Day 659 - Last Day of Holidays

Day 659...

We have a Wednesday and my last day off before returning to work tomorrow. Simon had been due to start work yesterday which had been delayed due to our power outage but on checking his emails late on yesterday discovered that his team were down a couple for various reasons and so everyone had agreed to delay their return until Tuesday next week.

This meant a much more relaxed start to the day and once we had breakfast out the way we decided to indulge in this weeks 'Book of Boba Fett' episode. Another great episode as far as we were concerned and we are really enjoying the start to this series.

Next we popped out to our local Lidl to pick up a few bits and pieces plus I had a voucher for £20 that needed using (a promo from sorting my car insurance out the other week!). 

It was then time for the main task of the day - taking down all our outdoor Christmas decorations. This meant the removal of 3 lots of snowflake stake lights, 2 small trees, 1 set of Christmas tree shaped stake lights, one garland, one Mickey wreath, baubles from the trees, tinsel from my tiki statue, two lots of string lights, one snowman, one penguin and one Santa!! We also had the three indoor trees, one small indoor tree and three indoor garlands to pack away as well!

We moved a few things around in the shed and got out all the various storage boxes ready for packing away. First off we packed all the indoor decorations away as they were all disassembled and just needed putting in the correct storage boxes. Next we packed away my new Mickey wreath, two small trees and garland and the three sets of snowflake stake lights; these were all straight forward as they were all battery operated.

Next we tackled all of the 'plugged-in' lights. The blow moulds were easy to unplug and pack away along with the Christmas tree stake lights...

My view last night...

...and my view this afternoon!!

But then it was time for the string lights. I decided that if I could make sure they would stay on a static light effect that I wanted to keep them out and re-arrange them. A little playing around and we found that both sets would stay on static in between powering on and off. Next I wanted to take both sets down, untangle them and then re-position them. I decided that lights in the garden look so pretty and that 'flashing' lights mean Christmas while 'static' ones are simply pretty for anytime of the year.

We have been able to take one set the whole length of the garden and thanks to Simon we were able to fix them to the fences by way of a few screws. Now I can have lights in my garden all year round.

Glad to be back inside from the cold it was time for coffee and jigsaw and while I pushed pieces around the puzzle board Simon pushed pedals around on the exercise bike!

Well that was today and tomorrow I will be back at work, although it will be just a half day and a day working from home as I have the fun of the termly accounts to complete!!

Right I best refill that glass of wine and settle down for the last couple of episodes of the latest season of Queer Eye (and try not to cry!).

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 638

Day 638...

A Thursday once more and as I have worked a few extra hours already this week I was able to take the morning off work in lieu of those hours, which gave me a full day at home.

With a relaxed start to the day I started to potter about the house determined to get a few bits and pieces done. I'd got laundry that needed doing and so over the course of the morning I managed to get three loads completed. I then wanted to write a few Christmas cards and sort a parcel for posting and this is where things didn't go quite to plan...

I fetched the address book out of a cupboard ready for card writing and found an old notebook that I'd never used and so decided to throw it out...I then looked in the cupboard a little further and noticed a few other bits and bobs. This then resulted in that cupboard getting a good clearout, and clean, which had a knock on effect onto three other cupboards!

By the end of the morning I'd cleaned and re-organised four kitchen cupboards and had at least two black bin bags full of rubbish! Oops!

As lunchtime rolled around Simon and I decided to go out for one of our lunchtime walks; the first time since late November that we'd been home together on a weekday and the weather was suitable for walking out.

But when we were about three quarters of the way through our walk Simon's phone rang and it was my dad; his car had broken down and he needed our help! Once back home I left Simon at home and jumped in my car to see what I could do to help my dad.

Thankfully he had broken down just a few hundred yards from his house. His car had simply lost all power and the onboard systems were saying that the car had a 'low battery'. Now his car is a very snazzy, high end model and is only just over a year old so there is no way that the battery should be failing. I got on the phone to the recovery company and thankfully they were able to get to us in under an hour.

It turned out that my dad had had a similar problem yesterday while at home and he had phoned the same recovery company who had told him that his cover didn't cover any problems at home. But today when I spoke with the same company they told me that was wrong and that he actually does have the correct level of cover for issues happening at home!!

