Day 816 & Day 817

Another couple of days together...

Day 816...Monday

The day started with an early morning walk of 2.3 miles in 48 minutes and whilst it was a tad grey it didn't stop us enjoying our new normal.

The morning was spent catching up on a few jobs around the house until lunchtime. It was around this time that I received a text message from preschool letting me know that they'd had the dreaded Ofsted call! This meant that tomorrow would be inspection day and they wanted to know if I could be available.

Being part of the early years education sector means that all settings are inspected by Ofsted every few years. We'd been waiting for our next inspection ever since we moved into our new premises over 2 years ago, so whilst it didn't come as a surprise it still left everyone feeling nervous and anxious.

We have a fantastic team at preschool who all do an amazing job with passion and care but as soon as inspection gets mentioned everyone tends to self doubt themselves. This is only natural as the thought of someone who you don't know watching every thing you do and firing random questions at you can be enough to cause even the most confident of people to falter.

I then received another text asking if I could pop down in the afternoon to just go over a few things. So I jumped in the car and spent just under a couple of hours with them to reassure and answer questions to help get them ready for tomorrow.

Back home and Simon and I could resume our plans which was to run a couple of errands, one of which involved a trip to Lidl - whoop! By the time we arrived home it was quite late in the afternoon and so we decided to get a little exercise in. Simon jumped on the exercise bike while I concentrated on my body-weight exercises.

And with that Monday was done.

Day 817...Tuesday

So rather than getting out for a walk today I was up and out early to go into work to assist, where I could, with their Ofsted inspection.

I spent the morning with the team and my time was mainly spent interacting with the children which is something that I haven't done for quite a long time now. The inspector was lovely and spent lots of time talking to the staff and observing various activities. But around 12.30pm I had to make my excuses to leave. I spoke briefly with the inspector in case there was anything she needed me for, or any questions she had for me in my new role of committee chairperson, but all was good.

I needed to get home to play taxi service for Simon as he had an appointment at the fracture clinic at Derby hospital. So after a quick bite to eat for lunch we headed off to the wonders of Derby hospital. I had to kick Simon out of the car as the queues for the car parks were so long. It took me almost 25 minutes to get into a car park and get parked up. I then had the fun pastime of waiting for Simon in a rather warm car while writing this blog.

It was when I received messages from Simon telling me that a lady he was sat next to had been there an hour and forty minutes that I began to be a tad concerned as to how long we would be there for. Think we'd been spoilt by the efficiency of our local walk-in centre last week who'd been able to assess, x-ray and cast Simon's wrist in about 40 minutes straight!

Well after I'd been sat in the car waiting for about and an hour and a half I decided to go for a wander, stretch my legs and get out of the rather warm car. I managed to find a bench that was in partial shade and with a little breeze that was way more comfortable than sitting cooped up in the car. I messaged Simon to see how things were progressing and ten minutes later my phone was lighting up with a ton of messages from him, and just as I was about to reply Simon appeared at my side. It would appear that being in the depths of the hospital meant that the messages he'd sent hadn't physically been sent until he'd moved away from the fracture clinic and consequently they'd all arrived in my inbox at once!

Simon is now sporting a very smart looking, slimmer and less awkward cast in black! The consultant was happy with how the break was looking and it is now a case of keeping it in cast for about 4 weeks and hope that when he goes back all will be healed.

By the time we arrived home I'd received an update on the proceedings at pre-school. We will know the result in a few weeks time but until then it's a waiting game.

As Simon had missed a few hours of work this afternoon he spent a little time catching up this evening before we finally settled down with a cuppa to watch some TV.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 810 & 811

Day 810...

I never got around to writing a blog post for yesterday so decided to clump two days together instead.

Yesterday started with an early morning walk of 2.3 miles in 46 minutes; we are loving this way to start our day not only do we get some exercise but being out in the fresh air really gives your day a kick start.

My day was primarily focused around cataloguing all the bits and pieces from my mum and dads house. We need to be able to clear the house in readiness for selling it and last week I had taken photos of all those items that need a little research before we just give them away. So it was a case of going through the photos and making a physical list of everything along with making notes from any internet research I could drum up. I still have a fair bit to go through so will be dipping in and out of this task over the next day or so before we can make a decision as to what we do with it all.

Simon was still in a little pain and discomfort from falling over on Monday evening and landing on his wrist. It hasn't really bruised but is a little puffy around where the wrist meets the palm of his hand. But he kept up with keeping it wrapped, taking pain killers and trying to keep it elevated as much as possible which is a bit tricky when your job involves using a keyboard. But the movement by the end of the day had improved although it's a long way off being right!

And the day was rounded out with my 'leaving doo' from work...yes the work that I finished on the 27th May...unfortunately the original planned event was cancelled due to a couple of the team not being well and so it had been rescheduled to last night. We went to a local Indian restaurant, in fact the one we normally use for our take-out meals, and it was lovely. A couple of hours to chat and enjoy some great food and I suppose kind of draws a line under my 'working' time at pre-school...maybe now I'll feel like I've officially retired?

Day 811...

Today's early morning walk was a little further and a bit quicker than yesterdays at 2.5 miles in 44 minutes; but this was a much flatter route and we stuck to the pavements rather than going over the fields as the rain last night meant everywhere was still a little wet!

Simon's wrist was still not great although our wonderful NHS has not been much help so far...using their online triage system yesterday it had recommended visiting our local GP. Mmm...neither of us had much confidence that they would be able to do anything more than what we've been doing never mind being able to get an appointment to see anyone and then factoring in all the stupid 'covid safe' measures that they are still insisting on!

My morning consisted of some online shopping...I needed to place a butchers order as our bacon supplies were getting dangerously low and was also trying to find some low carb, high protein snack bars. We find these come in really handy when we are out Star Wars trooping but we had used up our supply at the weekend and unfortunately the brand I normally go for haven't currently got in stock a flavour that we like so I found myself going down the rabbit hole of protein bars!! Who knew there were so many variations out there!

By late morning Simon decided to phone our NHS 111 service to see if there was anything they could suggest for his wrist...made the call...couldn't get through due to 'high demand'! So I decided to try the online version again and this time it offered a call back service...no idea why this wasn't offered yesterday when we'd tried but whatever it was better than nothing. The system said we would get a call within 30 minutes. About 10 minutes later Simon had spoken with them and secured a 1pm appointment at our local walk-in centre!! Luckily we had enough time for something to eat before heading on out as thankfully the centre is only about a 15/20 minute drive away.

And the result of our visit...Simon's wrist is broken and he came away with it in a cast. We now have to wait for for the fracture clinic at our local hospital to get in touch; I'm assuming they will assess his injury and decide whether a cast is the right treatment. But for now the cast is there to keep his wrist stable and prevent any further damage until he can be seen by a specialist.

But the great thing was that he was in and out in forty minutes; I've noticed that one of the side-effects of covid has been a greater reduction in out-patient waiting times as I suspect appointments are more staggered to avoid too many people in one place at a time. A positive that I hope continues so that we have a much better experience when we do need to visit the NHS. On the way home I popped into a local chemist to collect my prescription and I think that took longer than Simon getting his wrist examined and put in a cast!!

With Simon's wrist now being in cast that has put a wrinkle in our weekly routine of gym sessions and, for Simon, using the exercise bike so we decided to end the day with another walk. We stuck to the main road as everywhere was still wet from the few showers we have had on and off today and completed 2 miles in 39 minutes.

But now it is time to get off the laptop and watch this weeks episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

See you tomorrow.
xx