Day 700

Day 700...

Well we have had a Tuesday and a Tuesday at home as I can not go anywhere for the next few days at the very least.

The isolation rules for me at the moment are that I am allowed out of covid jail once I have two negative tests from day 5 onwards, or reach day 10, whichever happens first. All crossed that I test negative sooner rather than later!!

But it hasn't stopped me today as I have been able to work from home. I had lots of plans for work this week that relied on me being in actual work but those plans will now have to wait until another week. So I have managed to produce and issue this months invoices, arrange training courses, update the broadband contract, deal with emails, liaise with my deputy in work and added things to my to do list as quickly as I crossed things off! In fact I probably did more work than I would have done on a normal Tuesday!

Later this afternoon while there was still some daylight I made a bit more progress on my latest jigsaw which is recreation of the London Underground map. So lots of lines of different colours which I thought were going to be tricky but have actually gone together quite well. Although I am now left with lots of white and pale grey pieces with bits of small typeface on them that I think could prove interesting!

Once Simon had finished work for the day we headed down 'our gym'; the benefit of the gym being our garage means that covid jail isn't going to stop me from working out. I was really pleased with my efforts tonight as I was able to use my heaviest weight for more sets than I've previously managed and I completed some kettle bell exercises that I haven't bothered with for a while just to mix things up. Simon was also able to put the new resistance bands and fixing points through their paces with great success.

So as far as covid goes for me it's a bit of a cold...a runny nose and the most annoying thing is that it's affecting my sinus (which is always the case when I get a cold!). And if it was any other time it wouldn't be enough of a cold to keep me home, or keep me off work. But because this cold has a name I am now prisoner to a set of rules that we have never introduced before for any other cold or flu virus, never mind something that has a lower death rate than seasonal flu!

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 673

Day 673...

Middle of the week and although it was my usual Wednesday with a morning of work and an afternoon off I was actually working from home today.

I had an online meeting to attend and so it was easier to do that from home where it's quieter and has fewer distractions. Either side of the meeting I was able to get on top of lots of admin bits and pieces.

By the end of the morning I'd spent an hour and a half in a meeting and made appropriate notes and saved some useful links; I'd created invoices for next months pre-school fees; I'd updated some spreadsheets, I'd completed data input as requested by our county council and I'd kept on top of emails. So all in all a pretty productive morning.

I'd also been chatting with Molly online, arranging a date for coffee with an old friend and connecting via Instagram with a fitness and healthy eating advocate!

Then because I was at home for the day we decided to make the most of the dry and bright, but chilly, day and take a walk out at lunchtime. Our first lunchtime walk in a while and we managed 2.45 miles in 45 minutes.

My next job was to collect my dad to take him to the garage so that he could pick up his car. He'd had problems with his car before Christmas which had resulted in the fuel pump being replaced and the car being returned to him just after New Year. He'd had the car back only a couple of days before it started to play up again. So after being in the garage for another ten days he was finally able to get it home today. Apparently the problem this time was the starter motor. Now this is a Jaguar garage and the customer experience inside the showroom was lovely, very personal and attentive; just a shame that the car hasn't performed as well as the showroom!

Back home and I grabbed a coffee before taking the time to jump on the exercise bike. Both Simon and I are trying to get on the bike in between gym workouts and at the moment Simon is doing way better at that than me! But I was back on today and did 45 minutes of zone two training. 

With that out the way it was time for more coffee and some jigsaw chill out time while Simon took his turn on the bike.

The great news today is that England will be rolling back all it's current covid restrictions to plan A, whatever that is? But it means that masks will no longer be required and they are scraping the vaccine passport system from next week (why not now I don't know?), but thankfully they are removing the need for children to wear mask in schools as from tomorrow. So we have a glimmer of good news...please let this be a glimmer of getting back to something like the normal that we used to know.

And that is my post for today, all that is left to do is to watch the latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett. See you tomorrow.
xx

 

Sometimes it Snows in April

Day 383...

So to quote from one of my all time favourite Prince tracks 'Sometimes it Snows in April' is how the day started...all be it a few flurries that didn't last for very long. But the day was bright, sunny and noticeably much colder than the last few days.

First job of the day was to go and fetch the weekly grocery shop and then on the way home to drop off the groceries for my dad that we had added onto our order.

Whilst I put all the shopping away Simon had a phone call to return which now means that we have new flooring for our living room, Simon's office area and our bedroom on order.

We then ventured out into the sun and cold and boy was it chilly, especially as we turned towards home and found ourselves walking into the wind. We completed the same walk we had done on Saturday but this time in reverse, managing 3.9 miles in one hour and 16 minutes. We were very glad of, and in need of, a hot coffee by the time we got home.

After a spot of lunch Simon ventured into the garage to start the process of molding a Mandalorian helmet as he had received an order in the last few days and wanted to get the casting underway today. I decided to complete another round of the garden pulling up weeds which thankfully wasn't too onerous a job today just one I need to keep on top of.

We then had the excitement of our new steam mop being delivered which resulted in floors and the bathroom getting 'steamed' by Simon!

