Day 788

Day 788...

A very quick and short post as it is late in the day.

But today was Simon's birthday and it was a very lovely day of presents, coffee, walks, talking, coffee and more  coffee.

I shall see you tomorrow.

xx

Day 786

Day 786...

So yesterday was a tad on the busy side which meant I simply ran out of time for writing and publishing a blog post.

So yesterday...after a full day at work I took a quick diversion home via Lidl to pick up a few bits I'd forgotten the day before. I wanted to pick up a cake for Molly for her birthday but unfortunately there was none to be found for the second day running. Once home I was then busy making keto bread and keto pizza as well as wrapping up some last minute pressies.

Then before I knew it Molly and Dan arrived home. The evening was then spent with lots of catching up to do, the giving of pressies for Mollys birthday the day before and plenty of food and cake to eat. Molly had made herself her own birthday cake, along with some keto chocolate cake, which is something she has always done for her birthday, and she had brought what was left with her!

And then we have today...

A reasonable, but relaxed, start to the day which saw Molly head off to her old kickboxing academy to take part in their Saturday morning class. A chance to catch up with all those she had trained with over the last few years. And while Molly worked out there Simon and Dan decided to grab thirty minutes down 'our gym'!

Then this afternoon we headed into Nottingham. Molly, Dan and Simon went ice skating while Ethan and I hit the shops and had a coffee! We then all came together and went to one of our favourite restaurants, Soulville Steakhouse.

Once home it was time for more birthday cake with a glass of Prosecco!!

Night all and I will see you tomorrow.

xx

 

Day 785

Day 785...

So today has been Molly's birthday and it is the first birthday she has not been at home for but not to worry she is coming home for the weekend tomorrow and as Simon's birthday is on Monday we will be having a bit of a celebratory weekend.

My day started with getting to grips with my new sports/smart watch thingy! Simon had bought himself one to track fitness, pulse, steps etc and I was feeling left out so when I arrived home yesterday he had surprised me with a lovely pink version.

So as I was not in work today I was able to arrange my day into an order that fitted best with what I wanted and needed to do. Once my new watch was working I headed off to Lidl for my weekly top-up shop as well as buying a few extra treats ready for the weekend.

Back home and it was time to get on with a little work. I am in the process of going through all the documentation that has been created over my time with pre-school and having a good clear out of now redundant items.

Lunchtime saw Simon and I take a walk over the fields completing 1.9 miles in 39 minutes. The afternoon saw me carrying on with more pre-school work as well as sorting through some more paperwork relating to my dads estate. 

Late afternoon I was at my dads house as we are having to have it valued so that the estate can be settled, and ultimately the house will be sold. I think that is going to be a very strange experience as it was the only house I ever knew growing up as we had lived there since it was built in the very early 1970's, and we moved in when I was about three years old.

The day was then rounded out with an AGM meeting of the pre-school committee. We needed to swear in a new committee which means that as I am stepping down from my paid role of manager I will be taking on the volunteer role of Chairperson!!

And that was Thursday and I will see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 647 - Christmas Eve 2021

Day 647...

Not only have we reached Christmas Eve but it is also Ethan's birthday!

Our day started rather early as Simon had an appointment at the barbers at 8.00am! 

But after he'd arrived home we had our traditional birthday breakfast of Mickey waffles - sausage, bacon, waffles, ice-cream and maple syrup! Although it was mainly the 'kids' of the family that indulged!

Molly's plate!!

We had a little Christmas miracle happen this morning as yesterday I'd received an email and a text to say that a parcel we were due to receive by today at the latest was delayed and wouldn't be with us till the 29th! This was rather annoying as the parcel contained Christmas presents! But this morning I had a text to day that the parcel would be delivered today...and by mid-morning it had arrived - phew!

Next on the agenda was a trip into Nottingham which has also become a custom on Ethan's birthday; a chance to have a wander around their Christmas market. Molly and Dan also wanted to head over to the ice stadium to get their ice skates sharpened. We all jumped in the car which was the first chance we'd had to show off the new electric car to the kids, and we think all were suitably impressed.

