I share Melinda’s concerns about the infection numbers, and it’s doubly galling for me as even my very reclusive corner of the covid world does (did?) seem to be changing over the last couple of weeks.
We’ve started conversations at work about future working patterns (slated for no earlier than September), so I’m starting to think about the idea of commuting (sometimes) again, trying to work out possible balances between how much I need to be on site, how to plan commuting patterns cost-efficiently (I’m interested to see how much these new ‘flexible’ season tickets cost…), and how much I actually want to be at home or in London.
I’ve seen a Real Friend from Far Away, who was in town for important reasons that warranted a cross-country train. We had coffee sat shivering outside (this was before the weather turned, in the teeth of ‘will there ever be a spring?’), though fortunately she’d sleuthed out a café with outdoor seating under a colonnade, which neatly satisfied both our need for fresh air and our desire not to get totally drenched. It was astonishing to see someone ‘new’ in the flesh, and very weird to do so without any hugs (yes, they were allowed by then, no we weren’t ready for it yet). Also totally weird to be in The City (well, Cambridge, which isn’t a very city-ish city), where I haven’t been for over a year. We met in the corner of town in which we’d been students, so it was oddly like going back to somewhere after 15 years, not 15 months.
I’ve had my first vaccination, at what feels like ‘long last’, although it’s well ahead of the initially publicised schedule from February or whenever it was that this kicked into gear, so I really shouldn’t complain. It did take a week to find a slot at a location I could actually get to easily, the anticipated delightful cycle along a sunny riverbank was considerably wetter than anticipated, and my arm really hurt afterwards, but there was a burger van at the vaccination site, so I’ve had much worse days out.
And now to the food content… This week was the chap and I’s 15th anniversary (cue cries of ‘where did all the time go?’) and to celebrate we got pizza from the village café. Food that someone else cooked! Food that you can eat from a box! Bliss. We’re not really big takeaway-eaters at the best of times, so we’ve only really had the very occasional cheeky bag of chips when the numbers have been OK over the last year. This felt worth braving an online ordering process (very new for round these parts), and ducking into the café briefly to collect. It didn’t disappoint, and we over-ordered sufficiently to have leftovers to finish off the next day. Bliss.
We’ve started conversations at work about future working patterns (slated for no earlier than September), so I’m starting to think about the idea of commuting (sometimes) again, trying to work out possible balances between how much I need to be on site, how to plan commuting patterns cost-efficiently (I’m interested to see how much these new ‘flexible’ season tickets cost…), and how much I actually want to be at home or in London.
I’ve seen a Real Friend from Far Away, who was in town for important reasons that warranted a cross-country train. We had coffee sat shivering outside (this was before the weather turned, in the teeth of ‘will there ever be a spring?’), though fortunately she’d sleuthed out a café with outdoor seating under a colonnade, which neatly satisfied both our need for fresh air and our desire not to get totally drenched. It was astonishing to see someone ‘new’ in the flesh, and very weird to do so without any hugs (yes, they were allowed by then, no we weren’t ready for it yet). Also totally weird to be in The City (well, Cambridge, which isn’t a very city-ish city), where I haven’t been for over a year. We met in the corner of town in which we’d been students, so it was oddly like going back to somewhere after 15 years, not 15 months.
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| Forgotten vistas of far-away places. |
I’ve had my first vaccination, at what feels like ‘long last’, although it’s well ahead of the initially publicised schedule from February or whenever it was that this kicked into gear, so I really shouldn’t complain. It did take a week to find a slot at a location I could actually get to easily, the anticipated delightful cycle along a sunny riverbank was considerably wetter than anticipated, and my arm really hurt afterwards, but there was a burger van at the vaccination site, so I’ve had much worse days out.
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Oh yeah, and the beginnings of protection against at least
some variants. That’s something. |
And now to the food content… This week was the chap and I’s 15th anniversary (cue cries of ‘where did all the time go?’) and to celebrate we got pizza from the village café. Food that someone else cooked! Food that you can eat from a box! Bliss. We’re not really big takeaway-eaters at the best of times, so we’ve only really had the very occasional cheeky bag of chips when the numbers have been OK over the last year. This felt worth braving an online ordering process (very new for round these parts), and ducking into the café briefly to collect. It didn’t disappoint, and we over-ordered sufficiently to have leftovers to finish off the next day. Bliss.
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Happy anniversary and happy vaccination!
ReplyDeleteI share your concerns about case numbers as well - they seem to be going up where we are too, so we're continuing to be cautious. I ended up finishing my lunchtime toastie today under an umbrella, as it started raining half way through and we didn't want to go inside the cafe. Fortunately the rain didn't come to much.
Oh no, no-one wants a soggy toasty. Glad there was a brolly on hand.
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