Day 631 - Birthday!

Day 631...

It's my birthday!!

And whilst it may not strictly be a 'lockdown' birthday it is my second birthday during this pandemic that does not feel as it is ought to feel!

My day was spent with a morning in work and an afternoon at home. Work was my usual Thursday management catch-up with my deputy manager as we discuss what we need to be doing to move us forever forward as a pre-school.

Arriving at home and there were more workmen on site laying the cabling for our electric car charging station and connecting the supply to our house. All that is left to be done now is to actually install the charging station...when that happens though is anyone's guess! But we are much closer now to getting it all sorted and our new car being delivered.

I left the opening of my birthday presents till late in the day as there wasn't time first thing this morning and I think it's fair to say that family and friends know me pretty well...Disney...dark chocolate...jigsaw and a bottle of red wine!

Treats from the girls at work

From the girls at work

From my podcast co-host Michelle

And with that I will sign off for today to put my feet up with the aforementioned chocolate and red wine.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Another Birthday...in lockdown

Day 424...

So we have another 'lockdown birthday' and today it was Simon's turn and for him this is lockdown birthday number two!

So while we are easing out of lockdown there are still enough restrictions in place to mean that life is not back to normal by a long way yet. We are only allowed to dine outside and as the weather this May has chosen to be rather wet and chilly that isn't an enjoyable option at the moment. But, from tomorrow, indoor hospitality is able to open up...providing masks are worn when not seated and that you 'check-in' for track and trace. And I would guess because of the 'guidelines' in place that most venues will be unable to operate at full capacity; such a worrying time for anyone working in the hospitality sector.

Interestingly over in the US face coverings and social distancing are slowly being eased with anyone who has been fully vaccinated no longer having to wear a mask, anywhere. Even in Walt Disney World they have removed the need to wear masks outdoors which is great news and will make wandering around in the Florida heat a much more pleasant experience.

But back here we have had a very chilled and slow day while we watched the blue skies turn dark and rain fall and then back to blue and then repeat all over again. There was the customary giving of presents followed by coffee and looking through one of Simon's gifts; The Art of Galaxy's Edge which is a fascinating book with some amazing concept art.

Before Molly headed off to spend the next week at her boyfriend's house she made Simon a birthday cake...a low carb, rich, dark chocolate cake; basically eggs, butter and chocolate. This is one of our favourite low carb treats and goes great with a few berries and some cream.

So Molly headed off and then we realised that she'd left her birthday cake here rather than take it with her. So a quick message and we managed to catch them before they joined the motorway so they did a quick about turn to head back to collect it!

We have had a sort through of some of our books today as part of our reorganisation following the new flooring going down last week. I managed to throw out some old cookery books that I haven't used in years which meant I could reorganise my book case and make space for some of my many Disney books. This means that they are now closer to hand and hopefully this will encourage me to read more of them, more often.

Next we had a couple of errands to run; a parcel to drop at the post office and then a quick stop by the house we lease out to complete the repair we had started yesterday. Thanks to the power of Amazon we had been able to order the part we needed yesterday and it arrived today.

The rest of the day has been quiet with Simon spending a little time doing some more digital artwork, a very chilled out birthday. And now with a drink in hand it's time to watch this week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under along with a piece of Simon's birthday cake.

Take care.
xx

Birthday Celebrations

Day 420...

We have reached the middle of the week and today it has been Molly's birthday and she is no longer a teenager - eek! Yet again Molly has another birthday in 'lockdown' and while this year the lockdown is easing it is still not a proper birthday for her. She is having some friends around at the weekend but they will be outside in the garden as unfortunately the next installment of easing restrictions does not happen until Monday!! So frustrating!!

We had the customary opening of presents and cards this morning before the working day began. I have had a full day in actual work and have been kept busy once again.

Lots of admin, banking, phone calls, emails and a newsletter to issue. Then myself and my deputy got together as we are working our way through a couple of pieces of legislation to make sure that as a pre-school we are doing everything we need to be doing in the best way possible. As an educational establishment we have a curriculum to follow, which will be changing in September, and we are also inspected by our governing body, Ofsted. So as the management team it is our responsibility to review all of our practices on a regular basis to ensure that all that we do is meeting all of the requirements. We also review to ensure that we are as efficient as we can be and that the level of education that we offer is second to none; we are very passionate about ensuring that children attending our pre-school start their education journey in the best way possible.

Not long after I'd arrived home me and Molly had to nip out in search of a parcel that had supposedly been delivered today. On inspecting the tracking information it looks like the parcel has been delivered to the same street name as ours but in the wrong village...this is something that has happened before so we decided to investigate. Unfortunately no-one was home when we called but with a little investigation work I have worked out that the person who lives there is actually related to a friend of mines husband (small world or what!). So I am now in the process of enlisting my friends help to ascertain if the parcel has in fact been delivered there in error!

