Today, I have been mostly - wasting time

All those good intentions I had, all those plans I made, when we realised we would be locked down, all pffttt! in the face of glorious weather.

To edit all those photographs on pc and iPad, make some photobooks, make some hard decisions about what to delete, make a back-up disc or get a spare hard drive for storage then make the scary decision to hit the delete all button. None of this has been done.

Tidy the grandchildren’s bedroom and make it a sewing room for the duration, find some decent patterns online and use up some hoarded materials. I have got no further than tidying up.

Make a ‘When we Were Young’ book for the grandchildren with drawings, paintings and photos, plus words of life in the 1950s and early 60s when it was a different world, ‘the past is another country, they do things differently there..’. I have actually bought a beautiful A4 watercolour paper moleskine and several pages have been done, plus a lockdown diary started at the back, so at least something has been started.

But when you have days like today, -no chance.
I woke early, made tea, the whole day stretched ahead. First, the phone rang. Our insurance company, discussing an issue we have ongoing. Good start. Only took 30+ minutes but that delayed breakfast. Then the post arrived with, oh dear oh dear, a new Hub. We are supposed to plug it in right away, ready for some technical change in July. My heart sinks; anything to do with our home tec causes problems. When it works, everything is fine, but when interventions have to be made, we can’t find passwords, patience or common sense.
Today was not too bad when compared with past exploits, except unplugging one set of stuff and working out where and how to plug in new stuff involved scrabbling around on the floor and banging skulls on furniture. And then vacuuming as the furniture under which things were plugged had been put there temporarily when we moved in four years ago and was still there, unshifted, and no-one had cleaned behind it. But we did succeed in producing the ‘blue for go’ light. The pc works. The device has to be signed in. All goes smoothly, amazeballs. We feel smug.

Then he tries to print something. Printer won’t work. For once we keep calm and work out why, and how to put the network and password information into it. More success and smugness.

Boxing up the old hub to return it reminds me to find a card for a friend’s birthday and then I have to venture into town where no-one seems to care about ‘the rules’ as much, to go to the PO. I notice that the C-19 testing area set up by the army is empty but for 4 gloved masked soldiers.
As I walk back with lovely bread and some bbq treats I realise it is now a) far too hot to go for a proper walk and b) nearly lunchtime anyway.

After lunch I give up. He is fossicking about with the pond in the garden with plans for a new filter box etc and I enjoy sitting in speckled shade admiring the work we have achieved in the lockdown garden and reading. Not even an improving book, but the second book in the Dublin Trilogy. (Funny but I prefer Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy books.

And so it goes, another day of lockdown drifting. I am ashamed. Vik has made a whole patchwork quilt and is taking her daily dips in the North Sea! Nic is learning Italian! Daisy is volunteering at the local Primary! Jan walks every day!
Where do they find the time!?!