Christmas 2020

Not that I ever go in for huge Christmas extravagances, but this year was even more understated than usual. Ruth and I had planned to go and spend a few nights with my parents – carefully within the five days of mixing we’d been allowed by the government announcement in late November – but this was scuppered by the exciting U-turn on Christmas plans less than a week beforehand. Berkshire, along with the rest of south-east England, was placed into a new Tier 4, banning all mixing with other households, and Wales’ First Minister kindly placed the country into a new lockdown. So that was that.

Ruth and I were then faced with having to acquire stuff to cobble together Christmas lunch. We both find turkey somewhat underwhelming, thankfully, and it would in any case have been ludicrous to buy a turkey to just feed the two of us. So we decided on chicken. Ruth went to the Caversham Waitrose on 22 December – involving a disconcertingly early (for her) start – and was slightly panicked by a dearth of birds, so I was despatched to the larger MK Waitrose the next morning prior to driving to Reading. 

We arranged a somewhat unnecessary code beforehand that would indicate whether I had been successful. There were, thankfully, a few chickens left, most of them too large for us – consistent I guess with a run on small birds thanks to newly-imposed small Christmas gatherings – but I managed to get one that was reasonably small. No success with Christmas pudding - but thankfully we both prefer a mince pie anyway.

Christmas Day was at least a nice sunny morning, so we went for a short walk around Caversham.

Thames looking west from Caversham Bridge

Ruth’s family has a tradition of having bubble and squeak on Boxing Day, explaining the two bags of Brussels sprouts she prepared on Christmas morning – I like them, but even I was slightly intimidated.

Abundance of Brussels sprouts

Cooking roasts isn't my thing so Ruth prepared lunch while I amused myself taking selfies in front of the Christmas tree. Lunch turned out very well and we shared a nice bottle of Chablis.

We opened our presents after lunch, including gifts from Ruth's family (gifts from my family are, as we speak, still marooned in Wales - I hope to open them (fingers crossed) sometime around Easter).

The Christmas lunch table

As she has done for the past few years, Ruth's aunt gave me two tins of anchovies from her local Co-op. Which, to be honest, are a perfectly acceptable present and a lot better than some ghastly ornament.

Paltry outings in 2020

Well, it’s a new year, and we can all put dreary old 2020 behind us. Oh, wait.

While obviously we recognize there are worse problems to have (yawn), both Ruth and I are becoming increasingly desperate for a night away. Anywhere. Over the last few months I’ve found myself gazing longingly at a new Premier Inn right by the A34 at Botley, as I drive past on my way down to Reading. Who needs a view. Clearly, a substandard Beefeater-style dinner and a different view out of the window (albeit of a trunk road) would be a real tonic. The current Google Street View shows this hotel still being built, but you get the picture in terms of desperation.

Photo courtesy of Google Street View

Additionally, I suggested a weekend in Coventry to Ruth the other day, and she responded quite enthusiastically.

In the meantime, let’s recall the handful of outings I/we had in 2020:

Visits to Wales

With hindsight, very glad I seized the opportunity when the first lockdown was lifted last July to travel to Wales to visit my parents (half-suspecting that there might be another lockdown in the winter and that I’d better take the chance while I had it). On the Saturday Mum and I went for a walk along a new bit (to me) of the Usk water meadows, and Dad cooked a curry in the evening.

Chablis with the curry

On the Sunday Mum, Hannah and I went out for a nice walk, and we took what could have been a lovely picture of the three of us if I hadn’t been caught with an unfortunate facial expression. Here’s the photo with myself snipped out.

This one isn’t much better, but just to prove I was there. Never sure quite what it is I do in photographs.

I went for a second visit, with Ruth this time, for the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Hannah's sheep Stanley in Mum and Dad's sun room

Ruth in the sun room. I seem to have upended Stanley onto his nose

The River Gavenny

Before setting off on the July visit, I'd decided to have a go at making a treacle tart, as I'd never made one and I knew Dad likes it, as do I. I followed the recipe in Delia's 'Complete Cookery Course', which uses wholewheat flour in the pastry and wholewheat breadcrumbs for the topping. To make it healthy. For the filling, Delia advises 5 tablespoons of golden syrup and 1 tablespoon of black treacle. In an attempt to give it a less sweet, ergo more grown-up, flavour, I decided to alter the balance to use half and half. This rendered the flavour somewhat too grown-up. We agreed that future attempts would redress the balance a bit.

