Day 892 & Day 893

Day 892...Sunday

We had a lovely evening out at our friends anniversary party yesterday...

We don't scrub up too bad!

...and it was great to be able to catch up with people we hadn't seen for way too long!

So, after a slow start to the day we set off on a shortish early morning walk of just 1.8 miles in 36 minutes and stopping to pick blackberries along the way.

We then decided that today would be all about catching up with a few things on our joint 'to do list'. First it was a trip to Lidl simply because we were running out of too many things and I couldn't put it off any longer.

After lunch we got our tattoo ideas finalised into one document that I could then send over to my tattooist. When we see him in a couple of weeks I have two tattoos that I would like doing and Simon also has one planned, so we just needed to commit to what we both wanted. Over the course of the day we have had the 3D printer working hard printing more sections of the model that we are working on which has meant some more clean up of finished prints along with a little 3D modelling work for Simon.

Mid-afternoon we decided to escape the four walls and go out for coffee; a chance to chat and re-connect without distractions.

Back home and I was able to complete my latest jigsaw...

...and Simon was able to make a start on his next piece of digital art.

That was pretty much it for Sunday; a quiet and chilled out sort of day.

Day 893...Monday

Today was a bank holiday which meant that Ethan had the day off from work along with Simon's usual Monday off.

We decided that we would get up and head into Nottingham for a wander and a poke around the shops. So rather than our morning walk over the fields we instead had an urban stroll which ultimately led us to Caffe Nero for coffee. We did cut our walk a little short as it tried to rain at one point and we had no umbrellas or jackets with us, this just meant we got to have coffee sooner.

Around lunchtime we had our first meal of the day which was burgers from Five Guys; as I've previously talked about Five Guys is a great choice for anyone following a keto or low carb lifestyle as you are able to order the burgers without buns. Double bacon cheeseburger with green peppers and mushrooms for me!

Although we had popped into a few shops we came back empty handed as there was nothing that really caught our eyes. But it was simply just nice to be out and about and taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

The remainder of the day saw Simon add the two pieces of R2D2 that he's been working on over the last few weeks. A couple of arms that were missing from behind a couple of the panel doors. They were a little tricky to put into place so I was needed to assist and hold things! I was also able to clean up some more 3D prints...I think I'm getting quite adept at it now! And our new printer is proving to be very reliable and is generating solid prints each time, a definite worth while investment in replacement of the old printer which was slower, smaller and would often run into hiccups!

And to finish off the day we headed down the gym for our first workout of the week. I'm trying to be mindful of my left shoulder and avoid any moves which seem to aggravate it, not sure what I've done to it but I think it just needs some rest before I try and do too much with it. Time will tell!

See you all tomorrow all being well.

xx

 

Day 805

Day 805...

And we have a Thursday...a Thursday...that's a bank holiday...hence the need to keep reminding myself that today was Thursday!

It's the start of the Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations hence the bank holiday on a Thursday and another one tomorrow. Although the jubilee won't really affect us as we will simply enjoy the days and do whatever we feel like doing.

And this morning that involved starting the day with a walk in the sunshine. We did the same walk as yesterday morning heading out over the fields on a hilly 1.9 mile walk in 38 minutes. Loving this way to start the day and delaying breakfast until lunchtime is suiting both Simon and I.

Our day has been a very chilled out sort of day; we nipped out for a spot of grocery shopping, we took the car 'for a coffee'...well we had the coffee after Simon had made use of the jet wash at the garage adjacent to the Starbucks, we hoovered and cleaned the interior of the car once we were home and the garage also had a clean. As the garage doubles as our gym we do try and keep it as clean as possible so that it makes for a nicer workout environment.

Towards the end of the afternoon Simon jumped on the exercise bike while I completed my set of planks for the day along with a few more floor exercises. I am trying to get back into the routine of completing planks, sit-ups, push-ups etc most days. These are the exercises that I used to do when I first went low carb and I am hoping to get back into making them part of my daily routine as much as possible.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 775

Day 775...

Well today has been a bank holiday Monday and for some reason it has felt more like a Sunday!

I think because Simon and I don't work Mondays ordinarily we just take a Monday as it comes but because Ethan was around today as he was off work I think it threw us off our routine!

But after a very slow and steady start to the day and despite the grey, and at times rather ominous looking, clouds we decided to set about a walk in the countryside. It was a little chillier than I would have liked and we set off armed with umbrellas just in case the weather turned on us. But off we went and 2.3 miles later in a time of 49 minutes we arrived at our destination of choice a local cafe called The Cowshed. We refreshed ourselves with a coffee before meandering back home in a slightly faster time of 48 minutes!

