard and Rachel came round at 6:30pm, and we headed off to the Muswell Hill Odeon to see the Bond film. Ordered martinis and hotdogs for dinner, which we ate in our seats while waiting for the show to start. The film was almost three hours long, but it was pretty entertaining throughout and the ending was a genuine surprise…

September 29, 2021

School prep, school run, meditate, but decided against going for a run. I’ve learned that it’s better for me not to run two days in a row – that way injury lies…

Really pushing on the Irish fitness site this week – I’m hoping to launch it tomorrow. I need information from the client that is out of my hands, but fingers crossed…

Spinach salad for dinner, and an evening spent watching the previous James Bond film Spectre. Adam has booked tickets for opening night tomorrow and thought watching Spectre would get us up to speed.

I assumed I’d slept through swathes when we saw it in the cinema (I generally do with Adam-style films –action movies and sci-fi) but it seemed familiar. I think maybe Skyfall is the one I need to rewatch. There’s are references to that storyline that were completely baffling to me.

September 28, 2021

Got Lyra off to school, meditated and went for a run. Added half a mile to my route, pushing it up to 3.75 miles. Felt pretty good throughout and kept a steady pace.

I returned to find that Thames Water had blocked our driveway with pylons. They are fixing a leak further down the street, and had attached some sort of standing pipe to the water main at the edge of our property that is spewing water down the street. The last time they did something like this we ended up with a £700 water bill that took months to resolve.

I spoke to the engineer and discovered that our car would be blocked in for the next couple of hours and that they were going to turn our water off in the next five minutes. Managed to squeeze in a super-quick shower and fill the kettle and a couple of pots of water in time. It’s so annoying the way they don’t bother to tell customers when they do that kind of thing.

Adam was working from home today, but we scarcely saw one another, which is pretty typical. He seems to spend most of his time in phone meetings. Made chicken fajitas and slaw for dinner. Watched an episode of Peaky Blinders, then one of Succession before bed.

September 27, 2021

Feeling very blue this morning. Slept badly, which never helps, and we had a chaotic morning round here getting everyone up and Lyra out the door.

Didn’t feel like meditating, and decided against running as well as it was pelting with rain. Lay on the sofa under a blanket and read my Maggie O’Farrell novel instead of getting down to work.

Didn’t feel like lunch either, but eventually I shook some of the gloom off and did a little housework. After that I brought my laptop to the sofa and tackled some email. Lyra came home about 4:30pm and brightened the place up.

Eventually about 5pm I finally mustered some work energy and tackled a few low-hanging client to-dos before turning my attention to the Irish exercise website. I really need to get that project out of my life…

Lyra and I cooked and ate together (bibimbap) in front of Bojack Horseman. When Adam got home at 8pm, I was stuck into the exercise website, but eventually we watched the opening episode of Succession, a thinly veiled version of the Murdoch story, before calling it a night.

September 26, 2021

Slept in until about 8:30am, which is good going for us. Tackled the crossword again with our morning coffee and made a much better go of it.

Adam headed off to visit his mother, and I advanced the scalded rye bread, which looks more promising this time. I got it to the final proofing stage before heading out to meet Millie for an afternoon walk on the Heath.

Lyra wanted to get sushi for dinner as she needs to take some photos of Japanese food for her textiles assignment, so I placed an order with Iro Sushi. Adam was still at the Arsenal match when it arrived, so I set his aside and ate with Lyra once she’d taken her pics. Watched Cinderella Story, a Hilary Duff vehicle which was more entertaining than expected.

When Adam got back we watched the final episode of Vigil – good but not great imho…

For my birthday, I did something I’ve always wanted to do but seemed too indulgent. I’ve ordered all six novels on the Booker Prize shortlist, which was released a few weeks ago, and plan to read them all before the winner is announced. They’ve all arrived now, and first up is No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood.

September 25, 2021

Went walking with Kiran and Birgit in Oxfordshire today. They picked us up at 10:30am and we headed for the Oxfordshire countryside, parking up in a village called Skirmett. The local pub was called The Frog Inn, which had me wondering if it was a play on Kermit.

