Well the highlight of the week is I got my hair done! Joy! When it was announced that the hair dressers were opening on the 4th July I did a little dance. I was on the waitlist for an appointment with my lovely hair dressers and then I got the call a couple of days after the announcement that they were opening to get me booked in.  I went yesterday (Monday 6th) and it was so lovely to do something normal.

Obviously the social distancing, mask wearing, anti bac situation is not normal, but to sit in the chair and have a natter with my hair dresser was great. The whole set up felt really safe. My hair dressers has two floors, the ground floor and then downstairs where they style and wash. I sat up stairs as normal, but they had put clear partitions between each station. All the staff were in masks or visors or both. As I walked in the station I was going to be sitting at was just being cleaned and throughout my time there things were being wiped, hands washed with anti- bac gel. I started off in a mask but it was a bit difficult to wear while having my foils done – good bye greys! So I had to take it off, but it went back on when I went downstairs to have my hair washed and for the cut. I would say it was 50/50 of clients wearing masks in there. As the door was open and there were only ever a handful of people in the room I wasn’t worried at all. I felt very taken care of by Edward James Salon as always. The end result was glorious as always, no more greys, no roots, a bit more shine and tidy hair.

This was not my only pampering of the last few days. Although pamper may be a strong word. I think like a lot of people we all expected beauty salons to open up with hair salons so we could get waxes etc done. I am still not sure why this has not happened, if I can go to the pub why can I not get a wax and my nails done! I did like the article that said it was down to sexism –  certainly raises some interesting points. So with no beauty salons open I have had to take matters into my own hands  and have bought self waxing strips. I have never done this before, purely because of fear of pain. I am happy for someone else to do it to me. I braced myself and did have to call in Mr Life London Food to help out occasionally as I chickened out on some of the strips… but I did it. I am totally booking an appointment once beauty salons open as those strips are ok but not great. All these little life lessons that we are having to learn during lockdown.  I know, I know, first world problems!

Today, due to running out of bread I decided to crack open the flour box and make baguettes. I tried making gluten free baguettes a few years back after I first got the River Cottage Gluten Free book but they were dense and just did not turn out right. But after all the lockdown bread baking I thought I would give it a go. I made my tin foil baguette tray a bit too wide ( totally going to have to buy a real baguette tin now) so they spread and look like ciabatta but oh my are they delicious. I have never enjoyed my own bread quite so much. They are delicious. I will be making more of those I can tell you!

As a final note. The weather has been pretty rubbish of late, wet, windy, and not particularly warm, but as I walked along the river today past beds of lavender and watched the bumble bees at work, I couldn’t help but think of summer. Hopefully the sunshine will come back.