By then it was mid-afternoon and we had a few odd jobs to do around the house. There was a little touch-up of paintwork needed where we'd installed two new wall lights a couple of days ago. I then decided that I'd better get the ironing done as my plans for this coming week have gone a little sideways and I realised that the time that I thought I would have had during the week I no longer had - if that makes sense?! Suffice to say I should have been working from home this coming week but due to unfortunate circumstances I will now be in work.

We got a message from Molly to let us know that one of their neighbours had passed away. Dan had been quite close to him as he would often help Dan out around the house and had kind of taken Dan under his wing. Such a shame and so sad to hear that he'd lost his battle with cancer. Not sure what's happening at the moment as we seem to have experienced too many deaths around us in a very short space of time.

The day was rounded out with a little online retail shopping as I have a number of birthdays coming up this month...I have a few very good friends as well as both Simon and Molly's birthdays to sort!

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 761

Day 761...

The last day of the Easter weekend today as we have had a bank holiday Monday, and it has been a very quiet and chilled out sort of day.

We had no plans for the day and so it was nice just to get up when we felt like it and take a very steady approach to the day.

One small job this morning was to take the wall clock that Molly and Ethan had bought me for Mother's Day and change its colour. It's a Mickey Mouse clock and the outside is shaped like Mickey ears but when we looked at it in daylight what we thought were black ears were actually a dark navy colour. But that wasn't a problem for Simon, a little sanding of the surface yesterday meant that they were ready for some new paint today and of course we just happen to have black spray paint to hand! A couple of coats later and they are looking fantastic. We are leaving them over night before applying a coat of matt varnish to them tomorrow.

Early afternoon we decided to make the most of the dry, and slightly warm, day to go out for a walk. We took one of our longer strolls managing just over 5 miles in a steady one hour and forty minutes.

Back home and we had a little online birthday shopping to complete as Molly will be turning 21 in a few weeks time and we wanted to make sure we could get what we wanted and get it on time. Simon then spent the remainder of the day completing his latest piece of digital art while I made a start on my next jigsaw.

All in all a very relaxed day to round out the extended weekend.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 657

Day 657...

Today marks the end of our Christmas break...sort of. Both Simon and Ethan are back to work tomorrow while I still have a couple of days to go, so there is that feeling of day-to-day life returning.

Molly messaged me this morning with a photo to show that they had taken down their Christmas decorations today. Because I will be at home the next couple of days while the men of the house are working I've decided that I will start to take ours down then. I have three trees, multiple ornaments and outdoor lights to sort so I will approach them all in a steady fashion. I love all my Christmas decorations and always hate taking them down as everywhere feels so empty...Simon on the other hand tolerates the clutter that Christmas brings and always looks forward to 'getting the house back'!

We had a very slow start to the day, so much so that breakfast was more like brunch! Early afternoon we headed out for a coffee; a chance to just have a little time for Simon and I and chance for Simon to drive the car. He is loving it, in fact I've never known him enjoy a car so much before!

We arrived home just at the right moment as we had an Amazon delivery arrive and the lady delivering was looking rather confused and was struggling to find our house and that of a neighbour and so we were able to come to her rescue just at the right moment. Our delivery now means that we have a set of dip bars to add to our gym. Simon had tried the set that Dan has and was surprised at how neatly they stored away and had quickly found a pair online. Once inside the house the bars were assembled and of course had to be tried out. I can't see me using them but never, say never!

This afternoon Simon jumped on the exercise back for a 45 minute workout and while he 'cycled' I moved some jigsaw pieces around. As you can tell my idea of exercise and Simon's are quite different, but I think once I am back into our normal routine I really need to get focused with using the bike and alternating that with gym sessions.

And that kind of rounded out our day, very chilled and laid back and no doubt will see a few more episodes of Queer Eye and Canada's Drag Race watched this evening with the obligatory glass of red to hand and some dark chocolate.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 650

Day 650...

Today has been another quiet day, a bank holiday here in the UK, as the Monday after a Christmas weekend rolls around.

As we had nothing planned for today it was a very slow and steady start. And after a few days of 'celebrating' it was a chance this morning to catch up on some mundane tasks; laundry and cleaning around.

Over the course of the day we have been catching up with some of our home movie video capture from a while ago. Simon has been taking all of our old home video footage and converting it into digital form so that we have a permanent copy; a copy that will not degrade and is easier to access.

Each time Simon captures the footage we have to watch it back to ensure that the capture has worked correctly and that there are no issues with the sound or playback. Today we have been watching footage from 1997, the year of my first pregnancy!!

While the video played I have been able to get a little more jigsaw completed - it's slow going but it's beginning to take shape now. Simon took time out to have a gym workout session; he is much more motivated than I am! I'm finding myself in a bit of a low ebb at the moment and the desire to do 'anything' is pretty much non-existent.

