It has been another long week with new recommendations and many, many deaths. We keep hearing that it is going to get worse before it gets better, although there does seem to be a hint of positive news that social distancing is making an impact. I feel hopeful.

We moved to Colorado in November and I have to admit that I know nothing about our Governor, Jared Polis or Denver mayor, Michael Hancock. I don’t know their party affiliations or if I agree with most of their politics, however, just judging them from how they are handling the pandemic, I feel confident in their bold and decisive leadership. Both of these men are sending out a strong message to our state and they are taking necessary action to protect Coloradans. As with the rest of the world, Colorado is in a crisis, but I feel relatively safe here or at least, less panicked because of our leaders.

I wish I could say the same for the federal government. Trump’s lack of leadership is terrifying and maddening. In my mind, the biggest mistake will be allowing states to make their own decisions regarding social distancing. State’s rights are a huge part of our American identity, but in these very usual times, I wish the president would take control and do what is needed to protect lives. We should have a clear and consistent message about what we can and cannot do to contain this.

I understand that some places have a much lower infection rate, but those places can easily turn into the next hot spot. I understand that closures are not only an economic hardship, but actually devastating to some, but still, if we all act together in a coordinated effort, perhaps we can get to our “new normal” faster with less lives lost.

I’m angry at the people who still refuse to take this seriously. Two days ago, our governor issued a new recommendation that face coverings be worn whenever you leave your house. We got the green-light from our neighbors who are doctors and huge Survivor fans, to use Survivor buff’s as our make-shift face-coverings. Yes, they are buff’s from the China season. It’s what we have. Thank you to my friend Ernest, who gave these to me many years ago. Prior to repurposing them as masks, I wore them nearly every day as a headband!

We’ve been wearing them for our walks in the adjacent fields near our housing estate. It has been just us and the cows.

Many of our neighbors are making masks for the community, so this is hopeful. However, many people are not wearing them while walking around our neighborhood. Many people still stand too close to their neighbors for chats or allow kids from different families to play together. I know it’s hard, but this is so frustrating.

We’ve had some craziness on our community Facebook page. One incident involved parents removing caution tape from our community playground and letting their kids on the equipment. When confronted, they went on the defensive. I know this situation is extra difficult on kids, but that isn’t an excuse to blatantly disregard safety measures.

A new recommendation was released to try to limit grocery store visits to every two weeks. We went on Monday night and tried to stock-up for two weeks. I think we will be good, but we might run out of fresh produce towards the end. We use Royal Crest for weekly dairy delivery, so that has been helpful. The grocery store was mostly stocked (no toilet paper/cleaning supplies/pasta). The only items we couldn’t get that we wanted were fresh spinach and avocados. No big deal. Only half of the shoppers wore masks and a few were not great about keeping their distance. None of the workers had masks.

I worry for the workers in high risk jobs. I feel like doing our part, helps them stay safe. I don’t want to wear a mask, limit my shopping trips, or take forever in the store, but I also don’t want to spread Covid 19 if I'm infected and asymptomatic. There is no reasonable excuse for not following guidelines to protect your fellow citizens. None.

Speaking of which, I’m really tired of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Several of my students have brought up the idea that covid 19 was bioengineered by China. One guy in Brazil told me that he dumped his two cats on the street, so that they couldn’t infect him. As a animal lover, my heart broke to hear this. Most of my social media connections are united in staying home, but one former coworker has been loudly spreading the news that raw veganism makes him immune. He won’t wear masks or practice social distancing. It’s ridiculous.

We are still healthy and employed. As far as I am aware, we still don’t know anyone who is infected. We have settled into a bit of a routine at home and we are trying to make the best of the situation.

We’ve been using our kitchen, a lot. The food highlights from this week include: An English style breakfast with sautéed mushrooms, English roast dinner ( with the “yummiest beef ever” that Dan spiced up with hot sauce), Dan’s homemade bread, and I made lemon-raspberry muffins. We are eating well and should exercise more!

We’ve also been socializing on zoom and FaceTime. Quite honestly, I’m socialize far more now, that I did before the virus. We had cocktails with our friend’s Valerie and Bryan in Big Bear. On Friday night, we were invited to take part in a customer appreciation event through Timothy Oulton, our favorite designer! We had drinks and celebrated our favorite brand with other Oulton enthusiasts. Timothy himself was on the call and they raffled off a gorgeous sofa. On Sunday afternoon, I had a two hour zoom call with my writing feedback group. It was the first time meeting everyone and I feel hopeful that this could be the start of a great writing relationship. I’ve connected with friends on the phone, through text, and with good old-fashioned snail mail letters! Feeling connected has not been a problem. It is exhausting!

We only took the car out once, to go to the grocery store, but when out, we filled up the tank. The prices were not even this low when I started driving in the mid-90’s!

We finally watched Star Wars: The Rise of Sky Walker and we are on season three of Schitt’s Creek. We also discovered a great Netflix documentary series based on the movie Chef. We loved the movie- you should watch it. The series takes a different format with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi exploring cooking techniques with different chefs. The first episodes in the series are filmed at various Las Vegas restaurants and they definitely made me ache for a foodie vacation.

