We’ve all had our vices during the lockdown.

A bar of Dairy Milk for some people, a glass of red wine for others.

Mine?

Tequila and television.

Don’t worry, I haven’t let my liking for the Mexican liquid get the better of me – I’m not furtively pouring it into my coffee cup just to get through the next Zoom call.

However, I have been enjoying it at the end of a long week, in front of something entertaining on the box.

Although of course, TV has changed unalterably in just a few short years.

[Read more…]

I’m a night owl.  Always have been.

Getting up at the crack of dawn has never been my thing, and consistently I’ve done my best work and had my best ideas once the sun has dipped below the horizon.

But, being a mother of two, I’ve had to adjust over the last two decades, because they really messed all that up.

With children, you’ve no choice but to be a morning person, even when your body is crying out for “just another five minutes”.

As the saying goes though, a leopard can’t change its spots, and over the years I’ve found myself craving the holidays, if only because those days don’t come with a pre-7am wake-up call.

In the early days of the current crisis, I was still getting up in the dark, because there was so much to do – furloughing was brand new, and my attention was needed in multiple places in a short space of time.

But as the pressure started dying down, so did my resolve.

I started hitting the snooze button more, because – well – why not?
[Read more…]

Since “lockdown” began, we’ve all been closer to our nearest and dearest than we ever thought we would be.

And in this strange, coronavirus world, some of our loved ones’ habits are bound to be seen as cause for justifiable manslaughter – “If he says ‘Stands to reason’ one more time…!”

Even more worrying than the alarming homicidal tendencies is the discovery of a dirty little habit of mine.

I’ll tell you but it has to stay between us.

Holiday p*rn.

Now that doesn’t mean watching it whilst on holiday.

Instead, it’s the few minutes I allow myself each day where I dream about how it could all be different.

Where I dare to fantasise of the time when we’re allowed out again, and start searching for my first post-CV holiday. [Read more…]

As we enter yet another weekend in lockdown, albeit one with cooler weather on the horizon, I can’t help but cast my mind back to last weekend.

It really was lovely – one of the nicest Easter weekends I’ve ever experienced; so different from the ones in my childhood, which I remember as being grey and damp.

In fact, it was so nice that I was able to don the swimming costume I bought for my holiday, lie on my sunbed, close my eyes and be transported to the Caribbean, despite being in sunny Oxfordshire.

This transportation was only possible with Nivea sunscreen.

My mum always used this one us when I was a child in Italy, Kuwait and Cyprus.

As soon as I open the bottle I am transported to exotic, hot beach locations.
[Read more…]

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Zoom recently.

I’m sure you have too.

But when I say “a lot of time”, I don’t mean a 30-minute team meeting and a pub quiz in the evening.

I mean hours and hours and hours – an average of 7-8 a day to be precise.

I guess it’s pretty unsurprising: when your business is all about people management, you expect to be busy, and when you can’t physically see clients, then Zoom is the next best thing.

Anyway, when I first started the calls, I came to the sobering realisation that my study – which provided the backdrop for every call – was not a pretty sight.

Pre-coronavirus, the study was the business equivalent of the box room – bung everything on a shelf and sort it out “later”.

[Read more…]

Last night, I realised that the isolation is playing into the hands of one of my favourite creatures:

Hedgehogs.

I’ve been a fan of the little snuffly animals for a while – we have a family of three living under next door’s shed, and before they went into hibernation, we were putting mealworms out for them every night.

After such a mild winter, I’ve been expecting them out of hibernation any way, and a couple of nights ago, the alarm (our dog Comet) sounded, with a bark that sounded like a zombie hoard was attacking the back door.

And sure enough, the first hedgehog out of hibernation was the reason why – the poor chap must have been very confused to have an overfriendly and over-loud dog approaching during the first adventure post hibernation!

[Read more…]