Day 706

Day 706...

Well, after almost two years working from home due to the global pandemic Ethan got to return to the office today!

To be fair the last few months working from home were due more to his company relocating offices than the pandemic. Two years ago they were a relatively small team who'd been working together for about seven months but over the course of the various lockdowns their team had increased in size and was now too large to return to their original office. 

This then meant several months finding a new location and turning the space into the offices they needed. So not only did Ethan start back working in the office but in a brand new location, although thankfully in the same city!

It was an earlier start than of late for Ethan, although luckily his company had arranged for a car to collect him and his work equipment at 8am so no bus for him to catch this morning. Although the car didn't arrive until about 8.30am and Simon and I were beginning to think we would be driving him and his equipment into work at one point!

This has meant that we have had the house to ourselves for the first time in I can't begin to remember. Our day started with the very exciting collection of our grocery shop in the howling wind and rain - whoop! 

We then decided that staying home for the day was the best course of action as not only could we get caught up on a few jobs around the house it was preferable to braving the elements. We did muse about going for a walk at one point but as the wind was still blowing a gale we decided not to bother.

Today has been a very relaxed, chilled and steady day; some jobs, some digital art for Simon, new jigsaw started for me, some TV time and plenty of coffee.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 660 - Back to Work

Day 660...

Thursday and my first day back to work since before Christmas, and it was an easy return to work as it was only a half day and I got to work from home.

My focus today was to complete the pre-school accounts for the last term, update all the banking, respond to emails and to create a cash flow forecast for the next few months.

The benefit of working from home is that I am able to work uninterrupted and in a much quieter environment. And by about 1pm I had achieved all that I'd set out to do. I then spoke with my deputy manager to get caught up on how the day was going as I won't see her when I'm in tomorrow, and then I could stop for the rest of the day.

Simon and I had hoped to go out for a walk but by the time I'd finished all my pre-school work the cold and frosty morning had turned into a rather damp and grey afternoon so we decided not to bother. While I'd been working this morning Simon had cleaned around the house and so this afternoon we could both just chill for a little while. Simon had his digital art and I had my jigsaw.

By the end of the day it was time to brave the cold outside and head out to the gym for a weights workout; the second of this week. I now need to figure out how to find the time to jump on the exercise bike at other points in the week...or rather not talk myself out of jumping on the exercise bike!!

See you tomorrow.

xx

Day 537

Day 537...

And it was back to work today and the start of our new school year. So it's back to the early starts and busy days.

I don't ordinarily work Mondays but as this was the first day of the new year I wanted to be there plus I also had a ton of paperwork that needed printing and organising that I hadn't been able to do over the summer break.

So it was a mixture of emails, printing, laminating, printing, banking and a little more printing just for good measure. We also took the opportunity to start some prep work ahead of a local carnival that we are participating in in a couple of weeks. We have been given some great donations from our parents as well as a stack of items from our good friend Jon at our local Asda so we needed to get it all out, figure out exactly what we have, what we are going to do with it and how we are going to get it to the carnival ground. Plus we need to figure out what other resources we need with us as we will be having a small children's play area as well as who can help out on the day...so lots to plan.

I was able to finish around lunchtime which meant I could spend the afternoon at home with Simon and as the weather was absolutely gorgeous we took a rather sweaty walk over the fields managing just under two miles in a steady 42 minutes. And while walking about I received a phone call from a local garage who I'd approached about the possibility of changing our cars.

For the last year or so we have debated the efficacy of having two cars. In previous years having a car each was a necessity; Simon was making regular trips 'down south' for work and had his mum to look after and get from one place to another. But we have none of that now. Simon has been fortunate to work from home for a number of years and would 'go into the office', 130 miles away, once every few weeks or so. But since the initial lockdown last Spring his work office no longer exists and those he works with are now also working from home and have no intention of spending money on the rent of a 'space' when productivity has been just as good (if not better) with home working.

So the time has come to go down to a one car family (although I have a feeling it won't last long as Molly is desperate to get her own car). We can save money on the monthly payments, car tax, insurance, servicing and more but we didn't know if now was the right time to do this so had made a couple of tentative enquiries with local car dealerships.

Well after much debate and number crunching we have this afternoon decided on a deal. And not only will we be saving ourselves money but we will be moving with the times and getting our first ever electric car! It is a little bit daunting and rather exciting at the same time. We need to get a charging point installed in the garage and will need to get used to driving essentially an automatic car, having always driven a manual geared car before. Lots to learn and get my head around but I am up for the challenge!

And talking of driving, as Molly is back home it was her turn to drive us over to her first kickboxing lesson of the week. And to say she hasn't driven for about 12 days you wouldn't have known; she is turning into a very capable driver and we are extremely proud of how she is doing and we are just keeping all things crossed that she can pass her test in a few weeks time as the world will then be her oyster.

As the evening was so nice, and while Molly was kickboxing, we headed back home and laid some more weed membrane in our courtyard garden. We now just need to organise the delivery of gravel to finish off the area but as we have our bathroom re-fit starting tomorrow we will need to arrange for when we have less things happening! Where we live we have a shared garage space and having extra vehicles and gravel delivered can be an inconvenience to our neighbours so we need to get the timing right!

And there we have a Monday; all rather eventful!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 92

Day 92...

And what a wet and miserable day it has been today...and my first full day back at pre-school as well.

The day went fine, and actually at some points dragged a little...it's always a strange day when you can't get outside with little ones because of the weather. But I managed a skype meeting, a transition phone call with a local primary school, set up a plan to sort a leavers memento, updated the banking and got on top of my filing.

It was then home to get changed and have a coffee before hooking up with my good friend Michelle to record our podcast; Disney Dream Girls. We chatted about the Disney parks re-opening and what going to a theme park in the near future might look like and whether it's something we would be doing. I have to say with all the restrictions likely to be in place; no shows, masks to be worn, no character meets, social distancing on rides and restricted numbers in the parks I am really not sure it's something I want to experience just yet. It's not a cheap affair going to Disney whether that be just over into France or to further afield like the US so if I am spending a good chunk of money then I think I want to be able to get the full on experience and not one where I might not be even able to get into the parks!

I was able to spend a little time moving jigsaw pieces around while Simon worked a little late this evening and then it was a low carb chicken parmesan for dinner.

And that was today...we are still in some form of 'lockdown' but I have completed my first full day physically in work...91 days of working from home! I remember making the decision to close and it wrecked me having to do that but I also knew it was the right decision at the time. We have opened and tomorrow will mark the end of week one but we only have about a third of the children attending and we are having to adapt what we do and how we do it. We have no idea how long this way of working will last nor what the implications are for the next academic year starting in September. 

And my question still remains in all of this we have work, we have football, we have small support bubbles for single person households but when will we get to see, and hug, those friends and family we care about and have not seen for such a long time now?

Stay safe, take care,

xx