I've also been doing a little research into electric car charging points as we have a couple of lengthy car journeys coming up and we will need to re-charge the car en-route. There are multiple charging companies out there with chargers of different capacities and they all seem to have different mechanisms of paying. Some need an app while others are just card payment...it's all a little confusing and I think may take a bit more investigating to get my head around all the different options. Thankfully we will be travelling on main motorways so finding a charging point shouldn't (in theory) be a problem. 

And there we have today, a very quite day.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 530

Day 530...

Today has been a bank holiday Monday and that means that everyone in this house has had the day off work. For Simon and I that is no different to normal as we do not work Mondays anyway!

But as the rest of the house...well Ethan that is as Molly is away at her fella's house this week...had no work today we took the opportunity to have a well needed 'lie-in' and took our time getting up and about. So much so that breakfast was more like brunch!

We then approached the rest of the day in a very relaxed and laid back manner. We enjoyed a couple of coffees while we 'read the papers' or otherwise known as perusing social medias and the like on our phones before heading out for a walk around our local area.

Today has been a dry day but a grey day which actually was pretty good for talking a walk out. We managed a 3.6 mile circle in around an hour and 18 minutes. We stopped by our local alpaca farm and saw the new baby alpaca's along with three new goats. We chatted with a few other walkers and gave directions to the aforementioned alpacas. We stopped and watched the local farmer as he bailed the recently cut crops; such an effective, yet simple, piece of machinery that was quite mesmerising to watch.

Back home and the sun began to shine so we took the time to sit outside and enjoy the garden along with a couple of cups of coffee. I also decided to cut back a couple of plants that were starting to overgrow the pathway as I knew we had some space in our garden rubbish bin that is due for collection tomorrow.

As the weather temperature started to get a little chilly we headed inside and that's when I remembered I'd got a little online shopping to complete as not only had I seen something in a sale that I liked but I'd also got a code for a discount. Well, I bought a blouse, a skirt and a top and took advantage of each item being in the 'sale' and free delivery and an extra 20% discount - win! 

At that point I thought I'd better step away from the laptop and cook some dinner instead; keto chicken parmesan!

And now it's time to drink some wine, maybe some dark chocolate and relax for the evening.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Bank Holiday Shenanigans

Day 439...

Today was bank holiday Monday here in the UK but for Simon and I it was like any other Monday as neither of us work a Monday ordinarily.

So the day started as usual with the collection of our weekly grocery shop. Once everything was put away Simon had a helmet order to finish off and I decided to venture out into the garden to tidy up a few of our plants that were getting a little 'wild'!

With a refuse bin full of branches and Simon's helmet build all completed it was time for a spot of lunch before taking Molly out for another drive around. She is doing so well; getting more used to the car, understanding how to approach junctions and obstacles and hopefully she is gaining in her own confidence. Our little drive about ended up with a quick visit to my dad which meant that Molly had to reverse the car for the first time when we came to go home; which she did brilliantly.

Back home we had some more re-organising to do. There were some items in the loft that needed to be brought down and then other items that needed storing in our garage. So we keep moving things about in the hope that eventually we will reach a point where everything is tidy and organised.

Simon also gave me a quick tutorial of using an app called Photomyne. Simon used this a few months ago to scan all the photographs that we had inherited from his parents so that we now have digital photographs rather than the physical ones that take up so much space in albums. We have now decided to do the same with ours and I'm hoping to have the time this week to make a big dent in the albums that we have collated over the 35 years that we have been together!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Wet Bank Holiday Monday

Day 411...

So today turned out to be your stereotypical bank holiday Monday - wet!

But that didn't stop us at all and we had another very productive day. Once we had collected the weekly grocery shop we decided to take up a little more carpet...we are basically left with a square of carpet in each room that will be having new flooring this week, just enough for us to live with for the next couple of days. It did mean another trip to our local recycling centre to get rid of another car full of carpet!

Then after lunch we decided to give the living room a little touch up of paint. When we realised that the paint we had was the right colour but a different finish we decided that rather than just 'touch up' we would re-do the whole room. Now it's a pretty decent size room so it took us all afternoon but we were really pleased to get it all done and give the room a whole refresh ahead of the new wood floor being laid.

And that was really it for today - grocery shop, carpet, recycling centre and painting - while outside it decided to rain pretty much all of the day. Fair to say I think we made the best of the day!

Take care.
xx

 

It's the Weekend!

Day 408...

And we have reached the last day of the working week and for me it was a full day in work...I know...shocker!

The day started with a little drama as one of our staff had had their car broken into overnight. Thankfully there was no damage and apart from the inconvenience of a few phone calls and being late into work there was no real upset.

