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

Day 456...off 'out, out'

Day 456...

Today was another day of two halves.

My morning was spent in work and my focus was getting some prep work done for the children who are leaving us in a few weeks time at the end of the academic year.

Due to the covid restrictions being extended we have made the decision not to hold a 'leavers celebration' but will instead have a fun final week with lots of games and treats. But we will still be giving out our traditional leavers gifts; each child will receive a book and a special scroll. The scroll has a poem which is personalised for each child with a photo of when they started and another of them now. My job this morning was to track down all the 'starting' photos and begin the creation of the individual scrolls. I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be a much easier job than I had been expecting.

I was also able to draft a questionnaire for all our parents, which is something we do about once a year as a way to ensure that we are doing everything to the best of our abilities as well as canvas for any suggestions. I just have to email these out now so that our parents can complete online and avoid the need for lots of photocopying!

The afternoon was then spent at home and my main job of the afternoon was to organise my butchers delivery that had turned up this morning; 5kg of chicken, 5kg steak mince, 10 burgers, 6 sirloin steaks, 4.5kg bacon and 100 sausages! Lots of splitting into meal sized portions and then putting away in the freezer, which always takes me longer than I think it should.

Despite the grey clouds it has still been a warm day today and I thought I would sit outside with a coffee for ten minutes and enjoy the outdoors, and the quiet and 'be at one with nature'. Okay I may be being a little facetious but no sooner than I had sat down the local pigeons decided to let me know I was invading their territory. I'm not sure if they were squabbling with each other, or getting a little frisky, but my 'quiet coffee' was far from quiet and at times I thought they were trying to dive-bomb me. Eventually they seemed to calm down and it was nice to sit and enjoy the calm of the air. It had that eerie feeling this afternoon, that sense of a storm brewing when everything is overtly still and the air just seems to hang in anticipation of something to come.

And then it was time for me to get ready to go out...out! The team from work were all going out for a meal at a local restaurant, for no special reason other than we could. It was nice to be out and enjoying the surroundings of somewhere different and enjoying some lovely food. I managed to stay as low carb as I could by having an asparagus starter with fried egg and hollandaise sauce followed by steak with peppercorn sauce. The main course did come with some 'rustic fries' so while I left the majority I did have a couple of them but to be honest the steak was so nice and filling the fries were really not needed.

And then it was home and time for a cup of tea. Take care.
xx

Day 455...Wednesday once more

Day 455...

Well, we have reached another Wednesday and another full day in work for me.

My morning was split between working the floor and carrying on with my usual admin tasks. We had a member of staff working with a speech and language therapist over zoom this morning so I was needed on the floor working directly with the children which is not what I usually get to do.

The afternoon was spent with my deputy manager as we went over the long term plan for the next academic year as well as discussing what we have left to do this year (5 weeks left). We also chatted about our leavers celebration that we would normally hold and how this year it would be different. We are constrained not only by the small numbers of leavers but also by the recently announced extension to the current covid restrictions.

Once home it was time to have a coffee and take five minutes to myself before jumping online to record an episode of the Disney Dream Girls podcast that will be released this coming weekend.

And while I was recording Simon decided to write a letter to our local MP about the current situation here in the UK. The fact that the promised emergence from lockdown on the 21st June has now been taken away from us and extended until the 19th July. And depending on who you believe this may or may not happen and it may well be that plans are afoot to instigate further lockdowns in the Autumn and Winter of this year.

It is so infuriating at the moment. I have friends in the US where it would appear that most states are now fully re-open and are doing so at a relatively quick pace. I follow all the Disney news and parks are lifting mask mandates, removing social distancing markers, getting rid of plexi-glass screening and are now scheduling nightly fireworks for the first time in over 15 months. Even in France they have announced that the mask mandate will be removed as from tomorrow and their curfew will be lifted on Sunday, 10 days earlier than planned....and yet here in the UK...

As I've said before this virus is not going anywhere we need to learn to live with it and take sensible precautions that we as individuals assess we need to do. Let us make our own risk assessment and let us get on with our lives and life them to the fullest extent possible.

Take care, see you tomorrow.
xx

Busy Monday

Day 453...