Walked about five miles, through a lovely little place called Hambledon to a weir across the Thames, and on to a country pub called The Flowerpot, where we ate a pub lunch in the garden. Their things was pies – Adam and Kiran went for rabbit, Birgit and I for steak and blue cheese.

Had a taste of Adam’s rabbit, but it’s really not my thing. The only other time I’ve tasted rabbit was in the revolving restaurant on Robson Street where Ric took me to celebrate my 17th birthday. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now…

The return route pretty much retraced our steps, crossing the weir again and back through the valley. The Hambledon Lock weir is quite something, and a busy hub for boats, paddleboarders, waterbirds and walkers.

Got back to London about 5pm. Birgit was getting low on petrol, so we were on the lookout for service stations, but pretty much every one was closed due to the petrol shortage. The one in the village still had diesel, which it was rationing out. There was a bit of a queue, so we hopped out with our gear and walked home from there.

Went for dinner round Pete and Pasc’s at 8pm. Fay did the cooking – sweet potato and broccoli bimbimbap – which was really nice. It was just warm enough to sit in the garden after we finished eating. Home about 11pm.

September 24, 2021

My third time doing the 3.3 mile route today. It felt pretty good and I feel ready to add to it next week. I build up to four miles before it’s worth running on the Heath. Anything less and you just end up turning around as soon as you get there…

Showered, then pootled around the margins of my work. It feels like I’ve put in enough hours already this week and couldn’t conjure up much motivation. Broke off at 3:45 and headed down the private road to meet Jess for a walk on the Heath. Did a good loop round Kenwood before making our way back to The Red Lion and Sun for a drink. Ordered a carafe of white wine and some bread and olives to nibble on. Home about 7:30pm.

Adam was out at his book group for the evening. I wasn’t hungry for dinner, but wanted to prepare something for Lyra. We decided on a keto take on nachos that I’ve been meaning to try for a while. Triangles of thinly sliced Edam cheese melted to make chips (in a similar style to parmesan crisps), served with a salsa cruda and guacamole.

Watched Eight Mile with Eminem, which we both enjoyed. Afterwards, Lyra retreated back to her cave and I finished watching Cardinal. I thought I’d wait up for Adam, but headed to bed when it got to midnight.

September 23, 2021

Second day of tracking and amplifying posts. Made sure to round up the previous evening’s activity by 7:30am, especially as the client is an hour ahead. It was definitely slower today, but still a reasonable amount of activity.

After the first batch of tweets/posts I headed out for a morning walk. Did a lap round Waterlow Park, then headed down through the Cholmeleys to the Archway Road to buy Lyra some of the chai concentrate that she likes.

By the end of the day, the classfinder was in good enough shape to present to the client. There are some issues – mainly the keyword search is not working – but it’s looking pretty good. I’m just pleased to have got it this far.

September 22, 2021

School prep, meditate, run, then down to work. Same old same old Blursday… or as Janis Joplin put it, “it’s all the same fuckin’ day, man”.

I’ve been signed up to support the UN Environment Program around an online launch event by tracking and forwarding tweets and posts on LinkedIn and Twitter so they can amplify them. I set up a couple of Boolean searches to track all the keywords, opened a WhatsApp channel to their comms manager, and updated it every couple of hours. A little tricky to keep track of, but I got into a good rhythm with it.

It’s press night at Jacksons Lane, which is opening in a few weeks. Felt a bit weird to be back in a full house, and I kept my mask on the whole time. I’m still not a huge lover of contemporary circus, but hey ho…

There was a party afterwards in the upstairs space. It’s looking good, but we can’t really see the impact of the redesign – the elevator, glass walkway over the mezzanine, restoration of the main entrance etc. It’s going to be fab.

September 21, 2021

Walk after my usual morning stuff. Down to the Heath, around Kenwood and back home in a loop. Want to try to get more exercise on my non-running days. Now that I don’t commute or do the school run I can have some very sedentary, desk-based days.

