Panic Buying After All

This working from home business is actually quite good. Not having to commute to work is actually two hours of my life that I do get back, five times a week.

Then there’s the girl in the office just down the corridor from me. Her office is the only one with coffee making facilities so I get to pop in quite frequently for a chat. She’s quite friendly but she does she keeps asking me for ‘IT Support’ which I hope is a euphemism for something.

I risk a trip to my usual Sainsbury's at lunch time wearing gloves. I figure going round a shop I know will be quicker than one I don’t. Again there are plenty of empty shelves but this week I manage to grab the very last pack of chicken. Apparently supermarkets experienced an additional 15 million visits last week alone but here’s me sticking to our one shop a week. I’m just not cut out for this panic buying lark.

While I’m in the area I pick up my wine delivery from work because the wine company decided to deliver to where they usually deliver to despite me asking them not to.

The Olympics are postponed to 2021. Which I’m sure will please Laura Kenny, as she can now get her shoulder fixed, but perhaps not her husband. Jason may now hang up his cleats.

The other big news is that Son’s wedding is sadly delayed until September.

L sets up a home gym while along with Daughter she does a Joe Wicks workout session online. I’d never heard of Joe Wicks until now. He’s been doing workouts for kids but apparently a lot of women reckon he’s good for getting their heart rate going.

While they’re doing that I order a couple of beer kegs from Shipstones and some bottles from Swannay in Orkney. So perhaps I am panic buying after all.

(Wednesday 25^th March)

A Quiet Revolution

I limp the boys around park, trying to kick their footballs with my good leg without standing on the bad one. Not easy. The calf tightness has eased but my knee is terrible.

L and I get back into the quiet revolution at home. Basically L paints while I chuck things away. I take a load of old CD racks to the tip in readiness for the one big new one I’ve purchased. The spare room looks almost empty now.

We head into Nottingham in the evening and first to the Falcon Inn on Canning Circus, a long standing real ale pub that’s never really been much good for any length of time. Once a Shipstones house, it’s had a variety of owners and a variety of business plans since. None of which have worked.

The one business plan that they hadn't tried was the entitled simply ‘sell good beer’. Enter Hucknall’s Lincoln Green Brewery, who have only been brewing since May 2012, and Adrian Draper, licensee at Fellows Morton & Clayton.

The result is eight ales across the bar and a packed pub. We somehow find a seat and settle in for a session on the jewel of their crown, Lincoln Green’s own Tuck. This is a 4.7% Porter and it’s awesome. Suddenly Nottingham has its own Old Peculiar.

We were originally on our way to the Peacock for some of the aforementioned but honestly this is better. Three pints later we do eventually leave for the Peacock, just for a point of comparison you understand.

We’ll be back soon though; Lincoln Green’s website says that they have two 5.5% ales coming up next. A butterscotch flavoured dark ale and a Christmas cake flavoured winter special.

When we do get to the Peacock the actual Old Peculiar isn’t as good at all, mainly because it’s a bit ‘old’ tonight. We should have stayed put.

We round the evening off with a curry at the Noor.

(Saturday 16^th November)