Leicester Local Lockdown #2

It’s strange to think that it was over 4 months ago when the UK was put into complete lockdown. Just over a month ago Leicester was held back and stricter measures were enforced while the rest of the country saw certain restrictions being lifted. I’m getting fed up with watching the news every day, but I feel the need to in order to know what’s going on. Things are changing so quickly and new measures can be implemented overnight, such as yesterday when parts of Northern England woke up to find out that they can’t meet up with other households in their houses or gardens. I’m also getting tired of hearing people on the news complaining about having to self-isolate when they’ve been abroad or their holidays have been cancelled. What do they expect? We’re in the midst of a global pandemic, with cases still rising across the world.

A few weeks ago a leaflet from my local council came through the post, with guidance on what Leicester residents should be doing to help ward off further infections. I think most people have been aware of the guidance since the start of the pandemic, with the basics of regular hand washing and adhering to social distancing. It’s good to see that the leaflet is accessible to various ethnicities, so that all residents across Leicester can understand the guidance. The leaflet details the guidance in nine different languages, including Gujarati, Latvian and Polish.

Leicester is making gradual progress in opening up with non-essential shops open again and pubs and restaurants being able to open again on Monday. The rate of infections has drastically fallen as well since the start of the new lockdown at the end of June, which is very promising news. I’m glad to still be working from home, especially as my father received a letter advising him to shield until mid-August. My sister is donating plasma next week as she tested positive for coronavirus during the early months of lockdown. I’m glad that she is playing her part in helping health professionals and scientists to further understand the virus and develop a vaccine.

I’m sorry it’s been a while since my last post. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve felt drained and tired since the end of March. I’ve been worrying for the past four months, especially for my parents and their close friends as they are all at risk if they catch the virus. Despite this, the time has flown by and I can’t believe it’s already August. It’s been strange this year, with no prospects of travelling abroad until at least next year and having to socially distance and wear a mask when going into shops. Even though I can’t really go anywhere, I’m looking forward to having a week off work soon as I’ve not had any time off since Christmas/New Year. During this week off, I will be looking after the newest addition to the family – my parents are picking up our new cocker spaniel puppy next Friday! I really can’t wait, it’s been something nice to look forward to during this time of crisis.

Happy reading and blogging, and stay safe!

Clare Bear 🙂

xx

Update #13

As cliche as this sounds, I’m not a fan of January. The buzz from Christmas and New Year quickly fades with the return to normal life, such as going back to work and not scoffing on lots of mince pies. Sadly the news didn’t help much either and my social media feeds were filled with ‘Breaking News’ (oh, what now?!), but it wasn’t all dreary.

It’s been good to see lots of people retaliate against Donald Trump since he became President of the United States, especially politicians and people in power who have stood up to him. I would’ve loved to have participated in the Women’s March on London on 21st January, but I couldn’t make it. Instead I wrote a quick blog summarising my thoughts on the marches, picking some of my favourite banners used in marches around the world.

Continuing on the theme of feminism, I wrote a follow up blog for Viral Feminism on the story of Nicola Thorp, who set up a petition against women wearing high heel shoes in the workplace. Everyone who signed the petition would have received an email recently from the government, which states that the petition will be debated in Parliament on the 6th March. This is excellent news, and another step towards achieving gender equality in the workplace.

I wrote my first review of a restaurant on my blog. This was a Greek Cypriot restaurant called Troodos Taverna, which serves amazing food. My parents had been meaning to take me there for a while, and it was certainly worth the wait. I love Greek food so to have Greek Cypriot food in a family run restaurant was incredible.

I only managed to run one parkrun in January, which was my 11th one. I thought that I did pretty well and was hoping to reach my personal best, but I didn’t quite reach it. I’m planning on running this Saturday, which will be a cold morning according to the weather forecast. I’ve got a sports jacket if it’s really cold, and besides, I tend not to feel the cold when exercising, so it should be fine (as long as I get up in time!).

Despite only achieving one parkrun, I did run 10km on the treadmill at the gym. This was on a Sunday morning and I managed to complete 10km in 1 hour and 12 minutes. I’ve not yet had the chance to run 10km again since then, but ideally by the end of this month I’d like to be pushing myself to run 12.5km to get the half marathon training into full swing.