Spent my work day slogging away at the  classfinder and updating the beauty website members’ area, breaking into two – a page for regular members and another for students.

Lyra’s bras arrived today, which caused some drama. Basically they don’t fit. We’d done the measurements correctly – band size measured below the breasts (rounded up to an even number), cup size calculated by measuring the full bust and calculating the difference.

After all that, they are too small anyway – plus the black ones we ordered are chocolate brown. Printed off a return label so we can post them back and ordered a new batch…

The groceries came this afternoon. There are increasing issues with food supplies in this country due to Brexit, and you need to expect the unexpected. We only received two of the four pork chops I’d ordered, so popped out to the butchers for a third one. Served them with roasted celeriac, kale and applesauce made with the last of the apples from our tree.

September 20, 2021

School prep, meditate, then off for a run in the Woods before work. Pushed the distance up to 3.3 miles by tacking on the Parkland Walk to Ally Pally and back.

Spent most of the day on the classfinder thing. I’ve now installed it on the client website (I was testing it in my development space up until now) and explored different ways to get the data imported. In the end, it turned out to be quickest to add it manually.

There was an in-person meeting at Lyra’s school to discuss year 10. I was planning to go but it made sense for Adam to do it as he’s at his Holborn office today, which is just a couple of stops up the Central line.

Dinner and Bojack Horseman with Lyra (Adam was out at a meeting to divi up the Arsenal season tickets for year ahead.)

September 19, 2021

We’d thought about going for a walk yesterday, but the day didn’t work out that way, so after coffee we set out to do the Parkland Walk. It’s been ages since I’ve walked it. Did a loop round Finsbury Park, stopping for a coffee in the main café before heading back again. A good six miles I’d say…

Lyra made scrambled tofu, which she time for our return. She followed the recipe in the Mildreds cookbook, and it was really nice. I’ve never been a big fan of scrambled egg, and honestly I think I might prefer scrambled tofu.

Hung our new pictures afterwards – the Eisen above our bed, and Adam’s massive Lemon Jelly print that he bought years ago on the first landing. Leftover spicy cottage pie for dinner with some frozen yellow wax beans I found languishing at the back of the freezer the other day…

September 18, 2021

Happy birthday to me! Certainly had a full day of it, what with a 4:30am start in order to drive Nova to Stansted for her flight to Madrid. The airport was busy and confusing, what with a new health screening thing to go through before you got to check-in, but she navigated it eventually.

Said our goodbyes and she was off through to passport control. Scarcely had time to snap a quick photo…

Stopped in at Beulah’s on the way home for breakfast and birthday pressies (a smorgasbord cookbook, a plastic storage system for photographs and a selection of flavoured salts). We were pretty tired after the early start and mooched around the house for much of the day.

Presents and cards from the girls  – mascara, hand scrub, aromatherapy candle. Adam got our Eisen woodcut print framed, as well as Rodham, the novelisation of what might have happened if Hillary had turned down Bill’s proposal of marriage. Looking forward to reading that one. A gorgeous bouquet of flowers that arrived from Wade. A book on foraging, Pedro Almodovar film and triple CD Motown anthology from my friend Dave – I’ve been thoroughly spoiled.

Dinner with Richard and Rachel at the Red Lion & Sun. Rachel and I shared a bottle of prosecco, while the guys stuck to beer. Sardines for starter, monkfish curry, then the salted caramel tart to finish. All very tasty. Didn’t go overboard and not a late one. In bed by 11pm.

September 17, 2021

Nova’s last day in the UK. She seems reasonably on top of things, aside from the visa, which is out of her hands. The government may change the rules so that all the students who’ve been messed around by the Brexit chaos can be issued their visas in the country they are studying in, but I’m not holding my breath. More likely she’ll have to make a trip back to London in the middle of term to collect it…

Lyra is sleeping at Ellie’s this evening, but came round to say goodbye to her sister. Spicy cottage pie for dinner. Watched an episode of the OJ Simpson: Made in America documentary. It’s been interesting but I’ve had my fill of that guy now. Straight to bed afterwards, as we need to be up early tomorrow. Nova stll has stuff to do, I’m not sure how much sleep she’s going to get…

September 16, 2021

It doesn’t look like Nova’s visa for Spain will be ready in time… There is such a backlog caused by all the extra Brexit red tape that it took ages to get everything together, and weeks longer than estimated to approve.