Home again and I had a couple of work emails to deal with, a little research for pre-school and some time looking for some specific photos ahead of another birthday tomorrow!! And then as it's Molly's birthday we decided to celebrate with an Indian take-away for dinner, so no cooking for me tonight! Oh and of course birthday cake that Molly made herself!

And today means it is now just one more sleep until I get my hair cut and coloured...it's been a long wait since the 21st December and I am so looking forward to a complete refresh.

Take care,
xx

Day 311...A Saturday...

Day 311...

Saturday has rolled around again and as to be expected it has been another quiet day.

We did make more of an effort to be up and about at a half decent time this morning and once breakfast was out the way we put on our wellies and headed out for a walk.

It was a very chilly morning and we had a fair few snow flurries while we were out walking. We headed in the direction of the next village and my brother's house. It was his wife's birthday today so we decided to stop by with a card and pressie and say 'hello'.

We enjoyed a suitably distanced chat on the doorstep putting the world to rights before heading back home via one of the local cafe's to pick up a coffee to sustain us on our walk home. It almost felt like we were doing something akin to 'normal'!

The afternoon was spent with Simon working on a logo design that he has been commissioned to do from one of his clients in the US and I decided to make the most of the daylight and get my latest jigsaw completed...

...Disney and Christmas what's not to like about that. I do love doing these bright and cheerful Disney ones and being able to find matching pieces so easily because I know the characters so well. I have another Christmas and Disney jigsaw that I might just start next!

Before I knew it the light had faded and the evening was upon us. Another uneventful day in the midst of all this crazy. 

Take care out there.

xx

Another Lockdown Birthday

Day 281...

And it's Christmas Eve but also in this house it's our eldest, Ethan's, birthday. 

My not so little boy arrived on Christmas Eve, although my due date had been New Years Day. I was admitted following my routine ante-natal appointment with pre-eclampsia and about ten hours later Ethan was born to the sound of carol singers...singing 'Away in a Manger'...I kid you not! And as Simon reminded me today I gave birth in full make-up, freshly done nails and Christmas earrings!

Well the glamourous birth was then followed by five days in hospital while Ethan recovered from jaundice and I waited for my blood levels to get back to where they should be.

Over the last few years we have developed a tradition for birthdays and Christmas of having Mickey waffles for breakfast and today was no exception...

Waffle Maker

Mickey Waffles...served with bacon, sausage, maple syrup and ice-cream

Next we had a delivery...from the dairy I have been using each week for milk and eggs, we had taken advantage of some Christmas offerings and along with a locally made pork pie we also received this amazing looking ice-cream cake...

Inside the white chocolate outside is devilishly chocolate ice-cream and it comes with two little pots of ice-cream sprinkles!! How cute does this look? 

The rest of the day has been spent getting things ready for tomorrow; making apple sauce to go with the pork, remembering to get the pork out of the freezer to defrost and peeling potatoes (which only happens once a year in this house as being low carb we don't usually have potatoes...in fact this is a treat for the kids!!).

Later on this afternoon we went for a rather chilly walk just as the light was fading so we could see all the Christmas lights around where we live. Just a couple of miles but such a lovely festive thing to do.

All wrapped up for a chilly evening walk

And Simon has been making more progress with his R2D2 build by assembling parts and it's beginning to really take shape now...

And as it was Ethan's birthday he had the choice for dinner this evening and he made the excellent choice of Indian take-away from a local restaurant who are having to rely on deliveries at the moment.

So all things considered a pretty decent day.

Take care out there.

xx

Another Lockdown Birthday

Day 266...

Yes we have another birthday during these strange and unprecedented times and this time it's mine! As a lady I won't reveal my age, let's just say I'm not 21 anymore!

I have a wonderful team of work colleagues which meant that although I was in work this morning I was able to take the afternoon off.

Yesterday's baking efforts were a special delivery for my team...some, hopefully yummy, rocky road muffins!

I decided to leave the opening of presents and cards until later in the day when I could better enjoy it, but I feel very loved and thankful to have received some very lovely and thoughtful presents.

My work team surprised me with this gorgeous necklace and little did they know that I have been eyeing up this necklace for years!

My very good friend and podcast co-host Michelle not only got me one of my all time favourite chocolate bars (Cadbury's Old Jamaica) and a Star Wars t-shirt but she got me this absolutely adorable Figment hanging decoration.

