Day 651

Day 651...

We are now in that strange few days between Christmas and New Year when we seem to lose track of dates and days...so I think today was Tuesday!

It was another day spent at home but today we got to spend it with my very good friend, and podcast co-host, Michelle. It has been a few months since we last saw each other in person, although we do message each other all the time, and of course, we chat at least once a week while podcast recording.

But today Michelle made the eighty mile journey south to visit us in person and we had a lovely day simply chatting, drinking coffee, more chatting, a little lunch and more coffee!

I was very blessed to receive some amazing Christmas presents from Michelle as well...Disney themed of course...

Snazzy backpack

Department 56 collectible - just gorgeous

Who doesn't love a pair of Mickey earrings?!

We rounded out the day with Simon jumping on the exercise bike while I was a little more chilled and attacked the jigsaw again!

And so we have another day done and I will see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 502 - Road Trip

Day 502...

Road trip! This morning we headed north to visit my good friend, and podcast co-host, Michelle.

Although we'd managed to meet up for a shopping trip back in May this was the first time in forever that we'd actually had a proper get together and catch-up. And it was the first time I'd been able to see her new house.

It took us about an hour and 40 minutes to get there and the sat nav took us over the moors and up and down some very twisty, turny and narrow roads but we had some spectacular views along the way.

The day was spent chatting, drinking coffee, a little food (keto of course!), more coffee and a trip out to Ogden Water where we enjoyed a walk around the reservoir and nature reserve.

A beautiful space to have a wander and Michelle is very lucky to have this on her doorstep. But with our exercise done for the day we headed back to Michelle's for another coffee before heading home.

We have had a lovely day out and it was great to be doing something 'normal' and like the 'old times'! 

See you tomorrow.
xx

Meet-Up & Shopping

Day 442...

So after another crappy nights sleep it was up early-ish to set off to meet my very good friend, and podcast co-host, Michelle for a day of shopping.

Michelle lives about 90 miles away from me and although we talk all the time we have not been able to see each other since August of last year. So with us both working in education, and both being on our respective 'half term' breaks, we grabbed the opportunity to meet up.

Halfway between us is the city of Sheffield and luckily for us they have a giant out-of-town shopping mall called Meadowhall. So me and Molly jumped in the car and headed north for some much needed retail therapy.

We had a lovely time just catching up while we shopped. We visited the Disney Store (of course!)...

...as well as few other favourites, and managed to come away with shorts, jeans, t-shirts, tops and shoes between the three of us. We stopped for a coffee, at Michelle's favourite coffee retailer, and simply enjoyed being out and about doing something close to normal.

Well, I say normal, but of course we had to wear masks, there was a one-way system around the mall and all the shops had 'red' or 'green' signals outside to indicate whether you could enter or not. Some shops and services even had queue areas into the walkway areas to ensure that there was no over crowding. 

So there we sat in the middle of one of the walkways at our coffee shop of choice, without masks while everyone around us wandered about with masks on - how ridiculous! As we walked around with our masks on we could smell the coffee, we could smell the cookies, we could smell the donuts and we could smell the perfume oozing out of Lush (a beauty product retailer) as normal...so if we could smell all of that through our masks...exactly what are the masks protecting us from? Aerosols are smaller than the smells we can detect so it's common sense that if we can smell something then the aerosols can get through as well...isn't it common sense?? 

Now some of the changes I do actually quite like. The one-way system around the mall definitely made walking around a lot easier and the 'social distancing' between tables at the coffee shop was greatly appreciated; I don't want to be sat overtly close to people I don't know at the best of times (covid or no covid) so having a bit of extra space was to my liking!

After a few hours of shopping it was time to head home so we said our goodbyes to Michelle and gave her a big hug with the promise to meet up sooner rather than later!

Once home it was time to have a coffee and chill for a few minutes before scanning more photographs from our past with the Photomyne app. I have now managed to work my way through our summer holidays of 1988!

Late afternoon I took Molly out for another drive and we did the same route we have done the past few days. I have to say she is doing really well and, as I said to her when we arrived home, today was probably the most comfortable that I have felt with her driving. Her skill set is really improving and I am so very proud of her.

While Molly and I went for a drive Simon headed down 'our gym' and we were then able to call an end to our day...a very productive day.

Here's to good friends, meet-ups, shopping and coffee - simply pleasures that mean so much.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Good Friends and A Spot of Tidying

Day 178 

It has been a lovely day today, the weather was great and most importantly we got to meet up in person with my very good friend and fellow podcaster Michelle.

We were meeting Michelle at a local cafe and this was a great excuse to get a little dressed up and put on proper make-up for a change, something that has taken a bit of a back seat over these last few months. The good thing was we were able to grab a table outside in the sunshine, have a few coffees and a good old catch-up. And although Michelle and I talk every week either when we record our podcast or when we have our weekly Sunday evening Disney quiz via Zoom it was so good to actually see each other in person, and it felt like it was only yesterday that we had seen each other.

Michelle was on her way to get some more ink added to her Tangled tattoo and so we took advantage of her being close to where we live to meet up...and of course we both had Disney themed face masks!

Once home we had another coffee, sat outside in the sunshine, while we planned our attack for the afternoon. We have just started watching Marie Kondo on Netflix and today her book 'The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up' arrived and we are really loving the approach to 'tidying', decluttering and reorganising. This afternoon's task was to 'tidy' our clothes as part of our new bedroom happening this week and this involved getting out ALL our clothes and making one big pile before going through every item to decide whether or not it should stay or go.

Just a few items to go through!!

By the time we had gone through everything we had 11 bin bags to go to our local hospice clothes bank. The idea is to handle each item and decide whether or not that item brings you joy and although I don't think I really did that it certainly gave me the freedom to let go of things that I would have otherwise have kept on the premise that 'it may be useful' or 'it's too good to throw away'. 

We are also adopting the Marie Kondo way of folding your clothes so that everything is folded into a small parcel which means that everything you own can be seen when opening a drawer rather than being squished at the bottom of a pile. I must admit I was very skeptical about what Marie Kondo was advocating and thought it may have been a bit too 'woo' and was aimed at simply throwing everything away and going very minimalist but I have been very pleasantly surprised and am now very keen to watch the remaining episodes and read the book in full.

Well I best stop writing this blog post as I still have all my newly folded clothes to put away!

Stay safe, wear a mask, keep your distance and take care.

xx