When we were in the EU, students didn’t need a visa at all, or health insurance, or Spanish bank accounts, or roaming plans for their mobile phones. It makes my blood boil when I think of the stupid, unnecessary damage that referendum has inflicted on us all. I try not to think of it actually – it’s too depressing…

Nova went to the embassy in a last-ditch effort to rattle her visa out of them. No joy, but there were lots of other students with the same idea, and she ended up talking to an art student who is going to Madrid as well who has a lead on a good place to stay. So that’s something positive. Nova has a cheap hotel booked for a week, but has yet to secure longer-term accommodation…

September 15, 2021

Got Lyra to the bus stop, meditated, then went for a run in the Woods. Felt better than I did on Monday. I’m gradually rebuilding my fitness base, which crumbled a bit after the head injury and enforced downtime.

Surprise of surprises, Nova has taken up running. She went for the first time on the weekend and has kept it up since. She’s enjoying it, says she plans to keep it up when she moved to Madrid…

Pretty productive day workwise… Monthly content meeting with my engineering client (lots to do there), making progress on the classfinder at last, interviewed Menaka and drafted another Jx case study. A meeting with my Divi accountability group took me to 7pm. Starting to get that overwhelmed feeling again. Too many balls in the air, irons in the fire…

September 14, 2021

Torrential rain all day today. Because the car is still at the shop, Lyra had to make her own way to the bus stop, which meant leaving about fifteen minutes earlier. It gave me more time in my morning to meditate and do some house stuff before I got down to work. 

Had a lunch meeting with Kate and Tim to talk about a company they are getting involved with that has an innovative product that can potentially replace concrete in a lot of construction projects by adding something to the soil that “concretizes” it.

Lamb burgers, Greek salad, pitta and yogurt for dinner, with avocado-chocolate mousse for dessert. I’ve been meaning to try it, and can’t say I’m a convert but the texture was very satisfying. We ate earlier so we could watch a movie – the girls picked the first Harry Potter. I enjoyed it, but dozed off to the end – it’s too damn long…

September 13, 2021

The car went in for its annual service today. They gave us one of those broad slots like 8am-12pm for collection, so Adam drove Lyra to the bus this morning while I went for my run an hour earlier than usual (three miles in the Woods). 

The guy turned up just as I was getting back. They usually turn it around the same day, but they discovered one of our tires has a slow leak, so they are keeping it overnight.  

Found it difficult to get down to work today. Messed around with housework and home paperwork most of the morning, then broke for lunch…;-) Did better in the afternoon, but then found I had no staying power. Some days are like that…

Made chicken thighs roasted with broccoli, red onion and chorizo for dinner. Watched the first season finale of Peaky Blinders – cracking stuff!

September 12, 2021

Nova had her final shift at Mildred’s today. We all slept in a bit, so Adam ran her to Dalston for 10am. When he got back we decided it would be fun to surprise her by showing up for brunch unannounced, so we hopped in the car and headed back to Dalston again.

This location certainly feels much smarter than the original Mildreds in Soho, which was pretty much a hole in the wall. Super high ceilings, lots of glass and tables generously spaced. Nova did a doubletake when we walked in but quickly regained her cool and served us very professionally.

Mildreds is now vegan, which isn’t a type of restaurant I’d normally seek out, but the food was delicious. I had the mezze brunch – scrambled tofu (better than eggs), vegan feta (gorgeous), grilled aubergine, chopped salad, silky smooth hummus with chilli oil and a deliciously fluffy pitta bread. Adam was similarly wowed with his thali brunch, and Lyra’s blueberry pancakes were a thing of wonder.

