Lives are a little different currently so I though it time for a more irreverent blog as we head towards the Easter break.
BUFFS
Noun (plural noun)
a person who is enthusiastically interested in and very knowledgeable about a particular subject
Lots of us have become Buffs over the last few weeks.
As things stand, we have become a nation of amateur epidemiologists. We tune into the daily briefings from number 10, and nod along to the latest scientific musings. Most of us are listening and staying away from work but a disturbing large number feel that self-isolation is something that does not apply to them.
The occasional epididymis is prone to come along however, with an observation, and one of the latest is that 5g communication masts are to blame for spreading the virus. Carol Midgley reminded us today of David Baddiel’s description of conspiracy theory as “how idiots get to feel like intellectuals”.
How that accounts for the virus in Shropshire I am not entirely sure… At the end of February. Shropshire Council welcomed the award of Government funding to support a two-year project that will examine how emerging 5G technology can be used to deliver health and social care services in rural areas – including parts of Shropshire.
If the conspiracy theorists are right, in Shropshire we should be fine.
ADJECTIVE (ESP. NORTH AMERICAN)
informal
(of a person or their body) in good physical shape with well-developed muscles
I wish! I am though doing more in this department than with housework (See later).
A recent planned meeting in Spalding (a 7-hour round trip) became a Microsoft Teams meeting freeing up a huge amount of the day. That and other changes to how we are all working is creating chunks of working days that can be used for other activities and one of my rekindled ones is fitness.
I started yesterday morning with personal training https://onformacademy.co.uk/ being Sasha Buy, their head personal trainer and business owner, “gently encouraging me” through my laptop to yet another set of something that at least hurt less than it did the same time last week. My key learning outcome this week was to close the window and mute my microphone to reduce the number of expletives that escaped the top floor of my house.
After years of not cycling, what the hell, I also threw in a 40km ride yesterday evening. The roads are quieter and safer these days, or would have been, if I realised that I couldn’t go from zero cycling straight to riding on them at the same speed that I used to.
The cycling equivalent of running’s hitting the wall is called “bonking”: and after 35km I bonked like a good-un! On the plus side, prepared for an Easter egg hunt on Sunday, a Lindt chocolate Bunny came to the rescue when I tumbled through the front door for an urgent hit of calories.
Later that evening I swapped “Yoga with Adrienne” for a much more relaxing trinity of Burger, Beer and Boxing with replays on Sky.
With the Burger / Beer / Bunny combo, maybe I won’t be as Buff as I would like when I return to work. It will though be interesting to see what the new working normal will be.
VERB
polish (something)
F, is self-isolating and can no longer call over to help around the house.
Living and working in an old dusty farmhouse, with suddenly a (relative) abundance of time on my hands you would think that my house would more spick and span than ever before.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case. If have actually regressed. I may have dusted off my trainers to get fit but that is as far as the dusting is going.
DEFINITION: BUFF (in the)
informal
naked
Social media is full of clips of mishaps and “mishaps”.
All regarding the heightened importance of getting the dress code right for a video conference.
Mishap is along the lines of getting the top half right but revealing that the bottom half though isnt, when you forget, stand up, and reveal that you weren’t quite as organised as you had initially led the meeting to believe.
“Mishap” is more the guy who was asked to re-join the Monday-morning meeting with a top on, only to reveal when he stood up that he was equally under-dressed beneath ‘desk-level’. He later apparently re-joined the meeting with breakfast… but still missing clothes!
With that in mind, “Back-view” isnt quite what you think it might be either!
Rather it is what people can see of your home life whilst you are talking to them during a video call.
An IT client neatly dealt with that by having his camera on something akin to an iPhone portrait setting that gently blurred the background and presented him in a gentle glowing halo of light.
At a more basic level, if noon is the new 6 o’clock for you then before you have your afternoon nap, maybe clear the empties away, so they are not in shot when you join the afternoon team / client meeting!
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing I wish you a happy and safe Easter break.