My work day was another pretty standard day of admin, emails and banking. As it's the end of the week we always look forward to what we have planned for the upcoming week so that we can make sure we have the right equipment and resources for whatever activities we have planned. My job is then to compose an email to parents to let them know what we will be doing for the week, I then use this information to create posts on our Facebook page, our website and the online learning journals for all our children. 

And with thanks to the husband of one of my staff we managed to get fixed a piece of our furniture that had been broken a couple of days earlier. All our furniture has to be on wheels as we need to move it in and out of our building each day into an outdoor storage container and a couple of days ago one set of wheels had broken away. Thankfully a few drill holes later and some new screws and all was fixed and working again.

On my way home I decided to nip into a local supermarket to pick up a few bits and pieces for the weekend...and I remembered why I normally avoid a Friday afternoon! Not only was the store busier than I would prefer...I like to be in and out...but there was also more traffic than normal. Oh well I will remember to avoid a late Friday afternoon in future.

With shopping unpacked and a coffee poured I jumped online to do a little more birthday shopping as well as a little card shopping, and then Simon finished worked and made me our now traditional Friday night Martini...or I should say Vodkatini as it was tonight. The last few Fridays we have enjoyed a little tipple while watching The Falcon & The Winter Soldier but as last week was the last episode we had nothing to watch so it was enjoyed as an aperitif  as I prepped dinner and Simon did a little more digital artwork.

And there we have a Friday and we are ready for the weekend...and it is an extra long weekend as not only do we have a bank holiday on Monday but I also have an inset day at pre-school on Tuesday and as we have already worked the hours it will be a day off in lieu.

Take care out there.
xx

Bank Holiday Monday

Day 285...

Another slow and steady sort of day on what is called here in the UK a 'bank holiday'; this is basically a day that is classified as a public holiday, and is marked by the fact that the banks are closed.

Many moons ago I used to work for one of our high street banks and always enjoyed the Christmas period. We used to work till about midday on Christmas Eve and it would often be worked in fancy dress. We would then be in the local pub by about 1pm which was always such a great time. And on years when Christmas fell over a weekend we would enjoy the bonus of 'bank holidays' by having a break from work of four days! Those were the days!

Now working in education I do benefit from having a couple of weeks off over the festive period, and as Simon's work tends to shut down for the same amount of time it is great to have time off together, and time off as a family.

So today has been fairly standard; a mix of online shopping, ironing, a few odd jobs and more R2D2 building for Simon. But I did decide to gather up all of my Christmas presents and find a home for them all to live so thought I would share some of them here with you.

My good friend and podcast co-host, Michelle, knows me so well...I have a big soft spot for the attraction Mr Toads Wild Ride that used to be at Walt Disney World and can now only be found at Disneyland, so this mug is just right...

And then knowing my love of Disney jewellery she gave me this necklace which is gorgeous...

...and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without some chocolate...

Couple of my favourite chocolate bars!

There of course had to be a little Star Wars in this years presents with Molly getting me this Stormtrooper themed gift...

Stormtrooper Bottle Stopper

And Simon got me this Loungefly purse which is just soooo cute...

I also received a couple of Disney books; this first one is 'Disney Book of Maps; A Guide to the Magical Worlds of Disney and Pixar'...

...this is a beautifully illustrated book and covers 25 films from Peter Pan to Snow White to A Bugs Life to Coco and more. Each film has its own 'map' depicting the story as well as a synopsis and an overview of the key characters.

But the present that brought me to tears was this book; Birnbaum's Walt Disney World The Official Vacation Guide 2020'...

...so it may seem a little strange why a guide book for the year just ending would bring me to tears, so let me explain.

When Simon and I first visited Orlando, Florida back in 1991 we had little, if any, knowledge about Walt Disney World and the Orlando area and so being the organised people we are (and before the days of the internet!) we bought ourselves some guide books one of which was the Birnbaum's guide to Walt Disney World.

Well suffice to say I read the book from cover to cover and my love and obsession with Disney World began. Each year we visited after that it became a tradition to buy the latest version, just in case anything had changed so that we would be as up to date as possible with new attractions, restaurants and hotels. Those were the days when travel research was by way of reading a physical book rather than sat staring at a screen. I now possess 17 Birnbaum guides including ones 'For Kids', Dining Guides and even a couple for Disneyland. Getting a Birnbaum guide book has now become a key part of our vacation.

For a multitude of personal reasons we have not been able to visit Disney World since 2013 but 2020 was going to be our year; all the things that had been stopping us in years gone by were no longer an issue and we were getting ready to book a trip and then 'you know what' happened. Simon knows how much I have missed my Disney fix and this gift meant the world to me acknowledging the sadness of not being able to go but embracing the hope that we will get there as soon as we possibly can.

Take care out there, and hopefully we can all get back to doing what we love as soon as possible.

xx