Covid-19 House Arrest

March 2020 - July 2025
  • Philip Davies
Current
A blog about life under "social distancing" Read more
  • Philip Davies
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  • House arrest - day 73

    May 30, 2020 in England ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Saturday – got up quite early and did the key jobs that have to be done – washing cars (well just the Audi actually) and cutting the grass. New mower is really superb – dead easy to use and a lovely finish to the lawn. After that, Phil mounted the roof bars and bike rack on the Audi ready for the return of Claire in the morning – car will be full so bike needs to be on the roof.

    The Lunch was the remains of the Chinese al-fresco in the garden. After lunch Lynette and I did a lovely bike ride over Wisley common returning via Silvermere. We then did a 1-hour zoom with John & Julie – lovely catch up and we do look forward to meeting them in June or July hopefully. Following the zoom Lynette and Claire went off for a shop in Tesco.
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  • House arrest - day 72

    May 29, 2020 in England ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Friday – really looking forward to a nice weekend given the weather. Normal work day for Claire and I, in fact Claire’s last working day in Surrey as she’s moving back to her flat in London on Sunday. She received more IT kit from her new company – a 24” monitor and a Samsung phone. Finally got the Merc coupe back from the body shop who did a great job repairing the rear bumper that was damaged when the exhaust fell off. Expensive but less than 25% of the Merc quote which was ridiculous.

    I went out for a bike ride at the end of the afternoon – planned the route so I could check out the “route following” feature of the new bike computer – worked extremely well. I plan the route using the “Easy Route” app on the iPhone and then export it to the Wahoo app on the iPhone which then automatically synch’s it to the computer. After the bike ride Lynette cut my hair – she did a really good job using the new Braun hair clippers. So nice having short hair again! Evening meal was a fabulous Chinese courtesy of Claire (who’s now been paid!). Usual Friday evening excellent selection of TV.
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  • House arrest - day 71

    May 28, 2020 in England ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Early start today – slighter cooler but still sunny and very nice. As Phil had a telecon from 13:00 to 16:00 he went for an early bike ride just before lunch. The new bike computer worked very well – very happy with it. Early evening Phil finished working on Kate’s second bike – all working fine and looking quite good. Evening meal was a trio of lovely Pizzas made by Claire.Read more

  • House arrest - day 70

    May 27, 2020 in England ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Another boring day in paradise. Weather so good now we are pretty much having all of our meals in the garden. For lunch did a BBQ – sausage, burger and chicken. For evening meal Lynette made a really nice pasta dish. Claire did another day of induction at Checkatrade. Late afternoon Phil did the daily bike ride. After he got back his new bike computer arrived – it’s a Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT and is amazing. Did a short ride around Dartnell Park to test it out. Evening – was looking forward to the SpaceX crewed launch but due to dodgy weather in Florida it’s delayed until Saturday. The other evening task was working on the 2nd bike for Kate – it’s nearly done now – just needs some cosmetic improvement plus Claire will test ride it.Read more

  • House arrest - day 69

    May 26, 2020 in England ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    The amazing weather continues – this spring really is like your perfect summer. Unfortunately had to work all day although managed lunch outside and a 45 min bike ride to Horsell common at the end of the afternoon. Hair is getting quite long now so ordered some Braun electric clippers from Amazon – Lynette will be using them on me soon! Evening meal was cooked by Phil – Kerala chicken curry – very nice.Read more

  • House arrest - day 68

    May 25, 2020 in England ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Bank holiday Monday and what a gorgeous day. Decided to do two bike rides given how nice it was – a short road bike in the morning and an afternoon one with Lynette around Brooklands. In between had a nice outside lunch. On the way back over the M25 we spotted a convoy of trucks doing a charity drive for foodbanks.

    After the second ride did a quick drive around the Surrey hills in the R172 SLK – good to keep all the cars going for at least a 15 mile drive every week or two. Evening meal was a really excellent bbq of very thick cut steak cooked medium rare. Lesley took away Kate’s bike and dropped another one off which we plan on servicing during the week. Ended the day watching “Killing Eve” latest episode.
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  • House arrest - day 67

    May 24, 2020 in England ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Sunday morning and still internet or cable TV, Virginmedia website now suggesting it would be back on by 16:20 Sunday. This would be a 46 hour outage if that time turned out to be correct. Did the weekly Whick family Videocon on Skype using the iPhone 4G as a hotspot – seemed to work OK and we were on for almost an hour without losing the connection. Weather very nice again – sunny and getting warm again. In the afternoon we went out for a bike ride. On the way out we spotted a Virginmedia engineer at the Cabinet at the end of the road. He said he’d fixed it by flicking a fuse (which had probably just flipped out due to Friday’s power cut). Just before we set off Lesley Mungur dropped off Kate’s bike to be brought back into service – a job for when we got back.

    Bike ride was the nice loop through Wisley common, over the M25 and back via the Manor in Byfleet.

    After we got back we discovered the TV and Internet was now back on, yay! After an ice cream Claire and I worked on Kate’s bike which was generally in an OK condition. We re-taped the rims, replaced the rear tyre and put the wheels back on. After that we gave it a good clean, degreased the drive train and re-lubed all the moving parts. Adjusted the seat a bit higher and tuned the indexing on the gears. All working again.

    Evening meal was grilled lamb with lots of nice veg plus gratin dauphinoise. Watched a bit of TV and the news then went to bed.
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  • House arrest - day 66

    May 23, 2020 in England ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Saturday morning and still no internet or cable TV, Virginmedia website was suggesting it would be back on by 16:20 but, alas, no. Anyway managed to fill the day quite nicely. Started off using the new lawnmower which worked really well – it came with 2 batteries and the whole of the main garden was done on battery 1 and the front garden took about 1/3 of battery 2 so plenty of margin even as the batteries lose capacity with age. In the afternoon did a lovely MTB ride through Wisley common. Weather was generally OK but in the middle of the day there were a few short-sharp-showers.Read more

  • House arrest - day 65

    May 22, 2020 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Final day of work before a long weekend 😊. Change of weather – quite a bit cooler and very windy although it was still sunny. New lawnmower delivered today – battery powered Bosch Rotak 430. Set up at lunchtime and will be used in earnest Saturday. Big evening event was the short power cut which also took out Virginmedia in the whole area so no internet or cable TV all evening. Evening meal was a local fish & chips. We heard today we are getting the ski holiday costs (less the excess) back from the travel insurance so we celebrated with a bottle of pink Freixenet.Read more

  • House arrest - day 64

    May 21, 2020 in England ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Another day with very nice weather, 28C in the afternoon which is amazing for May. Mid day took the Merc to the body shop – when the exhaust fell off it damaged the back bumper so now its at the local body shop – quote should arrive on Tuesday! Did a drive in the silver SLK, good to get it fully warmed up and driven – also filled it with Petrol on the way back. It’s very frustrating having two convertibles, beautiful weather and not being able to use them ☹. Still warm in the evening so did a BBQ of burgers and sausages.Read more