We walked over to the ice stadium only to discover that there was no-one working who could sharpen the skates for Molly and Dan. It was slightly annoying as there was nothing on their website to indicate that the service wasn't available. But we were still able to have a wander and a stop for coffee and cake!

Walking through the Christmas market

Indulging in coffee and food!

Once we were back home I decided to get the small pile of ironing out of the way before Simon and I spent a few minutes wrapping the presents that had arrived this morning.

I was also able to get some photos of a 'present' that had arrived for me yesterday. Last weekend I had been perusing the offerings on the Shop Disney website and had shown Simon a jacket that I really liked. Simon then insisted that I bought it...

...a varsity jacket that has been released to mark the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World in Florida, and more specifically the Magic Kingdom park as that was the only park open on 1st October 1971, and I love it!

As we get into the last few hours of today my thoughts begin to turn towards the big event tomorrow...and the cooking! I don't mind cooking but for some reason cooking a full roast meal for Christmas Day always feels quite daunting. I think it's probably due to wanting to make it just right; we are bombarded with images of the perfect Christmas Day celebrations and food is always such a central part of that and therefore for those of us tasked with the cooking we can feel the pressure.

I have to write out exactly what I'm cooking and work out all the timings; once I've done that I feel more confident that all will work out alright. In years gone by I have slaved over prepping vegetables, making stuffing, ensuring all the necessary sides and sauces are complete and had always made from scratch our Christmas pudding and cake. 

But nowadays, and because our diet has changed, I try to take a more laid back approach and recognise that there will be food on the table and that what will be, will be. I now buy our Christmas pudding for those that want to indulge and don't bother with a traditional Christmas cake although I do enjoy a little piece of Stollen as a treat.

And as a treat for the 'kids' this is the only time of the year that I buy potatoes so that they can have mashed potatoes!

But now I need to think about food for this evening and need to stop writing this and get cooking so that we can settle down in a little while to watch a suitably Christmassy movie.

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 631 - Birthday!

Day 631...

It's my birthday!!

And whilst it may not strictly be a 'lockdown' birthday it is my second birthday during this pandemic that does not feel as it is ought to feel!

My day was spent with a morning in work and an afternoon at home. Work was my usual Thursday management catch-up with my deputy manager as we discuss what we need to be doing to move us forever forward as a pre-school.

Arriving at home and there were more workmen on site laying the cabling for our electric car charging station and connecting the supply to our house. All that is left to be done now is to actually install the charging station...when that happens though is anyone's guess! But we are much closer now to getting it all sorted and our new car being delivered.

I left the opening of my birthday presents till late in the day as there wasn't time first thing this morning and I think it's fair to say that family and friends know me pretty well...Disney...dark chocolate...jigsaw and a bottle of red wine!

Treats from the girls at work

From the girls at work

From my podcast co-host Michelle

And with that I will sign off for today to put my feet up with the aforementioned chocolate and red wine.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Another Birthday...in lockdown

Day 424...

So we have another 'lockdown birthday' and today it was Simon's turn and for him this is lockdown birthday number two!

So while we are easing out of lockdown there are still enough restrictions in place to mean that life is not back to normal by a long way yet. We are only allowed to dine outside and as the weather this May has chosen to be rather wet and chilly that isn't an enjoyable option at the moment. But, from tomorrow, indoor hospitality is able to open up...providing masks are worn when not seated and that you 'check-in' for track and trace. And I would guess because of the 'guidelines' in place that most venues will be unable to operate at full capacity; such a worrying time for anyone working in the hospitality sector.

Interestingly over in the US face coverings and social distancing are slowly being eased with anyone who has been fully vaccinated no longer having to wear a mask, anywhere. Even in Walt Disney World they have removed the need to wear masks outdoors which is great news and will make wandering around in the Florida heat a much more pleasant experience.

But back here we have had a very chilled and slow day while we watched the blue skies turn dark and rain fall and then back to blue and then repeat all over again. There was the customary giving of presents followed by coffee and looking through one of Simon's gifts; The Art of Galaxy's Edge which is a fascinating book with some amazing concept art.

