Day 64 - Friday 22nd May
A full on day today. My son has asked me to book him a doctor's appointment, but I have to call at 8am for that and I have an interview at 9 - I keep trying until 8.30 then wake hubby and ask him to take over so I can shower and dress. It's a second interview for a climate change job with a council and I really get the feeling during the interview that things are going my way. The next step is likely to be a call early next week, I'm told. Hubby has gone back to bed when I finish the interview.
I have another application due in today - it's based in London so I'm a bit ambivalent about the commute, although if they allow some remote working it's definitely worth considering. The role would suit me well and the money is great, so I get to work on the online application form. I have to leave off to join a networking event run by the charity I chair, and immediately after that I have a zoom call with the climate change partnership. It's dogged by technical issues - the other co-chair can't get his sound working - and they've stopped the free extension to the 40 minute limit, so we get kicked out and have to log back in. We agree to move to Teams for future meetings. Hubby emerges to tell me that he couldn't get a doctor's appointment for our son, who finally gets up after lunch.
I had agreed to call my daughter after my final meeting, as my grandson has been picking up her phone and saying Nana … just as I'm about to call her I get a message from this morning's interviewer asking if we can have a call later. I suggest 5pm (in about half an hour), thinking that's late enough for a Friday evening. A few minutes into the call with my grandson I receive an SMS from my friend who had Covid19 saying she's at the hospital. I can't see the rest of the message as What'sApp is full screen and I can't get messages to load on my PC so we end the call so that I can find out what's going on. She's been coughing up old blood and her GP has sent her to get checked over. She seems scared, and I want to go to her but of course I can't. I message her back and she tells me she's waiting for an Xray on her lungs, but everything else has checked out OK so far.
I make the call with the interviewer and she asks me some more questions then offers me the job. Although I had felt the interview went well, and this was confirmed by the follow-up call, I wasn't expecting that today. I'm pleased, of course, but also feeling very anxious about my friend and I explain what's happened and ask if I can have time to think about it. She's away next week, but says she will answer emails. I wish her a good break and go to tell the family and message my friend. She's been given a clean bill of health - well, clean-ish, anyway - the blood is due to lung damage from the virus and will clear in time, but she's to rest as much as possible.
I open a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate the job offer and prepare dinner - empire chicken by Jamie for hubby and a Jamie vegetable traybake for my son and I. A friend who has bought some shampoo bars from my online shop is calling by to pick them up and I've invited her for a drink on the veranda. We spend half an hour chatting - she was made redundant at the end of February and her employer refused to take her back and put her on furlough even though that's completely legitimate and would cost them nothing. Shameful.
After dinner I give my friend a call - she's quite tearful; a mixture of frustration about how long she's been sick and still not feeling well, sadness at not having had a cuddle for two months (she's very tactile) and guilt at making a fuss when others are so ill. I try to reassure her that she's fully entitled to feel the way she does but I feel so bad that I can't give her the one thing she really needs - a great big hug.
Hubby has found a programme about Rick Stein on a food trip to Mexico which is perfect escapism, although he doesn't make it to Mexico in episode 1. I'm exhausted - it's been a busy and emotional day, and I'm so relieved that I have a job offer. Tonight I am grateful for that.
I have another application due in today - it's based in London so I'm a bit ambivalent about the commute, although if they allow some remote working it's definitely worth considering. The role would suit me well and the money is great, so I get to work on the online application form. I have to leave off to join a networking event run by the charity I chair, and immediately after that I have a zoom call with the climate change partnership. It's dogged by technical issues - the other co-chair can't get his sound working - and they've stopped the free extension to the 40 minute limit, so we get kicked out and have to log back in. We agree to move to Teams for future meetings. Hubby emerges to tell me that he couldn't get a doctor's appointment for our son, who finally gets up after lunch.
I had agreed to call my daughter after my final meeting, as my grandson has been picking up her phone and saying Nana … just as I'm about to call her I get a message from this morning's interviewer asking if we can have a call later. I suggest 5pm (in about half an hour), thinking that's late enough for a Friday evening. A few minutes into the call with my grandson I receive an SMS from my friend who had Covid19 saying she's at the hospital. I can't see the rest of the message as What'sApp is full screen and I can't get messages to load on my PC so we end the call so that I can find out what's going on. She's been coughing up old blood and her GP has sent her to get checked over. She seems scared, and I want to go to her but of course I can't. I message her back and she tells me she's waiting for an Xray on her lungs, but everything else has checked out OK so far.
I make the call with the interviewer and she asks me some more questions then offers me the job. Although I had felt the interview went well, and this was confirmed by the follow-up call, I wasn't expecting that today. I'm pleased, of course, but also feeling very anxious about my friend and I explain what's happened and ask if I can have time to think about it. She's away next week, but says she will answer emails. I wish her a good break and go to tell the family and message my friend. She's been given a clean bill of health - well, clean-ish, anyway - the blood is due to lung damage from the virus and will clear in time, but she's to rest as much as possible.
I open a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate the job offer and prepare dinner - empire chicken by Jamie for hubby and a Jamie vegetable traybake for my son and I. A friend who has bought some shampoo bars from my online shop is calling by to pick them up and I've invited her for a drink on the veranda. We spend half an hour chatting - she was made redundant at the end of February and her employer refused to take her back and put her on furlough even though that's completely legitimate and would cost them nothing. Shameful.
After dinner I give my friend a call - she's quite tearful; a mixture of frustration about how long she's been sick and still not feeling well, sadness at not having had a cuddle for two months (she's very tactile) and guilt at making a fuss when others are so ill. I try to reassure her that she's fully entitled to feel the way she does but I feel so bad that I can't give her the one thing she really needs - a great big hug.
Hubby has found a programme about Rick Stein on a food trip to Mexico which is perfect escapism, although he doesn't make it to Mexico in episode 1. I'm exhausted - it's been a busy and emotional day, and I'm so relieved that I have a job offer. Tonight I am grateful for that.
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