Day 565

Day 565...

Monday once more and no work for me today.

Our first job pf the day was to head off to our local recycling centre with some large items that we needed to dispose of and once that was done we returned home to finish off a little DIY.

Simon has worked hard over the last few days re-plastering walls, filling in holes, re-positioning skirting boards and staining wood and today he was able to paint the last remaining bits. And with all the DIY bits done we were able to return our bathroom back to normal by moving everything into the new cupboards and having a little sort through and a bit of  a re-organise.

With all that done we decided to pop out for coffee and enjoy some quiet time away from home just for Simon and I, a chance to stop and chat without the distractions of home.

Returning home I decided to sort another cupboard; pulling out a couple of shelves worth of stuff, throwing away items we no longer have any use for, cleaning around and putting back only what we need in a much tidier and organised fashion.

With all that done the day had rolled around to getting Molly over to her first kickboxing class of the week and as is the norm she drove us over there. She had a driving instructor lesson this morning which was her penultimate before she has her physical test next week. We are all fingers crossed that she passes as she so deserves to pass with all the practice she has put in and the fact that her skills are now really good.

And as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have been down for a few hours as I type this I'm really not sure how we're all going to cope with life...perhaps we'll have to talk to each other!!

See you tomorrow when hopefully social media will have sorted itself out!
xx

Day 470

Day 470...

Another busy day with the morning spent in work and we had decided to have a re-vamp of some of our resources to ensure that we are using everything that we have and to dispose of those we were not making good use of. Space for storing resources is a premium so we have to make sure that we making the best use of what we have and the space that we have.

The majority of my morning was then spent looking once again at cash flow forecasts. This time of year is always tricky as we try to plan and budget for the new school year starting in September. We have a number of children leaving us in a few weeks and then we need to get ourselves re-set for the group of children that will be with us in September.

I headed home at lunchtime via a local supermarket to pick up a few bits and bobs and then once I'd packed everything away it was time to take Molly out for a drive. We headed out over a route we've done the last few times which is a route she will be driving quite often as it takes her to where her kickboxing class is. The last few times driving this way we have had a couple of issues at a specific roundabout and we were determined to master it and we did...well Molly did! She had a fantastic drive today and she handled everything really well, even an ambulance coming towards us with sirens sounding!

Back home I decided to grab a coffee and some pre-school work and head outside to enjoy the sunshine while I worked. I had decided to continue with the planning work I had started this morning as there was a lot to get through and I wanted to be in a position to run through everything with my deputy manager tomorrow. Well a couple of coffee's later and I think I have done all I could do today.

By then Simon finished his work for the day and we headed off down the 'gym'. I am doing a mix of body-weight and kettle bell exercises and am determined to get back into a better routine than of late.

And that was Thursday all done...all done except for watching today's episode of RuPauls Drag Race All Stars season six!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 464 - Friday

Day 464...

And Friday has rolled around once more and for me it was another full day in work and for Simon he had an appointment with a needle...but the good kind...the tattoo kind!

But my work day was again a busy one. I was able to start the process of looking at cash-flows, budgets and more in preparation for September with my deputy manager as we begin our planning process. This then led to more figures being calculated, more notes made and more scenarios drawn up.

The rest of my day saw me chatting about the progress development of specific children and relaying important information to their key-persons; there was banking to do; admin tasks to catch up on and emails to respond to and write. There was also a little research into some new technology that we would like and although we can't afford to upgrade what we have we do have a local council grant that we can apply for which will be my first job next week.

On my way home I popped to the local supermarket to grab a few things and reminded myself of the reason why I normally call by on a Thursday lunchtime rather than a Friday teatime! The traffic alone was enough to deter me in the future for leaving any shopping until Friday.

By the time I was home Simon had also returned from his day getting inked. His tattooist Rachael Huntington lives only a few miles away and she had managed to complete yet another pin-up for Simon in about four and a half hours; this time it was a sexy incarnation of Princess Leia...

Line drawing/stencil for Simon's latest tattoo

...this sits on his inner forearm and compliments the three other pin-ups that he has, although at the moment it is wrapped in clingfilm and a little red. Pictures to follow when healed.

Then it was time to take Molly out for another drive and yet again she did really well and her confidence and intuitiveness grows each time we take her out...really proud of how well she is doing and looking forward to having an in-house taxi service in the future!!

But now it is time to make some keto pizza and then settle down with a martini to watch Star Wars: The Bad Batch and the second episode of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 6.

Take care out there.
xx

Day 461...What a Faff on!

Day 461...

Well today turned out to be a frustrating day at times!

