We got out of bed late in the morning after a really nice lie in. Leila made Alex a coffee with a smile on it in the morning and it was probably the best latte art we’ve done. They sat in the garden for ages doing the blog and learning how to do planters with sticks and netting from their neighbours. The sticks are for cats and the netting for squirrels. After an hour or so break, they then worked together opposite each other until 12, when Alex played D&D upstairs. Leila brought him an excellent breakfast of toast and omelette with a little of the special cheddar on the side. Leila spent the morning going through the Ismaili COVID case tracker analysing the health issue calls.
At 2pm Leila joined an Ismaili Women’s Network closed group discussion on Zoom. Topic was “Loneliness” and they had a host of psychologists, and other professionals discussing including her mum who was moderating the entire session. She was super confident and well-spoken and lots of Leila’s friends messaged her telling the same. She then joined her big JFR (dad’s side) weekly family call on Zoom with all 27 of us again. This week, all of the elderly members of the family had prepared one short story from their childhood and then one piece of advice for the rest of us. It was amazing to see her great aunt and uncle (both over 90 in Toronto) engage so much. They had both also put on nice clothes and her aunts and grandma had put lipstick on. Her uncle’s key pieces of advice: use education to help others not just yourself, and eat less salt! After Alex finished his game, he joined a call with the Togo crew and he realised why it’s difficult to roll out testing when the tests themselves often yield false results.
After they finished their calls, they had an hour and a half slot free to go for a walk together and they wandered down towards the canal but decided to head over Kings Cross Gas Tower park as it was much less busy. They passed the Aga Khan centre and discussed how Leila is lucky that she’s so close. they also talked about the community around the Ismaili work that Leila is doing and about the importance of support (and testing). They walked in a big loop (with some forays into dead-ends.) and they walked through a bunch of paths they’d never been to before. Leila tried to ignore the fact that she had a sore throat that seemed to be worsening. On return, she joined her second family Zoom of the day with mum’s side. It was the first time they’d chatted together and managed to get her grandma online as well as her aunt and uncle from Toronto and others in Doha. Her grandma was super emotional that she couldn’t hug her grandchildren, but apart from that it was a pretty happy and fun call. She also introduced Alex to everyone which she was happy about (and they all teased her for ages).
After the call, Alex continued working for a bit and then they both reheated leftovers for dinner (pie for Alex, daal for Leila). Alex also used too much tahini (see below). Leila didn’t say anything at the time but Alex knew she was secretly judging. They watched a bit more of the Global Citizen concert and then switched to Sherlock where they watched the last 30mins of the episode that Alex’s aunt is in. They also discussed how both of them feel like they are doing a lot of things, but are not necessarily committing to one thing and doing it really well. Leila felt like she hadn’t done anything on her to-do list for the weekend, however on reflection and after discussion, they have both done pretty well and are happy and healthy (for now).
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 