Before Molly headed off to spend the next week at her boyfriend's house she made Simon a birthday cake...a low carb, rich, dark chocolate cake; basically eggs, butter and chocolate. This is one of our favourite low carb treats and goes great with a few berries and some cream.

So Molly headed off and then we realised that she'd left her birthday cake here rather than take it with her. So a quick message and we managed to catch them before they joined the motorway so they did a quick about turn to head back to collect it!

We have had a sort through of some of our books today as part of our reorganisation following the new flooring going down last week. I managed to throw out some old cookery books that I haven't used in years which meant I could reorganise my book case and make space for some of my many Disney books. This means that they are now closer to hand and hopefully this will encourage me to read more of them, more often.

Next we had a couple of errands to run; a parcel to drop at the post office and then a quick stop by the house we lease out to complete the repair we had started yesterday. Thanks to the power of Amazon we had been able to order the part we needed yesterday and it arrived today.

The rest of the day has been quiet with Simon spending a little time doing some more digital artwork, a very chilled out birthday. And now with a drink in hand it's time to watch this week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under along with a piece of Simon's birthday cake.

Take care.
xx

Day 423

Day 423...

Saturday is here and this post is being written rather late in the day.

This morning we had a small DIY job to sort at the house we lease out and although we couldn't sort the problem straight away we have the necessary parts on order. 

Back home we started on trying to figure out some new storage for the living room and Simon's work space. Lots of measuring ensued with the Ikea website at hand! A shopping list has now been made and we will be heading to Ikea next week...there is no way I'm braving Ikea on a weekend!

Molly had a few of her girlfriends over this afternoon to celebrate her birthday and I helped with the cooking element of the festivities.

Later we made keto pizza and settled down to watch a movie...Rocketman! Wow what a fabulous film and performances, can't recommend it enough. Then it was time for birthday cake and to revisit a film that we hadn't seen in a very long time..To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

Take care.

xx

Birthday Celebrations

Day 420...

We have reached the middle of the week and today it has been Molly's birthday and she is no longer a teenager - eek! Yet again Molly has another birthday in 'lockdown' and while this year the lockdown is easing it is still not a proper birthday for her. She is having some friends around at the weekend but they will be outside in the garden as unfortunately the next installment of easing restrictions does not happen until Monday!! So frustrating!!

We had the customary opening of presents and cards this morning before the working day began. I have had a full day in actual work and have been kept busy once again.

Lots of admin, banking, phone calls, emails and a newsletter to issue. Then myself and my deputy got together as we are working our way through a couple of pieces of legislation to make sure that as a pre-school we are doing everything we need to be doing in the best way possible. As an educational establishment we have a curriculum to follow, which will be changing in September, and we are also inspected by our governing body, Ofsted. So as the management team it is our responsibility to review all of our practices on a regular basis to ensure that all that we do is meeting all of the requirements. We also review to ensure that we are as efficient as we can be and that the level of education that we offer is second to none; we are very passionate about ensuring that children attending our pre-school start their education journey in the best way possible.

Not long after I'd arrived home me and Molly had to nip out in search of a parcel that had supposedly been delivered today. On inspecting the tracking information it looks like the parcel has been delivered to the same street name as ours but in the wrong village...this is something that has happened before so we decided to investigate. Unfortunately no-one was home when we called but with a little investigation work I have worked out that the person who lives there is actually related to a friend of mines husband (small world or what!). So I am now in the process of enlisting my friends help to ascertain if the parcel has in fact been delivered there in error!

Home again and I had a couple of work emails to deal with, a little research for pre-school and some time looking for some specific photos ahead of another birthday tomorrow!! And then as it's Molly's birthday we decided to celebrate with an Indian take-away for dinner, so no cooking for me tonight! Oh and of course birthday cake that Molly made herself!

And today means it is now just one more sleep until I get my hair cut and coloured...it's been a long wait since the 21st December and I am so looking forward to a complete refresh.

