Just for a change ...

Mainly, it was the weather that changed. I wasn't wakened early by the sun in my eyes; when I sat drinking my morning tea (sybaritic, I know) I didn't feel called to leap from bed but instead spent far too long perusing my Twitter feed and thinking actually the bedroom felt cold ...

In a strange way I was reminded of the last day of the summer holidays when I was a child and had just spent a blissful 8 weeks in a cottage on Arran. The day we went home always had this strangeness, having to get up early so that my parents could strip the sheets off the beds to put last into the trunk, sometimes creeping back under the rough blankets because it was the end of August and it was still sort of dark and suddenly it was raining and everything was changing ... Eight weeks when you're only 8 yourself feels like an eternity, and eternity had suddenly come to and end.

Strange mood this lockdown induces. I spent most of the morning on the phone, reassuring myself that there were still people out there that were part of my life. My sister and my bestie restored some equilibrium there. Then I spent an hour absorbed in my older granddaughter's English essay, a short story she'd sent me for some critical assessment. She's 12, but the writing and my response to it took me back to marking S4 folios; the grandmotherly pride mingled with the pleasure of doing something I always loved doing took me to lunchtime with my mood much improved.

We did go out, eventually. It was shockingly cold after the weather of the past week, and a fine sporadic drizzle turned more enthusiastic as we walked round the West Bay and back along the top of the town. We must have passed 3 people ...

Which is why I'm blipping my dinner tonight. I managed to get a delivery of fish from Loch Fyne Oysters, so tonight we had fried haddock (not cooked for the 6 minutes and 30 seconds they recommend, but flash fried and succulent) with garlic mash and fine green beans with a drizzle of virgin olive oil. It was utterly delicious: total comfort food. And yes, I still eat with fish cutlery: I inherited a full two sets from my mother, and I was brought up using them. Strangely enough, we prefer the set with the slightly ornate handles; when I was a child my parents preferred the plain ones, saying the balance was better.

Now trying to get to bed before 1am, because the shopping will be brought in the morning and I'll need to be brisker than of late ...