That was another week that looked very much like the one that came before it, including a continuation of the fine weather, at least until yesterday’s brief blip when I ran in the rain for only the second time this year (not bad, 2 out of 72 runs).
Snapped on a small detour whilst running ‘The Ford Route’ under a mighty fine sky on Thursday
The (unwelcome) novelty of the week was having to queue to get into the supermarket. I’ve been in an uncountable number of Lidl stores all over Europe and would rate our local store as one of the least appealing of all of them, which perhaps explains why it’s usually so quiet. Even so, this week they finally joined the other supermarkets and started restricting the number of people in store at any one time*, causing me to shuffle forward in the car park for 20 minutes before gaining entry. It had been 12 days since I last shopped, so I was in there for a while and came out with a full trolley**. The shelves are getting fuller week by week, but there is still no flour or dried fruit (sultanas, raisins or currants) to be had.
There was also no bleach. Now that’s not a substance we use in any quantity. I would estimate that a bottle usually lasts us around 5 years. However, I wasn’t just shopping for us, but also picking up a few things for various neighbours, one of whom had asked for 4 bottles of bleach.
Fortunately for her, we’d picked up a bottle whilst in Spain (forgot to pack any; we use it in tiny quantities to clean taps before filling our drinking water bottles) and only used a few mil of it and thus happened to have the best part of a 2-litre bottle (the smallest we could find) to spare. It’s strange times when a neighbour is so chuffed to be gifted a bottle of bleach!
Snap unrelated to text. The daily ritual of the crossword usually comes with a snack.
Today two ‘on this day’ memories popped up on Facebook, both of which involved being on top of Scottish Marilyns. As it goes, we wouldn’t have been standing atop any hills today even if we weren’t subject to movement restrictions, as we would only have returned from Europe a few days ago. However, that’s exactly where we would have been heading next week. Will the fabulous weather still prevail at the time we would have gone? That remains to be seen, but there have been exclamations from both of us over the last week or so about how current conditions would have been magnificent for either a Big Walk or hill bagging. (As an aside, it was 12 years ago last week that we left Land’s End to walk to John o’Groats. Doesn’t time fly?)
My hankering after the hills hasn’t been helped by finally getting around to dedicating some time each day to bringing my logs up to date on hill-bagging.co.uk, which involves me adding a map snippet to every blog post (they're on our other blog) and reading the text I wrote at the time to jog my memory of the outing. After a week or so of steady daily effort, my logs are now complete up to mid-May 2017. I’d not realised I was quite so far behind and have to wonder how much bigger the task would have grown if it wasn’t for current circumstances giving me both the time and inclination to play catch-up.
Another snap unrelated to text, because a view seen from this morning’s run (another new route!) is more interesting that one of our scrubbed patio
Otherwise, the garden is gradually getting tidier, the house cleaner and things are daily being ticked off the ‘pick and choose’ task list. I have noted, however, that I’m mainly ticking off the same things every day, with certain task options being studiously ignored. A bit more effort at variety is maybe required. Or perhaps there will be plenty of time for those other tasks at a later date?
(*I opted to pack my shopping bags in the car park, rather than using the packing shelf in store, so as to allow someone else to gain entry a few minutes sooner. When travelling in Bertie we don’t use shopping bags, instead decanting the contents of the shopping trolley directly into Bertie’s cupboards and fridge; it’s so much easier and less faff than this car-and-house scenario!
**I’m wholly unconvinced that, given how quiet the store is anyway, it was any easier to maintain social distancing this week than it was last week or the week before when customer numbers weren’t being restricted, but whilst I queued outside an old chap decided that he’d like to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me for a chat.)
The (unwelcome) novelty of the week was having to queue to get into the supermarket. I’ve been in an uncountable number of Lidl stores all over Europe and would rate our local store as one of the least appealing of all of them, which perhaps explains why it’s usually so quiet. Even so, this week they finally joined the other supermarkets and started restricting the number of people in store at any one time*, causing me to shuffle forward in the car park for 20 minutes before gaining entry. It had been 12 days since I last shopped, so I was in there for a while and came out with a full trolley**. The shelves are getting fuller week by week, but there is still no flour or dried fruit (sultanas, raisins or currants) to be had.
There was also no bleach. Now that’s not a substance we use in any quantity. I would estimate that a bottle usually lasts us around 5 years. However, I wasn’t just shopping for us, but also picking up a few things for various neighbours, one of whom had asked for 4 bottles of bleach.
Fortunately for her, we’d picked up a bottle whilst in Spain (forgot to pack any; we use it in tiny quantities to clean taps before filling our drinking water bottles) and only used a few mil of it and thus happened to have the best part of a 2-litre bottle (the smallest we could find) to spare. It’s strange times when a neighbour is so chuffed to be gifted a bottle of bleach!
Today two ‘on this day’ memories popped up on Facebook, both of which involved being on top of Scottish Marilyns. As it goes, we wouldn’t have been standing atop any hills today even if we weren’t subject to movement restrictions, as we would only have returned from Europe a few days ago. However, that’s exactly where we would have been heading next week. Will the fabulous weather still prevail at the time we would have gone? That remains to be seen, but there have been exclamations from both of us over the last week or so about how current conditions would have been magnificent for either a Big Walk or hill bagging. (As an aside, it was 12 years ago last week that we left Land’s End to walk to John o’Groats. Doesn’t time fly?)
My hankering after the hills hasn’t been helped by finally getting around to dedicating some time each day to bringing my logs up to date on hill-bagging.co.uk, which involves me adding a map snippet to every blog post (they're on our other blog) and reading the text I wrote at the time to jog my memory of the outing. After a week or so of steady daily effort, my logs are now complete up to mid-May 2017. I’d not realised I was quite so far behind and have to wonder how much bigger the task would have grown if it wasn’t for current circumstances giving me both the time and inclination to play catch-up.
Otherwise, the garden is gradually getting tidier, the house cleaner and things are daily being ticked off the ‘pick and choose’ task list. I have noted, however, that I’m mainly ticking off the same things every day, with certain task options being studiously ignored. A bit more effort at variety is maybe required. Or perhaps there will be plenty of time for those other tasks at a later date?
(*I opted to pack my shopping bags in the car park, rather than using the packing shelf in store, so as to allow someone else to gain entry a few minutes sooner. When travelling in Bertie we don’t use shopping bags, instead decanting the contents of the shopping trolley directly into Bertie’s cupboards and fridge; it’s so much easier and less faff than this car-and-house scenario!
**I’m wholly unconvinced that, given how quiet the store is anyway, it was any easier to maintain social distancing this week than it was last week or the week before when customer numbers weren’t being restricted, but whilst I queued outside an old chap decided that he’d like to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me for a chat.)
I took your crossword into Photoshop and enlarged but 'twas too pixelated to have a go.
ReplyDeleteWe are hopeless at crosswords (esp with Sue on 12 hour shifts), but I do have a task list, and I've also noticed that the same tasks get ticks most days, with others simply getting carried forward. I seem to benefit from a 'main project' which takes a finite amount of time before moving to the next 'main project'. Currently I'm producing a book of our 2004 HRP trip that I've recently put on the blog. I'm doing it using Photobox, which is something of a challenge, and it'll extend to two volumes due to a limit of 100 pages. I'm up to Day 21, so good progress is being made...
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your current tasks - sitting outside in the sunshine reading is another of my favourites.