Take care,
xx

Day 311...A Saturday...

Day 311...

Saturday has rolled around again and as to be expected it has been another quiet day.

We did make more of an effort to be up and about at a half decent time this morning and once breakfast was out the way we put on our wellies and headed out for a walk.

It was a very chilly morning and we had a fair few snow flurries while we were out walking. We headed in the direction of the next village and my brother's house. It was his wife's birthday today so we decided to stop by with a card and pressie and say 'hello'.

We enjoyed a suitably distanced chat on the doorstep putting the world to rights before heading back home via one of the local cafe's to pick up a coffee to sustain us on our walk home. It almost felt like we were doing something akin to 'normal'!

The afternoon was spent with Simon working on a logo design that he has been commissioned to do from one of his clients in the US and I decided to make the most of the daylight and get my latest jigsaw completed...

...Disney and Christmas what's not to like about that. I do love doing these bright and cheerful Disney ones and being able to find matching pieces so easily because I know the characters so well. I have another Christmas and Disney jigsaw that I might just start next!

Before I knew it the light had faded and the evening was upon us. Another uneventful day in the midst of all this crazy. 

Take care out there.

xx

Busy Saturday

Day 199...

We had a steady, but purposeful, start to the day today. We had a few 'tasks' to get completed that time to do them during the week seemed to have eluded us.

There were phone calls to make, more online selling queries, selling pictures to post and Simon had some 3D printing to 'get going' as he makes more modifications to his mouse droid project.

The great news was that Molly's boyfriend arrived mid-morning! Phew! Smiles all around and birthday weekend celebrations for him could now go ahead unhindered.

Molly had her usual Saturday morning guitar lesson for which this week she had her own personal taxi service in the shape of her fella. 

We then braved the very wet weather to nip out and get some keys cut for our 'other house' that we are now renting out. As it was going to take a little while to get them cut we headed for a coffee...which meant queuing outside in the rain and seemed to take an inordinate amount of time, especially when you consider we only drink black coffee!

We arrived back home with keys and coffee at the same time as Molly returned home from her guitar lesson. A quick stop for lunch and then it was on with the afternoon. Molly had booked tickets for her and Dan to go ice skating; her fella is a very good skater and this has helped Molly rekindle her skating efforts and since meeting Dan her skating has improved immensely. This was the first time either of them had been able to ice skate since lockdown was introduced. Luckily for us we live close to a very good ice centre who had been able to re-open a few weeks ago, by all accounts they had a great time and Molly only fell over the once!

Simon decided to email the tenants who have just moved into our 'other house' to introduce ourselves and ask about any pieces of furniture that they wanted removing. Then I started some prep work for making dinner this evening while Simon fixed a resource that I had brought home from pre-school...basically a large, wooden, counting frame that needed making more secure.

While we were doing that we had a phone call from our new tenants...wanting to let us know about the pieces of furniture they didn't need. The strange thing was he hadn't seen the email that Simon had sent him 20 minutes earlier...spooky!

So the rest of our afternoon was spent travelling between home and our 'other house' (thankfully only a few miles away) to bring some of the smaller pieces of furniture back to ours. I think these will be appearing online for sale in the next day or so as it's proving to be a great way to move them on to somewhere else where they will be appreciated.

After about three trips back and forth our garage that we had cleared out yesterday is now very full again...better get on with that online selling malarkey!

Then our evening has been filled with party food, birthday cake, ice-cream and smiles. It has been lovely to see Molly and Dan getting to spend the time together they had been so looking forward to, that had at times this week seemed so far out of reach. A little ray of normality in this strange world we are living in at the moment.

Take care, enjoy the weekend safely...keep your distance, wash your hands and wear a mask.

xx

Day 59

Day 59...

And we had another lockdown birthday today, and this time it was Simon's.

So we have had a very relaxed day that started with presents and cards; I had done another piece of artwork in lieu of a card and made Simon a low carb birthday cake - a peanut butter & jelly cake. The sponge was made with peanut butter and sandwiched with homemade raspberry chia jam and fresh cream!

