Friday 5th June 2021

Poppy is still just eating and sleeping.

Which is good.

Although she does go out later in the day not to return until the morning, this may be the regular patter, but when she comes back, she is loving and lovely.

Sigh.

And I have a full day of work ahead; meetings, calls and writing audit reports and then the errant data to analyse.

I would be working until three or so, or until I got bored. Whatever came quicker. And for Jools the weekend had come, so she had yoga, then shopping at Tesco before an induction at the sports centre in their gym. It would be a full day for her too.

We woke up at quarter past five becuse we're mad, an the greyness hung over the house, and wasn't expected to clear until the evening. Soon, a steady rain would start falling, and I would have to rush out to get the washing in.

In fact it rained most of the day, sometimes heavy, sometimes just steady just right for watering the garden. The cats slept on, and I began working.

Did I mention the scaffolders came on Thursday to take the scaffold down, now that the work on the roof was done, what we didn't realise was that the old tacks and nails keeping the old tiles on the roof had been scattered on the scaffolding boards, and in taking the scaffold down, the tacks and nails were on our drive. One was in one of the rear tyres of the car, ssssssssss.

But Jools would find that out later.

I worked on.

The situation for my teammates in Chennai is grim, if anything worse than two weeks ago. They are mostly trapped in their flats, and allowed to leave once every two weeks to do shopping. Vaccination is slow and they are paying to get ther and their family's jabs done. One has recoevered from COVID, and is getting better, but can't do a full day at work yet.

I know we are lucky. So far.

I write my reports, send them off.

And then look at the data. It seems so much to do, and there is a new format.

Sigh.

In the end I do the easy part, leaving the rest for next week. Outside the rain falls, and clouds gather so thickly I had to put the table lamp on.

Jools comes home with shopping, we put it all away, then I make rolls for lunch. And a brew.

On the slope to the weekend, now.

I finish at three, just about caught up, just have the data thing to do.

Oh well.

Outside the rain still falls, and when it doesn't its too dark to take shots, even if i had the car. But Jools had gone to the sports centre, and when she came out, one of the back tyres was going flat, so she drive into town to try to get it fixed for the weekend.

Jools returns at four having had two punctures mended, Steve Lamaqc was on the radio, meaning it was four o'clock and the weekend had begun.

We have to deal with the roofer who, admittedly, did some extra work, but we were not expecting the extra grand on the bill. We move some money about and can pay him, though we will be short for the rest of the month, we will survive, and the roof is done and watertight.

We know this as the rain hammered down into the evening, a dank fug hung over St Maggies, and we sit up to ten to watch Gardener's World for a change