The month that was: April and May 2020

What happened:
Crikey - two full months spent in lockdown (have documented my twelve weeks in lockdown (so far) in my coronavirus "diaries" here). Generally, these past two months have been spent working from home, watching lots of telly, reading, doing virtual quizzes, and cooking/eating yummy food. LOTS of yummy food.

Things more of note include my birthday: I missed seeing Mary Poppins on the West End (also had Dear Evan Hansen cancelled in May), but had a lovely lockdown birthday with champagne, flowers, a salted caramel cake from Lola's Cupcakes, takeaway from Dip & Flip, and I played Animal Crossing: New Horizons (my present from Olly) on the Nintendo Switch. Which has continued every single day since. Islands are a lot of work!

I've still been playing Two Point Hospital as well - and we completed Overcooked on the PS4. (We've got Overcooked 2 but haven't started it yet.) Speaking of completing things, we finally finished the 2,000 Disney jigsaw Olly got me for Christmas. Hurrah!

We splurged on a KitchenAid, and I tried to buy a bike... My first order was eventually cancelled - I'm waiting to find out if a new preorder I made will be fulfilled. We've tried various new subscriptions, including the Craft Gin Club (the gin we got was epic - and how pretty is that packaging?) and Freddie's Flowers (so beautiful; use the code clairef955 if you fancy a free bouquet!).

Finally, on the last weekend in May I met up with my friend Jasmin for a socially-distanced bottle of wine on the common, then we saw Olly's family the next day - the first time I've seen people other than Olly since lockdown began! Times are strange.

What I ate:
Yum takeaway from Dip & Flip (x2), Rosa's Thai Cafe, Kaosarn, Rosmarino and MEATliquor. We've had fresh pasta delivered from Nonna Tonda, bakery deliveries from Buzzing Bee Baked Things (x2) and Bread Ahead, and my above mentioned birthday cake from Lola's Cupcakes.

Olly has been perfecting the art of sourdough bread, we've enjoyed making Dishoom's bacon naans with chilli jam (recipe in the Dishoom cookbook), and we've been using the KitchenAid to bake cakes, cookies and cupcakes! We also got the Midnight Chicken cookbook and have made, so far, the midnight chicken recipe. (Obviously! Goes beautifully with this simple olive oil bread if you don't fancy making sourdough.)

What I watched:
TV-wise, of note: the rest of Tiger King (loved it, apart from that last bonus episode), Picard (I watched a few episodes and then half-watched the rest with Olly; was not for me), seasons 4-6 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Imagineering Story (loved it), The World According to Jeff Goldblum (awesome fun), Quiz, Jamie: Keep Cooking and Carry On, The Disney Family Singalong, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Becoming, The Last Dance (incredible), Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert, finally finished Street Food: Asia, and we also started watching season 2 of Altered Carbon.

Films watched: Along Came Polly, The Mummy (1999), Captain Marvel, Hustlers, Dumb and Dumber, Enchanted, Lady and the Tramp (2019), Contagion, Love Wedding Repeat, Trolls: World Tour, National Treasure, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Martian, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Twins, Extraction, Knives Out, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Cars, Thor Ragnarok, Killers, Avengers Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Long Shot, Stranger than Fiction, Mr Right, One for the Money, Horrible Bosses, Horrible Bosses 2, The Mighty Ducks, Space Jam, Joker, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, BASEketball, Role Models and La La Land.

Theatre watched online: One Man Two Guvnors, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Fleabag NT Live, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables Staged Concert, Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration, Frankenstein (with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature), Cats, The Sound of Music Live, A Streetcar Named Desire and Hairspray Live.

We abandoned watching Treasure Island and By Jeeves.

What I read:
In April I read 15 books and abandoned reading two. Shadowsea by Peter Bunzl got a rare 5* rating for me, whilst the previous book in the Cogheart Adventure books, Skycircus, got a 4* rating. I also rated Buried Deep by T.R. Ragan and Close to the Bone by Kendra Elliot as 4* reads.

In May I read 11 books and abandoned reading two books. This included rereading The Martian by Andy Weir (always a 5* read) - and my 4* (brand new) reads were Half a World Away by Mike Gayle, In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn, and Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.

How are you surviving? x