A weekend away

Due to Covid, like most other people we haven’t had a holiday, or even a night away from home.

When we came out of the first lockdown we booked a weekend away as something to look forward to. Then we went into Tiers and then into a second lockdown. We wondered whether this trip would have to be cancelled.

As we came out of the second lockdown, locally we were put into Tier 2. Fortunately so was the location we had booked into. This has meant that we could indeed still have our weekend away.

We arrived at our hotel and felt very safe with the precautions they’ve put in place. Masks to be worn throughout the hotel unless you’re eating. The Housekeeping staff deep cleaned the room before our arrival. And I used to manage the hospital’s domestic services team so I know what a deep clean should look like. The Housekeeping staff will now not enter our room again until after we’ve left. I’m sure we can cope without the bed being changed/made, or the towels changed for a few days (they’ve left more than plenty in the bathroom anyway).

We booked in to have our evening meals at the hotel too as we weren’t sure what was in the local area and whether it had to be booked in advance, so figured that this was the best solution.

We have booked tickets for a National Trust property and plan to have a good look around our location too, and hit some shops and a Christmas Market in the Corn Exchange.

Can’t express how good it is to get away for a couple of nights and spend some time together, chilling. The weather could be better but it is December after all. We’ve come prepared.

A strange day

With the excitement of starting a new role next week, and a long weekend away in between, today was a very strange day indeed.

Because the move to the new role has been swift, the opportunity to hand over things, finish things off and so on has been very short. Not least having the chance to tell my team about it.

The day has been spent trying to wrap up loose ends and get things to a sensible state for someone else to pick up and finish. The other things I need to sort out is moving desks. There are some things I can take home that I won’t be able to utilise in my new office space, but there are other things that I will need to take across, and some that I don’t need to take with me.

The plan is to come back to this office on Tuesday, after my weekend off, to pick the bits that I will need, then walk them over the other side of the site to where I will base myself. I also have the option to be able to work from home, so I may start doing that a couple of days a week too.

I suppose I’m not technically leaving the team as its only a secondment, so there’s been no “leaving do”. I’ve spoken to my team leaders and sent a message round to the team as I didn’t get to see and speak to everyone. I will get to see them from time to time so I guess its not a case of walking away.

At least I have a nice long weekend, Thursday to Monday inclusive, to be able to switch brain ready to hit my new role next week.

Reasons to celebrate

The 1st of December. The start of the build up to Christmas. The first day you can legitimately have chocolate for breakfast from your advent calendar.

For the last few years I’ve bought C a beer advent calendar from Adnams, our favourite purveyors of beer. However, this year they weren’t offering one, presumably as a bi product of covid shutdowns they’ve not been able to brew the volumes of beer as they had done.

Not to be out manoeuvred though I found an alternative supplier offering an advent calendar of craft beers from different establishments. Order duly placed.

On the route out of the checking out procedure I was directed to the “customers who bought this product also bought …” section. Apparently someone had bought a prosecco advent calendar. I never knew there was such a thing. Click, I’ll have one of those too.

For some reason or another an advent calendar is the one thing that C has never bought for me. We’ve bought them for R and her various flatmates over the years, and I’ve always bought him one, either chocolate or more recently beer. But for some unknown reason I’ve never been given an advent calendar.

This year he even bought himself a tea advent calendar. I don’t drink the stuff, so it was definitely a self purchase.

Well, I’ve treated myself this year seen as though no-one is going to do it for me. I know, sob story isn’t it? First world problems.

It seems fortuitous therefore that on the first day of opening my prosecco calendar, that I actually have something to celebrate. I was interviewed for a project manager 6 month secondment role, at a higher banding, and was successfully appointed, and asked to start next week.

I shall crack open that first bottle tonight and toast a new future.

Back in my happy place

Been back in the kitchen, getting my bake on. Haven’t baked anything for a week or two for various reasons, so it was great to be back in my happy place after a particularly difficult week.

Fortunately my BakedIn box arrived, so that avoided any difficulty decisions having to be made.

I’ve never made butterscotch before. It does warn you in the recipe card that it will be hot, but that didn’t stop me sticking my finger in it for a taste 😋

How long do you think is a polite length of time to wait before scoffing some? Quite frankly, I’d happily tuck in now but C is busy putting together my new desk and chair for the study, and we need to go up the tip to get rid of all the stuff we’ve decided to chuck out during the clear up to make space for said desk, and we haven’t had lunch yet. Maybe it’ll have to wait a bit until afternoon tea time.

I had thought at one time, reasonably seriously, about going into a baking business, or having a little tea shop and selling homemade cakes. Trouble with that is, you have to have the space and facilities to meet all the necessary food hygiene and safety requirements, and actually doing it all would take too much of my personal time up, which would impact on my #bellringing time. I do make the odd cake for friends and family, and I have been commissioned in the past to make cakes for a fee, but I do it very much on my terms. If I’m not “feeling” it or I simply don’t want to, I will say no. I make cakes because I want to, not because I have to, in order to make a living. I absolutely applaud those who have turned their hobby into a business and if I wasn’t so consumed by #bellringing, maybe I’d think a bit harder about it. But for now, I’m happy making simple things to enjoy.