This morning I had a message from another member of staff to say they were unwell...suffice to say I think there must be 'something' going around. Don't panic it's completely non-covid in every way!

But it did mean we were a member of staff short plus I had my deputy manager completing the second half of an online course this morning. So it was all fun and games but we got through the morning unscathed and it just meant that rather than doing my usual work stuff I was actually working the floor and working directly with the children for a change.

As our afternoon session was a lot quieter than our morning I was still able to have my usual Tuesday afternoon off. After a spot of lunch it was time to take Molly out for some more driving experience. Now she is back home for a few weeks she has paid the necessary insurance to be able to drive my car and so between Simon and I we are trying to get her out and about as much as possible. And this week we are trying different routes to mix things up a little, and she continues to impress us both.

Back home and I had intended to get the ironing pile attacked but Simon reminded me that we needed to contact Amazon to see what we could do about the missing cupboard and the damaged cupboard. We had ordered three self assembly plastic cupboards for the garage; one had arrived and has been assembled, the second arrived but has major damage to the roof section making it unusable and the third has simply never arrived.

We had been given a cut-off date for delivery of yesterday so I contacted them to ask what happens next. So the non-delivered item was easy-peasy we get a refund - done. The damaged item however can only be refunded once it has been returned and here is where the fun and games started. Amazon very kindly sent me the return label...not paid postage, just the return label. I then had to sort out the necessary postage which Amazon said they would refund in due course...that's postage to Slovakia for a 16.5kg package. Well I managed to find a carrier that would deliver to Slovakia and was charging a reasonable amount but when inputting the details they wanted a contact name, email and phone number for where it was being delivered...which I didn't have. So once again I jumped online to 'chat' with Amazon. Let's just say trying to explain what the problem was and finding a resolution to said problem was rather challenging. In the end I was advised to return the damaged item to their returns centre in Scotland and because the delivery was within the UK I managed to find a carrier that didn't want all the information that had been requested for sending to Slovakia.

So we now have a package, with paid postage, waiting to be picked up tomorrow and sent to Scotland...we should then get refunded and our postage reimbursed...let's just watch this space and see what actually happens. The downside to all of this was that it took me most of the rest of the afternoon and I am still left with a pile of ironing!

And in amongst all that I find myself getting more and more frustrated with the lockdown that we still find ourselves in. And yes whilst we can do a lot of things there are still lots of restrictions in place that impact on how we do things and on businesses that are struggling. Yet all I seem to see and hear from around the world are countries that are lifting restrictions and getting back to normal and living their lives. Because I follow lots of different Disney social media I am very aware of what's happening in the US and am constantly hearing about more restrictions getting lifted, mask mandates going, social distancing disappearing, plexi-glass screens being removed, entertainment re-starting and more. And even in Europe we are hearing of countries lifting mask mandates and more, and yet here we are in the UK with most of the adult population having antibodies to covid through either past infection or vaccination, and still we cannot live our lives fully without restriction, without guidelines, without requirements...what is going on?

We should have had our freedoms restored by now and I worry that by delaying it we may never get them back.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Friday Fun!

Day 450...

And we have reached the end of the working week.

My day was spent in work all day. I had a fair bit of admin to catch up on as well as more prep work for another new starter who starts with us next week. So it was a pretty productive and straight forward sort of day.

Once home and with a coffee inside me it was time to take Molly out for another drive. We stuck to our standard route with a slight deviation to the latter part. We had to contend with 'tea-time' traffic, buses, parked cars, a van stopping to pick up diversion road signs and a paramedic vehicle with sirens going! But Molls did brilliantly and I can tell how much more instinctive her driving is becoming.

Home again and it was time for another coffee and a little time to stop, check my own emails (okay I checked work emails as well!) and then start cooking dinner.

Molly's fella has arrived this evening and they have lots of plans for the weekend before they go to his house for the coming week.

And then social media this evening is rife with the news that our coming out of lockdown on 21st June is looking extremely, highly unlikely and that the date could now be 19th July - what? We have hospitality and other small business all on the brink of collapse. Small and medium sized businesses are just about to start re-paying the loans that they were given to see them through lockdown...how can they do that if they cannot open fully? We have deaths with a positive covid test at less than 10 a day...do they know how many people die each day normally? Do they know that we have hundreds of deaths from cancer and heart conditions each and every day yet we don't stop living our lives because of that! 

We need to start living life as we have always done, we need to ditch the masks and the social distancing and get back to what we used to do...enjoying ourselves!!

Take care and see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 449

Day 449...

Well I forgot to mention at the end of yesterday's post that we were getting ready to watch the latest Marvel series on Disney +; Loki. And I have to say it has started brilliantly, although I may be a bit biased as I think Tom Hiddleston is great!!

