I’ll skin alive the next man who says I will
Stop at nothing to get all the way.
I’d recomend a good undertaker,
And of course a nice Beaujolais!

Work! Work! Work!
That’s no way to make a living…

Saturday

An inauspicious start to the day; unlike the last few Saturdays, the grocery delivery wasn’t early. Coupled with the fact that we’d run out of milk the evening before, the day started very lazily. A took a very long time to eat her breakfast, far longer than normal, and needing more encouragement than usual. She still wasn’t keen on eating her mid-morning sweets, which is even more unusual; these are looked forward to immensely as they’re a weekend-only treat.

While J did her usual Saturday Zumba, I had another go at Ring Fit Adventure, cranking up the difficulty slightly, from before, raising a decent sweat. At lunchtime, A took one small bite of her sandwich and declared she’d finished, we noticed she felt a bit warm and took her temperature.

Oh dear. Running very hot, it seemed. Aiming to play it safe, I booked a COVID-19 test online while she had a nap, then bundled her into the car and drove to the local leisure centre which has been set up as a temporary testing centre. The soldiers working there gave me a test kit, and clambering over the seats to get from front to back (no leaving the car allowed), I attempted to gather a sample, in the process of which I tripped her gag reflex and ended up covering the place in vomit. After a second go-around to get a new test kit, I managed the deed and we headed home again. Unsurprisingly she barely moved from the sofa for the rest of the day.

I attempted a tear-and-share garlic bread recipe to go with the baked bacon and mushroom Macaroni Cheese that J made for dinner; it was mostly successful but I think the dough needed more kneading and more flour; wonderfully airy, but far too sticky to be comfortably rolled into 35 golf ball sized pieces as the recipe suggested; I ended up with about a dozen lumps instead. The amount of butter aded was insane too; between that and the main, I didn’t feel the need to move very rapidly at all for the rest of the evening, and there was a ridiculous amount left over for another day. Kids out of the way, we finished off The Umbrella Academy. Thank goodness the next season is out soon, for something that I wasn’t convinced about watching, it’s been pretty entertaining.

Sunday

What with the pending COVID-19 test, the rules say to stay isolated. So, no bike ride this morning much to my massive disappointment. I did get some exercise in instead though; a round of Ring Fit Adventure (complete with small children as an audience). At least I’m getting some kind of exercise.

We seem somehow to have built up quite the surplus of apples, so while the kids watched Mulan in the afternoon, I knocked together an apple tart to go with the evening’s dinner of pork belly with root vegetables. That particular joint has been my go-to for a long time for an easy, lazy Sunday dinner – peel and chop the vegetables (in this case, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and red onions), score and salt the meat, then roast in the oven for about ninety minutes. It came out incredibly well, tender and fall-apart pork topped with a beautifully crispy crackling. A declined to eat any; she was still not feeling her best, though better than the day before. During our meal, my phone pinged – A’s test had come back negative; our brief period of isolation was thankfully at an end.

After dinner we packed the kids off to bed, and shortly after I was surprised by a little voice crying out “Daddy, I’m hungry!” A good sign in some ways, I brought her back downstairs and gave her a banana, which went down in a reasonable timespan, before packing her off to bed again.

Monday

Back to work. As usual a day full of meetings, though the first one is something of a milestone – it’s the last standup I’ll be running before I get a proper scrum master in to help me beat some shape into the daily meeting. I met up with her later and was extremely apologetic about the state of the backlog.

Spent a little time at lunchtime sorting holiday stuff. It’s almost certain we’ll be in Cornwall this time so I’ve booked tickets for Stonehenge on the way there, where we’re planning a picnic, and for Tintagel Castle for while we’re there. I just need to find stuff to occupy the rest of our time; hopefully things will be in a state that we can visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project; both are now open but not to the extent that would excite the kids so much – no play areas, no biome or indoor exhibits. There’s always the farm and the beach if nothing else.

The afternoon was somewhat thrown completely off course by a colleague pinging me: “You know that work that you and D said you wouldn’t be doing? The project manager for it seems to think you will be doing it after all.” Cue hurried conversation with D over slack, and then a swift gatecrashing of a meeting we weren’t invited to to attempt to set things straight. Seems like there’s a lot of that going on, what with Team Loki also hallucinating an agreement for us to do some work, which is now turning into a major headache for everyone concerned.

The afternoon and evening were rainy, and it wasn’t good road cycling weather, so I took the Switch upstairs for yet more Ring Fit Adventure. Seems to be becoming a bit of a habit. The console decided to introduce me to planks; all I can say is ouch; they’re tough.

Tuesday

Woke to my abs still aching. Not surprising, really, given I’ve barely exercised them in, well… ever. D had taken the day off sick with a fever; hopefully it’s nothing too bad. Started the day with our newly led standup, which could have gone worse, then into the usual Architecture meeting before a monthly business update. After lunch was a meeting with HR to review the incoming pipeline, followed by a whole load of meetings about the projects from hell. We at least agreed to pull M off the work he’s currently doing and give hime one of the pieces of work; the other is an ongoing feast of pain.

Finished off the remainder of Saturday’s macaroni and garlic bread for dinner before catching up with friends online. Finished up late. Oops.