I tweeted yesterday: “Some days I don’t really want to do anything. So I don’t.”
It’s been one of those weeks. Busy. Tired. Lethargic. And I know I’m not the only one who would rather just not bother sometimes. Especially at the moment. I often feel like the rest of the world has got completely used to the “new normal” of living through a pandemic. I’m afraid to admit that I haven’t yet. I am still finding the current state of the world incredibly difficult to deal with.
When it comes to being motivated to do, versus the opposite, this week I’ve had both sides of the coin. Last weekend I was full of “do”. This weekend, not so much. Read this weekly blog to find out more…
Burger Date Night
One of the things my husband and I love to do is eat. We just love food. One of the things we have especially missed about lock down is the ability to head out for our preferred date nights – burgers followed by ice cream. It’s such a simple thing. It doesn’t need to be gourmet, it definitely doesn’t need to cost the earth, but burger night makes us both happy.
We have, of course, had both at home during lockdown. My husband makes an excellent home made burger and Mr Ben and Mr Jerry are commonplace in our freezer. But it isn’t the same. This week we made use of the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme and headed to our favourite local independent burger place, Holee Cow in Cheltenham.
We actually had our last meal out before lockdown back in March. It was the night before the big announcement here in the UK; the Government press conference was due the following evening, and we knew that everywhere was going to be asked to close, so we made the decision to head out for one last meal out. It was the right choice; the place was empty, we had a lovely meal, and the following day everything was indeed shut down.
Holee Cow is quite a simple set up. A handful of burgers to choose from, cooked well, served with good fries. I refer to the décor as, well, unfinished chic, the menus are your place mats and the food comes served on enamel plates. But we like that, it’s easy going, and authentic. We had to book over a week ahead, thanks to the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which can only be a good thing for the restaurant after so many weeks of being closed. We had such a nice evening, eating burgers and cheesy fries, drinking gingerella, and chatting the time away. Social distancing was no problem, and with half of our bill bring paid by the British Government, it was even better.
Have you been partaking in the Eat Out to Help Out scheme this month? I hope you’ve returned to one of your old favourite (independent) local restaurants to let them know you have been thinking about them!
Short Weekend in the Peak District
The weather has been changeable recently to say the least, and after what felt like days and days of storms and heavy rain, we decided that Saturday was okay enough to risk our planned motorbike road trip up to the Peak District. We’d arranged to meet with a couple of friends for a long overdue catch-up, for some riding and some camping. Motorcycling and camping are perfect for socially distanced meet-ups, and the Peak District is equidistant for us and our friends so it made sense as a location.
We met up in Ashbourne, expecting to get rained on at some point through the day, but we were fortunate. We did a simple route from our really handy book of motorcycle routes, Bikers’ Britain by Simon Weir, that took us towards Cheadle, up to Buxton, down to Matlock, and back to the Ashbourne area. We avoided the towns themselves, as is always our preference, enjoying the scenery of the back roads and quieter areas.
We camped at New House Farm, a basic campsite based on an organic farm between Ashbourne and Matlock. We had imagined a small and quiet farm site, the facilities extend to a composting toilet and fire bowl per pitch, but it was a lot larger than we’d expected. It was a nice site, with plenty of space between groups, but it was far from small and quiet. I guess you can choose your site but you can’t choose your fellow campers; there were a number of large groups camping, and while music in the daytime is absolutely no bother day all, a group of teenagers playing games involving running around the field at 2am was a bit disruptive. Having said that, we had good stay, it was so good to get out on the bikes, to give the tipi its first outing of 2020 (originally gifted, you can read my review here), to catch-up with friends, and to cook meat with less than one food mile on our campfire.
The expected rain did arrive overnight and while we had to put away wet gear, at least it didn’t rain while we packed down and got everything away and back on the bikes. After sitting out a heavy rainstorm at a roadside café, we decided to head straight home rather than on our second planned Peak District route; the winding roads and high passes of Derbyshire will be there another time. At least we’d had a good Saturday.
A Female Ride Day Failure
From one motorcycling weekend to what should have been another. Yesterday was International Female Ride Day, a global day celebrating female motorcyclists in all cultures. I featured an interview with the founder, Vicki Grey, here on Splodz Blogz last week. But I didn’t actually ride. My bike stayed in the garage. I failed at being a female biker this weekend.
I could blame the weather. I don’t particularly like riding in the rain, not when I don’t have to, I don’t think anyone does. When I woke up it was chucking it down, it was a very windy day, and we did get a few showers through the day. But that wasn’t really it. In all honesty, I just didn’t feel like riding – or doing anything.
The fact is, as I mentioned at the top of this weekly blog, sometimes I just don’t feel like doing anything. And so I didn’t. I didn’t go out walking, I didn’t ride my motorbike, I didn’t cook dinner. Okay, I never cook dinner on a Saturday evening if I can help it! I had a didn’t kind of day. I wasn’t a complete couch potato, I did deadhead the roses and hoe the beds, pack for my camping trip, and get some other bits and bobs done around the house. But I didn’t go anywhere, and I certainly didn’t move a great deal.
The feeling is weird. It’s been commonplace during the pandemic. In some ways it makes me feel like a failure, especially as I had definitely been intending on taking part in International Female Ride Day this weekend. Although, and quite equally, I also don’t feel guilty for having a day of nothingness. I guess I consoled myself by knowing that I might not have ridden on the right day, but I do ride, I love to ride, and I can do it another time. I know we are not guaranteed tomorrow, but sometimes there is just no point pushing it today.
I’d love to know if you did or if you didn’t this week… Tell me one thing you did and enjoyed, and one thing you chose not to do in the comments below.
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