So our first job of the day was to collect the weekly grocery shopping and then when we got it all home to sort it out between what was ours, what was my dad's and the bits I'd bought on behalf of pre-school.

While we had a quick coffee Simon did a little online research as we are thinking about laying a floor in the garage to keep it as dust free and as easy to keep clean as possible. This will help Simon with his prop making as well as making it a nicer place to be for our home gym.

But with that done we jumped in the car and had a quick stop by my dad's house to drop off his shopping and make sure that he was doing okay. Then we headed off to a local bathroom showroom to talk all things bathroom! 

We have a very dodgy shower that is constantly leaking and despite thinking we had found the problem, numerous times, it is still leaking and we also have a basin with a rather large crack that needs replacing. But having spoken to the company a week ago we have decided that replacing just those bits will cause just as much work as having the whole bathroom refitted. So after much deliberation we have decided to do just that! Today we were able to go over all the different fittings that we want and schedule an installation date of early September. And I have to say I am rather excited by it all and I think it will look very swish and modern when it is all done.

Back home and with a quick stop for lunch we headed out to the garage to carry on with painting our garage walls. We have made good progress and despite having to pop out for more paint we have almost finished; we just have a small section to finish off. The only disappointing thing has been that we were due a delivery of the storage cupboards we'd ordered but nothing has arrived. The delivery should have happened on Friday but didn't and got pushed to today but as I type nothing has arrived!

And then we rounded out the day with the confirmation that our lockdown will not now end on the 21st June but has been extended four weeks until the 19th July - WTF! Why? I really don't understand. We are in the warmer weather and it is known that it is a seasonal virus and will naturally not be as prevalent at the moment. We have daily deaths and hospitalisations as low as they are ever likely to be, the NHS is not overrun and we need to get our freedoms and lives back. There are other countries, and lots of states in the US, that are back to 'normal' and have seen no great effect on their numbers. Places like Sweden have never had the strict measures that we have had and have had no worse an outcome, in fact their economy has not suffered as much so you could argue they have done better. 

We now have small and medium sized businesses on the brink of collapse, waiting lists for operations at an all time high, missed or delayed diagnosis of horrible conditions, rising abuse figures, mental health problems on the increase and I could go on. We need to accept that this is another disease that we have to learn to live with, that we have to take care of ourselves, take sensible precautions (as we should anyway) and get our lives back, get our freedoms back and be able to live again.

Take care, see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 452...Sunday

Day 452...

And we have a Sunday.

My first job, as usual, was to update my online grocery shop ready for collection tomorrow morning. It was then time to wave Molly and her fella on their way as they are spending this next week at his house which is about three hours away.

We then had the very glamorous job of taking the car full of rubbish from yesterday's garage clear out to our local recycling centre. And with the car emptied it was back home to start filling it up with more rubbish!

Our afternoon was spent mainly in the garage clearing out yet more stuff and moving things that hadn't been moved in years! We moved the freezer and binned the wood that it had been sitting on and replaced it with some newer pieces that would give a little more air flow around it. Once we'd moved the freezer and the remaining shelf unit we decided to repaint the garage walls. We had picked up some white paint on the way home and in a couple of hours have managed to paint the back wall and about a third of the side walls. Still some way to go but it is looking better already and hopefully when our new storage cupboards arrive we will have a much smarter, tidier and organised garage.

My Sunday was rounded out with our Disney Dream Girls Disney quiz via Zoom and as I set half of the questions this week (Marvel focused with help from Simon) it did mean that next week's questions will be set by someone else.

And that's where I'm going to leave it for today. Time for some drag race on the telly, feet up, wine and chocolate.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Sorting Out Saturday

Day 451...

And the weekend has arrived.

After breakfast Simon took Molly out for another drive to make the most of the insurance she had paid for as it ran out at lunchtime today. It was the first time Simon had taken her out in a few days and he really noticed how much she has come on and how confident and instinctive she is now driving.

Next on the agenda was to pay a visit to the house we rent out to fix the kitchen sink tap. We had replaced the washers a few weeks back but it still wasn't right so we had bought a new tap to replace. Unfortunately, the connections to the pipes were not the same so we couldn't do what we had thought would be an easy job. Instead we had to place a call with a plumber we know to come out and do the work for us.