Simon, along with a couple of t-shirts, had bought me this amazing Disney book that I'd been wanting for a while...Disney and holidays, there is no better combination.

I like that Molly and Ethan are optimistic about the year ahead as they bought me a calendar and diary...Disney of course!

And as look would have it I received my Hotel Chocolat subscription today...dark chocolate of course...

...and this gorgeous pair of cute bambi-esq, festive, glittery earrings that I ordered after I'd fell in love with the design on an Instagram post also arrived!

I was very blessed to see in person one of my closest friends who I haven't seen since this whole COVID thing started as she dropped by with a card and pressie. It was lovely to chat, all be it outside in the cold, and catch-up just a little bit. Plus she knows me too well as her pressie was a Christmas themed jigsaw!

And when I arrived home at lunchtime I found that Molly had baked me a cake...my favourite low carb dark chocolate cake which I am going to enjoy with some raspberries and a generous helping of double cream.

And that is where I am going to leave todays post...it's my birthday and I can do what I want...I have another glass of red wine calling me and chocolate cake to eat! Happy Birthday to me!

Take care.

xx

Lockdown Birthday

Day 245...

Well today we celebrate two birthdays; firstly that of Mickey Mouse and secondly and most importantly my dad.

But it was still a work day and this morning I set to sorting through my 'to do' list to catch up on a number of tasks for work. And my day revolved around those jobs dipping in and out at times to get other stuff done but my main focus was trying to get on top of 'work' stuff.

We took a walk out at lunchtime and headed out over the fields for a 40 minute walk in very blustery, but thankfully dry, conditions.

Before I re-started work this afternoon I decided to make a low carb, dark chocolate cake for my dad's birthday. This is a very dense chocolate cake made with 85% dark chocolate, butter, eggs and vanilla essence; very yummy and goes great with some cream and raspberries.

While I was baking I decided to video chat with Molly as we had been chatting all morning via text about possible changes and improvements to her Shutter Studios website. She was debating about whether to opt for a different website platform and weighing up the various options as ultimately she would like to be able to sell her products via her own website. Lots of things to consider and lots of differing costs options.

She also showed me some Christmas Cards that she has had printed and is thinking of putting onto her Etsy store; must admit I am thinking of ordering some myself from her because they are really very good.

The afternoon rolled along and I was pleased to get everything done today that I had wanted to get done; still more to do but happy that I had achieved what I'd set out to do.

It was then time to fetch my dad and bring him back to our house for dinner. My dad doesn't often venture our way and it was lovely to be able to persuade him to come visit for a couple of hours. We had a little video chat with Molly while dinner was cooking and then after we introduced my dad to the low carb chocolate cake which was pretty well received.

So a day of birthdays, cake and good company.

Take care out there.
xx

Busy Saturday

Day 199...

We had a steady, but purposeful, start to the day today. We had a few 'tasks' to get completed that time to do them during the week seemed to have eluded us.

There were phone calls to make, more online selling queries, selling pictures to post and Simon had some 3D printing to 'get going' as he makes more modifications to his mouse droid project.

The great news was that Molly's boyfriend arrived mid-morning! Phew! Smiles all around and birthday weekend celebrations for him could now go ahead unhindered.

Molly had her usual Saturday morning guitar lesson for which this week she had her own personal taxi service in the shape of her fella. 

We then braved the very wet weather to nip out and get some keys cut for our 'other house' that we are now renting out. As it was going to take a little while to get them cut we headed for a coffee...which meant queuing outside in the rain and seemed to take an inordinate amount of time, especially when you consider we only drink black coffee!

We arrived back home with keys and coffee at the same time as Molly returned home from her guitar lesson. A quick stop for lunch and then it was on with the afternoon. Molly had booked tickets for her and Dan to go ice skating; her fella is a very good skater and this has helped Molly rekindle her skating efforts and since meeting Dan her skating has improved immensely. This was the first time either of them had been able to ice skate since lockdown was introduced. Luckily for us we live close to a very good ice centre who had been able to re-open a few weeks ago, by all accounts they had a great time and Molly only fell over the once!

Simon decided to email the tenants who have just moved into our 'other house' to introduce ourselves and ask about any pieces of furniture that they wanted removing. Then I started some prep work for making dinner this evening while Simon fixed a resource that I had brought home from pre-school...basically a large, wooden, counting frame that needed making more secure.

While we were doing that we had a phone call from our new tenants...wanting to let us know about the pieces of furniture they didn't need. The strange thing was he hadn't seen the email that Simon had sent him 20 minutes earlier...spooky!

