Tea rounds at home

After my short commute to the kitchen, I saw that one of my office desk buddies had set up a WhatsApp tea round group. I dithered on whether to have a defence tea or a calm one – I opted for calm because the defence one is, well, yuck. I will drink it but only when it's the last bag in the box.

Our manager asked us to spend the morning trying to access all the work applications, etc. on our home computers. That was fun. Many messages to various helpdesks later, I managed to be operational. However, none of us is able to access the server so our work machines are very much needed. 

As well as WhatsApp, there was the traditional phone calls, too, and I had a fine chat with the designer I work with, punctuated by miaows from Juno and my comments on garden squirrel antics. 

We tried a video call with around nine Feast volunteers at once, which was successful. We admired each other's furnishings. Colin had a fine set of pheasant curtains, which we all loved. Several of the volunteers have either health issues and/or are over 70, so they'll be calling in for tomorrow's steering meeting. 

At the Sustenance Zero Waste shop, it was fairly busy. I met work colleague and neighbour Sam and gave him some items he needed from his desk. He wasn't at work when we got the message to shut down and work from home. Someone has tested positive in his partner's office and she's in full self-isolation, just in case. 

I switched off the radio after a while as the hourly news was doing my head in. Instead, I enjoyed listening to Earl Bostic.

When I checked into Facebook, it was so lovely to see friends offering to meet up virtually for tea and a blether and I even signed up to a friend's online pilates lesson – her studio is closed. This is an opportunity for me as I can't attend her classes normally as she's in Edinburgh!

It was encouraging to see delivery services from local businesses being promoted. These businesses (including the pet shop) deliver anyway, but people might not have realised this. We need to support the small shops, cafes and restaurants.