Lockdown Diary - W/E 20th March 2021

This week got off to a nice start it being Mother's Day. OH pushed the boat out and bought me flowers, gin and chocolates. The dog got me this super cute card which made me chuckle:

A card, some wine and more chocolates from LB and then she baked a chocolate cake too. I really can't grumble.

I didn't do a lot on Sunday, I thought that as it was Mother's Day, I'd just take it easy. I read for a while, then binged on the first series of Interior Design Masters on Netflix. I've been watching series 2 lately on TV, so thought I'd go back to the beginning and watch the first series too.

I noticed on Sunday that my amaryllis is now growing another flower head, so I chopped off the dying one to enable all the plant's energy to go into the growth of the new one. This one seems to be growing a lot more upright too. Thank you Marlene, for the tip about moving it around towards the sun, I'll make sure to do this if it starts growing outwards again this time.

On Monday, I finally got back to doing my regular exercises, after a week off due to my back, which felt really good. LB was up and out early, as she was due back at college. She'd had a Covid lateral flow test before going back, which had been negative thankfully.

After lunch, I decided to head to ASDA to do a Food Bank shop. I try to donate once a month and I hadn't bought anything for the food bank so far this month, so I thought I'd get on and do a shop specifically for them. I tend to spend £15 to £20 per donation, which isn't a lot, but it's something. One of our neighbours collects for them every week, so it's quite easy to drop the shop into the box they keep outside their front door.

I also bought a couple of non-essentials for me, one of which was a hair waver. I'd been looking for one in Tesco last week and had also earmarked one on the Argos website that was £50, but in ASDA they had a different brand for just £30, so I decided to go ahead and buy it. I bought some heat protection spray too, to try to avoid damaging my hair too badly. I'm now quite excited to give it a go.

I also started to feel like I was missing doing some quilting on Monday, and whilst I know I said that I wouldn't be making any more quilts, I have one more woollen blanket to use as wadding, so I decided to go ahead and make another one. It's going to be hand pieced again, as I much prefer this method, even though it doesn't look as perfect as machine quilted ones. There's just something so therapeutic and meditative about hand making quilts, I just can't resist the challenge of it.  I just love starting new projects. 

On Tuesday, I had a very homey stay at home kind of day. I didn't want to spend any more money, so I avoided temptation online and from going out to any shops. I spent an hour or so on my new quilt project and cut out and pinned a few more quilt pieces, ready to be tacked and sewn together. I like to have a small pile of sewing to do whilst I watch TV of an evening.

In the afternoon, I decided to get on and do some ironing, which I had been putting off for a week or so. To be honest, it had become urgent, as I was wearing my last pair of tracksuit bottoms, so I had to do it really. I watched some TV whilst doing it, which made it a bit more bearable.

Wednesday, was much the same as Tuesday, save that we had some exciting news, we were both invited to book our Covid vaccinations. The timing couldn't have been better. We both booked in for Friday lunchtime, which means I'll have a couple of weeks before I go back to work to build up some immunity, which is perfect. I was both nervous and excited in equal amounts, but pleased it had finally got around to our turn.

On Thursday, I decided to head back to Tesco to buy a microwave, as ours wasn't in very good condition inside and was starting to rust. I'd read somewhere that this can cause radiation to leak out, so it felt important to get a new one. I picked one that had a grill inside, which is useful as we don't use the grill in our oven as it always gets splashed with oil and then smells terrible when the oil burns off it. Anyway, it's a nice compact size, just what I was looking for.

Both the tape for my hula hoop and the connectors for the greenhouse came on Thursday, so I can now get on with both jobs in the coming days. It now feels like time is going by very fast, I'll be back at work before I know it.

Friday was a lovely sunny day, but still quite cold. I had to be up and out with the dog early, so that I was back in time to go for our vaccinations. I had a quick lunch before going and then OH drove us there. It was a pretty quick in and out, save that OH had to wait for 15 minutes before leaving afterwards, because he was driving. We were both given the Astra Zeneca vaccine and it was virtually painless. I took a new to me book to read for the duration.  We both felt fine afterwards, save that I felt tired, but I think that was more to do with waking at 6 am than the vaccine itself. As a consequence, I spent most of the afternoon in bed reading my book and managed to finish it, my 6th book this month.

It wasn't until I went to bed on Friday night that I began to feel unwell from the vaccine. I had a very bad case of the chills and couldn't stop shivering or get warm. OH was okay and fell straight to sleep, but I had a restless night until I covered myself with 3 quilts and a wool blanket, a long night dress, pyjama bottoms, socks and a dressing gown, plus two hot water bottles. I took a couple of paracetamol with some hot milk at 3.30 am and then finally got some sleep.

Saturday, I woke at 11 am and felt a bit better, but tired and still a bit shivery. I stayed in bed for most of the day, sleeping on and off and didn't actually get up until 6.30 pm when I felt much better. A bit of a lost day really, but worth it to get vaccinated against the virus. Apparently, one in ten people suffer from chills as a side effect. I'm obviously one of that 10 percent. Not altogether pleasant, but I'm feeling a lot better now.