Month: August 2020

31st August 2020

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  • Feeling: Better
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Magic Camp

Had quite a lazy Bank Holiday Monday. Woke up at 8am and got up before 9. It wasn’t sunny but warm enough to have breakfast outside – I had to remake my coffee because of sour milk but apart from that it was very pleasant.

After lunch and a bit of lazing around, I finally got round to mowing the lawn – the front now very quick to do now I’ve dug up a significant proportion of it!

D was sewing facemasks while I mowed the lawn, and once I was done I sat down with B to fix an issue with his website (to deal with a change to the Google Sheets API he uses for his book reviews) – we started on this yesterday but today we were in a position to fix it which felt good.

We had lunch on the deck as well, and then went for a walk – and unusually no moans or complaints accompanied this decision (or at least hardly any) and we had a nice walk just from the house, probably out from about an hour.

Once we got back home we watched “Magic Camp” on Disney+ – it was pretty good fun as a family movie and F was in stitches – always nice to hear her properly laugh.

Overall a lazy day, but I don’t feel like we’ve done nothing and both D and I were feeling a bit better and it was a nice family day.

Stay safe, stay strong

30th August 2020

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  • Feeling: Up and down
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Strike

Up late today (around 10am). I’d decided to try a pulled-pork recipe today which cooks for 5 hours (ended up being more like 6 hours, and I even think it could have done with longer to really get to the “falling apart” level) – so getting that in the oven was the first thing which meant I didn’t get breakfast until about 11am.

I was feeling a bit better today (although I hit a wall in the middle of the afternoon and got tired and grouchy). Unfortunately D wasn’t feeling so good today and spent a lot of it curled up on the sofa reading.

After I’d had breakfast and had coffee while watching F do a self-designed obstacle course in the garden (a result of watching too much Ultimate Beast Master), I started off some dough for some brioche buns – I wanted to try a different recipe to the brioche I made in May and I thought I might as well try the one recommended alongside the pulled-pork recipe. I had some misgivings about the recipe (who measures butter in tablespoons?) and I struggled with the recipe a bit – despite 20 minutes kneading I didn’t manage to get the dough to the kind of consistency I’d expect. However, despite this (and it contributing to my grouchiness in the afternoon) the results were OK.

The final part part of the dish was a barbecue sauce made with the juices from the pork. I half (or even quarter) followed another BBC Good Food recipe but mainly did it by taste and ended up with a couple of jars of tasty BBQ sauce.

The end result was a success – F, B and I all enjoyed the pork & BBQ sauce and we all enjoyed the brioche buns (D had her’s with veggie sausages)

Stay safe, stay strong

29th August 2020

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Woke around 6am, which was too early – especially for a Saturday. I managed to go back to sleep for a bit and eventually got up at 8am. We’d booked tickets to go to Upton House at 10am, so we didn’t want to hang about, and got the kids up as well.

We were one of the first arrivals at Upton House, and it was quiet as we started to walk around, although it quickly got busier. F had brought a kite and we tried flying it on the large lawn at the back of the house with a little success, although the wind wasn’t constant enough to get it flying properly.

The grounds of Upton House are pretty (designed by Kitty Lloyd-Jones, a Welsh garden designer) but not very extensive, and we wandered around them quite quickly, getting to the café just in time for an early lunch. D tooke some lovely pictures as we walked.

After lunch we headed home and we all collapsed a bit – I think D has picked up whatever virus I’ve got and we both stayed on the sofa for most of the rest of the afternoon. I slept again for about an hour.

A nice family day overall, even if D and I aren’t 100%.

Stay safe, stay strong

28th August 2020

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During Fs session with Mrs C (Liz) last week they planned an experiment that F could do to create a line graph. The experiment was to heat different liquids and see how quickly they evapourated over time. F had a whole list of substances she wanted to try and had planned out the whole thing – but not actually done the experiment. So this morning when I woke (late – about 9am) I was informed we had to get the experiment done before her session with Liz today at 10am. So I spent the first hour of my day (before breakfast or coffee) boiling water, milk and vinegar (I drew the line there although F also wanted to do apple juice, tea and ketchup).