But back to today and this morning was spent in work and I felt like I managed to get a lot of things done. Along with the usual admin and banking update I also had some prep work to complete ahead of a new starter next week.

On my way home I popped by a local supermarket to pick up a few things we were short on. A local business has agreed to put up a banner advertising pre-school and I saw it for the first time today and I have to say it looked fabulous (helps when I have someone arty in the family to design this for me!!).

Once home and shopping packed away it was time to take Molly out for another drive and yet again she did really well, although it was slightly annoying having to sit at the railway crossing and wait for three trains to go through before we could be on our way.

Back home again and I took a few minutes to sit outside and enjoy a coffee before tackling the mundane task of the ironing. I also dipped into some work emails as I was chatting with a parent about a child needing a place with us and I like to respond to these emails as quickly as I can.

I then had some emails of mine own to go back and forth with as we are hoping to revamp our bathroom and sort out our never ending problematic shower. Thankfully I have found a local company who, so far, have responded promptly to all my questions, have visited us to assess and measure up and have provided quotes quickly and efficiently. So I have now booked in to go see their showroom next week so we can start the process of getting our bathroom sorted once and for all.

The day ended with a little home gym workout and while Simon and Molly lifted the heavy stuff I stuck to my usual bodyweight exercises and a few kettlebell ones too.

Take care and see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 441

Day 441...

Well after another night of rubbish sleep - thanks menopause! - we were a little late getting moving this morning but once up and about it turned into a busy and productive day.

First job of the day was to take Molly out for another drive. As she has insurance paid for a couple of weeks we are aiming to get her out and about at least once a day. We have found a route of around 15 miles which provides her with lots of different circumstances; left turns, right turns, parked cars, traffic lights, roundabouts, a railway crossing, busy roads and quieter roads and we even had roadworks today.

Back home I decided to do a little pre-school work to get ahead of myself so that when I'm back in work next week I can hit the ground running, so to speak. So I managed to write two newsletters, schedule emails and social media posts as well as completing all the necessary administration for two children who will be starting with us next week.

After a spot of lunch it was time to get the mountain of ironing sorted; I had hoped to get it done earlier in the day while it was a bit cooler but as it was it wasn't too bad and it is always a lovely feeling to see an empty basket. Not that it will stay empty for long!

Molly has spent a good part of her day taking photographs of some of her latest artwork that will be for sale on her Etsy store. She has created some lino prints and having printed them earlier in the week she was now photographing them ready for listing them. This did mean the dining table turned into a photography studio for a few hours but it did mean that I could borrow her light boxes later on for my own photography project!

The majority of my afternoon and early evening was spent using an app called Photomyne to scan our old photos and create a digital version of them. Simon had used the app last year to scan in around 3000 photos from his parents so we have decided to do the same with ours to cut down on the amount of storage space that photo albums take up. So I started at a random point and have managed to scan in around 60 photos from 1988! Once they'd been scanned it was a case of uploading them and then editing each photo with as much information as I could. Thankfully I used to write on the back of the photos any pertinent information; dates, places and even names of people...I just hope that continues as I wade through all the photos we have. I have from 1985 up to around the early 2000's I would think...wish me luck as I think this may take some time!

Take care and see you tomorrow.
xx

Check-Up Tuesday

Day 440...

Well first thing this morning I was up and out as I had an appointment for my eye test...it was actually due late last year but with everything cracking off I'd just not gotten around to booking one in.

As it was everything checked out great. I was told I have great 20:20 vision, my eyes are healthy and my prescription for reading has hardly changed and my distance vision has even improved a little. So with a clean bill of health I decided to keep to the glasses I have now and headed home.

I then ended up trying to research some local bathroom fitters as we have a leaky shower that we are desperate to get put right, or replaced. A couple of enquiries that I'd made over the weekend had proved unsuccessful with one company saying they would only handle a complete bathroom re-fit and so declined our business...whatever!

Around lunchtime I took Molly out for another drive and again she is doing really well. It is so hard to remember what is was like to learn to drive and I now have a new found respect for driving instructors and I will attempt to be a little more patient with learner drivers in the future. As I said to Molly later there is a fine line between me 'telling her what to do' and 'telling her how to do something'.

My afternoon was then spent catching-up with the pre-school accounts for the last half term. Thankfully the accounts balanced straight away but when I came to input everything into my spreadsheet it just wouldn't agree...so frustrating!

