Well it seems that all things Covid are heading in the wrong direction with all numbers on the increase again. The government seem to be struggling to keep a hold on how best to manage things and Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland all seem to be taking a bit of a different route.
We were fortunate enough to be placed in Tier 1 under the new restrictions though our numbers locally have continued to increase and we are expecting to move into Tier 2 over the next few days.
We have still tried to make the most of what we can do rather than focusing on what we can’t and since we’ve been back from holiday we have managed to get creative and have a fair few catch ups with mum and dad in their garage.
Technically we could meet inside but as a family we all agreed that we would rather leave the inside of their house just for them, with no need to keep sanitising every time someone visits.
The garage has become affectionately known as CafΓ© Robert and has worked brilliantly as a meeting place with carpet, a patio table and chairs and even a little heater. We visited on Mum's birthday with fish and chips and cake and a very nice evening it was too.
We have also managed to meet up with friends from a Tier 2 area. As part of the Tier 2 restrictions we could only meet outside but we've managed a couple of really nice get togethers.
Firstly back at the National Memorial Arboretum, where we had another really good wander in the autumn sunshine ...
This time we walked over 11,000 steps, which a lot for us, and we saw almost everything, though we still didn't cover the whole site ...
As always we were surprised to find new memorials that we hadn't come across before ...
There is plenty of under cover outdoor seating where we had lunch and sat chatting. The service wasn't the best from the kiosk, but it was most definitely a good spot to meet up.
Secondly we met in Sutton Park on a glorious autumn day where there are a couple of good options for meeting outside, under cover if the weather turns ...
There has been a little bit of baking ...
... and a try of something new ...
Whilst we haven't tried any recipes from this book yet we are trying to have a couple of 'fast' days a week, where we stick to a total of 500 calories. It's early days and we are only on our second week, but it's been easier than either Martin or I ever imagined it would be.
Our first meal was a cook from scratch prawn curry with cauliflower rice ... not up to the standards of the usual kind of curry we would make, but it was more than edible and certainly ok for every now and then. These were the ingredients that we used over the course of our first '500' day ...
... and this was the curry ...
I think it's fair to say that we both preferred the second meal we had, which was a chicken stir fry, using Barenaked noodles, which are just fab and sooooooo low in calories ...
Next time I will be able to use carrots from the garden ... I picked these today and I was more than a little surprised ...
I can't tell you how happy this little bunch of carrots made me. We have never really had any luck with carrots at all, in spite of growing them often in the past. I think the trick is to put them in and then just leave them to it ... gotta be patient π
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