My birthday artwork - The Mandalorian & The Child (Baby Yoda)

Low carb peanut butter & jelly cake

Simon also managed to sell a helmet today so we were able to send that out in the post as well before having our afternoon walk. We took one of our longer routes today, just over 4 miles which we completed in about 1 hour 30 minutes and were surprised by the amount of people who were out and about. I guess as it's the weekend people must be looking for something to do and so going for a walk in the countryside must fit that bill. Most people were considerate and smiled or spoke but yet again we had a couple of instances where we moved over to one side of the path and walked single file and others just carried on and made no effort to show any consideration whatsoever - so annoying!

Even the cows in this field were socially distancing from each other

And while having a lovely day there is still this virus hanging over us and in particular the return of schools early next month. Listening to the government today I have never heard anything so patronising and quite frankly ridiculous. Of course teachers want children back at school, of course teachers want to see their children again and get those children back into school life BUT it MUST be safe for everyone - children, parents and all staff. 

Very young children cannot socially distance; they are naturally tactile beings who like to 'get into everything', to get mucky, to have a cuddle and who have little, if any, regard for hygiene so how the powers that be think that these very young children can adhere to the guidelines and experience school in a proper manner is beyond me. Going to school under these circumstances will not be like going to school normally and that maybe as traumatising for some as being at home. Teachers will not be teaching they will need to reintegrate these children and help them cope with a new way of schooling, one where they cannot sit with their best friend or even be in the same room as their friends, they may even end up with a different teacher. There are so many factors to take into account and I fear that those making these decisions have no real idea of what teaching young children is actually all about.

Just today it was announced that 2 schools in my local education authority have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in both schools having to close and staff and children having to self isolate. These schools were only open for key worker's children which will be a much smaller number than when schools open for the recommended year groups, and one of these schools is about 4 miles away from me. Prove to staff and parents that it is safe to open and we will do, but at the moment there seems to be a lack of scientific evidence that will put our minds at ease.

Take care out there,

xx

Day 55

Day 55...

And we have our first lockdown birthday today - Molly!!!

So as is tradition we had breakfast followed by the opening of presents and I have to say I think Molly did rather well this year...I blame online shopping.

And I can now reveal the little bit of artwork I was creating over the weekend, rather than buy a birthday card I decided to have a go at drawing some of Molly's favourite Disney characters and I don't think I did too bad!

And talking of creative endeavours look how Molly's cake turned out...

...layers of cappuccino cake and lemon & poppy seed cake sandwiched with vanilla buttercream and decorated with handmade chocolate swirls! All Molly's handy work!

It was lovely to see a couple of Molly's friends take the time, and make the effort to drop by with some gifts. Both friends visited independently of each other and both kept to the social distancing rules but it was nice to experience a little bit of normality in this crazy world.

My day had rather a heavy work focus as following our governments announcement on Sunday, and then updates yesterday, revealed that not only is the proposed return to school aimed at Reception, year 1 and year 6 children but also early years providers...just like my pre-school. So I read through numerous government documents this morning to try and glean some understanding of what is expected of our pre-school. I then composed emails to staff, my committee and our parents to let them in on what the proposals are and to try to gauge what the parent demand for places would be.

All the information that I have read is, to be honest, pretty vague, full of lots of ifs, maybes, potential and possible statements. This is all predicated on the easing of lockdown measures going well, so that schools should be able to 'welcome more students' from 'potentially, at the earliest, the 1st June'. So I am now having to figure a way forward and plan for possibly opening...at the earliest...on the 1st June while still adhering to social distancing (with under 5's!) and good hygiene. I will admit to my mind being a bit full of stuff and possible scenarios, but I am glad last week I took the time to put some of this down on paper so that I can now start to unpick and hopefully formulate a plan of some sort. I must admit I have been surprised by the number of parents wanting their children to return as I am not sure what I would be doing if I was in their position. We will be returning for possibly 6 or 7 weeks before the summer break...assuming that still happens...I guess at this point all bets are off as they say!

