Lockdown Diary - W/E 13th March

This week started with a bit more painting of the linen cupboard. It's not finished yet, but progress is definitely being made.

On Monday, we had the telecom engineer in to connect us to our new internet provider. Our previous connection had been a bit unreliable at times and was expensive, so OH changed us over to a new one. 

I had ordered some new Chelsea boots on ASOS the previous week and they arrived on Monday.  They are very comfortable. Chunky heeled, as is the fashion at the moment, but will be ideal to wear for work when I go back.  Here's a picture:

Along with many many others, I watched the Oprah interview on Monday night. I don't want to get into a discussion of it here. I hope that eventually the rift can be healed and that as a family they can reconcile, if that's what they want. I don't know what repercussions it will have for the Royal Family, I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later.

On Monday night, I managed to do something to my lower back during the night and found myself in pain in the lumber region. As a consequence, Tuesday and Wednesday, I didn't do too much. Just a bit of housework. I had a chat to the new neighbours on Tuesday, on my way back from a bit of grocery top up shopping at the local shops. They seem very nice. Nothing else of note really happened. I did a bit of reading, and some laundry. We also received a letter about completing the Census, so I made a start and filled in most of it and then saved it, but won't be posting it until 21st March. They did seemed to need a lot of detailed information. I was surprised. Usually OH fills it in, but I did it for once this time, having so much time on my hands.

By the afternoon, my back was feeling a bit better, so I managed to get out with the dog. In the evening, we continued watching the new series of Unforgotten on ITV, which is getting better with each episode.

Wednesday, was a miserable rainy day. I decided to peruse garden furniture on IKEA's website. There were a few things that I quite liked. I placed an Approved Food order in the morning, and also ordered a new cover from eBay for our mini greenhouse, as the current one has ripped badly. I didn't go for the cheapest option, so it should last us a few years. OH is paying for it, as he uses the greenhouse more than me these days.  My Cherryz order finally came on Wednesday too, which was a nice treat.

In the afternoon, I had a work Zoom meeting at 2pm about re-opening the shops in April. It was the first one we've had this Lockdown. It felt good to get some information about what we are expected to do when we re-open. There are just 3 weeks to go now until I go back to work to get the shop ready for opening, so long as the Covid situation doesn't change. I felt a bit more motivated after the call.

Thursday, was a lovely day in the morning. Super windy, but lots of sunshine, so I had a lovely long walk with the dog which was nice. My back was feeling quite a bit better, so in the afternoon, I finally managed to get out and do a big food shop. I headed off in the car to a big Tesco store a few miles away, so that I could use one of the £7 off vouchers and another £4.50 clubcard voucher. 

A few non-essentials found their way into the trolley. I ventured upstairs to where they sell electricals (and clothes), to look for some hair wavers, but couldn't find any. Instead I found two dresses. I originally expected to pay £24 for the two, but realised when I got back in the car that I had ended up paying just £7 for each as they were reduced. They are both the same style, but different fabric designs. I like them both and I will probably wear them with a black short sleeved top or sweater over the top and black tights and boots. I don't have many casual, loose fitting dresses, so I will look forward to wearing these in the spring.

I bought a new kitchen bin for less than £10 too, to replace ours, as the lid was not working properly. One other inessential purchase I made was a plant, a Magnolia Stellata for £8. I've had one of these before, but thought I'd get another one and see if I could keep it alive this time.

I also saw a microwave that I liked in the store. We desperately need a new one, but I only want a small one as we don't have heaps of worktop space in the kitchen. I need to look up some reviews before we go ahead and buy it.

Other than these items and the fortune I spent on food, I just bought a few bits for Easter.  I shouldn't need to do another big shop for the rest of this month now. I'll just top up anything we need on a weekly basis. A very spendy day, some of which was impulse spending, but that's just how it goes sometimes.

On Friday, I had a couple of deliveries. The Approved Food order I'd placed a couple of days before, came very speedily. I was pretty impressed. The new greenhouse cover came too, which was also much quicker than I expected. I'll probably wait for the replacement connectors I ordered to come before I put the cover on and for a nice sunny, non windy day on which to do the job.

Saturday, was a quiet day at home. I started reading a new book in bed which I'm enjoying, number five this month so far. Later, I continued painting the linen closet, whilst OH went out and got some paint and started painting the wall of colour in the downstairs vestibule. 

I still need to varnish the entire linen cabinet, so it'll probably be another week or so before it's finished. So happy to finally be progressing with both of these projects. The final sticking point is what colour to paint the outside of the vestibule cupboard. The jury is still out on this, but at least once the wall is painted we can get some hooks up and hang up our coats again. They've been driving me mad just laid on top of the wooden box I use to store our shoes in.

In the afternoon, I dropped in at the allotment for the first time this year, to dig in some manure. I only managed a few rows, as I didn't want to overdo it having had back problems this week. I weeded the remainder of the bed before leaving. It should take me 4 or 5 visits to dig it over completely, if I do as much as I did this day each time. I enjoyed spending some time there. It made a refreshing change.

In other news this week, I've been filling the hours binge watching a new series on Netflix called The Bold Type about twenty something journos working in New York. It's been entertaining and there are 4 series to work my way through before I go back to work.  We've also started watching Deutschland 86 on Catchup. We somehow missed this series on TV and now the new series Deutschland 89 is on, we're working our way towards watching that.

In addition, I've been thinking about our garden. We'd love to put a garden room across the whole of the bottom of the garden. One that is part garden room, part shed, so we still have storage space to put all our tools etc. It may not happen this year, but I'd really like one at some point and have created a new Pinterest board to collate options and ideas. Can't wait for the weather to warm up so that I can get outside more, but in the absence of it, it's nice to spend time planning what we might do in the garden when it does get warmer.

Hope you've had a good week.