Assembled ingredients

The adult-flavoured finished product

Visits to London

Ruth and I managed a couple of days out in London after the first lockdown and before we were confined to quarters again in the autumn. In mid-July we took the train to Richmond to visit Kew Gardens – we’d had to book an entry slot beforehand and had to queue outside the grounds for a bit when we got there, but otherwise it all seemed to go very smoothly. It was the first time either of us had taken a train since the lockdown and we virtuously wore our masks. The trains were pleasingly un-crowded.

Be-masked on the train

We had a lovely lunch outside at the Pavilion Bar and Grill – first meal out in ages – then had a lovely wander around including visiting the now-refurbed Temperate House.

In September, we had a day out in central London for Ruth to go to an Impressionist exhibition at the Royal Academy. I decided against going to the exhibition, as it was quite expensive, but went along for the trip. We had tea and cake in the outdoor courtyard café and I went for a walk around the surrounding streets while Ruth was in the exhibition. Afterwards we made our way up to Tottenham Court Road and went to Heal’s, where we had a lovely late lunch in the Ambrose Café.

I went up to London again in early October to meet Helen for a catch up. Started the day by going for a cup of tea at the branch of Leon on Euston station concourse, and ran into administrative hassles by failing to notice I should have scanned a QR code on the way in, leading to having to hold up the queue behind me while I accessed a web page on my phone and logged my details. Then made my way over to Trafalgar Square and met Helen outside a branch of Prezzo, where I’d booked us a table. It turned out that Helen had installed the NHS COVID-19 app, which did seem to be making things a lot easier, so I ended up installing it too and we managed to log our visit easily enough. Once seated, we were also able to place our orders via our phones, which was quite cool, though the chap serving did also assure us that he could take our order in person if we preferred this (perhaps I looked to be approaching an age where I might struggle with this).

After lunch, we walked across to the National Gallery, where I’d booked us an entry slot for a pootle around the permanent galleries. This was very enjoyable and I bought Ruth a fridge magnet of George Stubbs' 'Whistlejacket'.

'Whistlejacket'

Lockdown(s)

Well, we in England are in lockdown again, but Boris has assured us that it’ll definitely end on 2 December, and we’ve no reason to doubt his word. Oh, wait.

Lockdown started on 5 November. I travelled to Reading last weekend to see Ruth under the ‘support bubble’ rules and noted that she had marked the date on the calendar (and her hair appointment was unfortunately cancelled, which caused some anguish). Additionally, all our weekend arrangements for November had a line through them and a terse ‘NOPE’ written in capitals alongside.

This lockdown is, thankfully, less strict than the first time round, which is something. I'm particularly appreciative of the 'bubble' rules and the 'unlimited exercise' stipulation. Unlike certain other parts of the UK, England never did have rules confining you to within a certain distance from your house, instead seeming to urge people to use some common sense (e.g. driving 10 minutes to take your kids to the park = fine; driving three hours to the Peak District = not fine). 

Not sure I'm comfortable longer-term though with the idea of the state giving us permission to sit on a bench (snip taken from the 'look what you're allowed to do this time' BBC link above). Have been struck this year by the realisation that my innate libertarian tendencies fit less well than I'd realised with the left-of-centre Guardian-type politics that I'd always assumed were my natural home. Plenty of time this year for personal reflection, if nothing else.

'Households' malarkey

Following a bit of an anxiety attack when lockdown was announced in March I skipped off to Reading to stay with Ruth at the house (catastrophizing that we’d be banned from seeing each other indefinitely if I didn’t – the ‘bubble’ rule wasn’t introduced until later). I stayed there for most of the lockdown period – the first continuous period we’d lived with each other in nine years – but we got on OK, probably due to being distracted from domestic minutiae onto bigger concerns.

