Post Comment Love 20-22 November

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love.

I’m finding it hard to believe that we still have almost two weeks of lockdown 2.0 to go, it feels like we should be almost there already, but we’re not. We’re noticing a difference in the levels of traffic in the evenings, but not during the day at all, and despite news of the vaccines, the news worrying. I think we’ve a way to go yet, as we will soon face an even more concerted campaign by those who don’t agree with vaccination.

I am looking forward to this weekend though and looking forward to doing some cooking as this year we’ll be making a Christmas cake as well as the usual Christmas puddings MOH makes. I may be late doing this, who knows, but it’s stir-up Sunday this weekend and MOH is on track for the puddings.

It’s another old photo for my post this week. This week we’ve skipped back to 2018, and a visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It was such a good day, that was the year that I went on Press Day, and when the show returns I’d be keen to do that again.

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Shops of Lyon

We are one of the fortunate ones who managed to get away, albeit briefly, before the first lockdown back in March. For Valentines weekend we headed for a few nights in Lyon - you might remember that getting back was more stressful than it needed to be as we almost missed the flight. Even now, just typing this, I’m reliving the feelings that brought - we will never cut it so fine again for a flight. Given this year, it will be a fair while before we go anywhere near a flight, I’m sure, but even so.

Lyon was lovely though. We did the usual thing of arriving ‘close enough’ to our hotel and then wandering, or rather, marching through the streets in search of where we were staying. I say marching, as at the start of a break, somehow we always walk much more quickly, by the end and when it’s time to leave everything is a bit more leisurely. More so than normal it would seem on this break, ahem.

I’d booked a hotel in the old part of town and so we walked past these shops many times - it was no hardship at all really, though.

I wanted to peer into each and every one of them. Perhaps this one especially…

Even those which were no longer in use and full of faded glory drew my attention.

Sometimes it was the content more than than the shopfront that caught my eye.

I still haven’t worked out the significance of those human figures, but if they had a price tag on then I’d be more than interested in acquiring them. And isn’t it peculiar, this is probably the closest I’ve got to browsing shops this year, but it’s something I’m missing - even though it’s not something I do a lot! Probably linked to the fact that we can’t at the moment, and absence making the heart grow fonder as the saying goes. Though I’m sure I’d also hate wandering around a packed shopping area too.

Reflecting on my week #145

Last week was what MOH dubbed as “uninspiring” - I think he was mostly talking about the weather, rather than the company. Or at least I hope he was. I think we were both going a bit stir crazy at one point, and so a walk was needed. But neither of us could work out where to go - I know, so 2020 - so we took a long walk to Marks!

By Friday we were looking to escape again, and after working longer hours it was good to take a few hours back. This time we were more certain about our destination and headed for Greenwich Park. On the way I bumped into a man I used to see every morning on my walk to work, and strangely almost in the same place too. The normal-ness and familiar-ness of it was peculiar, but strangely comforting. Then as we reached the park entrance I saw someone else I knew. I’d forgotten how much those little hellos and nods meant. And I’m pretty sure MOH wasn’t that surprised by me bumping into people I know, or sort of know.

Once in the park we decided to head into the Flower Garden and towards the lake, somewhere where we used to visit a lot when we first moved here. We used to feed the ducks, but not on this visit. There were plenty of people there though, some feeding the ducks, most wandering about and most trying to avoid everyone else. Most but not all, sadly.

The mahonia bushes were starting to flower, and they’re a favourite of mine. I’d forgotten how bright they are, and just how many bushes there are in this part of the park. I think that’s one thing that 2020 has brought, being more aware of our surroundings, and on the whole that’s not such a bad thing.

It was just as well that we did get out and blink in the sunshine on Friday as there wasn’t much of that about this past weekend. Saturday was grim, but with plans to watch the rugby it didn’t matter so much. We managed to choose our time to pop out well, and so avoided most of the rain as we stopped off at the local butchers to order our turkey for Christmas. That was an interesting conversation; what size do you want - well, that depends on what we’re allowed to do. We settled for a relatively smallish size, and we can either revise that when we know what the plans are after lockdown or just as easily we can buy another joint to go alongside it if we need it.

I didn’t think that ordering a turkey would cause such excitement or debate, but it seems to have done. Our decision was based on two things; we like turkey and we will need to eat at home over Christmas at some point, and so it might as well as be one from our butchers, so there’s the shopping local element too. This year we’ve made plenty of conscious decisions to support the businesses around us, often ones we use anyway. Saturday evening we had a takeaway from a local restaurant, the food was great and we’re pleased to have eaten it and support them, but we can’t wait to get back to eating in their restaurant.

It was an odd experience collecting the takeaway. We ordered the day before, I gave them a wrong mobile number, somehow realised the next morning and corrected it (I’m not sure how I knew to check), they confirmed the order and phoned a couple of hours before our collection time to take payment. We arrived (by car - it’s too far away to stand a chance of getting the food home hot), MOH jumped out and loitered with four or five other people waiting for my name to be called out (ha ha!) and then our food was handed out through the window.

Definitely strange times, and amusing - and bemusing - when you think how much our lives have changed, and sobering when how much is at stake is so evident. On how much our lives have changed, this week is now week 35 of working from home. During the week our kitchen table sees a lot more action than it ever has in any other year. Even though MOH is no longer working, and our setup has changed slightly, it is still very different to the rest of our working lives.

Sunday MOH had planned to go on a long bike ride, by Saturday afternoon it was already looking doubtful and was most likely already off (in his head at least) before waking up to heavy rain, which really didn’t stop all day. So instead, we both attempted our first Bounce Bhangra, rigging up their YouTube channel on our TV.

The movements weren’t that different to a usual aerobic class, but were definitely “heart pumping” - for me they were great entertainment too, as let’s just say MOH isn’t best known for his dance class ability, or even his coordination. So as well as trying to learn the moves and keep up, I was also trying to give instructions to MOH so he could attempt to copy what was going on, and try not to laugh too much. Part-way through he remembered why he gave up running, and then hobbled around for the rest of the day, garnering sympathy (and a more emphasised limp) every time he moved about.

Thankfully overnight he’s made a full recovery, though I’m not sure I’ll persuade him to have another go. I will though, it was a lot more interesting to a more usual aerobic session - and for the record, I’m usually the one causing chaos in the days when actual classes took place.

And yes, I have lists of things to do which probably only make sense to me - and thankfully this one has things crossed off it too. Today while on a Teams call the man from British Gas arrived to read the meter so it’s likely that at some point my colleagues had sight of him arriving and leaving in a fluorescent flash. There was post delivered too, and for me, that meant these skeins of yarn-y loveliness. I’m hoping that these will act as neutrals for the yet-to-be-discovered yarn in my advent calendar, and if not, they’re still lovely and definitely worth having in my stash…