Wednesday 22nd April 2020

In another universe, I should be waking up after my ten year celebration in Denmark, an evening meal and drinking session.

But I am home.

And alive.

Middle of the week.

Swallows have arrived. They did last week, but yesterday I watched them from the patio, wheeling and whirling, whilst chirping like happy dolphins.

It is nearly summer.

Going to bed earlier and earlier means getting up earlier and earlier. If only there was some football to watch. I was awake at twenty past four, and soon dawn showed, with blackbirds singing loudly.

As soon as I'm awake, my bladder says, as you're awake.....

Back in bed, and I lay and just enjoy the silence of the morning.

Jools gets up at five, I lay a while so she can do her chores and tasks, so when I do get up at half past, the coffee is brewing.

Lovely.

Once that is drunk, Jools is off on her walk and I have to go on the cross trainer, once again listening to the radio. Not perfect, but it'll do.

I do twenty minutes, get dressed and am ready for the early morning meeting at half seven, by which time Jools had returned, loaded the car and left.

We are all well, still, and to date, no one in the company, in any country or facility has tested positive, which is pretty incredible.

After the meeting ends at eight, I go to put out the seedlings, water them, make breakfast and a fresh coffee.

This is the life.

And I have a stack of work to do. Stuff I had been putting off for weeks, so I do it all, and by lunch I am all caught up.

Best have lunch then. And a fresh brew.

Perfect. Again.

I would have gone for a walk, but I need to do a second workout, so take it easy in the early afternoon, have a glass of iced squash sitting in the garden whilst reading the latest Rail magazine, whilst all around the garden was a riot of colour and sounds. It is all rather marvellous.

It is odd spending such dark days in domestic bliss at home. I listen to the radio, we have food, entertainment and I have three quarters of a crate of Belgian tripel. We have the cats, each other, our health, are being paid and happy.

We are so lucky.

I do a session on the cross trainer, upping the level as before. But by the end I am so tired. Thankfully Thursday is a rest day.

Dinner is pizza and beer.

One was vegetarian, so I add bacon lardons and sliced chorizo, which made it very tasty indeed. We eat the pizza sitting on the lower patio, sipping beer or cider.

It is like being on our holibobs, but it is a working week.

We sit in the lengthening shadows, as swallows and swifts wheel above us. And the cats sit nearby in case we feel like feeding them.

But as soon as the sun goes behind the house next door, it gets chilly, so we head inside to warm up.

We play Uckers, Jools thrashes me, mainly because I went about twenty rounds without rolling a double.

What goes around and all that.

So ends another day working from home.