A new(ish) bed for a boy who decided climbing over a cot railing was very good fun. Another last first thing for our family, and another load of gear off to a new home later this week.
Watching The Lady Vanishes on Sunday afternoon.
Some fancy drinks for Thursday evening. It was One Of Those Weeks.
Three loads of laundry washed and line dried today. I’m scraping the barrel this week, in my attempt to feel a little more positive.
Pancakes twice this week, because why not and tis the season etc.
I reread Live Alone and Like It last week. I haven’t read it in a long time, even though my blog is named after and very much inspired by Marjorie. One of my habits is reading the same few books over and over again, until I get thoroughly bored of them and moved on to another set. Taking this off the shelf was like getting together with an old friend.
The metaphorical kick up the backside it gave me was long overdue. I seem to have excuses for everything lately, and some very bad habits have crept in. I’ve been using lockdown number three as a way to explain away too many silly choices. Marjorie was absolutely correct when she cautioned against getting a bit musty and feeling too sorry for yourself.
Reading the Cases again made me wonder what advice Marjorie would be dishing out to Case Me right now. Would she be telling me to stop moping and make sure I kept my wardrobe up to date so I didn’t droop when I did leave the house? Would she be cautioning me against letting it all get Too Awful? Would she hint darkly at the dangers of drinking too much? Would she advise me to look seriously at my spending and try to save enough for the rainy days ahead?
Marjorie would have lived through the flu epidemic over a hundred years ago. I wonder how she handled it? Was she the sort of ‘perfect hero’ described in A Tangled Web? Did she roll her eyes at restrictions and buy masks in the same unexciting shade as her best coat and hat? Maybe she let herself wallow a bit, and then sternly took herself in hand, roll up her sleeves and Get On With It?
Rereading this is a good reminder that what I have to put up with now is so very minor. I am safe at home, working in a dedicated office space that doubles right now as laundry room, gym and ballet practice studio. I have a strong feeling Marjorie would be ok with very occasional bouts of Feeling A Bit Crap About Everything, before reminding me that help is on the way, there’s always someone who has it worse off and that misery isn’t a particularly enjoyable state of mind if I can shake it off.
So this week I shall plan an early night after a bath, as she suggests, a new(ish) book by a favourite author and a little wardrobe audit to make everything as chic as possible under the circumstances. I don’t live alone, but I can learn to Like Living Through All This if I try a bit harder.
Enjoying some cava and red wine after Dry January. Amarone from The Corkscrew was a particular joy.
Dinner from Uno Mas. Everything was delicious and the process was just as enjoyable as the food.
Sleeping in two days in a row. I haven’t done that for two years.
The random things I find on the Tweet machine.
Afternoon tea at home. The Mini Orchids have been asking to do this again for a while and this weekend I caved. It was worth it, both for the baking that filled a morning and the fun we had over the afternoon.
Husband and I have been working from home for 10 months now. We’ve moved from kitchen table to spare room to attic room. We’ve been grateful every single day of those months that we have rooms in which to work. We’ve thanked our lucky stars we have work, and haven’t lost any of it over the past year. We’ve had connection issues and back issues. We’ve had negotiations over space and equipment. We’ve had lunch breaks and coffees. We’ve had late nights and early mornings. We’ve had IT failures and patchy solutions. We’ve had good days, and boring days, and bad days, and muddling through it all days.
Having been in jobs where working from home for even one day wasn’t ever a possibility, we’ve been thinking about what work might look like in ten months’ time. Could we work at home, together? Would we want to? What if we had a mix of work and home?
I have been in my workplace occasionally, and it has been transformed. Gone are the quick chats and coffee breaks. It all feels very intense and intentional. We’re only there because we have to be, and we scurry off home as soon as we can. There’s no lunches together; we sit at tables placed two meters apart and there is no mixing.
I have missed some bits and pieces of working in an office, and I’ve been grateful for the ability to work from home. I’m finding the idea of a daily commute very hard work, and I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it again. I’ve been amazed that a wholesale transformation of how we work can take place within weeks, and that the work gets done and there doesn’t seem to be as many negatives as we were led to believe they would.
I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that work continues like this in some form or another. Life feels more balanced and organised, even on those days where I’m in a funk and getting out of bed seems like a lot of work.
Sticking to dry January. I’m not sure it should feel as good as it does to be able to tick one accomplishment (if that’s what I can call it) off the list on the last day of one of the gloomiest months ever, but I’ll take my joys where I can find them.
Home cooking, and using up a lot of our freezer and store cupboard stash.
Reading childhood favourites. Over and over again. I remember my heart leaping one Saturday in the library when a longed for copy of Drina Goes On Tour appeared. I was able to get my hands on a very precious first edition.
A lovely meal to look forward to. And the fact it will be delivered to us. And that we have a nice bottle of Amarone to go with it all.
Little videos made by the Little Orchids. Always fun to see them so involved in them and watching them afterwards.
Orchids on my budget 