March: Mum’s 60th, Open Artist’s House and lockdown

Well…that escalated, didn’t it!

One minute we’re happily skipping along going about our lives as usual, and then suddenly we’re in the midst of a global pandemic and confined to our houses.

It feels a bit like we left the world behind in March and we’ve been living in an alternate reality for the last couple of months (I started writing this in May and now at the time of publishing it’s the 1st of July.) It’s very strange to look back at what a mixed bag month this was.

What I did

I kicked off the month with a visit from my sister and my nephew. They came up to London for the day, which we’ve been talking about doing for ages so it was lovely to have them here. The main attraction of the day was the London Transport Museum – as Isaac loves trains and most forms of transport. We spent a good few hours there, before finding some lunch and having a wander around the South Bank – we even went on the carousel.

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There’s a local illustrator called Suzanne Pink whose work I’ve been admiring for some time now. She runs drawing workshops from her home in Crystal Palace on a Friday, which also happens to be day off. A Facebook friend had booked a spot but could no longer made it, so I found myself there instead! I was really excited as we were doing cityscapes as the focus, and having just got back from New York and fallen a little bit in love with it, I felt it was meant to be. Suzanne was so lovely and provided us with lots of tea and biscuits which made it even better.

(Corona was definitely on the news agenda by now…I remember one of the ladies at the session going in for a handshake and thinking ummm…)

Parkrun were doing special International Women’s Day celebrations this year – trying to encourage more women to attend their events across the world. My internet friend Louise (who was the person to inspire me doing these blogs in the first place, and going to Parkrun too!) had got in contact to arrange a gathering of gal pals for Gunnersbury Parkrun. As it’s all the way in North London, it required getting up much earlier than usual but I was excited to try out a new course – and to meet Louise in person for the first time! As it turns out, one of Louise’s friends called Amy was a lovely girl I’d had a chat with at Crystal Palace Parkrun a few months prior! I ran with Louise for the first half of the course before she zoomed ahead but it was an enjoyable course. Everyone was in good spirits, and it was a flat and scenic route. We treated ourselves to a Maccy D’s breakfast afterwards (I might have even had two.)

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The very same day, my friend Becky came to Crystal Palace to explore Open Artist’s House in the area. It’s an annual event, which lots of places take part in albeit at different times of the year, showcasing local artists within their own homes. The idea is that you wander from home to home, meeting the artists, seeing their work and perhaps even making a purchase. We had a really fun afternoon exploring, and it took us to parts of Crystal Palace I haven’t explored even though I’ve been living here for nearly three years! I discovered Lady Boo‘s beautifully bright earrings (for anyone who knows me, knows I love a pair of statement earrings) so couldn’t resist treating myself to a pair.

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(Pictured from top left clockwise: Mr Cenz, Cooper’s Yard, Martin Jessup, Anna Jacobs & me with my Lady Boo earrings!)

It turned into quite the fun-filled weekend as the next day I head down to Surrey to spend the day with Dan. He usually comes to London to see me, so it was nice to change it up! We played a few rounds at Topgolf, and then went to Guildford for a wander and then to the cinema to see Parasite (which was amazing.) It was a lovely day – we always have a fun together – but little did we know it was our gonna be our last time together for a while!

The following week my anxiety got really bad. Coronavirus was all we were hearing about at this point, and it was seriously starting to worry me. We hadn’t gone into lockdown yet, but already the toilet roll was starting to disappear off the shelves! That weekend was however my Mum’s 60th Birthday party, which we perfectly timed really as two days later and large gatherings were banned.

I took advantage of being back in Hampshire in order to do a different Parkrun – Frimley Lodge Parkrun – with my brother-in-law Andy. The course was mixed terrain and very muddy but enjoyable! And for the first time Andy was ahead of me! Coronavirus precautions were in place – the volunteers were wearing gloves for scanning our barcodes. And again, it was to be the last one for a while…

My gorgeous Mum turned 60 and we had a little afternoon tea party to celebrate at a local event space. It was fairly small, just close friends and family, plus the first time Dan was meeting my family – all at once! My Nan was seen handing out toilet rolls to members of the family who were struggling to get hold of some…

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That was in fact the last time I saw everyone before lockdown. I think by that point we kind of knew it was coming, but didn’t want to admit to the reality of it. I was supposed to be returning home the following weekend to take my Mum out for a Mother’s Day afternoon tea with my sister.

