Andy Ferguson I seem to have spent most of today in a blur of activity, but it’s all productive activity so that’s ok. A lot of my work time is currently split between giving talks and development work. These are two of my favourite things (and I want more of both in the new normal), but they … Read more
The weather cleared up yesterday evening (at least for a little while), so I was able to get out on the bike and blow away a few cobwebs from a very long and busy week. The world looked very normal outside; rush hour traffic, people walking in groups, and a world that seemed largely indistinguishable … Read more
Tonight I did my monthly pharmacy trip and then cycled home in the rain. It wasn’t a lot of exercise, but I don’t have the discipline today for getting unnecessarily wet when I’m less that a mile from home. I don’t like this weather, but I must admit that we probably need it.
I had a really productive day of work though (work = a thing I do, not a place I go), which makes up for the crap weather and lack of sleep that seems to be a feature this week.
Tonight I realised I’d left comments enabled on this blog. That was an error. I’ve got 176 of them already, and all of them are the sort of thing that bear no relation to the content of the posts.I’m wondering if I’ll get comments on this one too.
In other news it’s the last day of nice weather for a while. I wish I’d made more use of it, but I did get out for a short ride after work and we do really need the rain.
Getting up at 5:30 seems to be a thing this weekend. It meant I could take the dog out for epic circular running really early, but has also lead to a low-energy evening following a morning walk, some cycling, and baking two loaves of bread to get us through the first half of the week.
I didn’t watch any news today. The news the last couple of days has made me sad and angry, and I just needed to step away from it for 24 hours, What’s happening in America is horrible, and I can’t shake the thought that the only reason that vulnerable people are allowed out again is because there are now enough hospital beds for them to die in.
I am still in lock down for the foreseeable future, and therefore still writing this blog.
I’ve just come back from cycling in the north Birmingham green belt. The weather was gorgeous, but there were so many people in the parks that it actually felt dangerous. The roads were fairly quiet though, so I soon found places I could get some miles in whilst maintaining the required level of distance.
I’ve had a lot of exercise today, so the rest of the day is going to be spend on more sedate pursuits (an online gig, two listening parties, and at some point some food and wine).
I watched the coronavirus broadcast for the first time in a while. We have new rules, but I don’t think any of them will have a massive impact on my life. I’m used to this way of living now, and while I’m lookng forward to helping define the new normal I have very little intererest in returning to the life we had before.
The last couple of days at work have been ok. I have been busy, but I like busy. My study is quite warm, but I’m retreating outside to cycle straight after work and then spending any evening when I’m not in a listening party downstairs. It looks like I’ll be working largely from home for at least the next couple of months so I’m trying to work out if I want to make any changes to my technological setup. The temptation to try a day on my personal laptop with one large monitor is strong, and although I’d have no Skype or Visio I reckon I can do everything else. Maybe an experiment for a hot Friday.
Talking of experiments, I did experimental bolognaise yesterday. We have quite a backlog of spaghetti and sauce, and I wanted to free up some space in the cupboards. It was tasty, and I’ll definitely make it again.
There were points today where I forgot we were in lockdown. I went for a lovely long bike ride into the countryside (probably my longest 100% road cycle for years), and spent most of the rest of the day reading and listening to music. I did go to a shop for the first time in a month though, which involved leaving the house without either a bike or a dog for the first time in ages. It was only the shop at the end of the road, and they had the butter we needed and 12 eggs for a pound (I have to eat them in 5 days, but that’s easy because I eat eggs almost every day).
Back to work tomorrow. Routine is good, but I did really enjoy the lack of it today.
The weather hasn’t been the greatest this weekend, so I’ve largely spent my time at home (apart from an hour out on the bike this afternoon). I made two batches of bread yesterday (we have a lot of bread mix, so making bread is going to be a thing for a while yet), and caught up on all the TV shows I’ve missed whilst binge watching The Clone Wars (I loved the new episodes, and it makes me want to watch some Star Wars films soon). It looks like tomorrow might be a much nicer day, so I’m starting to plan a longer route to try out tomorrow afternoon, and at some point in that trip I’ll hit 100 miles of cycling for May, which doesn’t sound like much based on what I used to do but I’ve struggled to get the miles in now I don’t have to commute.