We bought the cookbooks, added an extra-generous tip to our bill, and headed home via Stoke Newington to show Lyra our old stomping grounds. Spent the afternoon with the weekend paper, then caught up on some sports – the US womens’ tennis file and Adam’s Arsenal match yesterday – their first goal and victory this season.

Dinner was sausages and lentils with some sautéed veggies in front of Paddington. Afterwards Adam and I watched Djokovic go for his grand slam. I’m not a fan and wasn’t rooting for him initially, but when it became apparent that he wasn’t up to defeating Medvedev, I felt really bad for him and realised that actually I would have quite liked to see him do it after all.

The crowd was certainly behind him (something that I’ve never seen – he’s pretty universally disliked) and in his speech afterwards he said that despite losing his heart was “full of joy” at the sound of a stadium cheering him on. Had me in tears…

September 11, 2021

Twenty years since the World Trade Center came down… Nova’s whole life basically. She was just three months when it happened. I remember sitting on the edge of the coffee table for hours, holding her in my arms and watching the endless news coverage…

Adam and I did our five mile Heath walk this morning for the first time in ages. It looked like being cold when we set out, but half way through the sun broke through and it was pretty hot by the time we finished. I was wishing I’d worn shorts.

Adam went to a live Arsenal match for the first time in over a year, and I did a bit of work. Family dinner at Frederick’s this evening – the four of us plus Beulah – to mark Nova’s pending departure for Madrid. The food is consistently of a high standard, but it was the wine that really stood out this evening. 

September 10, 2021

Meditated then went for a run in the Woods, boosting my distance to three miles this time. I’m going to sit at this distance for a week or so before making another increase. Felt pretty good, but don’t want to overdo it – that way injury lies.

It was super muggy and I was covered in sweat by the time I finished. I actually took my teeshirt off until I cooled down – could count on one hand the number of times I’ve been in public in a sports bra.

I made my course the main focus of my day, as well as some food stuff – baking bread and making a Dorset apple cake to keep working through this year’s crop of apples.

Lyra came home in a state following an encounter with a big gang of Fortismere boys who were asking what was going on between her and Sissy. I’m sure it was embarrassing and clumsily done, but teenage boys aren’t the most skilled social operators. It doesn’t sound like they were being mean at all, more that they were interested in talking to her.

She found it upsetting though, and we spent an hour talking about things, which scuppered my plans to sort some dinner out before my final live session. When Adam got home we had our usual Friday G&Ts, but instead of the chicken dish I’d planned we had cheese and coldcuts with fresh sourdough.

Watched an episode of Bojack Horseman with Lyra, the another episode of OJ: Made in America. What a fucking car crash that whole trial was. So many tactical errors on the prosecution side, and the judge made an absolute hash of things as well. Not that the LAPD did the cause of justice any favours…

September 9, 2021

Adam’s day to take Lyra, plus he planned to walk with Doron. Did my meditating, then got started on my work. Feels a little less hectic these days – able to make time for daily coursework without too much trouble.

Learning some really good foundational stuff. Second time round seems to be sticking better. Completed today’s exercises then went straight to the art school website and styled a couple of shopping basket buttons that I hadn’t been able to target correctly until now.

I was able to join the live session this evening, as Adam was around to take receipt of the grocery order. When I finished I sorted everything out then switched into dinner mode. Made grilled salmon with a sort of teriyaki sauce, green beans and rice. Nova was at work so we watched an episode of Peaky Blinders.

Adam had work to do afterwards, so I finished my novel – The Hate You Give.

September 8, 2021

Lyra’s first day back at school. She’s definitely ready for a change – summer holiday has stretched on forever it feels like. It doesn’t help that so much of last year’s schooling was disrupted, or that the weather has been so shit. It would be great to get a little more structure and variety into our lives.

