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 570

Day 570...

Saturday was upon us once more and after a pretty rubbish nights sleep I dragged myself out of bed to get on with the day at hand.

Our first job was to stop by pre-school so that Simon could take a look at the gate to the property as we wanted to extend it to make it more secure. Luckily we had a large piece of plywood already but we needed to figure out a way to attach it securely.

With that done it was time for Molly to drive us over to her guitar lesson, another chance for her to get some driving practice as the big day of her test looms closer. While Molly strummed away we headed over to a DIY store to pick up the necessary bits of hardware for the modifications to pre-school's gate, before grabbing a much needed Starbucks.

Molly drove us home and then we grabbed all the tools that we thought we might need and headed straight back out to pre-school to sort the gate out. We wanted to attach an extra strip of wood to the bottom of the gate but as the ground slopes we needed the extra piece to be either removable or flippable so that the gate could still open fully.

Thanks to Simon's know-how and a little ingenuity plus the ability of me to hold things, pass things, apply a plaster when needed and make coffee we achieved what we set out to do. The extra piece has been attached with hinges so that the piece can be flipped up or down depending on the circumstances. We also attached some hooks to keep the piece in place when in either the up or down position.

Up!

Down!

I think we were both quite pleased, and a little surprised, that in just over a couple of hours the work was done and looking pretty smart if we do say so. Thankfully everything went smoothly except for applying the hinges on the wrong side of the wood but that was easily rectified and all that needs doing now is a coat of blackboard paint so that it fits in with the rest of the gate.

Then Molly had another chance to get a little driving practice in as Ethan needed a lift into Nottingham to join up with some work friends to help celebrate a stag night; we await either a call to have a lift home or to be woken when he stumbles in later! Although I think it will probably be the former; Ethan is a quiet sole and so a 'night out on the town' is probably not really his 'thing' but we will see.

So while Ethan is living it large on a night out in the city we will be making, and enjoying, some keto pizza before we have a night in front of the TV.

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 476

Day 476...

Well we have a mid-week blog post as we encounter another Wednesday, and a full day in work for me.

My work day consisted of lots of emails, a little banking, some usual admin along with arranging some open days to promote the pre-school. We are hoping to arrange these for the last week of our academic year once the restrictions are lifted on the 19th of the month. 

Back home mid-afternoon and I had some more work emails to deal with followed by a little research ready for podcast recording later on in the day. I also tried on and off to try and get our hotel booking for this weekend sorted as we need to get some new dates booked preferably...although with no success as yet. I also had a Facebook post to generate on our pre-school page as we had some fabulous photos to share from our Football Funday. The England team is playing tonight and there is a lot of excitement surrounding the match so we decided we would join in the fun with a football themed day which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

Then it was time to record the Disney Dream Girls podcast with my very good friend and co-host Michelle. We had lots of Disney news to chat about and it was lovely to chat all things Disney as well as catch-up with my friend.

Then as I was recording the rain came down really heavy which resulted in two windows leaking water and then flooding outside my front door. So once the recording was done it was wellies on to clear out a couple of blocked drains so that the water had somewhere to escape to. Such a glamorous life I lead!!

Whatever you are doing, take care and I'll see you tomorrow.
xx

A Slow Saturday

Day 388...

Suprisingly for a Saturday we were up and moving about relatively early this morning and we started the day with our usual walk into the next village in search of coffee.

Part of our walk takes us past a small football pitch that is used by youth teams and it was lovely to see them all back in action. Although I would guess those who live close by have not missed the tons of cars parked everywhere!

But we managed 3.58 miles in an hour and 10 minutes and enjoyed a good coffee on our walk back, and we brought home cake for the kids and a little indulgence by way of a date scone for me.

The afternoon has seen Simon demold the helmet that he had made at the beginning of the week as well as finish staining a small storage box that we had bought that wasn't quite as dark a wood as we would have liked. I managed to update my grocery order and order a few other bits online. I also managed to get our printer working again...well I say working...it's now printing better than it did before but it's still not as good as I would like it to be, but it will suffice for now. I even had a few minutes outside pulling up yet more weeds, although it was too chilly to be out for long.

Simon had a little work he wanted to get done and so I took a little time to catch up on some TV watching; The Marvellous Mrs Maisel...just working my way through season three.

