Diary

Diary entries

18th May 2020

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  • Feeling: Sleepy
  • Listening to: nothing today
  • Watching: The Mandalorian

Woke up reasonably early today to get myself ready for teaching an online course this morning. After I’d got that out of the way I had a load of other meetings through until 4pm. I did manage a short break at lunch and it was nice enough to eat in the garden.

It was my nephew (I)’s birthday today so the kids did a jibjab card for him in the morning, and spoke to him on FaceTime in the evening. Apart from that a pretty standard day for them – some school work, Art and online tutoring sessions are the usual pattern for Monday.

F has been re-watching A Series of Unfortunate Events and today watched the final episode which left her a bit sad – lots of characters die across the series and the last episode is no exception. It also refuses to end neatly and although it does tie up a lot of loose ends, it also leaves the main characters fates as broadly unknown (although apparently the book series is bleaker in its ending!). F struggled to sleep tonight with thoughts about the story still running through her mind.

We had a nice tea thanks to D’s decision to buy a sticky toffee pudding last week which we had with custard this evening – we don’t usually have desserts so it was a nice treat.

D has also been working on a basket to hold our remote controls which she finished this evening. I don’t really imagine the remotes will stay in there, but it is a lot more attractive than the current cardboard box they fail to stay in.

Stay safe, stay strong.

17th May 2020

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The morning started with a very cheerful F trotting into our bedroom pleased to be “awake first”. I made tea for me and D, and we all shared some left over pastries for breakfast.

D and I put together the new cold frame which arrived last week and got the tomato, sunflower and nasturtium plants out in it.

C from choir had posted a little video tour of her garden on Facebook and it was so nice, we decided to do one as well (although slightly annoyed with myself that I filmed it in portrait mode).

In the afternoon we watched the latest Star Wars film, which was fine, although having really enjoyed The Force Awakens, the last two films have felt a bit ponderous and I’ve not really been grabbed by the storylines.

After that B and F had put together a quiz for my side of the family using Kahoot (inspired by a similar quiz done by R, one of their cousins from Ds side) – which seemed to go really well.

I had to do some work for tomorrow, so I spent most of the evening doing that, and now a bit tired, but it’s been a good day and I’m feeling very positive this evening.

Stay safe, stay strong.

16th May 2020

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A very lazy day today. I got up to get breakfast pastries from Haddie and Trilby first thing, but after breakfast ended up nodding off on the sofa. While I was asleep D, F and B went for a walk.

This set the tone for the day – I did a bit of reading, listened to some music, and eventually managed to get myself into the garden and constructed a sort of camp stool out of the hedge trimmings.

F was a bit bored today, although she did try to fly a kite in the garden (unsuccessfully) and did some spray painting later on.

D made some flower headwear for C’s quiz this evening (each week there is a dressing up theme – this week “flowers”)

C had included a Harry Potter round in the quiz for Freya – which cheered her up (especially as we got full marks on that round – but then badly let ourselves down in the Sport round!)

This evening D and I rented the Birds of Prey movie to watch which was quite fun. Now bed time.

Stay safe, stay strong.

15th May 2020

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Got up early (6) to try to catch up on some work this morning – although it took me a while to get going at least I was working before 8am and got quite a lot done this morning – although the early start rather caught up with me in the afternoon.

Had an OK day, and dropped some plants and other things off for C – and got to see N – a real life friend in the flesh! (albeit from a distance) and with two deliveries (pillows and a cold frame for the garden) – by lockdown standards this was already a pretty interesting day 🙂 However, the real excitement of the day wasn’t until the evening when we sat down to watch the final / banquet episode of the Great British Menu.

What seems like an age ago, although in reality just a few months, B was invited to attend the children’s literature themed banquet at Exeter (aka Jordan) College in Oxford by Scoop magazine (an arts & literature magazine for children) – because he has written book reviews for them.

On a very stormy day in February B and D set off to attend the banquet, only to find that trains were either cancelled or extremely delayed. So F and I interrupted our breakfast at the nearby Costa to go and get them and drive them to Oxford.

