This Week

This week has been a bit better than last. I'm in a better place and not putting too much pressure on myself to be productive.

I'm keeping to my daily floor exercise routine, plus adding more reps to it, and on Tuesday, I headed out on my old bike for the first time in I don't know how many months. OH took a look at it first, to check it was in good order, as it has been stood outside all winter. He attached a rack, that I bought ages ago, to the back, so that now I can attach my pannier bag and put shopping in it.

Our first outing was to the Olympic Park in Stratford.  It's quite an easy ride and takes about 20-30 minutes at my pace. I left OH chatting to a cycling friend he met as soon as we set off and continued on my own way until he caught me up later.

I popped into Waitrose at the Mall near the park, to get some essential items we'd run out of.  It wasn't too busy, just the usual odd moron who pays no attention to social distancing. It has at least probably saved me having to do a full on supermarket shop this week.

On the way back, we stopped off for coffee and gelato at a shop that was serving from a hatch. All the calories I burned off riding my bike, and probably more went back on, but hey ho, it was good to get out and OH had wanted to go on a bike ride with me for weeks. It felt good to get on the bike again, but my bum was seriously sore the next day, so I think that riding every other day until I get used to it, is probably best.

On Wednesday morning, I promised OH I would help with the decorating, so when he got back from walking the dog, we got stuck into painting the woodwork in the dining room. It was about time I did my fair share really and this was part of a last push to finish the room. After two hours, the first coat had been applied and there was just one more coat to do, that he did today.  

All that is now left to do, is to return all the books and vinyl to the shelves and get it set up as we want it. We're going to move the TV in there and use it as our living room for the next few weeks, until we get the living room next door decorated.  I reckon we'll be in there by the weekend, if not before. I'll post some pictures when it's finally completed.

In other news, I received the form to extend my furlough this week and sent it off, just as Riki Sunak announced he was extending the Government scheme until October.  I hope we'll be going back before then, but looking at pictures of the crush on the tubes and buses, I'm suddenly not in quite such a hurry to return. I can't actually believe how many people weren't wearing masks.  I don't know if they can't get hold of them or just don't think they're worth wearing, but surely if they prevent the spread of the virus to others, then the least everyone can do is wear one to protect people around them. After all, none of us know whether we have the virus and are asymptomatic. It makes me want to make lots of cloth masks and hand them out to people who don't wear one, but many of them would probably just be discarded.

Many of you will probably think me a little insane, but I fell down a bit of an eBay rabbit hole the other day and purchased this:

Maybe it was actually a Wombles hole that I fell into. In the absence of being able to find a DVD of the programme, I bought this CD of some of the stories.  I used to love the programme as a child. I loved how they collected and re-used rubbish. I think I might be regressing. Must be the lockdown. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, today has been a bit of an eye opener. This afternoon, I decided to make my first foray into finding a cycle route to work. I only anticipated riding half way and then returning home, doing a bit more each time.  When I actually got to the half way point, I was curious as to what the rest of the route was like, so continued on and was soon at Russell Square in Central London. From there it took another 10 minutes until I was just around the corner from the shop.

The route itself was quite quiet really, with little traffic for most of the way, surprisingly. It was pretty well sign posted too, although I did go wrong a couple of times. All in all, it took me about an hour to cycle in. My bike is very old and heavy, and if I still had the bike that got stolen last year, I probably could have shaved about 10 minutes off the time. I'm going to try to do the route at least once per week, so that I get used to it and build up the stamina for it. I figure it's like a muscle and the more you work it the better it performs. I'm hoping to eventually get the time down to 40-45 minutes which would be quicker than the bus and great exercise to boot.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted, as I didn't take any water or any money to buy a drink. When I got in, I felt like I deserved a sit down to watch Escape to the Chateau DIY. Needless to say, tonight I'm not doing much of anything and tomorrow, I'll get the newly decorated dining room sorted out.

I hope you've had a good week.