To all those both socially close and distanced
Here it is! Week 12 of the predicted 12! This means the lock down is over, right? No, well, maybe not, although it isn’t all doom and gloom. I have travelled on wheels for the first time in three months, helping my mother take a gazebo over to my brother’s house and I had a pleasant chat with both him and my sister-in-law. You will be pleased to hear that I stayed well over two metres away from my sibling, not because of social distancing but because 25 years as a younger brother has taught me to keep out of kidney punch and poke range.
Mine wasn’t the longest trip in the car this week as my mother took a long ‘eye test’ down to Dorset, to drop in for a socially distanced garden lunch with my grandmother, before coming straight home in time for supper. With this many road trips in one week I am starting to worry if our car is ready for all the miles it has been putting in in the last seven days.
Fortunately, not all the important trips of the week were undertaken in the over-worked car, since I took a virtual trip to Osterley and the head-quarters of Sky for an assessment day interview last week. There were eight of us in the final stage going for one apprenticeship placement, giving me a seven in eight chance of ending up with nothing to show for my application process. This week I got the call to say that I would not be getting the apprenticeship place, however, they are making an exception for me, and have offered me some work experience in their offices just as soon as the world gets back to something resembling normality. Since this is an opportunity that they do not normally offer, and since this is only being offered to me and one other applicant, I reckon I have beaten the 7/8 chance of failure, to take an unexpected and respectable podium place prize. It is possible that I am a glass-half-full kind of guy but even without the paid apprenticeship I’m calling it a win.
I hope you are all able to find your own glass-half-full moments this week and for all weeks to the end of lockdown and beyond. I also hope to be seeing some of you from a safe distance over the coming weeks and months as we open back up our lives.
With love and best wishes
Richard
Richard Wheatley BSc BPBH
PS
While we are on the subject of roads, this weekend saw the pinnacle of my culinary exploits… the Rocky road. It was specifically requested by my father last week and I thought why not. It was a bit simplistic, I have been trying to stretch my skill set with each bake and this one is so easy it can barely be described as baking, but I was impressed at how a combination of chocolate, digestive biscuits and marshmallows was actually better than the sum of its parts. Looking back I can see a pattern appearing, cakes and biscuits have worked well but I tend to finish them off after my family have a couple of token pieces, millionaire shortbread, fudgy chocolate brownies and rocky road, my tray bakes, are gone in a day and I’m lucky if I get anything. This means that the tray bakes are technically good for my health, since I have to fight for every crumb. Rocky road was the healthiest bake so far!