Life – Black and Tabby Runs

But I can’t go back to work yet…

But I can’t go back to work yet – I haven’t made a banana loaf or sourdough bread!

So it’s July 2020 and the great lockdown has eased. Shops are reopening, pubs have opened (and 3 have shut again immediately after having a customer test positive for coronavirus), and cafes can reopen within strict guidelines. This means I’m back to work – and I’m both excited and nervous about it.

In exactly the same way as children reach the end of the summer holidays and panic about all the exciting schemes they had planned but hadn’t got around to doing, so I feel about lockdown. I have managed quite a lot of running, and walking, and even some cycling. I have done some tasty cooking and made incredibly healthy salads. I have looked after students going through the strangeness of online university exams and finals. We have all survived, but now it’s time to re emerge into the real world.

It’ll be lovely to see my work colleagues “in 3-d” rather than in a Zoom meeting, and great to be back at The Pound again. But can I remember how to use the till, and the coffee machine, and how to speak to real people again? I guess I’ll find out…

New beginnings

New starts, new jobs, new experiences. Some good, some not so (please don’t remind me about that interview- my toes still curl up when I remember it). I certainly made an impression at my new swimming lesson last week. My hat nearly came off, and as I tried to put it back on (over wet hair) I somehow fired it out into the middle of the next lane like a giant catapult.

Some of these changes are impressive, life defining moments in time. On Saturday we dropped our daughter off at university to start her first year as a student. She was so ready for it, but still nervous and excited. I *think* we, as her parents, were ready. We were definitely nervous and excited! We left her in her room looking settled and ready to take on the next stage in her life. I’m not ashamed to say we were two very proud parents.

Less momentous changes include a new temporary job for me, which have left me struggling to fit in any exercise around it (hence the new swimming class. If there’s something scheduled in on a weekly basis I’m more likely to make it.) I spend all day sitting down talking, so not terribly active. I’m going to have to motivate myself to exercise in the evenings now when I get home. You know, the time when I then need to get dinner ready (our teenage son has very long, very hollow legs), tidy up, pop to the shops, sort the cats out – all that kind of stuff.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in this situation, so I’d welcome any top tips on how to fit everything in whilst still managing to have a lie-in at the weekend. Suggestions please!

Sad Update. December 2014

I’ve had a very strange December. All the usual pre-Christmas stresses were compounded by a loss of any Internet at home. No online shopping, no running my online business, no blogging. Time pressures have also meant very little running.

All of these frustrations have paled into insignificance with today’s news. Today we had to say goodbye to our beautiful old cat, Holly. She was 17 years old, we’d had her since she was a little kitten, she was often grumpy, she’d been ill for quite some time, but we all loved her dearly. She was the ‘black’ part of ‘Black and Tabby’, she was a unique feisty cat and she will be very sorely missed.

Find yourself a lovely big clump of heavenly catnip and sleep well, little one.