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear

Troodos Taverna

My focus on here recently has been about fitness. I guess with my ongoing quest to shift some pounds and run a half marathon this year means that is what I’m mostly focused on. I apologise for this, as I’ve been slacking on the other topics I write about on my blog. So to make a change, I thought I’d write about my experience to a local Greek Cypriot restaurant last night, on the outskirts of Leicester.

My parents have been telling me about a restaurant called Troodos Taverna for a long time, saying how good the food is and how friendly the staff are. Finally they decided to take me there last night (well, I drove but they treated me). The interior decor was charming, with painted walls of features around the Greek islands. The restaurant is family run and they originate from Cyprus.

Inside Troodos Taverna (image from Trip Advisor)

Troodos Taverna offer a meze night on Saturdays. This means that you get to try lots of different types of Greek/Cypriot food. My parents ordered a meze to share for three people. Everything on the menu sounded amazing so I was excited for the food to come to the table. We had to ask the waitress to clarify some words on the menu as they were Greek, which sounded even more amazing when she told us what they were.

The meze consisted of five courses, which came along in succession when we were ready for the next course. I will go through each course and explain what food was included in each one.

Course No.1

The first course was a mixture of cold foods, including a basket of warm pitta bread. There was a large bowl of salad which contained lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion and feta cheese drizzled with salad dressing. In one tray there were three dips, one of them being hummus and I can’t remember the other two. The other tray had new potatoes with red onion, large butter beans in a tomato sauce and some beetroot. My favourite part was the butter beans, and the dressing on the salad was delicious too inside a warm pitta bread.

With so much food for the first course, I resisted from eating too much as there were still four more courses to go. However, we could keep all of the food from the first course on the table while we munched our way through the next courses.

Course No.2

The second course was the first dish of warm food. There was some thin pork steaks with grilled halloumi cheese, Greek sausages and Greek chorizo. This pork dish was delicious and it was my first time trying some halloumi, which I enjoyed. I find that sausages outside of the UK always taste much more meatier, and these Greek sausages were full of so much flavour.

Course No.3

The third course moved from food on land to food of the sea. I do love seafood, and the Greeks/Cypriots certainly do. My mum absolutely loves mussels, so she went for the largest one as soon as they were placed on the table. The mussels were cooked in a delicious tomato sauce. The other plate had a variety of battered seafood, including calamari (a Greek favourite), prawns, scamp and crab claws. It felt like I was in seafood heaven. The batter was light and not stodgy, and it was my first time eating crab claws. The scampi was the best I’ve ever had last night; it tasted fresh.

So after three courses of tasty food, I was wondering how we’d all cope with two more courses. The next course was the most anticipated and is a Greek specialty.

Course No.4

Lamb is my favourite type of meat, and kleftiko is very special indeed. The lamb was so tender that it melted in your mouth. The meat was also so succulent that it fell apart when you took some for your own plate. The only thing I didn’t like was the asparagus as I’m not a fan of it, so my dad had the asparagus.

There wasn’t just kleftiko lamb for the fourth course. There was also a plate of pork and chicken kebabs on a bed of couscous topped with cooked mushrooms and more red onion. I do enjoy a kebab and these ones last night were very tasty indeed.

After a short rest, we had the final course…

Course No.5

The dessert was unusual, but in a good way. I haven’t eaten baklava much before (I’d only really tried it for the first time on New Year’s Day) and I’m not a fan of pistachios and nuts in general. However, I did enjoy the baklava last night. The bottom of these pastries were soaked in honey which made them taste really sweet and the pastry was nice. The baklavas with the wiry sort of pastry were quite funny to eat as bits of pastry kept falling off with each bite I took. Alongside the baklava was also a plate of fruit, including green grapes, slices of orange and chunks of melon.

My first experience of Greek/Cypriot food at a family run restaurant in the UK was fantastic! I visited some of the Greek islands during my childhood and had Greek food there; the food last night reminded me of those memories. I was very full after so much food and I was pleasantly surprised at the variety offered on the meze menu. I’ve already been recommending this restaurant to friends and I’d love to go again. I will have to try another night when the full menu is offered.

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear 🙂