So late this afternoon we received the news that our government's 'roadmap out of lockdown' will proceed as planned seeing the next lot of restrictions lifted on Monday 12th April. This will mean that non-essential retail and personal services can re-open and pubs and restaurants can open for outdoor dining only. This is great news even if all the now usual 'covid secure' measures will still have to be in place; the wearing of masks, hand sanitising and keeping socially distant. Both Simon and I have hair appointments booked in, although I will still have to wait until mid-May for mine to come around.

And here in lies the dilema as we start to get our lives back; we are still going to have to live with some restrictions for some time to come. Will a trip to the shops be as fun if numbers in side shops are limited, if masks are needed everywhere you go and you can only grab that coffee and cake if there's somewhere to sit outside to eat them (and this obviously assumes that the British weather is going to be kind all the time!!).

We are now free to go on holiday in England...in a self contained unit...with members of your own household. So, basically that's like being at home, like it has been for the past year but just re-located to somewhere else...mmm...perhaps going away with those we have not been able to escape from over the last 12 months is not what we are all really longing to do!!

And now we are being told we can all get tested twice a week for free and that we can get the tests sent to us in the post. So easy, so convenient...but why? If you have no symptoms why would you want, sorry need, to take a test? Surely the more tests that are carried out the more 'cases' will be found because all tests, no matter which sort, have a false positive rate. If millions of people suddenly start testing themselves twice a week the 'case' numbers will appear, but with no follow-up diagnostic analysis how do we know if these 'cases' are actual cases or simply a statistical anomaly.

And then don't get me started on 'vaccine passports' or what was it being referred to as today?...'Covid Certification'...why does this feel like the start of a slippery slope towards 'ID papers', towards big companies knowing more and more information about us and having more and more control over what we do, when, with whom and how. Last time I checked we lived in a democratic society where my private medical information was just that...private to me. Why should those who have not yet been vaccinated or choose not to be vaccinated suddenly find their lives impeded? Why are we being made to feel like we are at fault if we choose not to, or are unable to, take up the vaccine? 

We are dealing with a respiratory virus that has a death rate of well below 1% and that affects the very elderly and those with existing comorbidities in the overwhelming vast majority of cases. Yet the whole world is now petrified of getting something that most of us will be able to get over and may not even know we have had. The whole world is shaming any of us that dare stray from the scare mongering and fear narrative that we are being fed by the media each and every day. There are scientists out there trying to present an alternative view that are simply not being given any opportunity to do so. And the whole world seems ready to give up their lives as they once knew them, along with their freedoms, their liberties and just accept the one message being pumped into our homes every day.

Covid is real, it is out there and we need to accept that and learn to live with it but we can't let it rule our lives and stop us from doing the things that we love. I, for one, would like a holiday abroad, would like to see a band in concert, attend a burlesque evening and more importantly see my friends and give them a hug. Are we going to let one mind set stop us from living the only life we have? 

Open up the discussion, let's hear all view points and prove that this is not an opportunity for those with power and money and data to get even more control over us.

Take care.
xx

Day 129

Day 129...

And welcome to the weekend...and a nice slow start to the day.

Ordinarily we would have been taking Molly to her guitar lesson but we received a text last night to say that her teacher knows someone who had just tested positive for COVID, and although he had not been in close contact, he felt it only wise to not teach in person today. So that meant no need to rush around and get out the house for a set time and Molly could still have her lesson but from the comfort of home via a video tutorial.

We decided that as the weather wasn't looking too bad we would head out into the garden to continue with a bit of garden tidying. But just as we stepped out the door the rain started...but we carried on as we weren't going to let a few spots stop us, however the downpour that then ensued did put a stop to proceedings and we quickly had to dash inside.

Thankfully after about 10 minutes the rain cleared and we ventured outside once again and this time we were able to hack away at a very large and overgrown hydrangea plant. It has been in the garden for years and has gotten too big, too woody and in desperate need of some TLC. But when we started to chop into it we realised just what a bad state it was in and decided to get as much of the plant out as we could. In about an hour and a half we had reduced it to just a stump. We still need to finish off chopping it all up so that we can get rid of it through our garden recycling bin and to figure out a way to either get the stump out or to kill it off!

But we had to stop there for the day as we had an appointment at a local car dealership to see whether it is financially viable to swap from being a two car family down to just a one car household. We are in a tricky situation as last year we upgraded both our cars and at the time our circumstances meant that having two cars was a necessity. But now 12 months later not only has our personal circumstances changed but the knock-on effect of COVID means that our travelling needs have dropped significantly. 

Simon already worked from home before the lockdown kicked in (has done for about 7 years) and would normally have driven to their office once every few weeks or so, but as their office is about 3 and a half hours away that's a fair few miles to travel. But since lockdown this hasn't happened and actually his team have found that work has carried on just fine, if not even more productive now that all of them are working from their respective homes. Everyone is working in the exact same circumstances and their output and communication have improved all round! So with the prospect of Simon travelling even less, me working only a couple of miles away and my working week reducing even further it just seems the obvious course of action to reduce down to one car.