While F and I went on and spent a really nice day with my Mum in Cheltenham, B and D got to enjoy the banquet and to meet some of their heroes. It probably goes without saying that they thought the food was amazing, but it was also an opportunity to meet a whole range of brilliant people from Lemn Sissay to Nina Wadia to Cressida Cowell to … too many to name (not forgetting, of course, Susan Calman).

It was so exciting for us to see the results today of what was a very long day and for D and B to relive the experience with us – and even in this digital age it was still incredibly exciting to see them on the actual telly!

I’m still feeling excited by it now! (and also still chuckling at B saying “possibly the best dessert I’ve ever had” as if he had some other contenders to consider alongside the amazing edible book cooked up by top chef Alex Greene!)

Stay safe, stay strong.

May 14th 2020

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  • Feeling: Tired
  • Listening to: The Well-Tempered Clavier (Bach, played by Angela Hewitt)
  • Watching: nothing much today

Feeling tired again, and had a headache through the day again – although it has eased up now.

Woke early feeling OK, but feels like its been a long day. F seems to have struggled this week and really didn’t want to do much today. We did get out for a short walk this afternoon (definitely more people out and about now) and this morning played a game F made yesterday with the help of a book “Board games to create and play“. It involved an invisible player and a search for treasure. I lost!

A much nicer day today and we had lunch outside thanks to D (who now, sadly, seems to have picked up whatever I’ve got and is sniffling away).

I had lots of work calls, but took a bit of a break during the day because I knew I had to work 6-8 this evening with some extra Zoom calls with people in the USA.

Really looking forward to the weekend – suddenly feels like its been a long week. I’m going to get to bed early.

Stay safe, stay strong.

May 13th 2020

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  • Feeling: Tired and headachey
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Great British Sewing Bee

It should have been a good day but a bit spoilt by tiredness, a persistent headache and computer problems 🙁

The big triumph of the day was my brioche baking, which turned out pretty well – its nice and light, and tastes like brioche and is incredibly moorish.

But on the upside I think I’ve just managed (after several hours of trying) to fix my computer woes, so hopefully tomorrow will go more smoothly.

Stay safe, stay strong, stay ways from computers that don’t work properly.

12th May 2020

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  • Feeling: OK
  • Listening to: Kylie
  • Watching: Life drawing live (well, D is, I’m writing this instead)

Overslept today and didn’t wake until almost 9am – and B did the same. D had been up and about for a couple of hours at least by the time I got downstairs, taken a shopping deliver and done some exercise.

I feel like we were all working hard today. F watched some BBC Bytesize programmes, I had a few calls, D was working and B got on with his school work. B and F also worked on various side projects they’ve got going on. The both updated pages on the websites (http://freyapatelstephens.com/poems and http://www.brynpatelstephens.com/brynsbooks/bookreview.html respectively), and B also followed a tutorial for some computer graphic software called Blender to create a 3D illustration of a doughnut – which looks delicious!

Over lunch and across the afternoon I started on my attempt to make some brioche – the dough was sticky to start with and once the (huge quantity) of butter was incorporated it became very difficult to handle – more like an over soft pastry than the sort of dough I’m used to dealing with – I can see why lots of the video tutorials for brioche I’ve seen use a mixer with a dough hook to incorporate the butter! I’m not sure how its going to turn out, but it seems to be proving well, and I’ve just put it in the fridge to stop it over-proving before the morning

Fingers crossed that I can bake it successfully tomorrow!

Stay safe, stay strong.

11th May 2020

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  • Feeling: A bit up and down
  • Listening to: Nothing today
  • Watching: Van der Valk

I’m feeling a bit down after the various announcements from government yesterday and today. I don’t think there are simple solutions to the situation, but I guess I’m worried that the current course of action seems foolhardy when we don’t seem to have adequate testing or contact tracing in place.

However, I don’t want to dwell on this too much although it has affected my mood this evening, we’ve had a good day.

