Day 225

Day 225...

Another relatively quiet day today.

Started with a trip to my supermarket of choice to collect a grocery order as we've decided to have a few treats over the weekend in lieu of a Halloween party.

Next job of the day was to tackle the mountain of ironing that seemed to have accumulated, so while not very exciting there was a sense of accomplishment when it was all done.

Just after lunchtime I jumped online to chat with my good friend and fellow Disney Dream Girl, Michelle. It was, as always, just nice to catch-up with Michelle but we also managed to record two shows; one to come out this coming Sunday and another for our Patreon subscribers.

While I was busy recording Molly had taken over the kitchen and made a start on this years pumpkin carvings; and I think she's done an amazing job!

Later on Molly and I took another little trip out, I had a few items that I needed to drop off at pre-school ahead of our return next week and Molly had a USB drive to take to my sister-in-law's full of photos from her photoshoot at the weekend...think she had whittled it down to 130 photos!!

Then I indulged a little this afternoon with some 'me time', just sat watching a bit of TV, which I very rarely do but am trying to do more of.

As the evening drew in it was time to see Molly's pumpkin carvings in full effect; how awesome do these look?!

Stay safe out there, wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.

xx

Monday - Day 222

Day 222...

Here's another Monday and it started as most of my Mondays start with a trip to my supermarket of choice to collect our weekly grocery shopping. 

After the groceries had been put away we decided to go out for a walk over the fields. Although the weather was dry the ground was definitely not and was decidedly squelchy at times! But we plodded on and managed about three miles in about an hour.

We have decided that if we are going to continue on our walks around where we live through the Autumn and Winter we will probably need to invest in some decent walking shoes or boots. Thankfully I currently wear an old pair of trainers so it doesn't matter what state they get in to, but as of this evening they are still drying out from todays little adventure!

After lunch Simon looked at a couple of art commissions that had come his way over the weekend before nipping out for his annual eye-test. He swapped to contact lenses last year and prefers them to glasses but this was just a check to see if his prescription needed changing. Thankfully no real change needed but two hours spent in a busy opticians didn't sound like a great experience. He commented that the staff were doing the best they could but trying to keep socially distanced in a busy shop was by all accounts rather stressful.

I spent the afternoon re-organising the pile of items I am trying to sell online along with all the boxes we have held onto to re-use as packaging. I was fed up of falling over everything so had a good sort through and can now reach a cupboard that had been blocked before!

Molly has been creative today, not only has she been sorting through all the photos that she took yesterday but she found a few minutes to have a go at making chocolate covered Mickey apples...

The day was rounded out with playing taxi service for Molly as she had her kickboxing class early evening before settling down with a nice glass of red.

So we have heard today that the city eight miles away will be going into Tier 3 lockdown restrictions later this week but for the time being where we are will stay in Tier 2. Not really sure what that means, I think Tier 3 means that you can't mix with anyone else outside of your household and pubs can only open if they serve 'substantial' meals...whatever that means. Like I've said numerous times before I think we all have to proceed through life as best we can, risk assessing what we want to do, how to do it and whether we feel comfortable doing it. 

Take care out there, stay safe, wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.

xx

End of Term

Day 219...

Today was the last day of the first term of our academic school year. We have made it through seven weeks and four days relatively unscathed and now have one week to relax and recharge.

But the day was pretty uneventful with just the usual type of admin tasks to complete. I, thankfully, remembered to bring some paperwork home with me so that I can update the accounts over the next week.

We spent the afternoon removing all the Halloween decorations, although we kept on finding small plastic spiders after we had cleared everything away. As the decorations mostly belong to me I have the pleasure of looking after them at home and will admit to giving myself a bit of a start when unpacking a bag and thinking there was a spider in the bottom only to realise that it was plastic, of course!

As the pre-school is a registered charity we rely very heavily on fundraising so this week, as part of our Halloween Fun Week, we had been selling some 'Treat Cups', as well as asking parents to make a small contribution to the festivities. By the end of today we had raised £125, which was amazing, and will help go a long way with some new purchases that we are in desperate need of for our role play kitchen area.

This did mean that once home I had to first unpack my car of Halloween decorations before then counting the money that we had collected over the week. But with those jobs out the way I can now enjoy some downtime away from work. Well I say that but there will be a couple of jobs that will need doing but I am hoping these will only take up a small amount of my time this coming week.

I think now, more than ever, it is important to distinquish between work time and non-work time so that you get to enjoy the time away from work and switch off for a while. There may not be much happening, or places to go, or people to see but it is still important to take the time for yourself and find the space to simply chill.

So I have a glass of red...well my second glass of red...and it's time to put my feet up and embrace the coming week or rest and relaxation.

Stay safe out there, wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.
xx

Sunday again...