And we had our usual lunchtime walk, another 2 miles in the cold and wind, where has the good weather gone? Oh and chance for me to have a rant at cyclists who insist on cycling on the footpath when there is a clearly marked cycle path on the road which ends up with me and Simon having to walk on the road - argh! Oh and pedestrians who have to walk two abreast rather than single file even though Simon and I always walk single file and move as far away as possible from any other walkers!! Rant over!

Oh and to end the day we had cake...and it was good!

xx

A Disney Birthday

So since I last wrote I have had my birthday...and as I am a lady I will not be revealing my age but suffice to say I wasn't 21!!

And who would have guessed that my presents had a distinctly Disney vibe about them!!

From a copy of Monster's University on Blu-Ray to a Disney Traditions figurine to some jewellery and a book.

My Disney Traditions figure is of Mickey as Santa, so rather appropriate for the season.  He will sit nicely along side some other Disney Traditions figures that I have as well as some Department 56 models, and although a lot of them embrace the Christmas season I have them on display all year round.

My piece of jewellery is another piece of Disney Couture to add to my collection; it is an unusual necklace called Dr X Nuts & Bolts Mickey Mouse necklace that has an asymmetric clasp...just need an excuse to wear it now!

Tried to take a few shots of the necklace to pick up some of the detail in it.














My birthday also saw the start of a series of podcasts by the Disney Dream Girls entitled 'Minxmas'.  Co-host Michelle had the idea whilst still broadcasting as the Minnie Minxes; so as Michelle had already approached a number of podcasts to get involved, we decided to go ahead and launch our little countdown to Christmas Disney Dream Girls style.  So each day we will have other Disney and Orlando themed podcasts joining us to talk all about Christmas; their thoughts, ideas and memories.  Our first episode in this series sees myself and Michelle talking about what Christmas means to us with a little Disney twist :)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 11

11th December

So continuing the theme of reminiscing about time at Disney parks at Christmas, let me tell you about the couple of visits to Disneyland Paris during the holiday season.

Our first visit at Christmas was in early December 2000, we visited over a weekend spending 3 nights at Hotel Cheyenne.  We even managed a day visiting Paris with the highlights of the day being The Eiffel Tower and Picasso Museum.  The weather was cold, although the snow falling in the Disney Village was man-made!  There was a lovely Christmas market laid out through the Disney Village and I remember that everywhere seemed to smell of warm mulled wine, it was all very Christmassy, there was even an ice-rink outside the Hotel New York.

Main Street, USA - Disneyland Park, Paris - 2000

Ice Rink, Hotel New York - 2000

Our second visit was the weekend just before Christmas in 2002.  The main difference between these two visits was the crowds.  Now both visits were busy, as you would expect over weekends, but the second visit just before Christmas was unbelievably so.  On our last day I remember by 11.00am all the Fastpasses had been issued for Peter Pan's Flight and the standby queue was at nearly 3 hours!!

Main Street, USA - Disneyland Park, Paris - 2002

There were two great things about this visit, first we happened to visit at the exact same time as some very good friends of ours, totally unplanned but great fun to share the experience with them!  And the second was that it coincided with our son's birthday; when we arrived at our hotel there was even a present waiting for him and a special badge for him to wear.

Pull key-chain Donald, still working 10 years later!

Birthday Badge

We had also arranged to have a character meal, a buffet tea with a special birthday cake.  Our daughter who was just over one at the time didn't quite know what to make of all the characters, but I think the abundance of cakes and sweets made up for that :)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 8

8th December

As this is my birthday weekend I thought I would take the time to reminise about a trip to WDW that coincided with my birthday and specifically events that happened on my birthday.

(I shall be doing another post in this countdown all about taking a vacation to WDW at Christmas)

So in 2004, on my birthday, we decided to spend the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Dry!

We had a great day, doing all the major attractions and in particular my favourite Kali River Rapids...however it does mean that my lasting memory of my birthday that year is of spending the rest of the day walking around rather wet!!

Wet!

Wouldn't have changed it for the world :)