Day 125

Day 125...

Well today has been a quiet sort of day and although I am technically now on holiday for the summer there are still a few odds and ends to tidy up to round out this academic year.

So a chunk of the day was spent updating accounts and paperwork following a couple of changes that happened at the end of last week as well as getting ready for the end of the month as that also marks the end of our financial year.

One of my staff discovered that another pre-school local to us is having to close after operating for almost 50 years and unfortunately this is becoming quite a common occurrence in our industry. Lots of settings, like ourselves, are registered charities and have been part of their local communities for decades but the last few years have been tough enough with the lack of government funding for our sector but then along comes this virus and for some it has been the last straw. My pre-school has been around since the 1960's and was somewhere I attended as 3 or 4 year old, it survived a premises move 17 years ago not long after my son attended and just as Molly started, and then this past year we were faced with moving once again...we had only been in our new building for just shy of five weeks before we were forced to close because of the virus. 

But the pre-school that is closing has equipment that they no longer need and are putting up for sale. So, some of my team will be popping along on Friday to see if there is anything that we can make use of and won't cost us too much, but at the same time will help them to wind up their business. These are very sad times for our industry and in particular these small community based pre-schools that offer parents a much needed cheaper alternative childcare to the big day nurseries.

We had a walk out at lunch time today which was the first time in quite a few days as last week had been so busy that we'd really not had much opportunity but we got out there today and managed two miles in 42 minutes.

I made some more progress on my jigsaw later this afternoon...

slow progress but getting there

and then this evening it was 'gym' time before finally stopping for the day.

I am now starting to draft a list of jobs to do over the next few weeks to make best use of the time that I have off. Simon is still working but has two weeks holiday in a couple of weeks time and while we will not get the holiday that we would have perhaps liked this year at least we will have time off together and be able to get out and about a little.

Stay safe out there, wear a mask and take care.

xx