Thursday

Yesterday turned out to be a very interesting day filled with pleasant activities, some planned, some unplanned. I'll start with the cooking demonstration. 

This was a free online Zoom session organised by Care Visions Healthy Ageing. The demo was advertised as cooking with Italian where the demonstrator would introduce the Italian words and phrases for the ingredients used in the recipes, which was my main reason for signing up for it. As it turned out, although she was very chatty, there was very little emphasis on the Italian language side of things so that was a little disappointing. To start with I wasn't impressed as the camera set up meant that you could only see her but none of the actual preparation of ingredients or the cooking was visible but it seems that one of her cameras wasn't working properly and when that was resolved, about 15 minutes before the end, it was much better and the preparation and cooking area could be seen. The recipes were emailed when I signed up for the session but her approach was very much along the lines of the recipe being a guideline and to substitute and add/omit ingredients to suit your own tastes. She mentioned weights occasionally but her own approach was cooking by eye (the way my Mum taught me) and I liked her style. I will try her next session next week and from that, decide whether I want to continue with the live sessions - the benefit of the live session is that you have the opportunity to ask questions. It looks like it is recorded and the videos are then made available on their YouTube channel. 

Their YouTube channel has some interesting videos of their weekly sessions - quiz, singing, book club, dance, tai chi + many others. So far I have signed up for another cooking with Italian one and will attempt tai chi tomorrow morning!

I got myself mixed up with the starting time of the cookery demo and originally thought I'd watch that that and then watch the US Presidential Inauguration but they both started at the same time so I missed the first hour of the  programme. I switched over just in time to watch Lady Gaga sing the National Anthem and so saw them take their oaths and heard Biden's speech and watched until the end of the UK coverage.

The morning post brought a letter from the Office of National Statistics advising that my address was one of the half a million selected for inclusion in a study. I'm so excited about this because I never get chosen for this sort of thing, so this is a first. Anyway, I've followed their instructions and registered on their website so now have to wait for them to contact me. The study will be carried out via a phone call rather than the face-to-face meeting that would usually happen and for my troubles a £10 gift voucher was included in the envelope, which was a lovely surprise.

I had a phone call from friend E in the evening arranging for our usual group to link up and solve an online escape room mystery. We solved it with about two , remaining on the clock and it was good fun, although we've all agreed that we need to be better organised as a group for the next one. This was a spur of the moment thing organised by E because she was bored (!) but we've agreed that we'll schedule the next one - I should get an email about it later this week. It's obviously not as good as a real life in person escape room but it was a good alternative and it's something else to look forward to.

On to today ... we're promised a sunny day so, if that's correct, I want to get out for some fresh air, but before that can happen I have booked myself on to one of the Tai Chi sessions. It starts at 9:30am and as I type this, I'm not sure that I have the energy to do it ... in good hobbit style, the thought of a second breakfast is more appealing! Joking aside, I'm not sure how safe I will be as my knee is more painful than it has been for months so weight bearing is dodgy and my balance is compromised. I need to see the doctor about it but want to wait until I have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.

I have video calls arranged with friend J (this afternoon) and L (this evening), and I also want to catch up with my sister if she has the time - her focus is on unpacking and settling in their new home, so it depends on what she has planned. In between all that I think I'll carry on with the family tree research ... that should keep me out of mischief!