On the way home we decided to stop by a local coffee shop for a couple of take-out coffees. This is the cafe that we would walk to most Saturdays prior to things opening back up and we wanted to stop by and say hello. Chatting to the owner they seem to be doing okay and are as busy as they can be with the current restrictions in place.

Back home we decided that this afternoons job was to tackle the garage. And by tackle the garage I mean have a good sort out and create some space ready for the new plastic storage cupboards that are due any day now. By the time we had finished early evening we had removed and demolished an old wardrobe that we had been using as storage as well as three quarters of a shelving unit. Suffice to say we now have the room for the new storage and a garage floor full of items that will need a new home once the storage arrives. A dusty and sweaty afternoon but one which was very productive.

And to finish the day I made low carb garlic bread and low carb naan bread to go with an Indian chicken stir-fry. Healthy options and very yummy...well there was none left so I presume it was liked by all!

Take care.
xx

Day 447...Tuesday

Day 447...

Today I was back at work after a weeks holiday and my main job of the morning was that of technical support as one of my staff had some training to complete online,via 'Teams', for the first time.

I set everything up and powered on the laptop and all looked fine but when I tried to access my email or open up a web page the laptop did nothing, it just sat there...thinking about it. This was not what I wanted, or needed, and resulted in having to force it to shut down restart while grabbing an old, spare, laptop as back-up in case I couldn't get it working. Thankfully, after much grumbling from yours truly, I managed...somehow...to get it up and working and logged onto the course with plenty of time to spare - phew!

This has been one benefit from the past 15 months of lockdown is the transfer of in-person courses to courses delivered virtually. It means that the course can still be delivered; it can be delivered to more people than would normally attend an in-person event which means a wider audience can be reached at once; the attendee does not have to travel anywhere; the attendee can 'attend' the course in the comfort of their own surroundings and on this occasion have a decent cup of tea brought to them by my good self!

My morning was spent with my staff and the children outside in the sunshine while being on stand-by should any technical difficulties be encountered, which thankfully there weren't. 

My afternoon was then spent at home, and after a little pre-school work of checking emails and updating a couple of things, I was able to take Molly out for another drive. Her skills are definitely improving as she is reacting much more instinctively to the road around her and I am so proud of how she is getting on. Back home and it was time for coffee outside in the sunshine before a little prep work ahead of podcast recording later on.

It was lovely, as it always is, to jump online with my podcast co-host Michelle, to record a show for this coming weekend. We chatted some Disney history, we spoke about the new Avengers Campus at Disneyland and then we looked forward to the upcoming Disney + series 'Behind the Attraction' which looks fascinating and will hopefully appeal to my inner Disney geek.

And that rounded out this Tuesday, a pretty productive day all in all.

Take care, see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 446

Day 446...

Monday has rolled around again and while today is the start of the last term of the academic year it is still my non-working day of the week.

So the morning started with the usual grocery shop collection and once that had been put away I played taxi service for my dad. He had a follow-up appointment at the doctors and wanted to pop by the library afterwards. Two weeks ago at his first appointment he had been prescribed a ton of steroids to combat an extreme allergic reaction to, we think, his second covid vaccine. Thankfully, they have done the trick and the doctor was really pleased with the improvement and my dad said it is the best he has felt for months...makes me wonder whether he'd had a reaction to the first jab as well but just not as severe as to the second one...who knows?!

Although in these times where we are still being told to only visit your GP in person if absolutely necessary I do find it rather ironic that my dad had to wait over 45 minutes to be seen. He saw the GP arrive at the surgery five minutes after his appointment time and then had to wait for three other patients to be seen first, and that didn't include the mum and young child who left saying they couldn't wait any longer! So my dad had to spend 45 minutes in an overcrowded (by covid secure guidelines) waiting room because the GP wasn't even in the building for his first appointment...really?! 

