The Lockdown Diaries

[Balderdasha]

Day 124. Tuesday 21st July.

More bureaucracy. Husband made a sort of fire pit in the back garden out of bricks and we had smoked chicken and proper jacket potatoes and smoky beans for dinner. Had a nice walk in the park and chat with a friend who's supposed to be moving to Beijing after the summer but there are currently no flights. I think she'll be far safer there than in the UK. Husband usually does bathtime but he was clearing up the garden so I ran the kids a proper bubble bath and taught my daughter how to wash her insanely long hair herself. Son spent most of today playing "Lego Batman" and twittering about the riddler and clayface.

[Gangster Octopus]

Completed our triple swing.

[Sporting]

Clothes washing has taken a definite downturn in our house as the children (and increasingly, the adults, it must be admitted) fail to see the reasoning behind changing out of their pajamas if we're not going to be going anywhere. (Cue the bedtime argument as to whether they should have to put on fresh pajamas (they do, sorry, new ones, please))

Do people actually wear pyjamas (alternative spelling I was brought up with) these days? Well, evidently they do, but our go-to nightwear (all three of us) is clean undies (or,er, nothing) and maybe a t-shirt if we feel a bit chilly. The last time I wore bespoke pyjamas was when I was a young teen.

[treibeis]

Do people actually wear pyjamas (alternative spelling I was brought up with) these days? Well, evidently they do, but our go-to nightwear (all three of us) is clean undies (or,er, nothing) and maybe a t-shirt if we feel a bit chilly. The last time I wore bespoke pyjamas was when I was a young teen.

Doesn't half the UK population change into their pyjamas before they go to the supermarket?

[ad hoc]

No I think that's just dressing gown and slippers. They might have pyjamas underneath but it's not essential

[scratchmonkey]

Do people actually wear pyjamas (alternative spelling I was brought up with) these days? Well, evidently they do, but our go-to nightwear (all three of us) is clean undies (or,er, nothing) and maybe a t-shirt if we feel a bit chilly. The last time I wore bespoke pyjamas was when I was a young teen.

The under-10 set definitely do, I think as a nod to how filthy their clothes would be at the end of the day in normal times. I usually just have a t-shirt and underwear myself, the wife has some fantastic printed pants with robots and whatnot.

[Nocturnal Submission]

I've slept in the raw since my late-teens, though I had some pyjamas that lasted into my early-20s to be deployed when the situation demanded it, (university field trips, staying at someone else's house and so on). These days if I'm a guest somewhere it'll just be a T and boxers if absolutely necessary, but at home my kids have got used to the trauma of occasionally glimpsing naked dad heading into or out of the bathroom.

[Balderdasha]

Day 125. Wednesday 22nd July.

The less said about yesterday the better. Though I did go on a nice three-hour round trip walk with the kids to a different playground which has reopened.

[Balderdasha]

Day 126. Thursday 24th July.

I think everyone was grumpy on Wednesday partly because they were hungry, as the meals we had eaten were not very calorific. So, yesterday, I made absolutely certain that didn't happen again. I made banana and chocolate porridge for breakfast, then made a big veggie roast lunch (Quorn sausages, Quorn pieces in onion gravy, roast potatoes, sweet potato wedges, Yorkshire puddings, beetroot, green peppers, radishes, celery) and made an enormous batch of apricot, pistachio and honey flapjacks (oat bars for American readers) for everyone to snack on during the day.

Even more new job bureaucracy. I had to speed walk to my psychiatrist office to collect a letter before the office closed. The letter says that my bipolar affective disorder is in remission, is well managed and they have no concerns about me starting a new job. I might frame it.

We've started watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. My husband had reached his interim weight target so we ordered proper pizzas from the nice local independent Italian restaurant to celebrate.

[Balderdasha]

Day 127. Friday 24th July.

The swings are back in the playground! Hallelujah! Well two swings at least which made for two very happy children. And during lockdown my daughter has been practicing swinging off the bar in our kitchen doorway so she's built upper body muscle and is now strong enough to pull herself up into and out of the swing. She's very proud.

[Balderdasha]

I also made a nice pasta dish with red pesto, pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and black olives. Fortunately I made a massive portion because I was ravenous after a run in the park. I don't seem to loathe running as much as I used to which is more a surprise to me than anyone else.

[Nefertiti2]

Day 127. Friday 24th July.

The swings are back in the playground! Hallelujah! Well two swings at least which made for two very happy children. And during lockdown my daughter has been practicing swinging off the bar in our kitchen doorway so she's built upper body muscle and is now strong enough to pull herself up into and out of the swing. She's very proud.

That’s really impressive. Swing on balderdaughter.

Sounds like her mum, too who has not only brought two kids through lockdown, entertaining a football message board in the process, but also got herself a job.

[Balderdasha]

Day 128. Saturday 29th July.

Husband got a new outdoor BBQ smoker thing. Went to the shop to get him some meat to smoke. Everyone was complying with wearing face coverings. Husband smoked a block of tofu for me too and I had it with sweet chilli and garlic sauce and egg fried rice. We watched Chicken Run. I played several rounds of Gruffalo dominoes with the kids

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

A thing that caught on around us was parents and grandparents building "fairy trails" for kids through the woods, putting doors on trees, painting shells, even leaving teddies etc with little framed notes telling the delighted youngsters their names. All very twee and charming. The council that owns the woods (don't know if was parish or borough) came along in the week and ripped it all out and chucked it in a skip, citing unauthorised use of the AONB and effectively accusing the parents of fly-tipping waste that could be harmful to wildlife. It made the regional news. You can imagine the outrage. I found it hilarious.