I wonder what my grandad would make of it. I used to love watching him mix a cake together without weighing anything, just by feel. He was a master Baker in his day, and didn’t bat an eyelid at making my sister’s wedding cake, including the Royal icing from scratch, in my mum’s kitchen. I sat round the table watching him work.

I wonder whether that was an early influence on me. My first full time job out of school was as a cream finisher in a bakery, putting all the finishing touches to cakes, doughnuts and all sorts of yummies. I’ve always said that if I did set up my own cake business that I would name it after him. Duffell’s Cakery. And the logo would be a side profile of his face in ginger to reflect the colour of his moustache.

We would have had fun in the kitchen together.

Keeping us guessing

As you know I subscribe to BakedIn Baking Club. Each month I get an email telling me fresh ingredients to buy ready for the box with the dry ingredients and recipe card to come through the post. But you’re never told what the recipe actually is. This was the email that arrived this week ahead of distribution. Then there’s a frenzy of comments on social media about what it could be.

This one really has me stumped though. Eggs, cream, milk, butter, oil. The dry ingredients always seem to contain a flour mix of some kind and some nut or other. Google is generally not much help.

I’m hoping that the box will arrive by Saturday. I really missed out on baking last weekend, partly because I was quite busy, and partly because C had purchased 2 boxes of mince pies, so I thought we had enough snacks in (not that they lasted very long). I fully intend to bake something this weekend. I need the distraction after a difficult week at the office.

If the box doesn’t arrive in time I’ll have to think about what to bake. I’m torn between biscuits, cranberry & orange biscotti, cinnamon buns, chocolate brownie or biscoff cuppies.

I found an online quiz called What Should I Bake? After asking some obscure, and some unconnected questions, the results suggested that I should bake cookies. The chart however suggested my responses showed 40% cake, 20% cupcakes 20% pie, 14% muffins, 4% bread and 2% cookies.

I’m hoping the box arrives so I don’t have to make a decision.

Moral Injury

The #MSEBuddyNetwork meeting yesterday was discussing moral injury, particularly in light of dealing with the pandemic.

The group were sharing issues where they have been asked to do things, or not do, that go against the individual’s morals or that they could make things right.

As a manager of a large team I had to introduce mechanisms to try to keep the whole team safe and Covid secure. This has meant impacting on their home situations. As time has gone on, staff are getting tired and frustrated that their seems to be no end in sight.

The NHS is an incredibly resilient organisation, however the individuals within it are really struggling. People come in to work, and on the surface seem fine, but we recognise that deep down they are not. Accepting the current situation does not mean that we necessarily agree with it, but we are trying to manage it as best we can.

We also need to be careful not to project those things on to others either in the workplace or at home. Sometimes we need to accept that we can’t fix everything and that we have to accept a lower bar, but that doesn’t mean we agree with it.

Strolling, strolling, strolling

Something I try to do every day is go out for a walk. Sometimes it might just be walking into town, during a working week its around the hospital grounds at lunchtime, and sometimes its a bit more of a planned event, like Tuesday’s epic Thames Path.

On Monday afternoon I took myself for a walk around the block whilst C was waiting for a parcel to be collected. I simply wandered up the main road to the local park, around the edge of the park and back down the back streets. Not very far, but enough.

Wednesday C needed to pick up a prescription so we walked to the GP surgery, about a mile, then can back via the old Cinder Track, a footpath that links the estate where my parents live to the city centre. This path I have trod many times in my childhood.

It seems that a lot has changed along that path since I last went that way. The actual path is the same 2 lane affair. Pedestrians to the left, cyclist’s the right, as you head into the city. But what was once just old scrubland has been turned into a pleasant little tree covered pathway, with children’s play things and benches, and notices telling you about the wildlife that frequents the area.

For all that new scenery there was a sense of the familiar. I’ve walked, run and cycled along that path and back so many times. Its nice to see the scrubland repurchased, but its nice to have the familiar crunch of the path underfoot.

Things change and they can change rapidly and sometimes unexpectedly. Its inevitable that things will progress and move on. Things will never stay the same forever.

As human beings we need to be adaptable and resilient in the face of change. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. I try my best to adapt to new things, like virtual #bellringing rather than the real thing and I try even harder to be resilient. Sometimes going for a walk to clear my thoughts helps with that.

Two of my favourite things

With lockdown version 2.0 imminent it seemed rather fortuitous that I have this week off work and we arranged to meet R on her day off, and the weather was on our side too.

A straightforward drive to Surrey, giving R enough time for a bit of a sleep in and to wake up and get ready. We had instructions to deliver a few things. R’s flatmate had to work this afternoon so we only had a brief chance for a hello.