It transpired that there is a potential problem with the fuel sensor which is causing his car to shut down which meant that it needed transporting to the garage for repair. This in turn meant waiting for the tow truck to arrive. Thankfully, the recovery company really looked after us and recognising that my dad lived just a few doors away arranged for the tow truck to call at my dad's house to collect the car keys before towing the car which saved me and my dad from sitting waiting in a cold car.

This then meant I spent the rest of the afternoon at my dad's house waiting for the tow truck company to arrive.We had been told they would be with us by 4.50pm, and then we had a phone call to say it would be by 5.30pm! 

I took the time at my dad's to have a look through some of his Christmas decorations; in previous years he had always decorated the house but the last few years he hadn't bothered. It was always my mum, when she was alive, that was the driving force behind Christmas and she had always decorated the house extensively and it was a rare year when she didn't buy new decorations. It is through my mum that I have a love for all things Christmas and it is this time of year that I feel her presence and miss her a little more.

I managed to find a few boxes and discovered some of her Disney decorations which I have now brought home to add to my own collection;

Wind chime Mickey

There is a missing figure, which we think is probably a Mickey!

I already have these as both mum and I bought them at the same time on a trip to Disneyland Paris

Love that this has the price tag still on...$12!! Wow!

Dad has a number of bigger boxes up in a loft room that I haven't been able to go through yet...I'm not very good with ladders and I was only able to get about half way up to have a look. I'll have a look another day when I have Simon with me!!

We then had a phone call from the tow truck company to let us know that there was no way they would be able to collect my dad's car today and get it to the garage before the garage closed for the day. So instead they are going to collect the car tomorrow morning and take it straight to the garage then.

This all meant that my afternoon just disappeared and I wasn't able to get all the things done today that I wanted to get done. Simon has also had a busy day as he is busy working with his team to get to a point where they can stop for their Christmas break in the next day or so.

So while Simon worked a little later than normal I was able to jump online and sort all the postage for the parcel I need to post, along with the Christmas cards that I had written earlier in the day. 

And that was Thursday! See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 620

Day 620...

Another Sunday and a bit of an earlier start than usual. This was for two reasons; one we were due to have the ground-works completed today ahead of the electrics being installed for our electric car charging point and two we had more Christmas decorating to do!

As Molly and Dan were heading back down South today just after lunch we wanted to use the morning to complete all the remaining bits of Christmas decorating. Yesterday evening we had managed to complete the decorating of our Disney Christmas tree along with putting out a lot of various ornaments that I have collected over the years.

Disney themed Christmas tree

This Mickey Mouse Christmas stocking is probably one of my very first Disney Christmas purchases and has been well used over the years. Ethan adopted it when he was little but now it is simply hung as a decoration...guessing it is around 25 years old at least!

Just a few of my Disney ornaments...love this Christmas Carol playset - too cute!

Even R2D2 is getting all festive!

We then had two further trees to decorate this morning...

Black and silver themed tree that lives in my hall

...and...

We call this our quirky Santa tree that sits in our dining area

More ornaments to compliment the quirky Santa tree

...this tree in my dining area started out many years ago with a few 'quirky' Santa's by the designer Gisela Graham. I just fell in love with the unusal style and have, over the years, bought ornaments to match.

It was then time to see Molly and Dan off on their way home; the next time we will see them now will be Christmas!

By now it was early afternoon and we had not seen any sign of our ground-works team appearing and Simon and I had commented that if they didn't turn up soon they would run out of daylight. At that same time I commented that it had gone very grey...about twenty minutes later we had snow...a pretty decent amount of snow!

And suffice to say, of course, no ground-works team ever appeared - first job of tomorrow will be to chase them and find out what's happening and when!

We then had a very relaxed afternoon with Simon doing some digital drawing and me making a start on my first Christmas jigsaw this year.

One edge piece missing - argh!

And to round out this Sunday evening it was keto pizza time...

Yummy!

...while looking out into our very festive garden!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 618

Day 618...

It's Friday and the start of what, on paper, should be a busy weekend!

But it was my usual Friday in work and it was filled with admin, banking, emails and an online meeting thrown in just for good measure; a day with lots achieved.