Despite having the smell of vinegar in my nose for the rest of the morning, it all went surprisingly well, and F did a nice chart for her session, and talked about the shortcomings of the experiment design. I even think we were able to make a reasonable observation that the vinegar evaporated more slowly than water – which I think will be true because acetic acid has a higher boiling point than water (although I’m prepared to admit that this could have just been flaws in the experiment.)

I’ve not really been myself this week. I felt a bit better today, and not like just going back to sleep, but still not really feeling great. I even managed to do a bit of work, although in the afternoon I was hampered by computer problems which meant I got next to nothing done 🙁

Tomorrow we’re booked to go Upton House in the morning which should be a nice change of pace – hopefully it will have stopped raining by then!

Stay safe, stay strong

27th August 2020

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  • Feeling: Still not 100%
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Spaced

After a short attempt to work this morning – maybe for a couple of hours – I decided to take the rest of the day off because I just felt I had no energy. I slept for an hour before lunch, then spent the afternoon just reading and relaxing quietly.

Hoping that tomorrow I’ve got some energy back and feel like working again before the weekend.

Stay safe, stay strong

26th August 2020

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After a couple of days of feeling a bit off, woke this morning with a sort throat, headache and sore eyes – which could be a cold or could be hay fever, but either way feels like something that’s been building for a couple of days and might explain why I’ve felt lacking in energy.

D was also feeling a bit lethargic today (although she was up early to speak to her Dad – still in India – and for the Sainsburys’ delivery).

B spent some more time playing with the Turing Tumble today, but F seemed pretty bored – she got up later and then didn’t really seem to settle anything all day. I think she’ll be very glad to be back at school next week.

Weather was much better today and we even managed to eat lunch outside, but apart from that was just glad to get through the day, and I stopped work a bit early because by 4pm I was exhausted. After D finished work we watched some trashy TV and in the evening we had a quiz with Ds family this evening (the first time for a few weeks) – it was good to see everyone.

Stay safe, stay strong.

25th August 2020

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Woke late this morning – but had a bit more energy today. The weather has been pretty poor all day (Storm Francis) – apparently lots of trees down across the area although none near us as far as I know. There was a minor casualty in the garden – the sunflower head broke off in the wind much to D’s disappointment.

F had declared today a “reading day” but not sure she got very far with that. She did do some reading, but also Minecraft, playing with her brother, watching TV – all the things you might expect of a 9 year old to be honest. Later on she had her drum lesson and 11+ tutoring – which was on poetry this week – so sweet and nice to hear her declare “I love poetry” – and she really does. She’s planning a poetry reading, writing and performance day for Thursday.

B worked on his computer as usual, and then went back to the project of building a game on a mechanical computer (with F) later in the day – and got it working. This was the first working version, although he got a slightly more sophisticated version working later in the day. The rules are:

  • You and the computer take turns sending balls down the course with the aim of being the player who sends the final red ball down the course
  • Each player can send 1, 2, or 3 balls down on each turn by hitting the lower left lever the appropriate number of times
  • For the computer to take a go you reverse one of the pieces and hit the left lever to start its turn
  • Once the computer sends a ball down that hits the right lever it’s your go again (for which you reverse the same piece and then hit the left lever for however many balls you are going to select)

Played according to the rules above, the computer always wins – (see this YouTube video on the Dr NIM game for more on the original game and how it works.)

Meanwhile we got B’s bus pass for the upcoming school year and the government has changed it’s policy on pupils wearing masks in schools (from recommending against it to “headteachers discretion”) which is what Bs school had basically decided anyway I think…

Stay safe, stay strong

24th August 2020

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  • Feeling: Slightly under the weather
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Cursed

Not felt 100% today – just a bit drained and a headache on and off through the day. Week days seem very “samey” right now and when I sit down to write a blog post in the evening I’m left feeling I’ve not done much and I don’t really know what anyone else has been doing 🙁 In just over a week the kids will be back at school, which will be a big change I guess – I’m expecting to miss them once they are not in the house all day.

