Tuesday March 31 2020
Alex woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. He decided to read The Andromeda and play some games until he was tired again. Leila woke up at usual time and begun working. Leila was much happier but her migraine still persisted a little. We had our morning coffee in the garden and there was a really cute baby playing on the mini dinosaur see-saw which kept us occupied.
Alex started a micro problem set. Leila worked then had a catch-up with Ravi who has been at home (sent back from China) for 6 weeks now. He’s working on procuring Chinese medtech for the British government. Alex had a catch-up with Sahil – still focused on seaweed empire and Tanuvi. Alex re-fried the previous night’s gnocchi which was great. He then spoke to the Ethiopian Covid19 response team having collated all the research into one. He is also spoke to a Biz school professor about helping him compile different countries’ policy responses to the virus. Leila enjoyed an egg (the final of our stock) because she’s an awful vegan. Luckily, there are 12 more on the way.
Leila tried to take a 10min lunch break to watch The Suite Life, but Alex shut her dreams down and declared that he just could not watch it again. RIP. She decided to start cooking dinner instead in her break. As payback, she prevented him from eating the second Pecan pudding.
In the afternoon, we took a 5min break to play badminton. Leila’s skills had deteriorated significantly and she promptly hit one of the shuttlecocks into the neighbours garden and then sent them a lengthy apology text. Alex chatted to Diego and offered his room in Cambridge to him for half price. Diego is feeling quite lonely and wanted a cheaper room. This was also Alex’s biggest stress of current times so win-win, and a nice gesture for a friend. Leila took a break from work to do a yoga class at 6.30pm whilst Alex listened to his classmates’ development presentations. He then cracked out a beer and listened to a lecture by Zoe Marks on Political Violence, Conflict and Peace mainly in Nigeria. She talked a lot about how to restore and maintain peace post conflict; something Alex thinks isn’t talked about enough. Leila joined a video call with her sisters and cousin in Toronto and then tried to convince her dad that it was not a good idea to visit the nursing homes this week. He was very stubborn. Leila then tried and failed to make brown rice and it was still hard after 45 minutes on the hob, so she flooded it with water and it ended up really gooey. Alex to the rescue – he started flipping it like a pancake on a frying pan with some olive oil to try and dry it up. It actually worked and tasted nice with the cauliflower curry and courgette side.
After dinner, we watched episode 3 of The Mandalorian and Alex had to explain half of the programme to Leila as she was clearly not concentrating and did not understand all the Star Wars references / general characters. But it was still really nice and the day was very happy.
P.S. This was also the 1 year anniversary of Alex and Leila re-meeting in Life (club) in Cambridge for their MA graduation in 2019. Aw.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 