R decided that she would take us for a walk along the Thames Path. They’ve done bits of it between Kingston and Kew but not the whole way. Our plan today was to walk as far as Richmond then decide whether to continue to Kew then get the bus back, or turn around and walk back.

By the time we got to Richmond we decided that is was time for a #latelunch. Having repleated ourselves we agreed to continue on to Kew.

Our journey took us past the Richmond Weir and Teddington Lock. As we were walking back towards the river after lunch we passed the site of Richmond Palace, and I confess to letting out a bit of a squeal whilst taking a photo of the plaque that commemorates the place of so many a Tudor story.

By the time we got to Kew it was dark. We didn’t have to wait long for a bus which stops just around the corner from R’s place.

Given that we may not see her in the flesh again this side of Christmas, I’m so glad that we were able to see her. Thankfulky, she has a protected profession but they are still talking about downsizing during this lockdown, so she’s waiting to hear. Her flatmate will be furloughed again as his job is not protected. Fingers crossed they’ll be OK. I’m glad they have each other and if the tally chart on the fridge was anything to go by, they seem to be good at making their own entertainment. R is winning at hangman, noughts and crosses and pretty much every game they’ve been playing.

My legs are aching but my heart is full, having seen my little girl and seeing for myself that she’s OK.

What’s the time Mr Wolf?

British Summer Time ends at 01:00 on Sunday morning and as such clocks are turned back an hour. Depending on where you look, the reasons state that this was to make the most of daylight hours. One site even states that during WW2 British DOUBLE Summer Time was 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and was temporarily introduced when daylight saving would be in force, and during the winter were kept 1 hour ahead of GMT to increase productivity.

The way I remember which way the clocks go is “spring forward, fall back” . i.e. in spring time we move forward an hour (an hour less in bed) and in autumn, we move back an hour (an hour extra in bed). According to some “fall” used as term for autumn is actually of Germanic origin adopted by 16th century England as a contraction of expressions like “fall of the year”, and not American as some would think.

For most of us, this moment in time will go unnoticed as we’ll be asleep, however I wonder how those working the night shift view it. Particularly those jobs that require time stamped data. For example if someone was giving birth at 01:00 would the baby’s birth certificate show midnight or 01:00 as time of birth? Would that baby actually be an hour older than their birth certificate states? If the police apprehend a criminal during some misdead, was the time of arrest an hour later, so when they ask the question “where were you at 01:00?” the perpetrator could genuinely they were somewhere else.

The task of physically moving clocks back an hour is painful, especially in this house. Modern devices will change automatically but we have so many manual clocks to change that the task starts early in the day on Saturday, resulting in never being entirely sure what the time is all day.

We have the cooker, microwave and wall clock in the kitchen. The hall clock and barometer in the hall. The study clock. Four clocks in the lounge. R’s bedroom clock. Our bedroom clock and the alarm clock. Analogue watches x4. Thankfully mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PC and TV will all update themselves.

Oh, and just for fun, the alarm clock is always 20 minutes ahead so I can wake up gradually before the 06:00 news. The lounge wall clock is half an hour ahead so that we’re not late for things. And the study clock is backwards. No wonder my body clock is hinky and I’m usually awake by 05:00 and asleep again by 21:00.

I shall endeavour to make the most of the extra hour in bed but suspect I’ll be wide awake.

By this time next year we’ll be miwyonaires, Rodney.

I gave C the choice of what I’d bake this weekend. The options were millionaire shortbread, lemon & blueberry biscotti, iced biscuits, or ice cream cone cupcakes. After some consideration he opted for the shortbread.

I’ve never actually made millionaire shortbread before. I’ve made shortbread, I’ve made caramel and I’ve made chocolate ganache as part of other recipes, but never put them all together. Its all relatively easy but I get impatient with waiting for things to cool down before doing the next stage.

That’s the good thing about baking though. It forces you to slow down. Everything about life tends to be full on and at hyper speed. I listen to podcasts at 1.5 speed, I drive to work because its quicker, I’m a fast eater and have always finished first, once I’m up and dressed in the morning, I need to get on with things, I hate sitting around waiting. Weeks are rushing by and we don’t often get to slow down.

We had hoped to go out for a walk on Saturday but just as we’d decided where to go it came over all dark and drizzly so we decided to stay in instead. Then of course the sun came out. That got me a bit aggy because now what was I going to do with the rest of the day?

Well, instead of rushing about feeling like I had to do something, I sat and read a book. In fact I also ordered 3 new books on a subject that I wouldn’t normally go for but have decided to widen my horizon and try something different.

I waited for the shortbread to cool, then I waited for the caramel to set, then I waited for the chocolate to harden. Then I scoffed some, whilst reading my book.

“Slow down and enjoy life. Its not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why” – Eddie Cantor