We got some deliveries of some bean plants and new tea towels (D is fed up of my using the tea towels while baking and getting bread dough and flour all over them). The bean plants were pretty sad looking by the time they got to us – they were meant to be delivered on Friday, but only reached us today – so D has put them in pots and is hoping to revive them. On the other hand the tomato plants we got from C a few weeks ago are looking great!

The kids had art class and for the first time F actually enjoyed it. We had a talk beforehand about it, and she was worried that she would get upset because she already had a vision of what she wanted the picture to be like in her head and she didn’t think it would turn out as good as her vision. We agreed it would still be good to try, and she seemed to really enjoy it for a change.

Kids also got on with school work and had their online tutoring sessions (with Explore learning) which they seemed to enjoy. I was my usual work focussed self as it was Monday, but had a nice lunch with the rest of the family (although indoors today) and this evening we all watched Taskmaster together again (which is far too funny for the kids just before bedtime!)

F has been writing some more poems for her website, but this is one of my favourites from a couple of weeks ago:

The Outside
Listen to the howling lonely gale
Feel the cold harsh hail
The leaves stroke my cheeks
My head aches for weeks
The birds' song fills my heart 

Thick branches scraped my heart
The summer comes
The red leaf runs

So the breeze laughs and sings 
The leaves have wings
The birds loop the trees
And you catch the dancing bees

http://www.freyapatelstephens.com/poems/

My next baking challenge is brioche – a request from Bryn – and the aim is to bake some brioche buns for burgers later in the week – I’ve never done brioche before so quite excited to try.

Stay safe, stay strong x

9th May 2020

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  • Feeling: Tired out
  • Listening to: Welcombe Radio
  • Watching: The Last Jedi

Tired out this evening, despite not really doing a lot today – I blame the heat.

Woke up at a reasonable time feeling really relaxed – first time in ages I woken feeling completely rested. In the morning we went out for a walk in the small woods along the riverside in Leamington – the sun coming through the green canopy was beautiful.

While we were out I got a message to say a recording by our choir was going to be played on a local community radio station, Welcombe Radio, today – so I spent some time listening to their Art Show to hear our moment of radio play.

But the big event of the day was the release of our virtual choir performance that we’ve been working on since we haven’t been able to rehearse face-to-face. About a third of the choir took part and the musical director has turned video director to put it all together. So proud of this choir and to be part of it.

Stay safe, stay strong xs

8th May 2020

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  • Feeling: Relaxed(ish)
  • Listening to: Green Day
  • Watching: Rocketman

Woke at 7 and got up to make tea – but after I’d had tea I went back to sleep while D got up, and I didn’t wake again until almost 10. I tried my hardest to relax and not think about work all day (mostly successfully). I was at my most relaxed when I was cooking (bread and then meatballs and pasta for the kids tea and plaice for D).

I barely ventured out all day it was so hot – I only made it as far as the shed to get some tools for a few little projects (which I didn’t really make much progress with). I did manage to do some reading as well. D was out in the garden and went out for a walk with the kids later on while I cooked tea.

I wasn’t great company today to be honest, but more because I was just trying to have some quiet time to myself rather than anything else (although not sure that’s a comfort to D and the kids). But we did have fun today with the dining area being converted into a “games café” for the day.

F played “Rush Hour” (a great little puzzle game) in the morning, D and the kids played Contrast in the afternoon and then we all played Happy Salmon and Exploding Kittens after tea.

I did two lots of bread today, and I’m pretty pleased with how the first lot has come out

My other bread was a sourdough focaccia recipe I’d not tried before – that’s gone in the oven just now. It looked good (weird, but good) before I put it in, so hoping it lives up to the promise.

B also did some cooking today with D, making some “whoopie pies” (small soft chocolate cakes with jam and marshmallow sandwiched in the middle) which looked and tasted great.

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Been baking with the boy, we now have no more sugar!

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All in all a good day, although the kids were sometimes a bit argumentative and I could have been less grumpy at times. But very nice to have had a “do nothing” day but still have the weekend in front of us.

Stay safe, stay strong x

Focaccia is done – looking forward to having this for breakfast tomorrow!