Week 4 Lockdown 2

Entering the last week or should I say the last 5 days of this current lockdown, I still had a heap of things to do.  On  Thursday, I needed to do some grocery shopping as the fridge was almost empty. In addition, it was the last day to use my Lidl £10 voucher and I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

I set out at about 11.30 am after walking the dog.  It took a few hours to go around the two supermarkets that I usually visit, and I made sure to use all the vouchers I possibly could at each. A few extra things got put in my trolley. At Lidl I bought this sweater which I thought was really pretty, 

and a set of Christmas containers for leftovers, which I thought was cute.  The Middle (aisle) of Lidl is a dangerous place to be. The sweater was £7.99 and the boxes £4.99 for a set of 4.

It was no different at Tesco, as I ended up buying a few more indoor plants.  I couldn't resist them, as they only cost £2.50 each, which was so reasonable. I also bought a beautiful Amaryllis for the festive season, it's a deep pinky/red colour, which really appealed and is called Queen of the Night.  Here's a picture from the box:

It is currently just a bulb and will take 8-10 weeks to grow, so it won't flower until next year now, but that will be something to look forward to.

When I got home, the paint samples I'd ordered from Little Greene for the hallway had arrived. They came complete with a little paint brush to use, so I immediately painted a couple of patches on the wall to see what it looked like. It was very exciting. After a second coat, we were still not sure if we liked either of them, so I'm a bit despairing at the moment of finding the right colour for the downstairs hallway.

On Friday, after a morning work zoom meeting about re-opening the shops, it was back to work cleaning the house. I progressed to cleaning our bedroom and changing the bedding.  I put my new black satin pillowcase on one on my pillows and it feels okay to sleep on, although not quite as cooling as the first one I bought. 

On Saturday, it was back to the decorating.  OH started painting the hall ceiling and walls. We're going with white for now and will add a wall of colour when we find one we like. Whilst he was doing that, I did some Christmas shopping online, as LB finally provided me with her Christmas Wish List. I still have a few things to get, but we need to make a trip to the mall next week when it re-opens, for OH to check a couple of things out before I buy them, otherwise I'm almost done.

On Sunday, I finally got around to putting up the Christmas decorations in the living room. The house feels much more festive now and it's always a relief to get them up, as I can then relax and start enjoying the lead up to Christmas.

I've decided to stop putting us under pressure to get the hall finished before I go back to work. It's not going to happen. If we get it finished by Christmas I'll be more than happy. In fact, I've relaxed about all of the things on my list that aren't done yet. I don't need the stress and no one is coming round, so what's the hurry.  In this vein, as Monday was my final day at home before returning to work, I decided to just take it easy and enjoy my last day of lockdown.

Today, I was back on my bike and cycling back into work to get the shop ready for re-opening on Wednesday.  It seems a world away from lockdown life, but I enjoyed getting out of the house and getting back to some sort of normal routine. It will be nice to see our volunteers and customers again and it felt great to get some exercise on my bike. I'll let you know how things go.

I hope you enjoy whatever relative freedoms you are permitted once this second lockdown is over. Let's hope it's the last that we'll have to endure.