Something new

 Life remains, broadly, a bit short of novelty at the moment. I've started doing regular lateral flow tests, but once you've done your first unnervingly-like-a-pregnancy-test reveal, the old tonsils-and-nostril swivel is really just like the PCRs, amirite?

I did, it's true, do an actual Day in Town yesterday, comprising a (1) museum visit AND a (1) theatre visit. Which is absolutely the first time I've done a combination of things since All This began, rather than diving in for a single purpose and scuttling home at once. 

It was VERY nice. 

Assuming you like 12th century ecclesiastical politics and/or brilliantly performed tales of old (ie 1980s) Soho, at least, it was very nice. I love both, so hurrah. Got particularly emotional about being in a theatre for the first time, even with distanced seats, an unfamiliar breath of fresh air in a West End venue, and the fact I've forgotten how to find a seat number without wiffling about a bit, a trait I DESPISE in other mortals.

Also, because those were morning and afternoon, I had an actual lunch out. In, admittedly, the most open-fronted restaurant I could find, but still: a restaurant. For a moment, it felt like Paris. Then I paid eight quid for a small glass of Picpoul, and not so much.

However, that's one day of novelty in what is damn nearly 15 months. Today, it's boiling hot in London (27 degrees in my flat as I type), I'm doing a very full week of work, and the Prime Minister is back on telly with the public health establishment making me think sitting in a theatre with some strangers was an idiotic thing to do. We shall see if Test and Trace come a knocking, or indeed something worse. Oof. Novelty this week is going to be a bit less ambitious. 

I don't usually have a weird evening routine. But what with one thing (it's too sodding hot to walk midafternoon no matter how much you need a break from sitting, and cooking anything after 8pm makes the flat unbearable by bedtime) and another (acid reflux) and anOTHER (interesting yin yoga), I've ended up today having dinner at 5.30. Then House of Games, then a walk, then yoga, then washing up and bins, then blogging and ice cream. Revolutionary.

 The food? Meh. I've said before I'm not good with cooking in hot weather, but it has to be done unless you have alllll the salad stuff, which I don't. Quick and easy pasta, I thought. Rachel Roddy, I thought. Lemon and parmesan tagliatelle, I thought. 

Wait, I thought. You've made that before and it always turns into boring glue which is hell to wash up.

 Yes! I thought, but I have not used this recipe, and this one uses way more parmesan so I'm sure it will work! I will mix the oil and lemon with loads of parmesan.

Then, I will mix in the hot pasta, and some basil and rocket because the recipe says that'll work and I need some form of vitamin, and it will form a luscious lemon sauce.

Reader, it tasted sort of okay, but it did indeed set like concrete on the bottom of the bowl, and it will be extremely dull as leftovers (but I refuse to boil water at lunchtime at the moment, see above). The ice cream would probably have been a better shout.

I call this novelty. It'll do for now.