The art of furlough? What’s in a shed and the Herb Scissors.

So week three brought extra drama. Remember it’s all relative. I was furloughed. I am taking it in my stride. Am sure no one chooses to furlough anyone or wants to be furloughed; it is all about survival. Every day is a non work day. On day one the mind and body were confused and that caused a rather long interlude on the sofa.Even my watch reminds me there are no appointments. How rude ! Do you think evolution of woman can go backwards, I mean a proper retreat? The most important observation from that day is from the Vax advert-no one would wear shoes as they cleaned a pale carpet ! Tell me I’m wrong.

I now find myself In gym gear all day . Especially on the days that 6am yoga is on the cards; it’s so stretchy. I’m ready like a ninja.Doing a stretch, lifting a 4kg weight or going into a yoga pose when the urge grabs me, as I slither from bed to sofa to kitchen back to sofa . My kitchen activity heightened this week. My mission was to create the Dishoom (cool chain of Indian restaurants) experience with their House Black Daal. After hours of boiling said lentils and adding the heart attack inducing amounts of butter and cream I can confirm that it was bloody delicious. I will be making it again sometime during 2021. Then as it was Easter 🐣 it seemed like a good idea to have home made hot cross buns with the help of a friend’s recipe and guidance. I now know what the Bake Off technical challenge feels like. Who knew there were different types of yeast!!! I could have created a kitchen incident. And have you ever proofed? Anyway it was a great way to spend part of Sunday and eat the results in the sun with tea from cup & saucer. How very old fashioned of us.

More food talk ..We now have a meal plan. The student’s OCD is resurfacing . But I’ve managed to negotiate some flex that means we can still have a bit of surprise . I suppose at least it stops us floundering and now that I’m not on the road those stops at the M&S on the motorway services are simply out of the question. I came to truly appreciate how difficult it is for the student. It was the day that I ate the last banana and hubby used the last bit of lettuce. Student declares that it’s like being in a ‘student house’ and threatened to create her own cupboard! Really , I don’t think so …anyway I understand the sentiment and good luck finding a free cupboard I thought. And this is at a point where we’ve never had so much food in the house apart from Christmas. And all because of not wanting to go to Sainsbury’s again for a very very long time.

There are stupid people about. No ifs or buts just fact. We’ve established this is a queue. There is someone in front of me and someone behind me. Definitely a queue; oh and don’t forget the fact that there is 2m between us. So why oh why do you insist on strolling between us? You thought we were letting you pass? Anyway, rant over. Sainsbury’s did well out of me because of that. Why is it that people feel the need to share more than they do normally – and take it from someone who shares too much already. The elderly gentleman (it’s ok I checked why he was out) behind me just wanted to get out of the house; I think it was to escape the daughter who was fussing too much. The other guy was queuing because he could only buy his cat’s favourite food here.🤷🏽‍♀️ He had already done his shopping elsewhere. My crusade to the shop in mask and gloves will continue on another day when I will once again be faced with; ‘I will saunter the aisles without a care’ woman, ‘I will look at you as if you are carrying a gun’ woman, ‘Personal space, what’s that’ woman and ‘ I will smile and be normal as I can be’ man and of course the friendly & helpful staff.

Back at home the hubby decided unilaterally that he was going to clear the shed. He comes out of one man cave to clear another.Remember he had a new toolbox to house. He was very proud of himself – new shelving unit up ! So we now have his area that has all sorts of DIY, bike ,gardening and other sporting bits. I am not to disturb this. Oh and there are now four clever hooks that gang the longer ladder; I was invited to view this. I viewed and praised. It keeps him happy. As you can see things did get a little out of hand. What came out!!! I don’t think we have enough time but let’s just say the trips to the tip will keep him busy after this lockdown. I created a table of goodies from “my finds”. It was a new form of retail therapy. We really have too much stuff and I need to declutter more effectively. There was stuff that had not been seen for nearly eight years. 😳

So the first highlight of the weekend is the introduction of a basketball hoop in the garden. Unfortunately I have to confess that it is not the regulation 10ft in height . Building challenges !! This did traumatise the hubby until I pointed out that it was just a hoop to keep us entertained!! The basketball authorities were not going to be notified by the neighbours. As a 5’4” vs. 6’2” I was never going to win. I had other plans and got carried away in the garden and declared we needed a veg patch. Only issue is the size of the garden. I then started googling those amazing Veg Trugs. I will keep you posted on this project.

And the second highlight of the week but possibly not for the hubby was the visit to chez home barbers, aka the student and myself. With hair trimmers and a pair of herb scissors in hand we set to work.

After the initial hesitation of making him look like a monk, GI Jones emerged. I am particularly chuffed with my performance; the trick is not to give a damn and just get stuck in. It’s important to try new things! And if only I knew that special selling feature all those years ago for those Zyliss Herb Scissors.

If all the above is not enough; you simply cannot escape the plethora of entertainment being thrown our way. Plays, films, musicals, ballets , concerts , museum tours and diy (not quizzes about DIY!!) quizzes. The Indians have got it right. My dad tells me the tv Channel are airing Mahabharata and The Ramayana ; great epics, pure genius. Keeping people like my father still got hours at a time; and let me tell you that’s some feat. And to end our weekend we used yet another connecting platform WebEx to play Scattergories. Creativity knows no bounds and it’s wonderful to see other students supporting their parents in the technological challenges we are all coming to terms with. Let’s see if next week we don’t spend 30mins logging in, looking for people (note to self – use correct email), not running out of charge, and not talking over each other. But it was such fun and it was the craziness that made it more so😉.

So, as we go into week 4… stay safe and don’t judge anyone, even if they start making home made hot cross buns.

🙏🏽

Seema