I hate going to car dealerships. It is always such a performance, in fact Simon calls it a pantomime, the back and forth negotiating that takes place and the time it takes to do it. An hour and a half we were there today to be told that we have negative equity with our finance agreements and if we did want to buy a new car we would need to find £130 extra per month over what we ideally want to pay. Suffice to say we walked away saying 'we would think about it'. Long story short the dealership we have dealt with over the past few years are no longer there and the business has been transferred to another dealer down the road and their approach is different. I'm not convinced they are giving us the best deal so I am now doing my own online digging to see if I can find an alternative and better solution. 

As Simon said this afternoon, sitting in a car dealership going through some long winded process feels so old fashioned nowadays and really needs to be moved along with the times. We need a much easier, fairer and quicker way of going through this process...I'm sure there's a gap in the market that someone could be filling!

Once home it was time for coffee...much needed coffee. And then the plan was to venture back out into the garden to finish this morning's work of chopping up what was left of the hydrangea plant we had destroyed. But this was not to be as the rain returned, and rather heavy it was too so instead the afternoon was spent with a little jigsaw time for me and for Simon it was figuring out why the Arduino that had worked perfectly last night generating sound effects for his R2D2 build had suddenly stopped working.

Well after much tinkering Simon has an idea of what has gone wrong and new parts have been ordered, which by the power of Amazon prime will be with us tomorrow. I made some more progress with the jigsaw and I now have the help of a magnifying glass so that I can pick out the detail on the box artwork!

We have not ventured out much during the lockdown at all and we have no desire to rush back to doing anything in particular. So being out today was the first time we had been out anywhere specific and whilst all the staff at the car dealership did not wear masks they did all keep their distance. There were perspex shield at their desks and hand sanitiser on entering the building. They had anti-bacterial spray to use on any cars that were being looked at or taken out for a test drive. And the great thing was to see that all the members of the public that were in there all had masks on (us included), although we did spot one lady with the covering under her nose!!

Stories seem to vary from area to area, or shop to shop, as to the public's adherence to wearing a mask. And while it is not the most glamorous of fashion accessories (although mine are all Disney themed) it is not hard to do and if it means we can all get back to something vaguely like normal then it is a small price to pay. People need to stop being selfish, think of the bigger picture and wear a damn mask!

Take care out there, stay safe, look after yourself and everyone else by wearing a mask,

xx

Day 121

Day 121...

Today was the last day of the working week and the last day of the academic year for my pre-school.

Well the day started early with a message from one of my staff to let me know that a member of her household had been sent home from work with a cough and had been advised to get a COVID test and self isolate until the results were known. So unfortunately my staff member had to remain at home and follow the guidance to isolate until she knows what the results are.

This meant we were one man down for the last day but thankfully this wasn't really a problem as we were having a very relaxed last day anyway. It was all about having fun with the children one last time before we sent the majority off to 'big school'. I managed to get a little admin work done first thing but then the rest of the day was spent with the children. My team had bought me some lovely flowers and my favourite 90% dark chocolate...not needed but very appreciated.

We have had a very strange year at pre-school and could not have imagined this time last year what we would have gone through a year later. Last October, and completely out of the blue, we were asked to vacate our old building and it really hit us hard. We were very well established in our old building, we had been there for about 17 years and had put an awful lot of time, effort and money into making it a fabulous space. We had new carpet, a recently laid artificial grass area, a pirate ship, playhouse, sensory garden and so much more and we had to give it all up; it was awful for all of us involved.

Thankfully the local Scouting & Guide association came to the rescue and offered us the use of their building. So the time between early December and late February was spent organising the move, applying for planning permission, re-registering with Ofsted (our governing body), selling lots of resources we could not take with us and modifying the equipment that we could take with us. And then a little over four weeks after having moved in we found ourselves having to close our doors for what we thought would be a few weeks due to this 'virus thing' and which turned into almost 13! Being based in a community building we could not have even opened our doors should we have wanted, or needed to, because community buildings were banned from being used under the lockdown regulations.

And then with great trepidation and a lot of 'risk assessing' we were able to re-open our doors again on the 15th June even though we were limited to how many children we could welcome back. But the great thing this week was that we were able to see the majority of those children moving onto 'big school' by hosting mini events where we invited small numbers to attend at set times, outdoors and keeping to all social distancing requirements...but it was very difficult not to give them all one last hug as we would have done normally. Hopefully our next school year will be a little more like 'normal'!!

Once home it was shower and change before grabbing a coffee and then hooking up with my good friend Michelle to record our Disney Dream Girls podcast, which was, as ever, a fun and lovely way to end the week.

So for me school is out for summer so it seemed fitting to enjoy a glass of red wine in a glass I received as a gift from one of the children leaving us this year...

And as we embark on our summer break our government have announced further relaxations of the lockdown over the coming weeks but still scientists are disagreeing with the approach and suggesting that this could all be happening too soon, too quickly. I just hope that the general public are perhaps more cautious than the powers that be or otherwise we will be keeping an eye out for a rise in cases in the next few weeks. Can't help think that a slow and steady approach would buy us a little more time to get numbers down even lower and that may mean we are in a better position should the autumn/winter second wave hit as predicted.

I for one will be adopting the slow and steady approach, so whatever you decide to do just take care, stay safe and wear a mask.

xx