Day 214...

Well it was a slow start to the day but after all it was Sunday and we didn't really have anything planned.

Once up and about I had what is the now usual Sunday morning job of updating my online grocery shopping order ready for collection tomorrow. And while I did that Simon was tinkering with the mouse droid he is building as he is working towards getting the electronics working so that it 'beeps and boops'!

We then got on our walking shoes and set off for a little Sunday afternoon stroll...well we managed 3.5 miles in about and hour and 15 minutes. We took a walk that we haven't done for a while and it was interesting to notice the change in the scenery. We commented that when we first started walking back in March everywhere was just starting to bud and come to life. We have then seen everywhere blossom, get very green and very overgrown and now we are seeing it all start to die back, change colour and are seeing a whole new range of colours emerge. We really are getting to see the circle of life in full effect.

Once home we decided to enjoy a coffee, and a small piece of dark chocolate, outside in the garden. The only downside to this was a few wasps that thought we were fair game! So a little internet research ensued to find out whether there was any particular way to ward off wasps. Well, apparently they don't like the colour red and they are also very territorial. So one way is to make a fake wasps nest as then they won't approach...so thanks to the power of Amazon we have, for £3.00, ordered a fake wasp nest to see whether that will actually work!! I will let you know!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with a little more Ebaying, some online shopping and some more mouse droid tinkering for Simon....and here is said droid...

An MSE droid to name it correctly

So we have working sounds but, as I understand it, Simon wants the sounds to be linked to it's movement and that is what he is currently working on...apparently it involves accelerometers!

The day was rounded out with our regular Sunday evening Disney quiz, hosted by the podcast I co-host, the Disney Dream Girls. Today the quiz was all about the animated classic The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr Toad and we need pretty well...in fact we won! Which means we get to set the questions for next week and I think we have agreed to set them around the movie Hocus Pocus which means I will need to re-watch it this week I think.

While me and Molly were quizzing Simon has been immersing himself in more of his VR games, getting to grips with Vadar Immortal...a Star Wars game...and he's loving it by all accounts.

Another Sunday done and another day where we have managed to stay clear of real world antics...

Stay safe, take care out there...wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.

xx

Here's the Weekend

Day 213...

And welcome to the weekend and our first day in Tier 2 restrictions...lockdown or whatever we are calling it. But to be fair we just carried on as we have been doing because what we have been doing is what Tier 2 is all about anyway!

First job of the day was to meet one of my pre-school committee members at pre-school to take delivery of some special treats ready for our Halloween Fun Week next week. A couple of our committee have taken all the goodies donated to us from our local ASDA and made up some treat bags and sweet cups that we are going to sell next week to raise some extra pennies.

Once that was sorted we then had a little furniture delivery to make as one of the items from our other house that we had tried unsuccessfully to sell was actually needed by our new tenants, they had changed their mind about needing it so we popped by to drop it off. 

Then it was back home to stop for five minutes with a coffee sat outside in the garden. Not a bad day today, a little chilly but it was dry so we took advantage and enjoyed the time and the coffee. And while we were outside we decided to have a quick tidy in the garage so that we can now fit the car back in there as well as sweep up a bin full of leaves.

This afternoon was spent sorting out candles to go with some of the Halloween decorations that I got out yesterday, posting a few more items for sale on Ebay, another coffee sat outside and Simon was finally able to assemble the mouse droid he has been making. This did mean I had a droid moving around the house for most of the afternoon...but just a few more final tweaks and then it will all be done!

Love this decoration, the candle inside makes the ghost in the chimney spin around!

One advantage of today has been that we have kept away from the news and social media and it has been quite nice not to be bombarded with the latest figures and rules and to just 'have a day'. I look forward to when we can have more 'just days' and life can resume and be embraced once again.

But until then please take care, stay safe, wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.
xx

Yay it's Friday!

Day 212...

Last day of the working week has come around once again.

A pretty standard sort of day with the usual admin to complete. This afternoon pre-school got dressed ready for our Halloween fun week next week and the team did a great job of making the room look suitably festive!

Once home I had a couple of emails to send and a few bits to sort out but then found out our prime minister was giving a televised press conference. So, with all the rumours and speculations going about at the moment  I thought it may be worth tuning into.

Well...did I learn anything new? Did I understand anything better? Am I any clearer on what their plan may be?...Err....No. All I learnt was that it was a chance to attack one region of our country who are wanting greater clarity and control before entering into the highest level of current restrictions. We were told about amazing new and quick tests that will be ground breaking and enable us to function so much better but that we don't know when they will be available and probably not for a while yet - oh!

And then, as it always is with these briefings, the finger was pointed at us, the great British public, to pull together and do our bit because that's the only way we will get through this...oh really? So being locked down for 12 weeks from March wasn't enough then? People losing their jobs and their businesses wasn't enough then? Not being able to see friends and family hasn't been enough then? And I could go on.

