Leila hadn’t slept when we awoke on the Saturday morning, she was super tired and had max 3-4 hours. We went down and had coffee together, we did the blog on the bench in the sun which was super nice. Leila had to go off and do her Ismaili presentation, but Alex stole her away for a while before playing football in the garden in the sun. When she actually had to head inside and practice, Alex tied up the garden tree to ensure it no longer overhang the path around the house. Alex carried on sitting outside and edited Cam’s sci-fi short story, which was pretty good given it was a first draft. L’s Ismaili council meeting was way behind schedule and her talk on data analysis of assistance was put off until nearly 12. The council was busy discussing data quality with the consultant group before who were looking at confirmed cases and deaths compared to national. When Leila did speak, it was really well received, and they asked her to continue. L’s Dad took a video and her mum was secretly on the call, L’s dad said he was proud of her which was really nice though. Once it was over, L came down and A was busy trying to teach himself React which was way beyond his ability. L made them soft boiled eggs (potentially too soft) and they had them on toast in the sun.
L had scheduled her call with Areef for 12, followed quickly by Barre and then Ruchi at 3.30. Meanwhile Alex listened to Roukaya on unfiltered which was genuinely super nice and kind of inspirational. She is such a badass and has the best outlook on life. L was super pleased with the advice she gave to Areef, and that he asked her for advice and took her seriously. The Barre wasn’t great but Ruchi was really good. They then set out on their holiday! They packed their bags, and cleaned the kitchen (of course) and went on Leila’s walk to work. Alex provided the snacks, easy peelers and water, and they wandered past the Goldman building and took pictures. It was a super nice walk in the sun and genuinely felt like a holiday. Alex really enjoyed being back in Southwark and started smiling on the bridge (L noticed)
When in the house, they had a G&T each and chilled out and put the Alexa on. It was super chill and Alex felt massively at home. Leila was really happy seeing him in his element and also herself felt relaxed and free of house stress. She hadn’t been to the flat since July 2019 and happily remembered all of the times they spent there last summer. They went out to M&S and queued a bit due to the extremely low number of people they let into the store, which they decided was great, as they had a super good shopping experience. Alex convinced L to go for the meal deal bargain and then pick up any food they fancied. It felt like quite an Alex meal and Leila’s dumplings were a particular highlight. They had salmon with stir fry and potato Rosti, some olives, pitta and a whole tub of hummus
After dinner they chatted for an age and celebrated being on holiday and then headed into the large bed and continued the convo before sleeping really late. L loved the bed and it is way comfier than the one in Kings Cross.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 