But I had to stop halfway through as we, as a family, had a dentist appointment for our usual check-up. We should have had this check-up last August but as the country was just starting to re-open we were asked if we could delay it by six months which we did. Six months later and our appointment was moved by the dentist due to 'unforeseen circumstances' but the date which they had given us didn't work for all of us so it had been moved until today. But we all checked out okay, although it was interesting to note that while normally we would have been offered the option to have our teeth cleaned this did not happen today, which I can only presume is because of the current covid secure requirements!

Back home again and it was back at the accounts which thankfully I was able to reconcile with just a little investigation which means the biggest chunk of my pre-school work for this week has been completed - whoop!

It was then time to head down the 'gym' to finish our day and while Simon and Molly lifted the heavy weights I kept to my body-weight exercises and a few kettle bell ones.

Take care out there.
xx

Bank Holiday Shenanigans

Day 439...

Today was bank holiday Monday here in the UK but for Simon and I it was like any other Monday as neither of us work a Monday ordinarily.

So the day started as usual with the collection of our weekly grocery shop. Once everything was put away Simon had a helmet order to finish off and I decided to venture out into the garden to tidy up a few of our plants that were getting a little 'wild'!

With a refuse bin full of branches and Simon's helmet build all completed it was time for a spot of lunch before taking Molly out for another drive around. She is doing so well; getting more used to the car, understanding how to approach junctions and obstacles and hopefully she is gaining in her own confidence. Our little drive about ended up with a quick visit to my dad which meant that Molly had to reverse the car for the first time when we came to go home; which she did brilliantly.

Back home we had some more re-organising to do. There were some items in the loft that needed to be brought down and then other items that needed storing in our garage. So we keep moving things about in the hope that eventually we will reach a point where everything is tidy and organised.

Simon also gave me a quick tutorial of using an app called Photomyne. Simon used this a few months ago to scan all the photographs that we had inherited from his parents so that we now have digital photographs rather than the physical ones that take up so much space in albums. We have now decided to do the same with ours and I'm hoping to have the time this week to make a big dent in the albums that we have collated over the 35 years that we have been together!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Saturday Driving

Day 437...

And we have a Saturday and the first day of my week off from work.

Well it started with a trip to our local recycling centre, before we'd even had breakfast! We had a car load of wood as a result of disassembling an Ikea sideboard that we no longer needed and decided that getting over there early would be the best approach before it got too busy. It turned out that was the right approach as within five minutes of us arriving it had gone from a couple of cars to a full site with a queue!

It was then back home for breakfast before heading out again to take Molly to her guitar lesson and a drive thru' coffee for us. I am still amazed at the number of people who wear a mask when out in the fresh air and even more so at the number wearing masks to drive, never mind those who are driving on their own! Who are they protecting and from what?!

Home once more and it was time to sort out some car insurance so that Molly can drive my car while she is learning to drive. Having passed her theory driving test earlier last week, and having a date for her practical test later this year, we thought it would be a good idea for her to be able to drive my car and get some extra experience. The great thing is we have found an insurance where we can pay for the just the time we need so we were able to set it up for just a couple of weeks while Molly is at home before she heads off to her fella's house again for a short while.

This did mean that this afternoon the 'L plates' went on my car...

...and Molly took us out for a short drive. We found a route that was around 15 miles and gave Molly about 40 minutes worth of driving. She did really well especially as this was her first time driving this car and she was not used to all the controls. Hopefully, we can find her time to get out driving each day to build up her confidence. It's not until you have to explain how you drive that you realise just how much of what you do is instinctual!

After a coffee in the sunshine we decided to do a little measuring up of available space in our garage for possible storage solutions. Having emptied the living room and Simon's workspace for the laying of our new wood floor a few weeks back we had decided to re-look at some of the 'stuff' we have and undertake some re-organisation. I think over the course of the next couple of days we will be having a sort through of the garage, de-cluttering and figuring out just what space we need and how best to store everything. We have a lot of 'stuff' we need to get sorted and it's just figuring out where best to start!

Suffice to say this all ended with a trip to Ikea to buy more storage boxes...although we also came away with a table lamp, a drawer tidy tray and a new saucepan!! But we also have plenty of boxes now to better store all our 'stuff', so that it will be organised, contained and will be kept clean and tidy.

My task for the week ahead will be to go through all of our photo albums and digitise all the photos, remove said photos from the album and then dispose of the actual albums. They take up so much space at the moment and we very rarely go through them so to have them all as a digital copy will be much better and I think (hope) we will be more inclined to look at them.

By the time we returned from Ikea (we had purposefully visited early evening to avoid the heavy crowds) it was time to cook dinner which meant a quick chicken curry with low carb naan bread. And now it is time for red wine, feet up and maybe some very dark chocolate.

Take care.
xx