It's been a bit of a strange weekend. Yesterday it was announced that the Queens husband, Prince Philip, had died at the age of 99. Wow, what an achievement to reach that age, and while it is a sad occasion it would appear that all other news has stopped. Thankfully we don't watch an awful lot of standard, main stream media, but by all accounts all programs just stopped and the airwaves were filled with news item after news item after remembrance documentaries.

Now I am not a fan, so to speak, of the Royal family, they are something that exists in this country and are kind of 'just part' of Britain. I don't follow what they get up to, I'm not particularly interested in celebrating any occasions or milestones (unless it means a day off work!) and as they have no real power or decision making ability I struggle to see the point of them. Yes I appreciate that they attract tourism to the country and are quite revered by countries who do not have a monarchy but they are an institution funded by us the taxpayer and whom live in a manner far better off than those funding it!

However, it is very sad that an old gentleman, who had a very good life living in luxury, has died.  But in a year when lots of people have lost their lives, for lots of different reasons, and a year in which we have all had our lives curtailed forgive me if I see the reaction in the media to be a tad disproportionate!

By all means recognise his life, show him respect but let's not make such a fuss over it. Other lives that have been lost this year have not been celebrated, have not had loved ones with them when they passed and certainly haven't had the 'send off' they perhaps would have wanted or deserved. Surely there is a dignified response possible that doesn't belittle all other lives lost.

Moving onto cheerier news it is only a couple of sleeps until we see some more of our freedoms restored. From Monday shops will be opening, hairdressers and personal services too and outdoor dining (fingers crossed the British weather is kind!) will be allowed. But all of course with masks and 'track and trace'...so the question is will these activities be fun or will they feel too much of an effort? We will see...I've still got to wait till May to get my hair cut!!

Right it's Saturday night so it's time to make keto pizza, grab a glass of red wine and settle down to watch RuPauls Drag Race!

Take care, see you tomorrow.
xx

Woohoo it's the Weekend

Day 374...

And we have another stay-at-home weekend!

Our Saturday morning was a fairly laid back affair culminating in our usual walk for a coffee...and cake for Ethan. Another 3.6 miles in an hour and ten minutes which brings our total for March to 41 miles walked in 14 hours! 

After a spot of lunch we popped to see my dad; we had a couple of things to drop off with him and it was a good excuse to check-in with him and makes sure he was doing okay. We spent an hour or so with him and gave him another tutorial on how to use WhatsApp in an attempt to get him a little more tech savvy and easier to keep in contact with.

When we returned home our task was to see if we could make some progress on Simon's R2D2 droid build. It was time to assemble the legs and then attach them to the main body. The leg assembly was surprisingly straight forward and took us much less time than I think we were anticipating but the next bit was a little more tricky.

We moved R2 into our living room so that he could be fully assembled in the room that he is going to live in. It was then a case of figuring out just how the legs attached to the body. After a couple of attempts threading bolts through from the leg, into the 'shoulder' section and then into the body we realised that something wasn't quite lining up. Thankfully Simon was able to figure out how all the various pieces connected together which meant that we were a set of bolts missing. But a quick jump online and Simon was able to buy some ready to be picked up from a DIY store just a five minute drive away.

Once we had all the right bolts we were able to get all the pieces connected correctly and with a little bit of balancing and holding into position we managed to attach the two side legs and then the central 'foot'. A little minor adjustment and voila we have a droid living in the corner of our living room...

How cool is this?

...there are still a few details to add and then there will be some weathering as apparently it looks too clean to be in Star Wars!

And with that all done it was time for dinner which was our now usual Saturday night keto pizza which this week included a video chat with Molly and her fella, while Molly helped his mum dye her hair! Random I know, but that did all happen together!!

Today I shared this Mickey with our Disney Dream Girls family on Facebook. This is from Simon's 365 Mickey project 10 years ago...and would you believe it the timing couldn't be more perfect as this is exactly what happens today...

...time to put the clocks forward an hour and spring into British summertime!

Take care.
xx

Finally Banana Bread!

Day 353...

And we have another Saturday in lockdown.

Well the day started with Simon discovering that he'd run out of contact lenses...oops! So a phone call through to the opticians, followed by waiting for a call back resulted in being able to pick up some spares to see him through until his next supply turn up. A little annoying when you pay for a service that is supposed to ensure a delivery before you use up your current supply...but at least he could get hold of some today.