After lunch we made a start on the mammoth task of tidying our garage. This space not only serves as somewhere to park the car but it is also Simon's workshop for prop building and a space for our home gym. It is long overdue a tidy and we only just scratched the surface today. In fact we spent a chunk of time measuring up the available space so that we can replace the open shelving with some enclosed cupboards. One of the side effects of Simon's prop building is that there is a lot of sanding involved which in turn means everything sitting on open shelves get's dusty and dirty very quickly. So with measurements taken we then jumped online and found the ideal solution; plastic garden storage cupboards which have now been ordered and should be with us in a couple of weeks.

We have also made some progress with our leaky shower problem in that we have had a bathroom fitter out today who has taken measurements and has gone away to come up with a solution for us.

Molly has had another 'proper' driving lesson today and has been learning how to parallel park and by all accounts we haven't taught her anything that we shouldn't have over the past week!

And that was Monday.

Take care.
xx

Day 445

Day 445...

Well we started the day very slowly and were in no rush to be up and about. I think we were both catching up on previous lost nights sleep, although mine hadn't been great it was better than it had been of late.

First job of the day saw Simon package up a few prop pieces and calculate the relevant post and packaging costs. With payment received for one of the parcels we were able to drop it off at our local post office when we headed out for a few hours.

We had decided to drive into Nottingham for a little wander about, somewhere different to go for a walk and spend time together. We managed just over three miles and were able to enjoy a coffee as we walked and took in the city. It can be hard to remember that we are still in a 'lockdown' of sorts when wandering around and people appear to be going about as 'normal'. But then you spot the masks and the queues to get into shops; the need to wear a mask when going inside anywhere and then to be faced with having to 'check-in' if you choose to sit-in to eat or drink...assuming you can get in somewhere. On the surface the world looks fine it's only when you scratch that you see all the constraints.

Back home and Simon took Molly out for a drive while I stayed home and updated our online grocery order ready for collection tomorrow. I also made some more progress on cataloging the photos that I had managed to scan in over the last couple of days and once they were done I started on scanning the next lot which was the remainder of 1989!

The day was finished off with our Disney Dream Girls Disney quiz and this week the questions had been set by Deborah in Canada and were all on the brilliant TV series The Mandalorian...and I won! So I now have the job of setting questions for next weeks quiz.

And there we have the weekend done and my week off from work has come to an end.

Take care.
xx

Day 443...a Friday

Day 443...

Well it was another night of rubbish sleep and any attempt of a lie in this morning was ruined by a neighbour mowing their lawn, with a noisy petrol lawn mower, at 7.45am!! Why?!!

But the day after that has been a quiet and steady one. I nipped out mid-morning to my local supermarket to just pick up a handful of things we were running low on. Back home I caught up on a few work emails and a little work admin just to stay ahead of the game for when I'm back in work next week.

As lunchtime came around Simon and I headed out to get our second covid vaccine jabs. We're hoping that we don't suffer any side affects as there is so much out there about some pretty horrific issues that some people have suffered. After our first jab I had a sore arm for a couple of days but Simon was knocked off his feet for 24 hours. So far we both have sore arms but only time will tell.

Back at home and I started scanning some more of our old photographs I have now completed 1988 and later this afternoon started on 1989.

Mid-afternoon I took Molly out for another drive and again she is doing really well and I even had her doing some reversing when we got home!

The remainder of my afternoon was spent working my way through photos from 1989...this was the year we got married and it was interesting to see what we had been up to either side of our wedding.

And before I knew it that was Friday...time for a glass of something and to start the weekend.

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

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

A Slow Sunday

Day 438...

This morning we had a very lazy and slow start to the day as we were rather late getting up.

But once up and about I jumped online to sort out my online grocery order as well as research some questions for our Disney Dream Girls podcast Disney zoom quiz. While I did that Simon took Molly out for another drive; they did the same route as yesterday but we figure the more miles Molly can drive the easier it will get for her and we want to do whatever we can to help her pass her test as quickly as possible

The rest of the day saw Simon continuing to sort more of his 'stuff'; re-organising it all and streamlining where he can. We still have a lot more 'stuff' to go through and need to come up with solutions as to how best store it all. Whilst everything is now organised and in boxes we now need to figure out where these boxes can live. We have a few ideas brewing that include using the garage and having a complete overhaul of the space there, as well as looking into replacing our garden shed with a 'garden room' which would work as an art/craft space for Simon. So lots to think about, lots to plan and in the meantime lots of boxes to live with!