So the rest of our afternoon was spent travelling between home and our 'other house' (thankfully only a few miles away) to bring some of the smaller pieces of furniture back to ours. I think these will be appearing online for sale in the next day or so as it's proving to be a great way to move them on to somewhere else where they will be appreciated.

After about three trips back and forth our garage that we had cleared out yesterday is now very full again...better get on with that online selling malarkey!

Then our evening has been filled with party food, birthday cake, ice-cream and smiles. It has been lovely to see Molly and Dan getting to spend the time together they had been so looking forward to, that had at times this week seemed so far out of reach. A little ray of normality in this strange world we are living in at the moment.

Take care, enjoy the weekend safely...keep your distance, wash your hands and wear a mask.

xx

Plans get Scuppered

Day 195...

A day in work today and a fairly standard sort of work day for me; admin bits to sort, banking to update and some online ordering to be done.

Once home I walked in to find a freshly brewed pot of coffee waiting for me and then promptly set about uploading more bits and pieces onto Ebay. I will get through this pile of stuff that I have acquired...one way or another!

Molly has had a rough day today as her plans for the weekend and next week have all just been thrown up in the air. Her boyfriends car failed its MOT today (for any non-UK readers, this is a road safety inspection that cars over 3 years old have to have each year and without a valid certificate you are not allowed to drive it). Normally if a car fails its MOT then there maybe some minor repairs needed to get it roadworthy and safe but not in this case. It was an older car anyway but the suspension at the rear has failed completely and the garage would not even let the car be driven away. So with no car and him living 170 miles away all plans are now on hold. It's such bad timing as it is his birthday weekend and they had made plans for the weekend and next week and had even booked activities to do...suffice to say Molly is one sad lady this evening. They had to miss Molly's birthday back in May because of lockdown and they were both so looking forward to being able to spend this one together.

There have been slight glimmers of hope as the day drawed on, as he has now been offered a loan of a car; so there may still be chance that he can make it this weekend and they get the chance to spend some time together but we will just have to wait and see. So not fair!!

My inbox has been pinging all evening with offers for a few of the pieces I had listed on Ebay this afternoon so I think the next few days are going to be interesting to watch and see what happens.

And that's where we leave today...I have everything crossed that Molly and her fella can get something sorted out...2020 has not been a good year...can we not just switch it off and on again to see if we get a better result?

Take care whatever you may be doing, keep your distance and wear a mask.
xx

Day 59

Day 59...

And we had another lockdown birthday today, and this time it was Simon's.

So we have had a very relaxed day that started with presents and cards; I had done another piece of artwork in lieu of a card and made Simon a low carb birthday cake - a peanut butter & jelly cake. The sponge was made with peanut butter and sandwiched with homemade raspberry chia jam and fresh cream!

My birthday artwork - The Mandalorian & The Child (Baby Yoda)

Low carb peanut butter & jelly cake

Simon also managed to sell a helmet today so we were able to send that out in the post as well before having our afternoon walk. We took one of our longer routes today, just over 4 miles which we completed in about 1 hour 30 minutes and were surprised by the amount of people who were out and about. I guess as it's the weekend people must be looking for something to do and so going for a walk in the countryside must fit that bill. Most people were considerate and smiled or spoke but yet again we had a couple of instances where we moved over to one side of the path and walked single file and others just carried on and made no effort to show any consideration whatsoever - so annoying!

Even the cows in this field were socially distancing from each other

And while having a lovely day there is still this virus hanging over us and in particular the return of schools early next month. Listening to the government today I have never heard anything so patronising and quite frankly ridiculous. Of course teachers want children back at school, of course teachers want to see their children again and get those children back into school life BUT it MUST be safe for everyone - children, parents and all staff. 

Very young children cannot socially distance; they are naturally tactile beings who like to 'get into everything', to get mucky, to have a cuddle and who have little, if any, regard for hygiene so how the powers that be think that these very young children can adhere to the guidelines and experience school in a proper manner is beyond me. Going to school under these circumstances will not be like going to school normally and that maybe as traumatising for some as being at home. Teachers will not be teaching they will need to reintegrate these children and help them cope with a new way of schooling, one where they cannot sit with their best friend or even be in the same room as their friends, they may even end up with a different teacher. There are so many factors to take into account and I fear that those making these decisions have no real idea of what teaching young children is actually all about.

Just today it was announced that 2 schools in my local education authority have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in both schools having to close and staff and children having to self isolate. These schools were only open for key worker's children which will be a much smaller number than when schools open for the recommended year groups, and one of these schools is about 4 miles away from me. Prove to staff and parents that it is safe to open and we will do, but at the moment there seems to be a lack of scientific evidence that will put our minds at ease.

Take care out there,

xx