The Distancing Diaries - 30th & 31st October, 2020

On Friday morning my first task was to turn on the PC and book next week's National Trust adventure.Before I went to bed I'd put some of my houseplants in the bath to soak overnight and left a few more in the utility room sink, as the central heating was starting to dry them out. This confused Jon immensely as it's a job I usually do on a Friday night. After my final Wii Fit workout of the week I gave them all a misting and put them back, replacing them with the rest of the collection. I mopped the utility room floor and wrapped the latest eBay sales before joining Jon in the kitchen for fruit & yogurt.

Mindful of extra restrictions Jon popped to Pets at Home on the way back from the Post Office for another bag of cat litter whilst I caught up with blog comments as I waited for the washing machine cycle to finish so I could hang it up in the utility room.

Friday's outfit was a 1970s embroidered kaftan by Ayesha's and a vintage Kashmiri wool work waistcoat (both eBay buys). We'd been warned that today would be the calm before the storm, mostly dry, overcast and unseasonably warm day and, at 17°C it was warmer than most of August. 

Jon came back, having got to the post office and realising he'd left the parcels in the lounge. He decided to kill two birds with one stone, buy us a printer from PC World using click and collect and pick it up on the way to the post office after lunch.

While he got the noodles on I ironed some stock and photographed it after lunch. I spent the afternoon measuring, writing descriptions and saving my work as a draft. Jon successfully dropped off the parcels and picked up the printer but left the job of setting it up until Saturday.

Tea was a sweet potato, spinach and chana curry with half a nan bread and a bottle of pale ale. Later we watched a couple of episodes of Spooks, accompanied by lashings of rum and coke.

On Saturday Jon was up first, made tea and brought it back to bed where we lay and read until 8.30am. The predictions for strong wind and torrential rain in the form of Storm Aiden were spot on and the lime tree was all but stripped bare of leaves when we opened the curtains. Jon made a start on breakfast whilst I changed the bed & loaded the washing machine. I ate my veggie sausage sandwich whilst watching BBC Breakfast, the big story was of a leaked government report of a four-week lockdown in England starting next week. Was it true? We'd have to wait and see.

I pickled the nasturtium seed pods I'd been soaking since Wednesday and Jon decided to set up the new printer so I made myself scarce, heading upstairs and repairing both the patchwork bed cover, which was starting to come apart at the seams and patching the vintage eiderdown which was hemorrhaging feathers at an alarming rate.

I'm running dangerously low on thread. Normally I'd have topped up my supplies with tins of vintage sewing notions bought for pennies at car boot sales, sadly all cancelled due to the pandemic.

The reviews for our new printer had mentioned it took a while to set up so I stayed upstairs for a while longer, epilating my legs, deep-conditioning & plaiting my hair and stripping off last week's nail paint.

SATURDAY: Vintage Alpnani kaftan (eBay), Hindu deity belt buckle (present from Liz)

Ta-dah! The new printer all set up and ready to go. I can't believe how quickly it prints compared to the previous dinosaur or how small it is. 

Our very bedraggled postman, Izzy, turned up with a parcel (there were two but Jon whisked the other one away and said that I wasn't allowed to look at it, he's obviously starting my birthday present shopping early). It's another ex-M&S Heatgen to add to my winter repertoire. Who knew thermals could be sexy?

We didn't watch the final Gardener's World of 2020 last night, we saw it on catch-up this afternoon instead, accompanied by a packet of crisps. Daytime telly & snacks - such decadence! As the rain had finally stopped we decided to walk around the block, something we hadn't done in ages. Two more neighbourhood front gardens were in the process of being dug up and replaced by ugly paving. There were several skips on people's drives, although it looked like they were following our lead and getting rid of garden rubbish rather than anything interesting.

It looks like we'll have to phone the council for help with our London Plane tree, a passing lorry must have clipped it and there's a large branch hanging at a very awkward angle. With a preservation order on it, we can't touch it unless we want to risk a £2000 fine.

BoJo was due to address the nation at 4pm which was put back to 5pm and it's now gone 5.30 and there's still no news. We're expecting non-essential shops to close so I'm hoping we can squeeze in a trip to the chazza tomorrow, forget stockpiling loo roll & pasta, if I'm in lockdown for the next four weeks I'm going to need books!

Tea was half a posh pizza with salad, including the last of our homegrown tomatoes and a liberal sprinkling of poor man's capers. Tonight we'll be cracking open the rum and catching up with BBC 4's Danish drama, DNA (thanks for the heads up, Annie)

Stay safe and see you soon!