Leila came downstairs and went straight outside because she knew her first Oddbox delivery had come overnight. She was excited to see lots of colours and loved reading the little leaflet which described why each ingredient was “Odd” and rescued (e.g. size wrong, surplus, weird marks) and also where each ingredient came from. Lucky for Alex, we rescued some Potatoes (not that we need any more in this house). They are unsure whether they like not knowing what they’ll get each week, but excited to try and use this stuff up. Alex came down a bit later and was a little distracted by his game which made Leila sad because she wanted a work break with him in the sun. Alex then started work on his business doc for his meeting later in the afternoon. Leila told Alex she was upset he was so distant in the morning and felt better after she had, although unfortunately Alex did not. They chatted about their different mechanisms of giving feedback and relieving mental angst. Leila joined a live Barre class at 12.30 and Alex began cooking a meal of rice, mango, spring onions, mushrooms and tomatoes which he loved. Leila was distracted in her barre class because she kept thinking about her conversation with Alex and when she came down they took a break together to write the blog.
Alex went upstairs to chat to his professor whilst Leila joined her team call and simultaneously cooked / baked her sweet potato and made it into a lunch. Alex chatted to his professor about his dData pitch, it was good but too technical throughout, and he has set himself the challenge of de-technifying the descriptions by Friday when it’s handed in. He’s keen to get Leila’s input on how to make it understandable to humans. He then sat upstairs for a while updating the doc and writing bits, but it was slow going and by 5pm he was feeling quite unsatisfied with how much he’d achieved in the day. He popped downstairs and decided to go for a run in the sun to see if it would help. He ran for over an hour, going on a circuit through the woods on the outside of Regents Park, it was super pretty and there was almost no one on the wooded pathways. He listened to two episodes of the Guardian Long Reads and really loved their discussions on the WHO and how it’s role has changed over time – it used to be really successful but has self-defined as a technical advisory body after outcry in the last decade which had lessened its effectiveness. He then stopped by Sainsbury’s en route home and picked up Vegan steaks, gnocchi, oil, apple juice, eggs and bread. He drunk the big bottle of apple juice as soon as he got back (From the bottle) and Leila exclaimed that she had never smelt him like this (= sweaty).
Leila got out of joining her 7.30pm call and watched the last 20 mins of Chicas del Cable, not realising it was the final episode of the season….meaning even more dramatic than usual. Alex joined her, and she was glad, because it was pretty horrific watching someone have a forced abortion and then fall off the side of a building. Alex decided he wanted to do something creative. He started making a pretty map using Tableau of COVID cases. He then started cooking dinner – potatoes, vegan steak, rocket, mushroom and tomato. He made a peppercorn sauce too which was surprisingly good. Leila started reading The Three Body Problem whilst Alex cooked and he was happy she was enjoying it (she hasn’t got to the alien part yet). They both really enjoyed the meal and had a glass of wine whilst listening to Chet Faker followed by old BGT and The Voice auditions including Susan Boyle. Leila said it was the first meaty taste she had tasted in a long time and Alex’s hair smelled like it over night. They went to bed but fell asleep a little later than usual after listening to Top 40 on Spotify.
Coffee, Wine and Isolation 