The social isolation diaries — week 17

week 17 of lockdown Have you had a haircut?  I am loving mine, and could have cried when I finally saw my hairdresser on Tuesday.  I was terrified we would go into a local lockdown like Leicester and my appointment would have to be cancelled.  I know that sounds pathetic but I hate having messy hair and looking bedraggled, so getting my haircut and  catching up with my hairdresser was

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The social isolation diaries — Week 16

Week 16 in lockdown Haircuts.  That is all we cared about this week.  Haircuts and when we can get one.  Since it was announced that hairdressers could open again on July 4th social media has been awash with people gleefully posting that they have an appointment booked.   Or smugly posting that they were in the salon at 12.01 on Saturday morning (lucky buggers). I had to wait until Tuesday

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Buying a Quooker, what you need to know

If you are thinking about buying a Quooker, or indeed any boiling water tap, there are one or two things you need to think about.   We didn’t really consider these things before we bought ours recently so I thought it might be helpful if I  wrote them all down! We had been thinking for a long time that we would like a boiling water tap so when our old

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The Social Isolation Diaries — Week 15

Week 15   That is an exact representation of the number of cups of tea I have drunk this week, a week that felt like it was a month long.   Probably because all the weeks are merging into now, aren’t they?  Though this was a lovely week as we got to welcome Lady Barrow into our support bubble.  Lady Barrow has been living on her own for the whole

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The social isolation diaries — Week 14

Week 14 of lockdown and it is all change again Might need to change the title of these now since we are no longer socially isolated.  Although in fairness we still pretty much are keeping ourselves to ourselves.  I have struggled to keep up with the rules recently, and worry that if I do something I think is right and post about it on line people will jump on me

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Curried chicken with mango dressing

This curried chicken salad with a mango yogurt dressing is the perfect weekend lunch, or lazy midweek supper.  Relatively cheap and all cooked in one dish, my favourite kind of meal! I am not normally a fan of fruit with savoury dishes (don’t get me started on pineapple on pizzas for instance) so tend to avoid things like this but actually this works and isn’t too over powering at all.

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The social isolation diaries — Week 13

Week 13 of lockdown and here is  how it looked.  This is the week that we were told we could form a support bubble with another household and next week the shops re-open and secondary school children are heading back to school. No news on restaurants yet though, the hospitality industry is going to be decimated by this, as is the holiday industry.   There is talk that some hotels

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World Gin Day 2020

World Gin Day happens on the second Saturday in June every year, which means this year it is June 13th, today! I have written about gin ALOT over the years so thought I would do a round up post for you to have a read through in case any of the previous posts had escaped your attention. The funny thing is that I really didn’t like gin until about five

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Ever considered a yoga retreat at home?

This weekend I will be doing a yoga retreat at home, join me?   This time two years ago I was in the south of France attending a four day yoga retreat.  Not that I had ever done yoga before but the timing was right and I found myself flying on my own for the first time in decades to spend almost a week with total strangers, all in the

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The Social Isolation Diaries — Week 12

The Social Isolation Diaries — Week 12 and It is hard to believe that we are still living with a deadly virus in our midst anymore.  If you look out the window, certainly where we are, traffic is pretty much back to normal, children are now beginning to walk back to school, and the queues for supermarkets don’t feel as long. At the beginning of the week we were being

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Slow Cooker Strawberry Cheesecake

Did you know you could make a slow cooker strawberry cheesecake? People often associate slow cookers with stews, or casseroles, or in fact anything savoury.   And most definitely wintery.   It is less often associated with sweet things.   Like cheesecake.   Cheesecake?  In a slow cooker?  I know.. I know… you think I have finally lost the plot.   But trust me, this works, and it says “summer” like nothing else.   And I

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My apple punch recipe — AD

My apple punch recipe is a really simple non alcoholic drink, perfect a family get together (when we can have them again).    I was asked a little while ago if I would like to work with Jazz Apples, providing them with a recipe that would be featured in their latest e-book.  I jumped at the chance! Ten fellow bloggers were asked to submit their favourite recipes featuring Jazz Apples

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