Home Alone

Pre-Covid, R used to commute to London daily to work. Then there was the period when they locked us all down and it was a huge adjustment for both of us. He developed a severe case of cabin fever and I took a while to get used to him being at home all day. Since 2020, he has had a couple of contracts that involved working from home 3-4 days per week. This seemed like a perfect compromise - he didn't have the daily stress of travel, worked better and more efficiently at home (fewer distractions) and yet still met up with colleagues once or twice a week. I enjoyed it too; it's nice having him around, but absence makes the heart etc. and I relished my day or two with the house to myself. 

His latest contract, however, is virtually 100% remote. That's right ..... 100%. It's not ideal for him and I've developed a twitch in my eye. On the plus side, I suppose it's good practice for retirement! I'm often out and about so he gets time alone in the house, for me though, that's never the case. If I'm lucky, on the days that I go for a lunch-time swim, he will go for a quick post-prandial walk to get some fresh air and, if I time the pool well, I might get 20 minutes to myself at home. Mostly though, the timing isn't that good.

Before someone points out how lucky I am to have someone to come home to, believe me, I know. It's just that sometimes I find it incredibly draining. Once every 2-3 months, he either has to go into London for the day or travel to Yorkshire for a meeting. The latter necessitating an overnight stay in a hotel in order to be there in time in the morning. Last night was one such night and, what can I tell you, it was blissful! It's not that I want to do anything particularly exciting - we had dinner together and, after I dropped him off at the station, my idea of a good night in involved a cup of tea, something entertaining on Netflix and a bit of knitting/crochet. I'm not exactly painting the town red here. What makes it special though, is that it's just me, myself and I, and I'm already looking forward to the next time.

Before I get into my record of this month's happies, apologies again - I still haven't worked out how to rotate some of the photos and quite a few are 90 degrees out! 

My Cosy Memory Blanket is ready and waiting for new squares to be added using my yarny advent swap with the lovely Barbara at Coastal Ripples.

Doing a jigsaw swap with L. I gave her this one following our trip to the Van Gogh Immersive Experience in London. Once finished, she returned it to us to do. It was actually easier than I thought when I initially tipped out the pieces, only to be confronted with a sea of blue and yellow. The direction of the brush strokes helped enormously.

A trip to the Corn Exchange to see this. It was based on a pre-war dinner meeting between Churchill (the lion), Chamberlain (the unicorn) and their wives. The chap playing Churchill stole the show.

An adaptation of M.R.James' play using puppets was equally good:

A trip into London to take L out for a birthday dinner. Sadly, her partner, V, was ill and couldn't make it. We consoled ourselves with plenty of food at a vegan, Japanese restaurant near Kings Cross. The sake and bamboo and buckwheat tea were particularly good:

I think my favourite was the miso aubergine:

Yuzu mochi and matcha panna cotta.

A Hallowe'en trip to Arlington Arts to hear a re-telling of 3 ghost stories for the season: 'The Judge's House' by Bram Stoker, 'The Kit Bag' by Algernon Blackwood, and 'John Charrington's Wedding' by E. Nesbit. It was excellent.

Photo of November's Beaver Moon, with the neighbours' TV aerial in the foreground! It was too cloudy to see it during the night, so this was taken first thing in the morning.

Study of William Henry Fox Talbot at Lacock Abbey:

Lastly, I returned home one lunchtime to discover a baby hedgehog on the front doorstep. I remembered that Snowbird once said that a hedgehog out and about during the day was a bad sign. He looked very small for the time of year, and quite inactive, so I called our local rescue centre for advice. Weighing just 230g, he was well below the recommended 450g needed to survive hibernation. Sadly, the centre was unable to accept animals as the lady running it was due to go into hospital for an operation. She suggested Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital on the far side of Oxford. Apparently, if I rang beforehand they would refuse as we are out of area, however if we just turned up they would accept him.

We begged some dry cat food from the neighbour, added a small lid of water and an old T shirt, and then Harvey(!) and I took a little drive. It was a glorious autumn day and we listened to Classic FM en route. Occasionally one of us would poop, but the other didn't judge. The conversation, however, was a little one-sided for the hour long trip. He ate the food and then rolled up in the T shirt and slept for the rest of the way, perking up when we arrived. Thankfully, they took him in and the plan was to keep him over winter, feed him up and then release him in the spring. I was given a patient reference number and told that I could ring in 2 weeks to check on his progress.

Sadly, the tale doesn't have a happy ending. When I called to check on him, they informed me that he had died 2 days after I dropped him off. After bonding with him on our road trip, I was surprisingly upset. 

Anyway, that's all for this month. I'm just off for a quick swim, prior to getting on with a few more jobs before collecting R from the station tonight. I hope all is good in your corner and that any preparations for Christmas are going well.

Toodle pip for now. x