A Photo An Hour – 24th June 2020

Well, when I started this project back in 2016 I don’t think I dreamed that 4 years on I’d be documenting my day in the middle of a global pandemic.

Today’s post is part of an ongoing project I started in 2016. It started with the 23rd June, which was Brexit vote day, so it’s fun to note how quickly that all got sorted. I switched to the 24th June in 2018 because I forgot, so from now on Time Hop can remind every year as I’ll see it the day before, not the day after. Hopefully.

Anyway, if you’d like to see previous years they are here:

2016 2017 2018 2019

6am

These days my alarm goes off at 6:30am. It used to be later when I could just jump out of bed and go to work, but these days the Pugs need walking every day, so early starts it is.

Peppa was sick at about 10:30pm last night. She seemed a little out of sorts and we weren’t sure if it was the heat or something more serious so I’d had a disturbed nights sleep where I woke up approximately once an hour to check she was still breathing.

It seems she is feeling much better now as she wakes me up before my alarm demanding breakfast, so I take them downstairs to eat while I make coffee.

7am

Now I have coffee I can start to actually wake up. I take the Pugs back upstairs to have their post-breakfast snooze and get back into bed myself.

My Mum and Dad got me a weighted blanket with a bamboo cover for my birthday and it is the best thing ever. At the moment it is so hot I sleep under it on its own. Come winter it will be great layered with a duvet.

I check my emails and social media on my phone while I drink my coffee.

8am

During lockdown when we were only allowed out of the house once a day for exercise Mr LLL and I developed a routine. One of us would go for a run while the other takes the Pugs out, and then we meet up in the park and walk home together.

Today I am “running”. The inverted commas are because I am currently experimenting with Low Heart Rate training, which meant that I spent a lot of time walking and only actually covered 2.2 miles on my 30 minute run.

It is very hot and at 8am I meet them in the park where we sit on the grass and have a drink of water. I still appreciate the ability to just sit and relax on a patch of grass after my run. When we were in the strictest part of lockdown I didn’t want to sit and rest after my run in case someone thought I was sunbathing and flouting the rules. I dreamed of slightly damp dew covered morning grass.

This is a luxury I hope I continue to appreciate.

Side note, the weird black thing on my arm is an acupressure band that is supposed to help with hayfever. I don’t know if it does, but I’ll try anything.

9am

Pre-lockdown Mr LLL and I used to go out for brunch on a Tuesday morning. We would go through our work goals for the week, and review the previous weeks. During lockdown this has evolved into taking it in turns to prepare each other brunch.

This week is Mr LLLs turn to prepare brunch, or more accurately breakfast as now we don’t have to walk into the city it’s a bit earlier.And, yes, it is Wednesday, not Tuesday, we were quite busy yesterday so decided to roll it over a day.

We have scrambled eggs and bacon with goats cheese on fruit toast. Mr LLL braved the Co-Op to buy it. We rarely visit shops at all now, being more organised normally and ordering a weekly shop to be delivered instead of the fortnightly one we used to have before the apocalypse. When we get everything home it gets wiped with disinfectant wipes before being put away.

Welcome to the “new normal”.

10am

Today I have actually planned to take most of the day off. I worked most of the weekend and have lots of life admin and housey things to catch up on.

I start the day by prepping lunches for the next 4 days as our shopping was delivered last night. It’s the same greek salad as I made when I was also meal prepping in 2019, except this time I actually have quinoa. This time I use a bottled dressing instead of making my own as I got sent some in this months Degustabox.

11am

First job of the day. Cover up those roots.

Once I have the bleach on I then have an hour to do some cleaning. This is the plan.

12pm

I cannot find any shower caps, so I put a carrier bag on my head and tell Mr LLL that if we get any deliveries he has to open the door.

I was going to do some cleaning, but Peppa is very needy and out of sorts, so instead I sit on the sofa, give her a cuddle and watch an episode of Buffy while the bleach does its stuff (The Dark Age, in case you wondered).

1pm

Once the bleach has been on for an hour I decide to try a rose gold toner that I have had in the cupboard for a while. It is the same brand as the pink I used last year that looked great, and on the box it is a fabulous dusky pink.

I put it on, cover it in my carrier bag and eat my lunch.