Arriving home, and with a coffee poured, it was back onto the laptop as I needed to complete an email to my deputy manager as part of our handover, as well as complete a couple of newsletters to send out. With the work stuff completed I was then able to finish off my online grocery shopping as we are picking it up tomorrow afternoon, a day earlier than normal.

Then it was back to more pre-school work as there were a ton of updates that needed applying to the online learning journal system that we use and that took way longer than I thought it was going to. But I have managed to get everything work related that I wanted to get done, done this evening.

Last weekend we brought down all of our Christmas decorations out of the loft and today it was time to move them out of Molly's old room and downstairs ready for the aforementioned busy weekend ahead.

Molly and Dan are home for the weekend (still travelling as I type this) and there are two reasons for them coming home this weekend. One is that Molly is helping out at her old kickboxing academy with their black belt grading and although she isn't grading it has always been the responsibility of non-grading black belts to assist at gradings. Molly had helped out at the first part of the grading a few weeks ago and had said she was happy to come back and help out again at the second and final part of the grading.

The other reason...and if we're being honest the most important reason...is that this is the weekend that is on the calendar to put up our Christmas decorations...

See it is literally on my calendar (as it is every year!)

...and despite no longer living at home I am not allowed to decorate without Molly! Over the years it has become the ladies of the family that have taken the lead with the Christmas decorating and for now it is staying as one of our traditions...a girl thing if you will...that we want to continue with.

So to get everything done this weekend, in the hours that are available, it is going to have to be a bit of a military style operation I think. We have coordinated collecting our grocery shopping with when Molly is at the black belt grading already so that we have as much time as we can to devote to the Christmas decorating. After all we have outdoor lights to put up plus we have three Christmas trees as well as numerous ornaments and other decorations around the house, so getting our house decorated is never a quick job!

Hopefully tomorrow I will have pictures to share of what we have been able to achieve - wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Simple Saturday

Day 262...

Well after a pretty rubbish nights sleep I decided to get up earlier than a normal Saturday to see what the day would bring.

As it was it was a pretty standard sort of day. I had a couple of Ebay sales finalise this morning and so was able to sort the postage out for them, along with some Christmas gifts ready for posting.

Over the day I had a couple of deliveries arrive and between those and some online shopping this afternoon I think I am almost there with all our present shopping for Christmas...although I am sure I will probably add a few more bits over the course of the next few days as I think of things!!

Molly was back at her guitar lesson this week as they have been allowed to re-open...even though we are in Tier 3...really can't make head nor tail of how the 'rules' work or have been developed. So while Molly played guitar we went off in search of a coffee and headed to the nearest drive thru'. Must have taken a good 20 minutes to get our coffee (and a cheeky mince pie each) as there were easily 10 cars in front of us. The retail park where we were was as busy as any other 'normal' Saturday and the McDonalds drive thru' was even busier than the one we were in.

The afternoon was spent doing the aforementioned online shopping, my last two items on Ebay sold, Simon did some more sanding and priming for his R2D2 build (working on the legs!) and I decided that the plants in my garden needed some Christmas love so they were adorned with red baubles.

And talking of Christmas outdoors here are a few photos of my outside lights...

Even have a projector going in the background

Just love these blow mold figures

I love my outside lights, and those blow molds are my favourite. I just love the retro vibe...although as I've had a couple of them for over 20 years (or more) they probably are actually classed as retro! Such a shame they are so hard to come by, especially here in the UK. I always have a look each year to see if I can get anymore and unfortunately the majority are only available in the US and come with extortionate shipping rates, never mind the import duty I'm likely to get hit with!

The photos don't really do the lights justice as I have lights going through the bushes and trees and over my shed and you might just be able to spot the tiki statue wrapped in tinsel. I think I may like Christmas a little bit!

Take care out there.

xx

Thursday Thoughts

Day 260...

It has been a very grey, chilly and rainy day today and thankfully most of it was spent indoors.

Although first thing me and Molly jumped in the car and went in search of twinkly lights for pre-school and some new towels for home. One shop and both objectives achieved.

Once home I had a mixture of getting some odd jobs around home completed as well as a few pre-school related jobs. I've placed another butchers order, wrote some Christmas cards, done a little online Christmas shopping as well as getting on top of the laundry.