F was persuaded by D to find some non-computer things to do today – so she did some lovely colouring and painting this morning and planned out some activities for the rest of the week – tomorrow is a “reading day” and she’s going to try The Book of Three and Cogheart.

B was doing some more animation/special effects in the morning, but in the afternoon inspired by a Matt Parker video about a game called Dr Nim he decided to try to recreate the game using our Turing Tumble (a marble powered computer). He roped F into this as well and they tried to work it out together although so far without success.

Meanwhile in the garden D continues to have success with flowers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CERYjm_nSsi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Stay safe, stay strong

23rd August 2020

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Woke at about 8am and managed to get out of bed to make D tea for a change. Then I’d promised F pancakes so I made up some american style pancakes (using Yeo Valley Vanilla Yoghurt for the acid to get the bicarb working – which worked really well).

We had breakfast outside on the deck, although F fell out with D because she was asked to put some shoes on before going outside – which rather took the shine off a nice family breakfast.

After breakfast D spent some time sketching for a free online course from the University of Newcastle in Australia, while I was going to mow the lawn. However, I ended up digging up more the front lawn instead of mowing it (on the basis that there was no point in mowing it before I dug it up, and now I’ll never have to mow it again). That left me with no energy left to actually mow the remaining lawn of course! D was more successful with her project.

We also had the excitement (?) of getting a new landline handset delivered today – we don’t use the landline very much, but the old phone had developed a crackle which we are hoping the replacement handset will solve. Considering they do so little, landline handsets seem weirdly complicated to use – so we end up barely using any of the features and just hitting ‘redial’ a lot for our most common numbers (our respective parents basically).

The afternoon was very relaxing – I read the book I picked up yesterday (Angel Mage by Garth Nix – a fantasy which has a lot of nods to The Three Musketeers), we all watched The Sleepover (closest I can get is The Long Kiss Goodnight for kids) which was fun, and then family quiz with my side of the family (which the kids had spent the morning putting together).

All in all a nice relaxing Sunday.

Stay safe, stay strong.

22nd August 2020

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Woke late this morning – about ten to 10 – D had been up for a while and was just about to tell me to wake up anyway. The dressing on F’s finger had come off overnight, so I had to clean and dress the wound – which seems to be healing very well – I think it will be healed quicker than the two weeks the nurse estimated.

By the time we were all up & breakfasted it was gone 11. D had suggested we walk to Warwick, so we decided we’d do that and get some lunch from a coffee shop and find somewhere to eat outside. Buying lunch in a coffee shop which was previously a regular weekend occurrence now seems like the height of decadence and a huge treat!

The walk went OK although we had a bit of upset when F said “my coat’s a bugger to do up” and both D and I (very gently, and not at all trying to make her feel she’d done anything wrong) said probably not the phrase to use in the park. Unfortunately what we saw as very mild request F saw as a real rebuke (and probably hypocritical as it’s exactly the sort of thing I’d say) and got quite upset and started to walk back home without us. D eventually managed to catch up with her and calm her down, and we made peace.

We got to Warwick ready for lunch, and B suggested we went to Jack’s Shack – we’d never been there before but B noticed it as we walked past, and I’ve seen video’s from them on Facebook during the lockdown which had made me intrigued to try them. They were lovely, and had a little “garden” out the back which was empty when we got there – so we had the whole area to ourselves for most of our lunch. Definitely recommended for sandwiches, cakes, shakes and coffee.

After lunch we went on into town and got tea from the Golden Monkey (thank goodness – we’ve been on tea bags for the last few days and its been a bit desperate). We also popped into Warwick Books and picked up a pile of books – F was especially pleased with two poetry books she picked out and later she enjoyed reading them allowed to my Mum over FaceTime.

We walked home (with a bit of moaning from F who was tired by this point – I carried her for a bit) and talked to my Mum, before tea (left-overs from yesterday’s takeaway) and TV and eventually bed.

It’s been a very nice day but for some reason I’ve felt a little restless in mind and spirit this evening – I expect it will pass. Hope that the weather stays fine tomorrow so we can get out in the garden. I’ve promised F pancakes for breakfast tomorrow …

Stay safe, stay strong