I dropped her at the bus stop then returned to do the second day of the Ted Lasso meditation challenge. That instructor is not growing on me… The theme is radical kindness, so maybe I’m just not feeling like being kind. I definitely don’t feel very kindly disposed to her. Even her name makes me grumpy…

Went for a run in the Woods after I finished and that perked me up some. Added another quarter mile to my distance, making it 2.5 miles today.  I lost a lot of base fitness with my month off that I need to build back slowly.

Worked on my css challenge, catching up on the recording of yesterday’s live session, then watching today’s video and submitting the homework before moving onto client work. I won’t be able to attend tonight’s session either as it’s the launch party for British Beauty Week.

Headed down to Covent Garden about 6pm and made my way to the venue. The place was packed, which was good on the one hand but felt a bit stressful on the other. Had a glass of prosecco, spoke to the four people I knew, and was out of there within the hour.

Popped into TK Maxx, which was still open then made my way back home. Lyra had cooked for Adam and Nova, so I fixed myself a cheese plate and watched another episode of OJ Simpson: Made in America before bed.

September 7, 2021

Hot, hot, hot today… I’m glad I wasn’t planning to run this morning. Started my Ted Lasso meditation challenge before work. I’m not that impressed so far. I enjoyed the clip from the show and having it discussed in a Buddhist context, but am not that keen on the instructor who leads the sitting. I’ll give her a chance and see it through, as it’s only five days and maybe my opinion will change…

It’s Lyra’s last day of summer holidays. She’s very well organised – uniform, bag, shoes, art supplies etc all ready to go for tomorrow. After breakfast, she and Ellie met up for a morning sunbathing in Waterlow Park. (There were only a couple of days in July and August that would have been warm enough to make that an appealing prospect.)

Met Kate at the end of the workday and walked down to the Ladies’ Pond. The queue was crazy but we squeaked in before closing. The water is pretty damn cold already. I’m sure the miserable summer is a factor in that. I’m weighing up the possibility of swimming later into the season. If I want to do that, I’ll need to start swimming pretty regularly from this point onwards. It’s the opposite to the frog in the gradually heating pot of water theory…

Burgers and sweet potato fries in front of Peaky Blinders, as Nova is working tonight…

September 6, 2021

Started the week as I hope to go on – meditate, run and at my desk at a reasonably early hour. I’d arranged for Lyra to have a teen facial as a back to school treat. She loved it, and I must say her skin looks wonderful for it.

Knocked off promptly in order to feed the family before it was time to go round to see Beulah. As it’s Rosh Hashanah today, I made chicken soup and devilled eggs. No kneidlach, and the soup wasn’t the proper, start from scratch with a kilo of chicken wings version. I thawed a litre of homemade stock; added carrot, celery and onion; poached and shredded a couple of chicken breasts; and added a couple of nests of Chinese egg noodles that needed using up.

Beulah didn’t want the bother of preparing a family meal for nine, and who could blame her? We all turned up at 8pm for apples and honey, and honey cake. Usually by the time the honey cake appears we’ve all been stuffed like geese and it’s a challenge to squeeze it in. It was a refreshing change to bring an appetite to it.

Oliver is off to York to study psychology on Sunday; Marni has dropped out of high school and signed up at a vocational college to learn how to work in fashion retail. Doron is currently unemployed, his employment of 20 years with a German CD reproduction company having coming to an end (the pandemic and Brexit delivering the final blows). Big changes round theirs…

Home before 10pm and watched the latest two episodes of  Ted Lasso. All caught up now…

September 5, 2021

Opted not to run again today – I’m going to start back on my regular schedule on Monday. Adam headed off to play football at 8:30. I meditated then pootled about doing bits and bobs. I try to stay off screens as much as I can on the weekends, but ended up doing a bunch of home/work admin that I haven’t got round to yet: the monthly budget, teeing up invoices to send tomorrow etc.

Adam went over to his mum’s in the afternoon to run some rubbish she’s cleared out to the tip. Apparently, she’d amassed so much that it required two trips.

