Long week, long weekend (17.2021)

I am starting Couch to 5K from the beginning again and I am surprised how difficult it is to run for only 60 seconds with 90 seconds of break in between

I’m several days behind on my writing plan this week. Have I set myself too ambitious a target? Should I reduce my target to 250 words every other day and then I won’t have such guilty feelings not being super productive? Am I allowed to excuse myself on the basis of work being stupidly busy at work this week and having no brain capacity left at the end of the day?

So why don’t you get up early and write? I hear someone say. I could, but then I’d be even more tired and mentally drained. And I can either write, or run, or meditate, or do yoga in the morning. Only one of those things per morning. And some mornings e Ben one of those things is too many. There is an endless queue of things that I could be doing, and some days it’s hard to pick something. Some days it’s enough just to eat and get dressed and be logged in by 9am.

It was good then to read this article in the New York Times about languishing, “We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless.” Maybe this is you too. (Confession – I don’t read the New York Times – this article was mentioned by Viv Groskop in her newsletter this week.)

Some months later than everyone else we are starting to watch the series Lupin on Netflix. I’m not sure how I feel about a French series that’s been dubbed into English especially as the actors have been dubbed with American accents which seems doubly wrong. But it looks like it will be good entertaining fun and some days that’s all you need you need.

We’re also watching the new series Shadow and Bone, which reminds me of Carnaval Row but it’s more engaging. We didn’t finish Carnaval Row. I think the characters in Shadow and Bone are more sympathetic.

(Anyone saying I should be writing of an evening instead of watching TV? Phooey. After a day at work thinking and reacting and pushing things out, is it wrong for me to want to sit and soak things in?)

There is a long weekend coming up and then to celebrate the fact that hotels are now open we’re going away for one night to sunny Ramsgate on the Kent coast. We’ve been there before and the main inspiration for going back it to visit a crazy establishment called Petticoat Lane Emporium which is part junk shop, part vintage shop, part antique shop all set up in what seems to be an old cinema hall. I’m not saying we need to buy anything but certainly it’s a lovely place to browse and imagine what you might want to buy if you had a bigger house.

Gardening News: I planted some sweet pea seeds a few weeks ago and I’ve noticed the pot i planted them in was growing nothing but weeds. When seeds fail to sprout not only am I disappointed but also I feel a bit of a failure because it must be my fault somehow that the seeds didn’t sprout. But this week at last some strong green shoots were poking up through the soil so I’m very happy to say that my spring pea seeds have sprung.

I took a day in the actual office (as opposed to my home office) just to get myself used to having to get up with an alarm, get properly dressed, put on proper shoes and take public transport, because as we’ve been told several times now, it will be a return to this reality from September so it’s best to start practising for that now.

Although it’s not quite like the old reality because now we have to leave the office at 5pm so the cleaners can come around and wipe everything down ready for the next day. It was a rare day in The Before when I left work at 5pm.

With only 40 desks open for use, you hardly see anyone. And with none of the usual catering options within the building, you have to go out and hunt for coffee. However a year of office workers not being in the office has seen the closure of a lot of the sandwich-and-coffee places, and I had to walk a way to find a place selling coffee. (Although I might have been a little too effusive in my excitement at saying hello to the baristas and how happy I was to see them and that their coffee van was still there.)

(I don’t get to talk to many people these days. It’s hard to get the balance right between saying nothing like I’m on mute on a video call and saying too much because I realise I can speak to real actual people and it’s exciting to be able to do this.)

Have a good week readers. I hope you manage to have some just-right conversations.