1 May 2020

Milligan Life Under Lockdown: Rachel Guthrie

EA Rachel Guthrie is next up in our life under lockdown series.

What’s your working from home set up?

My husband has taken over the office (a closed door means “enter at your peril”) so I have been relegated to dining table… not all bad as it means I can work with a lovely garden view! Lunchtime is 1pm – my daily routine is to make lunch for the family then I take an hour to exercise on my spin bike. My husband or I will also walk with the kids and dog around our village at some stage during the day.

Have you dedicated any lockdown time to learning a new skill?

Not especially, although I’m really enjoying getting lots of time to dedicate to spin classes on my indoor bike – slightly addictive it seems!

What’s the best and most challenging thing about working from home?

The best thing has been the relaxed vibe of working at home, having an admin role means hardly any Zoom/Teams meeting requirements so I can (and have) worked all morning in my pyjamas!

The worst thing for me has been having to act as substitute teacher for my youngest child. It’s become very apparent, very quickly, that teaching is not my forte!

What are you reading at the moment?

My current read is Wild Swans by Jung Chang. However, I’m about to embark on my next book group choice – Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo.

What are you listening to when working from home?

Mostly the children shouting “Mum”!  And also, Absolute 80’s and 90’s on the radio.

What’s your snack and drink of choice?

Drink of choice is copious amount of coffee all day, every day. I really look forward to our Milligan BYO/catch-up meeting at the end of each week where my tipple of choice is either bubbles or a G&T.

Snack-wise – I ordered 1.5kg of fizzy pick & mix sweets as a lockdown family treat. Rather predictably, a week in and they are nearly all gone (a possible downside to setting up base at the dining table – easy access to kitchen cupboards!).