After a couple of months we decided that we’d both be better off if we returned to our normal routine – plus I had already left my rented flat empty for quite some time by that point, albeit I’d been in touch with the agents to notify them – so I returned to MK. We’ve now officially ‘bubbled’ with each other, with an eye to any future lockdowns/’tier’ changes. We’re lucky in that we both live alone so are free to do this; I can’t imagine what it’s like for younger couples in (say) London where neither party can afford to live alone and therefore are prevented from seeing each other.

Running

Started off this year quite well, running with the Redway Runners’ ‘Gentle Step Up’ groups on Mondays and Wednesdays. Here’s a selfie I took before one group run in early March, where I was clearly feeling less than enthusiastic about it. Also did one, or possibly two, parkruns with Hai. When both parkrun and the RR meetups got clobbered by the lockdown, I decided that I’d have to try getting over my self-consciousness about running alone. I more or less have, helped by the variety of shapes, sizes and ages one sees out running. I’m now running two or three times a week, more or less regularly, though have had to switch to lunchtime runs now that it’s darker. I’m only running just over 3km at a time, but I figure it’s better than not doing it at all.

Ruth also took up running during lockdown while her gym was closed, and had some success working through the ‘Couch to 5K’ programme. Sadly, her gym hasn’t reopened, so she’s faced with having to join another one further away, or keep up the running.

Bloody devolution

Devolution is, obviously, a really great thing for all concerned (albeit that the Welsh voted 'yes' to it in 1997 by an even slimmer majority than the UK voted for Brexit). But for those of us with family in a different nation of the UK, things have been much more complicated than they surely needed to be. It’s been enough of a headache trying to keep track of lockdown rules in England, but Zoom calls with my parents over this period have been partly spent comparing what we’re respectively allowed to do (exclaiming that it’s so nice that we can now do X, before being told that the other party can’t yet do X, but can however do Y, which you can’t do). As I write this, my mother was originally due to visit me in Reading a week next Saturday – she has now been released from her lockdown, so is now free to travel, except that I’m now in lockdown, so she can’t. At least, I assume she’s free to travel; the First Minister does seem quite keen on restricting the Welsh populace to within a specified distance of their houses. 

Additionally, the Welsh are still not allowed anyone inside their homes apart from the other household in their 'bubble'. Who knows whether things will be any different by Christmas. My already heightened anxiety levels weren't helped by all the 'Wales Is Closed' publicity during the spring lockdown; probably just as well I had Ruth around during this period (Me: OMG I'M NEVER GOING TO SEE MY PARENTS AGAIN; Ruth: Yes you are. Now eat your dinner.). 

Waitrose new branding

I spent some of the earlier period of lockdown focusing on the really important stuff by kvetching about the rebranding Waitrose have done of all their products – away from a slick, modern-looking font (the chickpeas on the left below) to a pointless new one consisting of capital letters. Is this something to do with Brexit?

And this flour. TCHOH.

Knitting

Back in March/April, clearly desperate to have something distracting to do, I did some knitting, for the first time in many years. I discovered a partially-made hat I’d evidently started making for my old Teddy, so finished this. Mum has also done some knitting and made a blanket and pillow for Alys’ woolly rabbit, plus possibly other things.

I didn’t manage much else other than some frenzied rows on a piece of practice knitting I’d kept to practice different stiches on.

I considered making Ruth this charming bedjacket, but she didn’t seem enthusiastic.

Easter

We bought each other Easter chocolate. The Lindt bunny was of course mine; the Dairy Milk was Ruth’s. Ruth has common tastes in a couple of areas, chocolate being one. (Gravy being another – she actually prefers Bisto to gravy made from the joint. Bizarre, and a bit Toby Carvery.)

Duolingo

I’d used this cute language-learning app previously but downloaded it again at the start of lockdown and did a few weeks of ‘practising’ my (basic) German. My mum has also downloaded the app and has been using it to refresh her Welsh. I’ve advised her to turn off its notifications though as Duolingo does tend towards passive-aggressive messages if you miss too many days' practice; Mum says she got one the other day saying ‘Duolingo is sad’.

Folded bags

I folded my supply of Bags for Life into small triangles, following a YouTube video on how to fold bags into small triangles.

