Due to long-term ill-health, and the covid virus, my kid sister has been self-isolating since this all broke out. Her partner has been home for much of this time after his employer gave him compassionate leave to be home with her, to take care of her. This week, he finally returned to work and my sister commented that though she obviously loves him dearly, and was grateful for his care, it was so nice to finally have some alone time at home. It made me think; my son has been home since this all happened, and I haven’t had any alone time in about 5 months and more. I walk the dog quite early in the day and that’s nice and quiet, and I drive to work, but it’s not the same as having the house to oneself and just relishing some alone time. I know there are some who are always alone, and that’s sometimes hard to deal with and maybe it’s hard to understand where I’m coming from. I love my son, and he’s no bother, but I simply wish he would meet up with friends or even go for a long walk so I can just be alone, even if only for a little while. Sighs… I think many people underestimate the benefits of having some quality alone time.

The weather these past few months has been simply awful. It’s been too hot and humid, or too wet, then it was thundery, now we have endless days of rain and high winds. I’m truly sick of it! The only good thing is that the bad weather has made the bedroom temperatures plummet by about 10C. I’m not complaining about that, by the way, as it makes for a much more comfortable night and I’ve been able to catch up on some sleep.

This week, with my new colleague discount card, I treated myself to some new bedding. I’d bought my son new bedding to go away to uni with, a few years back, but I haven’t had new bedding in quite a long time and some of the duvet covers were looking very ‘tired’ and even a little thin from washing. The 2 sets I bought were reduced to clear, and I had the staff discount on top of that, so they were a good buy. Colourful too. I needed some colour to cheer me and my bedroom up. I looked at clothes too, but nothing took me by the wallet lol. We’re moving from summer clothes to autumn/winter and they all seemed so drab.

On the food front we’ve been trying some new dishes and I decided to try polenta. I cut a block of ready-made polenta into ‘chips’, coated them with just a little cornflour, then shallow-fried them. They were nice. We ate the rest of the block the following day though this time I brushed the slices with a little oil, added some smoked paprika, and heated them in the oven. They were a nice side and made a welcome change from potatoes. I’ll have to google some other ways to use it. Wednesday we’re having an ‘old’ favourite of lentil shepherd’s pie, then later in the week I’m going to make a vegan dish of borlotti beans and pasta soup. It looks very hearty and may be just what we need with the weather being what it is. We also tried some non-dairy ice cream which is very nice. My son is lactose-intolerant, and whilst I’m not, I do find too much dairy makes me feel very phlegmy, so alternatives are good for both of us. Where I now work there’s a really good selection of vegan, vegetarian, and ‘free from’ food in both the chillers and freezers and we’ve become firm fans of tofu and have replaced chicken with tofu in quite a few dishes. It’s a learning curve; sometimes it doesn’t quite work for me, other times it’s a delicious experiment.

I’d like to say a big fat thanks for nothing to the lovely people who live here who can’t hold their drink. Monday afternoon, yes Monday, there was a very loud BBQ being held by one of the neighbours. They were so loud, I genuinely thought there was a heated argument taking place, and don’t even get me started on heathens who barbecue fish! The smell was revolting. Later, and not necessarily the same party, there were drunks out and about who thought it would be nice to regale us with drunken songs after 1am. How nice. Wednesday morning, around 8am, a drunk started following my son. He wanted to pat the dog, though wisely, my son just walked away. This person followed them for a while, and verbally threatened my son and scared the dog. He was then distracted by his open can of beer, and my son hurried home. The dog ran straight to his bed and lay there shaking; don’t forget, he’s old. Just before I came home, he ran into the garden and left an awful mess which I then had to clean up. It took him ages to calm down, and now I’ll have to ‘starve’ him for the rest of the day all because some moron can’t hold their drink! Thanks guys!

On the work front some people who didn’t want to stay on have left already, some have just left. I don’t have a new contract just yet, hopefully early September, though I have been told to continue working. This week I’ve picked up an extra shift, and some extra hours, and next week I have 2 extra shifts and some extra hours too. I’ll be tired that week. Still, it’s all gratefully received.

Take care out there, and enjoy the rest of the week.

Update: Although the dog was fine overnight, not long after I got up for work he was 'poorly' again and I was sluicing out the garden around 5am! No work for me today, so that'll go down well. Drunks!