[Balderdasha]

Day 129 & 130. Sunday 26th July and Monday 27th July.

I was pretty grumpy yesterday. My sole achievements for the day were that I made spaghetti bolognese for lunch (three versions, one with beef, one with Quorn mince and one blitzed smooth for the kids) and I made an outdoor science classroom on Animal Crossing. I took myself off for a litter picking walk in the evening to try and perk up, and found a hidden path with loads of ripe blackberries.

So today, I've taken the kids blackberry picking. We brought home five big tupperware pots full of them. Some were eaten fresh, some have been made into blackberry and apple crumble for daughter and some have been made into blackberry and apple flapjacks for son (the crumble and the flapjacks have identical ingredients, it's just that the flapjacks have a higher ratio of oats, ground almonds, honey, butter and sugar and it's all mixed together with the fruit whereas the crumble has a deep layer of fruit underneath and oaty mix on top). We have also watched the Peppa Pig episode where mummy pig gets trapped in a blackberry bush, just to "consolidate learning".

[Patrick Thistle]

A thing that caught on around us was parents and grandparents building "fairy trails" for kids through the woods, putting doors on trees, painting shells, even leaving teddies etc with little framed notes telling the delighted youngsters their names. All very twee and charming. The council that owns the woods (don't know if was parish or borough) came along in the week and ripped it all out and chucked it in a skip, citing unauthorised use of the AONB and effectively accusing the parents of fly-tipping waste that could be harmful to wildlife. It made the regional news. You can imagine the outrage. I found it hilarious.

God, some councils don't help themselves with their PR, the joyless bastards.

[hobbes]

I'm with Rogin. I love that.
For a few years, all the hormonal school trippers tried to copy that bridge in Estonia? that was covered in padlocks declaring love evermore. So the Millennium bridge started filling up with spotty oiks from all over Europe littering these fucking padlocks and taking selfies. It looked horrible.
So you'll imagine my joy when I was crossing one day and there were half a dozen blokes unbolting the cables and dumping the metal monstrosities unceremoniously into a bin.
The joy turned to glee when about 30 seconds after one class full of pubescent paramores had demonstrated their undying affections on one bit of bridge, the cleanup crew rolled in behind them and started lobbing them before the selfies sticks had even been extended.
One of the poor lambs tried to argue the toss. Short shrift was recieved.
I blame the teachers.

[Balderdasha]

Day 131. Tuesday 28th July.

Slow day. Lots of laundry and cleaning. I made a spinach, rocket and ricotta pasta bake for lunch which my daughter declared to be "the most successful pasta sauce ever". After literally six years of reactions to my cooking ranging from crying, retching, saying "bleurgh", throwing the food across the room, to screaming or lying on the floor throwing a tantrum, it's nice to occasionally get some positive feedback.

We've succumbed and signed up to one month of Disney plus and just watched Frozen 2 while eating wine gums. It's the simple pleasures.

[S. aureus]

Yesterday:
Off to the garage doctor's clinic again in the morning to have my ear looked at. It's now been bothering me for over 2 months. This time they referred me to an ear, nose and throat doctor who I'll be seeing tomorrow, in an actual doctor's office no less.
I discovered yesterday morning that my dog is a fifth columnist in the war against the ants, something that I've been suspecting for a while. Initially they were coming in and eating the dog food that he liked to scatter in the vicinity of his bowl, yesterday morning he went one step further and moved the bowl over to their kitchen entry point before upending it, thus saving them having to trudge the extra three feet to where he usually eats. In further ant news I woke up this morning to find that they've finally found their way up onto the kitchen counter, so I'm going to have to be extra anal about cleaning it for a while - it turns out that they're very taken with the crumbs around the toaster. Basically the ants are winning the war so I suppose my dog has picked the correct side.
In the afternoon I made shepherds pie from the remains of a roast lamb, and a duo of crumbles - one rhubarb and one mixed fruit that was on the verge of not being edible (nectarine, plum, pluot).
I also found that my favourite jam purveyor makes rhubarb jam, so I'm actually quite excited to find out how it tastes. It will have to wait until I've finished the peach one first (verdict - adequate, but peach jam isn't high on my list of jams that I like).

[Nocturnal Submission]

Gosh, the pluot is a new one on me, but I'd love to try it.

[Balderdasha]

Well there's my new word of the day. I was trying to work out what "pluot" could be a typo for, but, no, it's actually a fruit I've never heard of.

[pebblethefish]

I'm sure there is an algorithm at Google trying to work out why a number of people who normally just visit OTF are all suddenly looking up "pluot"

[S. aureus]

Pluots are, in general, delicious. Closer to plums than apricots in appearance and taste. They also seem to keep better than either, generally speaking.

[San Bernardhinault]

Weirdly, as well as pluots, this year I've had "apriums". I have no idea how they differ.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Weirdly, as well as pluots, this year I've had "apriums". I have no idea how they differ.

All is explained here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluot

Has anyone in the UK ever seen any of these beasts on sale?