And so it dawned upon me - In the name of Thiago - Day 186

 

The weather being shit really is a highly influential factor in my mood at this time. If you think back to the start of lockdown, it was all rather novel and we probably thought there’s loads of things we could get done, especially while the weather’s nice. Y

es, many of our freedoms had been taken from us, but there was a small sense of pride even among serial procrastinators like me, that we were somehow contributing to the effort by doing precisely fuck all.

 

And it’s here in fact that I’m doing myself an enormous disservice as through all this time, despite me being in the very early stages of grief, I have managed to do a day’s work and not once thought better of it and called in because it was all too much. Now if that sounds all a bit lame and public sector bollocksy then all I’d say is remember what’s happened to me. It’s total and utter shit I can assure you.

 

Look at that picture of grey drizzly, grisly misery. I really bloody hope it’s not going to be like this in September and October when I’m walking 300 miles from Eastbourne to Stoke-on-Trent. Fingers crossed that a crap traditional summer will be followed by an Indian one.

 

I was doing a video interview with a magician today and before we got down to the business of the day, he summed it up rather nicely I thought. We have no boundary markers of time in the way we would normally. I would forever say things like, I tend to do this during the second week of Wimbledon or my holiday falls after schools have broken up.

 

None of that’s there and Christ I don’t ‘arf find it confusing. We’re living our whole lives on Zoom and Teams and the like. Well to be fair I am still walking plenty. Although it might sound like it, I’m not actually complaining!

 

 

Here’s one of my challenges at the moment. My living space is also my working space with the kitchen out of commission. And that shelving unit is immediately on my left when I sit down to do video interviews making snacking a devilishly difficult thing to avoid. I have mostly failed. Although again credit where it’s due today, the snacking has been on grapes and a lovely ripe mango which I simply shoved in my maw. Civilised it was not. Bloody tasty though!

 

Completing video interviews while there’s a pneumatic drill going in the room next to you certainly isn’t one of the challenges I imagined encountering when I started all this working from home malarkey. By the time I come out the other side, I don’t think there’ll be much I won’t have seen.

 

 

The builders have made pretty good progress today – my job mainly seems to be about managing expectations of who does what and when. I would never get a career in project management that’s for sure. This is close as I ever want to be to that.  

 

Just before I disappear off to collect her ladyship Elisa from her mate’s house (fellow bubble since you didn’t ask), I’m just going to give a big shout out to three blokes who really deserve it. Yesterday I spoke about Matt and his beard – his fundraising has exceeded both of our expectations already – he seems certain to be clean shaven before long.

 

 

Mr Stephen Tibbals is the second chap in the queue. Well actually he’s no.1 (sorry Matt) as Tibbals has been doing his Naked Fridays thing – remember if you want to see him and some of his hunkier (and younger – sorry Tibbals! – colleagues in the buff then you need to donate and quote ‘Naked Fridays’. Lastly Martin Broughton or Moose as he’s always been known to me, who told me yesterday that he would be fundraising for Thiago’s legacy by doing the Beachy Head marathon in October. You’re all fabulous blokes and you mean a lot to me.