My heart hurt to hear the news of John Prine’s passing. He was such a talented song writer and musician.

I’m going to end on a positive note with our kitten, Tom. He is such a cuddle monster and loves being held on his back for tummy rubs.

Ooh and check out my roots. I haven’t had my hair cut or colored since we moved and I was well over-due before everything closed. I think it might be a dicey idea to attempt a home fix, so we will see how bad the progression gets over the next weeks or months. When this is over, a full spa day is on the agenda!

I’ve reached the final trip report from my 2018 vacation in England. For my final post in the series, I’m combining both a review of British foods and pictures from Dan’s hometown of Newbury. Newbury is also where much of Dan’s family lives, so it is usually our base for our England trips.

Let’s start with Newbury. It’s a beautiful city with a vibrant high street. Victoria Park is a large green space with a pagoda, toy boat pond, and lion statues. There are storybook-esque canals running through the town. It’s a fairly large city, but our family lives walking distance to the city center, making it very easy to navigate, especially as on this vacation, I stayed with my mother-in-law, while Dan had business trips all over Europe. I was a five minute walk to the high street and my mother-in-law’s house is just a short walk from my sister-in-law’s house. I bounced between the two to see everyone.

Here are some pictures of the town. My niece, Charis, is in the picture with the lion statues. I had the pleasure of a shopping/movie/sushi day out with her during my trip!

My favorite meal in England is Sunday roast dinner at my sister-in-law, Ali’s house. Check out all of the vegetables and the puffy Yorkshire pudding. My mouth is watering just looking at this picture!

Cocktails are always a must at Ali’s house and she makes them look fancy too! He cool straws and garnishes make me want to up our cocktail game.

And, as if the great food and fun family times were not enough, they have the most adorable gold retriever named Wilf.

We tried the corporate, chain-restaurant version of a Sunday roast dinner at Toby Carvery. Note, it is not “Toby’s Carvery,” but “Toby Carvery.” Grammar issues aside, I had been obsessed with trying this restaurant ever since my first trip to England. There is something that I can’t quite put my finger on, that makes me think of Colonial Williamsburg. Plus, any place whose logo is “Home of the Roast” is calling my name.

Toby Carvery is a buffet-style restaurant, where you get one pass through the food line to pile up your plate with various roast meats and traditional sides = vegetables, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, roast potatoes, et… Patrons can choose between a regular portion or extra large plate. We went with the regular plate and we were STUFFED. It is so much food that we could not handle dessert. Toby Carvery does not compare to Sunday roast at Ali’s house, but it was pretty good. I’d definitely look forward to going back, especially for the roast beef.

Another traditional meal is the “full-english” breakfast. We have enjoyed this many times at the Hilton in Newbury. It took time for me to embrace this breakfast, but now I love it. There are variations on what can be included, for example, black pudding- a blood sausage, is traditional. However, my perfect combination is shown below = eggs, hash brown type of potato, mushrooms, baked beans, sausage, and British bacon ( which is similar to Canadian bacon.) The bacon is my favorite. It’s vastly superior to American-style bacon.

I spent one week at my mother-in-law’s house during this trip and she spoiled me with food. She bought many desserts and her favorite treats for me to try.

Plus, she took me out for many fabulous meals in Newbury. The best was at a French restaurant called Cote Brasserie, where I had an amazing fish pie.

We went for cake and tea at a French bakery called Paul. The carrot cake was incredible, but I made the mistake of ordering iced tea. A top tip: if you order iced tea in England, know that it will automatically come sweetened. It won’t just be sweet, but it will be southern sweet-tea sweet. Sweet tea, when you are expecting unsweetened tea, is quite a shock!

The desserts didn’t stop there…Jan took me to afternoon tea at Angelica’s Terrace Cafe. It was raining, so we couldn't enjoy the terrace with views of Newbury, but we were cozy inside with hot tea and cakes.

Twice, I went out to see my brother-in-law’s band, Beatle juice. Steve, my bother-in-law, is a really talented guitarist and even has a few groupies!

Beatle Juice puts on a fun show. I saw them play at a venue in Newbury, called Document House and in the nearby town of Thatcham at The Taste of England Bar and Restaurant. It was here that I discovered Swedish cider. Swedish cider is the best drink ever!

I never met a Hobnob that I didn’t like and on this trip, I ate my way through several packages. Hobnobs are my favorite commercially made cookie, especially the milk chocolate Hobnobs. Yummmmm

My other favorite is Biscoff. On the Biscoff packages sold in the United States, there is a claim that Biscoff is “Europe’s Favorite Cookie with Coffee.” This quite specific claim was omitted from the packaging on the cookies in England. The plot thickens!

I tried mango flavored Coke, which was strange and chemical tasting.

I love poking around English grocery stores. The Mexican food section is always very entertaining.

And we found this unappetizing gem.

Which, I must confess looks like something my mom would have bought in the mid- 80’s, when we were all aglow with excitement over our new microwave. She would have been proud to nuke this and serve it to me for lunch.

As always, our time in England was filled with family time and creating more memories. I wish we lived closer or that it was easier to visit.