Home deliveries

Ruth and I selflessly supported a local business by ordering many takeaway pizzas from Papa Gee in Caversham (via Deliveroo). Their ‘puttanesca’ pizza is truly excellent.

This one sounds a bit weird though:

On returning to my flat in late May and going through the post, I was surprised to discover I'd been sent an HIV test kit, before realizing that it wasn’t for me but for the same-numbered flat in the block opposite. Of all the things to wrongly deliver. Unfortunately, having opened it without checking who it was addressed to, I was then too embarrassed to deliver it to its correct recipient. Ruth advised just handing it over while avoiding his eyes, but I chickened out even of doing that. I hope he managed to order another one.

Ancient spices

A sort out of the spice rack at the house revealed this surely record-breakingly expired jar of black onion seed. It must be the single jar remaining from the original spice rack, which I think was a present from Ray’s mother back in the 1990s.

Instagram followers

I now have a whole 40 followers on Instagram, though Ruth maintains disparagingly that lots of them must be bots.

Reading

Have managed to do more reading than usual this year, for obvious reasons and also because while at the house with Ruth we only had the one TV, so retiring with a book for a portion of each evening seemed the easiest compromise. Looking back at my records I’ve averaged two books a month and hit a high point of four in April. Still have quite a hefty ‘to read’ pile though.

Work

Like many companies, when lockdown was announced in March the OU switched everyone except a skeleton staff to working from home. Some groups of staff have since returned to campus, but no one doing my sort of role, as it’s considered that we can do that just as well from home. Indeed we probably can, and working from home certainly has some upsides, but personally I don’t want to be working from home full-time on a permanent basis. Hoping that some sort of ‘mix’ arrangement can be arrived at in future involving perhaps a couple of days a week in the office. The noises are hopeful, but we’ve been told we won’t be returning to campus at all until next spring, and encouraged to make our home offices as amenable as possible. (A colleague of mine did ponder whether he could ask for funding to build an extension to his house in order to achieve this, but I've a feeling that didn't go anywhere.)

Temporary workstation at the house

I’m luckier than many as my MK flat has a spare bedroom which provides a pleasant workspace. While at the house in Reading in the first couple of months of the lockdown, I set up on one end of the dining table (Ruth has her home office in the attic) and Ruth kindly lent me her second monitor as I’m used to working with two screens. Now that I’m back at my flat I’ve bought my own monitor, justifying it as an essential lockdown purchase, and have also upgraded my broadband from a cheapish TalkTalk deal to a BT Fibre package – more expensive, but three or four times as fast, which is great and improves video calls via Teams (work) and Zoom (family).

Workspace at my flat

As if lockdown wasn’t stressful enough, I decided to apply for a new job. It was an internal role that I had been aware would be coming up; the eventual timing was slightly irritating but I didn’t want to miss out on the chance to apply for it. As I had a few concerns about my past interview performances I booked a (virtual) session with an interview coach and had a number of sessions with Ruth where I practiced the ‘tell me about a time when’ questions beloved of competency-based interviews. The prospect of an interview via MS Teams had been a bit daunting but in the end the unusual setup was probably helpful as it lent a surreal air to the proceedings which actually removed some of the tension, especially when the head of the panel vanished just as I was finishing my answer to the first question (he reappeared a minute or so later, apologizing for the state of his broadband).

Interviewing as an internal candidate always has an additional layer of strangeness as you are often being interviewed by people who know you, as indeed was the case on this occasion. I can never actually decide whether that makes things easier or more challenging. Depends what sort of a reputation you’ve carved out thus far, I guess.

Ruth and I spent some time working out where I could sit that would ensure I had a neutral background and was adequately lit, and she came up with the idea of sitting by the window in the second bedroom and putting my laptop on the ironing board (as we don’t have a desk on the first floor). This felt slightly ridiculous but actually worked fine. When I confessed the setup to one of the panel afterwards, he assured me that he'd had no idea, which was a relief.

And in the event I did get the job, which I was mightily pleased about, so since early September have been a Statistical Analyst in the Data Science and Strategic Analytics team. So far it’s proving an agreeable change.

 

Roll on 2 December.