Quite a day...

Saturday. What could possibly happen on a Saturday during lockdown? It's amazing how busy it felt. For a start, we were due to be in Oban, for a meeting of diocesan Lay Leaders. We have these meetings twice a year, and it's a chance to meet with our counterparts from other churches - though in reality quite a number are from our own congregation. Today, this became a Zoom meeting, from 9.45 (bring your own coffee) to 3.30, with an hour for lunch. 

The meeting itself I shall remember chiefly for how exhausting it was, even for a mere participant. Sitting on my desk chair staring at a screen - even a beautiful one like my iMac - is knackering. But there were sideshows to this, and my extra shows the cause of two of them. Four parcels arrived, the first just after the meeting began. We spent half of our lunch break getting into them and disposing of the theoretically virus-contaminated packaging. The first to come was an oblong roll, completely covered in what turned out to be several layers of black sticky plastic, further secured by parcel tape. It took at least 15 minutes to deal with - was it my thinning shears all the way from China? No. It was the exorbitant bottle of spray cleaner, ordered from Amazon at a time when there was none to be had in Dunoon. Disappointment? Well yes ...

Happily the other packages contained real goodies. The hair colour I ordered (I'm currently demoralised by the colour of my hair). The massive tome that is Hilary Mantel's latest (joy!). And the complete surprise of a treat from our daughter-in-law: rhubarb and custard tea flavour for gin or other spirit. I'm very much looking forward to trying this ...

We had the rest of the lunch hour in the garden (my main blip - it's all growing at terrifying speed), and managed a walk by the sea and home through the churchyard in time for aperos in the garden. We had a hilarious and dutifully distanced conversation with a friend in the church garden. And I wrote a new poem - the first since all this lockdown happened and locked my brain down as well.

So yes - quite a day. Still missing those thinning shears though ...