This afternoon I was able to attend 'virtually' the course that I thought was yesterday...a couple of hours all about safeguarding within the early years sector. Once that was completed I did a little more pre-school work to promote our upcoming Christmas raffle.

Today Ethan received a surprise package in the mail; I presumed it was something he'd ordered but it turned out to be a box of treats from the company he works for - how cool is that?! He got a Christmas card, some stickers, a company t-shirt and 2 face masks, a selection box, some sweets, a box of biscuits and entry into a special Christmas raffle! Wow! And he has even shared some of it with his sister!!

I did have my dairy delivery arrive this afternoon and I am very excited to try a couple of their ice-creams...panettone and Christmas pudding flavours, apparently the pudding has plenty of brandy in it so I will look forward to enjoying that a little closer to Christmas.

And talking about Christmas here are a few more of my Christmas tree themed decorations...

This is pretty with a tealight inside

Light-up decoration on a window

Another candle holder

Quirky metalwork tree

This tree spins around when tealights are lit in the base area

Wooden tree with tiny LED lights

Suffice to say Christmas kind of takes over our house!

Almost forgot the stake lights out in the garden!

Photo courtesy of Molly

And that is where I will leave it for today.

Take care out there,
xx

Mid-week Muddle

Day 259...

Well today has been another very busy work day. There is lots to plan for at the moment at work as we have the last few weeks of term to see out and then start planning for the new term in January.

We have invoices to calculate, registers to organise, fees to chase, Santa letters to print and post, a Christmas raffle to manage, the usual banking and lots more.

My team have been working very hard to take part in a community event where schools have been asked to display artwork in their windows or, in our case, on our gate as part of a Christmas Light Trail through the village over the course of the next couple of weeks. They have got the artwork almost sorted and tomorrow I am off in search of some battery operated lights so that we can make it look all pretty and festive but much more importantly visible at night!

After a busy morning I dashed home to quickly get set-up to jump online for a safeguarding course via Microsoft Teams. I switched my laptop on, got my headphones sorted, paper and pen ready to go and followed the link I'd been sent. It was only after I'd done all that that I happened to notice the date of the course in the email confirmation...3rd December...oh dear! That's tomorrow - oops! In my defence when I'd booked the course I'd had to pick two dates in case the first date I chose was fully booked and the other date I had picked was today...but still not really an excuse for mis-reading the email with the course link in it.  Oh well, that just means that on my day off from work tomorrow I will have a course to attend! I suppose it was a good job it was a virtual course rather than me having driven to a location to then discover I'd got it wrong.

But that did mean I could get on with some of the other jobs that needed completing for pre-school, which probably meant I got more work done today than I would have done otherwise. As I said there is lots happening at the moment and I want to be able to get as much done as quickly as possible so that when we break for Christmas I don't have anything outstanding.

Molly was back at her karate lesson tonight, although rather than attending a 'class' she was simply able to make use of the resources there to do her own training. This means she can actually have a workout and practice on kickboxing dummies rather than just thin air as it has been via Zoom.

So as we are now in 'Tier 3'; we are able to go shopping, get our hair and nails done, go to a gym but we can't go to a pub or a restaurant. Our local pub has today said that it will not be opening over Christmas at all. The next review of the 'Tiers' will not happen for a couple of weeks and if we do move down a tier it will not give the pub enough notice to re-open for Christmas. I received a very heartfelt email from the owner of this small chain of pubs expressing what a hard decision it has been and how awful it has been having to contact thousands of people to cancel already booked tables, but thanking everyone for being so understanding. This has been devastating for the hospitality and entertainment sector and it is heartbreaking for all those involved.

Let's finish today's post with a little more Christmas vibe...here are some of my other Christmas trees...

A Mickey tree of course, just a small desktop one.

Another small desktop tree, this time a rainbow of colours for Ethan's room

Gorgeous white with purple decorations, this is Molly's.

This small classic tree sits on the hearth and must be at least 25 years old!
Not looking bad!!

After I'd took these photos I then realised that I have still more trees to share in the form of ornaments...but I'll save those for another day.

Take care out there.

xx