Made sausages, mash and peas for dinner with apple crumble and custard for dessert. Wasn’t the ideal meal for the weather, which has finally deigned to turn summery now that September is upon us. Finished Anne of Green Gables –not a dry eye in the house…

September 4, 2021

Adam isn’t walking with Ben today after all, but hadn’t bothered to mention it. I made the shopping plan with Millie on the assumption that he wasn’t around anyway, but hey ho… I briefly considered running before we set off, but my ankle feels a bit hinky, so I decided to leave it.

She picked me up in a black cab at the top of the path and we taxied into town. She doesn’t feel ready to travel by Tube yet, which works out nicely for me. Lucia had decided to come with us, so I invited Lyra too but she already had plans. We were dropped at the top of Neal Street, and made our way to Covent Garden hitting a number of shops on the way. Eventually found a cute top in Cos that Millie though might work.

For lunch we had steak and chips in the piazza, then cut through Chinatown to Soho so Lucia could get her nose pierced. She’s gone for a side stud – a safer aesthetic choice than Lyra’s septum ring, which I have to admit is growing on me.

I didn’t feel much like dinner when I got back, so Lyra offered to cook her signature spicy tomato pasta dish. Watched the first half of Anne of Green Gables with Megan Follows. Lovely to see it again, Richard Farnsworth’s Matthew had us all blinking back tears already though he’s still got a good hour of screen time left…

September 3, 2021

Managed to both run and meditate today. Bumped into Millie on my way to the Woods, and stopped for a chat. I don’t know if that was a factor, but the run was pretty crap – I felt heavy limbed and sluggish, but it has been a month since I’ve been able to do any exercise, so I’m going to have to build up again.

Arranged with Millie to go into Covent Garden tomorrow – she needs some new clothes for British Beauty Week. Adam is heading to West Sussex to do a day’s walking with his friend Ben.

Good work day… I’m making progress on projects, especially the classfinder. I’m starting to feel quite positive that I can do something for those guys, which is a relief. Also helped Basil resolve some issues with his online art class orders, which took over an hour. Eventually got to my invoicing, although it had gone 6pm.

Adam was in his office today, but he called to suggest getting a takeaway from Turquoise, which was fine by me. Lyra put in the order, and it arrived minutes before Adam got home. Ended up having our G&Ts with our kebabs, which was also fine by me…;-) Watched The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants Part 2 for movie night. Not great art, but enjoyable enough…

September 2, 2021

Today actually feels more like that start of the month to me… yesterday was a bit of a write off…

I would have run, but I had a client meeting a bit too early to squeeze it in. Did manage to meditate though, which almost always sets me up for a better day. This is the last full week of summer holiday – I think it will be easier to slide back into a routine once Lyra returns to school.

Worked pretty steadily all day on a couple of projects that are coming to a head – a classfinder for the fitness website and a separate new build for another fitness client. Carried on long enough that Adam finally came upstairs and bad humouredly made some dinner. I appreciate that he doesn’t like cooking with no notice, but I can’t muster that much sympathy…

Nova was working this evening, so it was a Lyra evening. Our current show is Peaky Blinders, so we watched another episode of that. Very good stuff…

September 1, 2021

Rabbits… Not the greatest start to a new month. I’ve definitely felt better… More sleep and less dessert wine would have helped… The only small consolation was that Adam (who was responsible for the dessert wine element of the evening) is clearly feeling worse than I am.

Took my time getting my ducks in a row, but managed a small amount of work before closing my laptop and heading into town for a pub lunch with Rob and Adam at the Cittie of York. None of us were in a drinking frame of mind, but it’s close to Adam’s shared workspace, is a neat old building and the food has always been reasonably good. 

Rob had a bit of time to kill afterwards before his timed slot at the British Museum. I walked him of to the Soane Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and he was able to get a drop-in ticket there. Caught the tube back home and managed a bit more work, though my heart wasn’t in it. Lyra was at the theatre this evening with her friend Alex, so Nova, Adam and I were able to stretch the leftovers from last night into three portions. 

Started watching Ted Lasso, which has been coming up lately in my meditation app. It wasn’t on my radar, but we all really like it.