I wash it off, blow dry my hair and put some make up on before I take the “after” picture. Which is not very rose gold at all.

It is worth noting that I have missed THREE hair cuts since lock down. I was due one around the 20th March. I’ve trimmed my own fringe a couple of times and clippered the undercut, and I don’t think it’s looking too bad, considering.

2pm

The afternoon is about to get exciting guys, buckle in.

Peppa has settled down to sleep, so I do some damp dusting with a touch of Zoflora to kill the Covids, do a bit of tidying up and hoover up the drifts of Pug hair that gather in all the corners.

Peppa comes out to investigate the noise, and I notice her right eye looks a little cloudy. A couple of days ago we noticed her eyelid was a little twitchy, but it didn’t seem very pronounced. I call Mr LLL for a second opinion and we decide it is time for a vet visit to be on the safe side. You don’t mess about with Pugs eyes.

I call them and get an appointment for 4:45 this afternoon.

3pm

I sit down to do a bit of work. It is very hot.

I try to distract myself from worrying that the delay with Peppas eye as we didn’t take her to the vet earlier will end up with her having to have her eye removed.

4pm

The Pugs dinner time is 5pm. They know this, and from 4pm onwards every time you shift slightly in your chair they leap up and stare at you hopefully.

At least Waldo does. Peppa is still looking sorry for herself today. Look at her with her chin on her bed.

I worry about her some more.

They are very surprised, then, when instead of dinner they get their coats put on and loaded into a boiling hot car with no air con for a trip to the vet.

Thankfully it is a short trip and we get out of the car to wait under some trees with a nice breeze.

5pm

Covid-19 protocols still mean that pets cannot be accompanied into the Vet surgery.

The Vet comes out to meet us and Peppa does her little nervous tail wag. She is scared of the Vets, and as he carries her away inside I do a little cry as I head back to wait under the trees.

She is inside about 20 minutes and the Vet comes out and says she does have a small eye ulcer. It is very small and looks like she may have scratched it. She has done this before as she scratches a lot due to allergies.

We have eyedrops to give 4 times a day and some painkillers to give with her dinner.

She has a green eye from the dye they use to look at it, but you can’t really see it in the photos.

6pm

I have a Personal Training client at 6pm. Fortunately it is an online session, not socially distanced in the park, so I don’t have to shoot out in the heat again when we get home.

I set up in the garden as it’s fractionally cooler with a breeze than it is in the house.

It’s a fun session but we are both very hot.

7pm

Peppas vet visit has messed up our day. Mr LLL was supposed to be out this afternoon to get some work done but he could not. So instead he kept the Pugs company while I did my PT session, and now he heads out to work for a couple of hours.

I change into shorty pyjamas as it is hot and do some more Pug snuggling. Peppa seems a little brighter now she has had painkillers. I am sad that her eye must have been hurting and she couldn’t tell us.

8pm

Mr LLL is due home around 8:30. I put dinner in the oven and then take the Pugs for a walk around the block as it is a little cooler now.

About 8:45 Mr LLL gets home and we have Mac & Cheese with bacon leftover from this mornings brunch. The Mac & Cheese are ready meals we had in the freezer, we did have an exciting home cooked dinner planned but the change of work plans meant we had to improvise.

9pm

I have a 7am client in the morning, so for the first time in one of these “photo-an-hour” posts I do not end the day with a drink.

Except I do, but it’s alcohol free beer that I drink while watching the final of the Great British Sewing Bee and eating a choc ice.

I drink it from a Harry Potter glass because I’m a grown up.

10pm

Just after 10pm we head up to bed. I am still drinking my hot chocolate in the same Buffy the Vampire Slayer mug. We have Twix hot chocolate pods for the Dolce Gusto machine my parents got us for Christmas. They are delicious.

Also on my bedside table is a skull drinking glass which is my favourite bedside water glass right now and a silk eye mask, a recent replacement for one I’d had for years that gave up the ghost. I am very fussy with eye masks, I like them to have a wide, flat, adjustable strap, and I like silk. Ok. Precious much?

I’m asleep by around 11pm, as I have an early start it would probably have been even earlier without the Pug drama earlier on.

And that was how the 24th June looked in 2020. The weirdest but most mundane year so far.