I was joking with my friend Anne on the phone the other day that Jerry the Alien Overlord's Minion is doing pretty well on his takeover. He probably wasn't expecting such grand success when he got assigned to this backspace. The performance of his virus is blowing his group's KPIs off the charts: Many of the humans in the world are sitting still in our houses, we're not going to the library, we're all eating rudimentary pasta bakes and drinking too much. We're stopped in our tracks.
Luckily, in the last three days, my family has arranged to do daily calls. They're at 9am GMT this week. Next week they'll be in the morning there, and then back to morning here the week after that. I'm glad for them already. It's the first time we've ever been in such close touch since first Andy left town, and then me. That was sixteen years ago. Anyway, the family call got me out of bed this morning. I could feel that small lethargy that may have kept me snoozing just four days ago, but today, it got me up.
Then something good happened. I've been doing yoga at home since just after Christmas. It's a beginner class thing I do on my ipad. It's great. I just roll out of bed and put on "workout gear" that nobody else will ever witness, and do 30 mins. But today, something clicked -- not my back -- it felt good, and for the first time, I got in flow with it, instead of waiting for the lady to tell me the next thing. It was strong and calming. YES. Looking forward to tomorrow. And the family call. I'm worried about my sister, and worried that my fear is coming across as rudeness. It might be, I guess, but I'm worried.
I went for a walk today. At about noon. It was gorgeous. Quiet, and springy, and I went a way I hadn't been, and avoided the shops. Some people definitely still don't get it. I walked past the grocer and people were dutifully lining up outside about two metres apart when a man walked past, and wove through the line like the people were witches' hats and he was learning how to ride a motorbike on a netball court.
I've been wondering about the new skill I should be developing. It might be tricky because I'm not actually idle, per se, working and such. Even though I usually like to be idle when I'm at home, and I'd go so far as to say I'm an expert. My list comprises 1. make paneer and 2. learn D3.js. It's mostly because I love to eat paneer, and I would be more able to work solo if I could write D3, but I also strongly dislike any attempt to learn a programming language that's not HTML back in 1996, so... not holding out too much hope on that one. But let's see.
I'd like to be the sort of woman who betters herself in times of crisis, but I suspect what might happen is that I won't. I've spent most of my time since moving to London starting a new thing and getting better at that, so the last thing I want to do when I'm at home is excel. Unless of course it's excelling in making Ribollita, that Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup we all love, because I made it tonight for the first time and it's absolutely delicious. This is the recipe I used, but I changed it. Didn't have carrots. Added cabbage.
The thing I liked best on the internet today was #StayHomeAndDrawSpaceships.
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| Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Map (screenshot from 25 March 2020) Confirmed cases and daily increase |
Luckily, in the last three days, my family has arranged to do daily calls. They're at 9am GMT this week. Next week they'll be in the morning there, and then back to morning here the week after that. I'm glad for them already. It's the first time we've ever been in such close touch since first Andy left town, and then me. That was sixteen years ago. Anyway, the family call got me out of bed this morning. I could feel that small lethargy that may have kept me snoozing just four days ago, but today, it got me up.
Then something good happened. I've been doing yoga at home since just after Christmas. It's a beginner class thing I do on my ipad. It's great. I just roll out of bed and put on "workout gear" that nobody else will ever witness, and do 30 mins. But today, something clicked -- not my back -- it felt good, and for the first time, I got in flow with it, instead of waiting for the lady to tell me the next thing. It was strong and calming. YES. Looking forward to tomorrow. And the family call. I'm worried about my sister, and worried that my fear is coming across as rudeness. It might be, I guess, but I'm worried.
I went for a walk today. At about noon. It was gorgeous. Quiet, and springy, and I went a way I hadn't been, and avoided the shops. Some people definitely still don't get it. I walked past the grocer and people were dutifully lining up outside about two metres apart when a man walked past, and wove through the line like the people were witches' hats and he was learning how to ride a motorbike on a netball court.
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| Magnolia majesticolia |
I've been wondering about the new skill I should be developing. It might be tricky because I'm not actually idle, per se, working and such. Even though I usually like to be idle when I'm at home, and I'd go so far as to say I'm an expert. My list comprises 1. make paneer and 2. learn D3.js. It's mostly because I love to eat paneer, and I would be more able to work solo if I could write D3, but I also strongly dislike any attempt to learn a programming language that's not HTML back in 1996, so... not holding out too much hope on that one. But let's see.
I'd like to be the sort of woman who betters herself in times of crisis, but I suspect what might happen is that I won't. I've spent most of my time since moving to London starting a new thing and getting better at that, so the last thing I want to do when I'm at home is excel. Unless of course it's excelling in making Ribollita, that Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup we all love, because I made it tonight for the first time and it's absolutely delicious. This is the recipe I used, but I changed it. Didn't have carrots. Added cabbage.
The thing I liked best on the internet today was #StayHomeAndDrawSpaceships.
 |
| Here's the cat |