So while Simon nipped into the opticians I went to visit Jon the Community Champion at my local Asda who had yet more goodies for pre-school to support this weeks activities. We are making pizzas with the children by using mini wraps as the base, tomato ketchup and then toppings; a really simple but effective way to create pizzas with our little ones.

So after dropping all the goodies off at pre-school we headed home and then headed straight out again for our now usual Saturday stroll into the next village for coffee. On our walk home we spotted my brother and his wife clearing out their old house; they have just moved into a new place and had the old one to clean before handing it over to the landlord. So we spent twenty minutes or so catching up with them and putting the world to rights.

After a spot of lunch we embarked on a few jobs that needed doing...well I say we...what I actually mean is that Simon completed the work while I 'supervised'! We had a couple of fixes for pre-school to sort and then Simon had an arm for his large digital drawing tablet to fix to his desk so that he can move the tablet into a better position for drawing while also keeping it out of the way when not using it.

While Simon did all the fixing of stuff I decided to make some low carb banana bread...it has taken me until lockdown number three to succumb to making one of these but it had to be a low carb version of course!

We also managed to catch up with one of our neighbours today...it has been so nice today to simply chat with 'other people'! But the sad thing is that their mother is in a care home suffering with dementia that appears to be getting worse...and of course they haven't been able to see her properly over the past year. Although they do have an appointment to visit towards the end of this month that is conditional on them taking a test that comes back negative! But my neighbour is concerned that she could be nearing the end and may no longer recognise family when they do visit. It is so sad that what could be the last year of their life has had to be spent like this especially when it has been recognised that a lack of contact and lack of visitors for dementia patients is causing a detrimental affect to their long term health. 

Then for dinner tonight I made keto pizza with Ethan for the first time. This is something that the boys of the family normally make so I thought with Ethan's help I'd have a go tonight. So easy to make; a base of eggs and Mozarella cheese baked and then topped with tomato paste and tonights toppings of choice - chicken, pepperoni, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, peppers, oregano, chilli flakes and oodles of cheese on top. 

The proof was in the tasting and it was good! Tastes like pizza but without the carbs, what's not to love about that!

Now it's time to take my wine and watch RuPauls Drag Race and maybe have a little dark chocolate with a slice of banana bread!!

Take care out there.
xx

Day 108

Day 108...

Here we are at the weekend and with no alarm set I woke up relatively late for me for the first time in ages, and it felt like I'd had a pretty decent nights sleep as well.

So with a very relaxed start to the day we had breakfast and simply pottered about sorting some household chores. 

Simon has, during the day, been tinkering with the electronics part of his R2D2 build as he is now fashioning the 'twinkly' lights. All I know is that this involves LED's, fibre optics, cables, Arduinos and a laptop as he is programming the lights to do different things.

He is loving the challenge of learning something new, testing his programming muscles and creating something as accurate to the original movies as he can. It has been great to see a collaborative effort at times when his programming knowledge is not quite where he would like it to be so he has called upon Ethan to work it out together. The one downside (apart from a section of my kitchen being overtaken) is that every now and then I get asked to look what the lights are doing and because they are so bright I end up with dots in front of my eyes!

We took a little time out today to do a bit more sorting out at Simon's late mum's house as we had furniture to rearrange as well as try to get a little more clearing out completed. We also had some correspondence to sort which took a chunk of my time this afternoon.

So as today was the 4th July I thought I would share some of Simon's artwork with the followers on our Disney Dream Girls Facebook page in order to recognise Independence day. This was just one image that Simon drew as part of his 365 Mickey's project which ran from November 2010 for a whole year. A Mickey a day for a whole year with the subject matter chosen by yours truly.

Stack of 365 Mickey's!

Simon's take on Independence Day, drawn on 4th July 2011 

I then made a point of stopping, and while the daylight was still good, attempted a little more of my current jigsaw...still battling with the straight edge but a few more pieces got joined together!

And today's treat was dinner made by Simon...keto pizza...this is one he discovered a while ago so this has now become something that he makes which means I get a night off from cooking!

Pizza making in progress

So as the pubs, restaurants and hairdressers opened up we have had a pretty regular sort of day. It has been great to see businesses opening and being socially responsible I just hope that all businesses follow this lead and that the public behave themselves and obey the recommendations, but as I've said before only time will tell!

If you are out and about please do so responsibly and take care for all of our sakes.

xx