I got the train back to London, and was back in the office on Monday. There was significantly less people around, and even some of my colleagues decided not to come in. That evening I was due to go to Ocean Film Festival with two of my colleagues and my friend Becky, but my colleagues decided against it and by the time I had arrived in Highbury and Islington, it had been cancelled following Boris’s announcement. Becky and I decided to make the most of the journey and went for dinner – our last hurrah before lockdown!

From then on it all changed very quickly: we were immediately asked to work from home, and just over a week later the official lockdown was brought in. One of my housemates had also been asked to work from home, whilst the other, a teacher, was still working. Then both of my housemates lost their jobs in fairly quick succession. The teacher was working at home for a week, and then backhandedly let go without any warning, and the other’s contract was terminated early.

I spent the rest of March working, and finding lots of fun things to do at home. I was quite enjoying having some more time at home – you know from my previous blog posts how much I usually do!

I finally made some bath bombs from a kit I got as a birthday present THREE YEARS AGO. I started a little cross-stitch project of a Robin that my Mum got me for Christmas. I went foraging for the first time (something I’ve been wanting to do for ages) for wild garlic in the woods behind my friend’s house, and dandelions too which I made into biscuits using a recipe from my friend Tiffany’s book ‘Food You Can Forage‘. I grappled with food deliveries – my Gousto deliveries I’d been getting up until that point were no longer as I struggled to get a delivery slot as I didn’t have an activated subscription, and I couldn’t get eggs, not even with my milk delivery. I was a bit anxious about going out to the shops at this point – as 1) people and 2) the shelves were looking very bare. Luckily I managed to get some eggs through bartering – my friend Alex got me some in exchange for toilet roll!

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Parkrun was cancelled, so I did the weekly Parkrun quiz instead. I made pancakes for breakfast at least once a week (thanks to the eggs.) We had a virtual birthday celebration and dance party for my friend Lauren. My housemates and I watched all the Twilight movies. I bought Sims 4 and made Dan and I as characters. I finished the Robin cross-stitch and put it into a card and sent it to my Nan. We made friends with next door’s Rottweiler, who up until now we’d been a bit terrified of. He was in our garden as the fence between our houses was blown down in the strong winds last year. I started another cross-stitch project – a BIG one – which I’m still working on!

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I’ve been reading…

From Here to There – An anthology of stories about migrating to Britain. Moving, funny, touching.

Jane Eyre – A classic! I love the 2011 film, so wanted to read the book. I started but haven’t got too far yet.

I’ve been watching…

Film

Judy – on my last shift at Screen25 before lockdown! A really moving film about the last few years of Judy Garland’s life.

Gone Girl – I have a stack of unwatched DVDs that I wanted to watch and then donate to minimise my collection. I decided to start with Gone Girl – quite a big film that I hadn’t got around to watching yet. Wasn’t sure what I thought of it after watching it, but thinking back it definitely made an impact!

Parasite – Dan and I caught this in the cinema and DAMN, it was good. Definitely deserved Best Picture.

TV

I started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (available on Amazon Prime) which is great! It’s about a woman who goes from housewife to comic in 1950s New York.

I’ve been listening to…

The 2020 Eurovision selections – including Think About Things and Kemama being my favourites!

Frank Sinatra’s ‘In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning’ from hearing it in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Various tunes I loved from the radio like The Rolling Stones’s ‘Gimme Shelter‘ as I heard it on the radio, The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ and ‘Piece of Your Heart’ by MEDUZA and Goodboys.

Looking ahead…

Who bloody knows?

The only thing I know for now is that it’s my birthday!

Stay tuned…