As a family I think we have been pretty good. All the way through lockdown we stayed home, Simon and I would go out for a walk each day and once a week I would collect my grocery shopping and that was it. When lockdown started to ease I went back to work while everyone else continued to work from home. We continued collecting our shopping and stayed pretty close to home. I have been in a supermarket once to complete a shop and a couple of times to collect something on behalf of pre-school. I have been to my local post office off and on to drop off pre-paid parcels. I have been non-grocery shopping once and only went in one specific shop. I have visited a coffee shop twice indoors but for take-away only. I have visited outdoor cafe's just three times and have visited drive thru' coffee shops perhaps four or five times. We have visited large DIY shops about four times. I have met only two friends, and just one time for each. We haven't been out for a meal anywhere and have had a take-away meal just three times. If I can recall all of this since March then I think that shows that we have been doing exactly what we have been told to do to the very best of our ability and where has that gotten us? Have we made any progress? I really don't know.

As far as I can tell we are now being told that if we don't do as we are told that things are going to be as bad as they were back in March. But is that right? Some would argue that is not the case while others would agree that it's getting bad again. Some would argue that a full lockdown for a few weeks would buy us the time to ease the pressure off the health service and come up with a better working test and trace system as our current one really is not working as promised. But others would argue that a lockdown only pauses things and that once lifted the numbers will rise again and that actually hospital admissions are no different to what you would expect to see at this time of year.

So where does that leave us, the general public? Who should we believe and what should we be doing? I think over the course of the next few days or weeks we will be moved from one set of guidelines to another which will only cause yet more confusion and annoyance. We want, we need, our lives back. We need to be living, to be enjoying, to be experiencing life rather than just going from one day to another not knowing when we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And because of all of the above I have decided to embrace Halloween this year and have made a start on decorating around the house. Now this won't be a big affair (unlike Christmas) but I just felt the need to say fuck it lets have a little fun. We don't tend to go overboard on Halloween here in the UK but I have a few bits and so will do my best to invoke a little Halloween fun.

To set the right tone the music had to be right!

Outdoor pumpkin lights

A few decorative pieces

Outdoors....as one of my friends said....one way system must mean it's COVID safe!!

There has been more VR madness in the house tonight as Molly has had her turn and proven to be pretty good on the dance games! Me on the other hand has yet to have a go...I am sure I'll get there...at some point...maybe!

Anyway, just take care out there, whatever you may be doing and wherever you may be. Wash you hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.
xx

More restrictions...

Day 211...

And it was back in work day today. And pretty much a standard sort of work day.

Once home I had a short amount of time to catch up on a few bits, take delivery of my weekly local dairy order before sitting down to record a podcast for the show I co-host, the Disney Dream Girls.

In podcast recording mode

Today we were very fortunate to chat with the lovely Terri Hardin. Terri is a sculptor, puppeteer, artist and Disney Imagineer and is a delight to chat with. She has some amazing stories to tell and I could listen to her chatter away for hours. It was, as it always is, nice to catch up with my co-host Michelle who is having to self isolate at the moment prior to having a knee operation in a couple of weeks time.

While dinner was cooking I sorted through my Halloween decorations to see which bits would be suitable to take into pre-school for our Halloween fun week next week; I have two boxes worth of stuff to take in so hopefully we will be able to make everywhere look suitably Halloween themed.

We heard at lunchtime today that the area that we live and work in will be going into Tier 2 restrictions as from Saturday. So what does that mean exactly? Well apparently we can no longer meet friends or family inside our own homes (we could only have up to 6 anyway) but we can meet them outdoors and we can still go to a pub or restaurant but only as our household group and the pub must close by 10pm.

It really boggles my mind as to what those restrictions will actually achieve. As far as I understand it a lockdown will not get rid of the virus it will simply help to ease the pressure on our health services; which I am all in support of should they need it. But what I don't understand is how us, as a family of four, cannot invite one or two people of our choosing into our house, but yet they can come and sit in our garden. But at the same time I can go and sit in a pub or restaurant for a couple of hours, indoors, with people that I have never met before and have no idea where they have been or who they have seen. At least at home I will only let into my space someone that I know where they have been, what they have been up to and who I feel comfortable letting in. So yes, I really don't 'get it' and that is the phrase that I am hearing a lot of. We all want to do our bit but we just don't 'get it'; where is the logic? Somebody please explain it to me...in plain English!

So like we have been doing all along, I will do what I consider to be safe and responsible, I will risk assess my movements and the movements of those around me while trying my best to adhere to whatever new 'rules' come into play.

Take care out there, wash your hands, keep your distance and wear a mask.
xx