The weather turned this afternoon. From 13°C(!) yesterday to 2°C this evening, with gusty winds and sleet. I was too lazy and comfortable to go out for groceries in this weather, so I made do with what was in the fridge and made pancakes for dinner. It feels odd to be having cake for dinner, but it’s undeniably delicious.

I notice that my few photos of cooking here tend to be of making pancakes. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps because a pancake dinner feels special.

Weight training day. Following a new video today.

I only have a limited set of weights at home. Two sets of dumbbells, one weighing twice as much as the other. One kettlebell.

I still see this as a temporary solution – even if I continue to work from home, I imagine I would start going to Friskis & Svettis again – so I don’t want to buy too many.

It’s not so much the monetary cost, but all that space they take up! I keep moving the weights around, in search for a better place where I can reach them when it’s time without them being in the way the rest of the day.

I eat leftovers for lunch most days. I did the same when I worked in the office – I like my own cooking at least as well as restaurant food, and often better. Plus it takes less effort, less time and less money.

Back then of course I had to decide and pack my lunch in the morning. Now I decide when I get hungry, which means I have a lot more flexibility. And it sometimes leads to odd combinations, when there is not enough of any single leftover to make a full meal, or when I find leftover pasta sauce but no leftover pasta.

Sometimes it leads to two-course lunches: half a serving of soup followed by half a serving of lasagna, for example. That almost feels fancy.

Other times I opt for convenience, and instead of getting two separate bowls and heating two separate dishes, I mix them up. Not soup with lasagna! I’m not that crazy yet.

Yesterday I had carrot soup with pilaf rice, or perhaps pilaf rice in carrot soup, because there was more rice than soup in my bowl.

Today’s lunch was sweetcorn chowder, but the hot smoked salmon was all gone, so I topped the soup with fried herring instead and added a pinch of smoked paprika for that smoky flavour.

Both combinations looked a bit odd but tasted great.

The herring chowder would make no sense to cook from scratch – why go to all the effort of dipping your herrings in egg and flour and frying them, only to put them in soup where they immediately go soggy? But the carrot and rice soup was great. The rice made it more filling and gave it texture. I’ve just never thought of it before. But spinach soup with rice is a thing, so why not carrot soup with rice?

(Now I had to google it, and there are recipes for carrot and rice soup out there, but the ones I saw all pureed the rice together with the carrots. Less work, fewer pots, but that would take away half the niceness of this combination.)

I had planned to cycle out for some more errands today. But the covid-19 related measures were just ramped up in Sweden, and all non-essential contacts with other people and non-essential visits to indoor places are strongly discouraged. So no more errands for me for now. Instead I simply cycled to Ursvik and back (via Rinkeby and Järvafältet).

Before corona I had very regular exercise habits. I booked my Friskis sessions well in advance, and never allowed myself to cancel a booking.

Working from home, I’ve struggled with keeping up physical exercise. I’ve had periods when I worked out regularly, without much of a struggle even. But I’ve also had periods when I became lax and let go a bit. And periods when I lost the habit completely.

The gradual decline always looked the same. “I don’t have time right now, I’ll do it later.” and then “I’ll take a rest day, I can work out tomorrow instead.”

This workout challenge has taught me what I need to keep up the habit. The trick is to work out every single day, so it happens on autopilot. Instead of rest days when I do nothing, I have rest days when I do some other kind of exercise. This way there is no room for hesitation about whether I really need to work out today of all days. The answer is known in advance with full certainty. Yes, I do.

Thinking is reduced to a minimum; the room for excuses and postponement is minimal.

As if the universe heard my complaining yesterday, there were intermittent periods of blue skies today. And when I went out cycling during my midday break, I actually had actual rays of sun touch me.

For about two minutes. But still!

I felt ridiculously grateful for those minutes.

I had another half-hour session with Raneir. I like him.

His session felt no easier today than it did on Friday. The muscles in my upper body are puny.

The days are dark and gray. Heavy, thick clouds hang so low that there is little difference between morning, day and evening. Even in the middle of the day it is so dim that I have to turn on the lights inside, although I sit right next to a window.

I wish there was sunlight, at least. There isn’t much else to be happy about, or to look forward to.

I wish there was something to look forward to.

I’ve come out of October’s slump where I had no energy at all. I think I may have the exercise challenge to thank for much of that change.

Now that I have more energy, though, what do I do with it? Indoors I am restless. Outdoors all is mud and gray. I thought of going on another longer hike but there’s only 8 hours of daylight, what would I do with the other 16?

Another long and energetic walk. This time I had the foresight to start my walk in daylight, but it was dark by the time I got home.

The plants in the window in my home office corner are outgrowing their space. I bought them for my large window niche at the tretton37 office, where they would have plenty of room. Now they’re squeezed onto a narrow window ledge. And since my home office is in the same room as our bedroom, we pull down the blinds every night, so the plants can’t be allowed to spread outside their narrow space. I’ve already had to move one to a different window because it grew too large. Others will soon need to follow. If not now, then in the spring, when the nights will be lighter and it will no longer be enough to pull down the blinds until they just touch the tops of the plants.

Not that their disappearance here would make much of a difference. I can barely see them behind the huge monitor that takes up much of my field of view.

The home office still feels like a semi-temporary solution. Or 25% temporary perhaps. OK for another year, but not for 10 years. I’d want to make more adjustments if this were to become permanent.

It’s hard to know how long to plan for. The coronavirus situation will resolve itself one way or another – vaccines are on their way, even if not within touching distance yet. But how much time will I be spending in an office after that?

I took a long and refreshing walk to Tensta and back. I think I need to go hiking soon again, even though it’s so gray outside.