Late afternoon we headed out for a walk across the fields where we live. This was the first time we'd been out for a walk in a few weeks simply because the weather, until this weekend, had been so wet and miserable. But today it was blue skies, sunshine and warm, enough for the shorts to be pulled out from the wardrobe!

And our walk took us past our local alpacas which have all had their winter coats removed and looked very cute. We even discovered that one of them is called Obi-Wan!!

We managed 3.4 miles in and hour and ten minutes and were home in time to make a coffee and settle down for our Disney quiz via Zoom!

It was great to see everyone as it has been a few weeks since we all hooked up online. As I was setting the questions the pressure was off for me. My questions had a bit of a musical theme as we had caught a YouTube film this morning all about a rock band called Halyx that performed in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in the Summer of 1981. A fascinating story and well worth a watch; I just love these sort of stories about Disney, the unusual and often short lived events!

And that was our Sunday.

Take care.
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

Time for a Break

Day 436...

We have reached Friday and the last day of this half term at pre-school, we now have a week off to look forward to.

But first we had to get through the day! It was the first warm day we have had for a long while which meant that we were able to spend the majority of our time outdoors. So while the children played outdoors I was able to have some quiet time indoors to chase emails, update banking, prepare registers and add observations onto our online learning journal system. All in all a pretty good work day.

Once home it was time for a coffee before jumping online with my good friend Michelle to record our Disney Dream Girls podcast. We managed to record two shows; one to be released on Sunday and the other was a bonus episode for our Patreon supporters. We chatted Disney history, cruises as well as current happenings including the easing of more restrictions; specifically in Orlando where social distancing markers are now being removed in addition to masks no longer being required outdoors which came into force a couple of weeks ago. Universal Studios is going one step further and making masks optional indoors as from this weekend. 

And while the US seems to be opening up more and more we seem to be still in 'limbo land' with lots of  murmurs that the deadline for lifting all restrictions of the 21st June may not happen...or it may...or it's likely to happen but we can't guarantee it. Bloody politicians can they never give a straight answer? Heaven forbid they actually do their job with a measure of competency! We have cases at a plateau, hospital admissions and deaths are at their lowest levels, and have been for weeks now, and still we are unable to get back to normal. 

I think we have to accept that covid is not going anywhere. It is endemic, variants will appear because that's what a virus does but variants do not mean a worse outcome. A virus wants to survive so it will mutate into new variants that can maybe move about easier but as it does so it will become less problematic. After all, if it kills off it's host bodies then it will have nowhere to go and will kill itself, so it is better for it to get less awful so that it can continue to survive. I am no scientist but even I know this, yet those in charge seem dead set on scaring us all into submission and quite frankly I am fed up of it all now.

Oh well, best stop now...take care and see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 435

Day 435...

Another day of two halves.

The morning was spent in work with more admin prep work for the new term in just over a week's time. We break for our 'half term' tomorrow and so we will start a 'new term' and hence there is the production of invoices as well as getting things in order for some new starters plus all the usual day to day stuff.

I was late finishing work as I had a new parent to meet at lunchtime who is wanting to send her children to us after the half term break. Then on my way home I stopped by a local supermarket to pick up a few items that we'd run low on.

Once home and after the shopping had been packed away and a coffee drunk, my first job of the afternoon was to unpack the butchers order which had been delivered today. This always takes me longer than I think but I do have to split the order into meal sized portions. Today's order was sausages, bacon, burgers, steak and liver!

With everything packed away into the freezer it was time for another coffee before I set about a little more pre-school work. It was pay day today so I needed to organise all the necessary bits and pieces as well as email all the staff their payslips. 

The afternoon seemed to fly by and before I knew it Simon had finished work for the day and was off down 'the gym' while I played taxi service for Molly as she had a hair appointment very late on this afternoon. This was her first haircut since sometime last year...in fact it's probably about eight months since it was last cut! It's a good job she likes having long hair!!

And in between all of that I have also managed to get a little research done ahead of recording the Disney Dream Girls podcast which we are hoping to do tomorrow afternoon.

Phew! Feels like a non-stop day today so I think I need to stop typing, drink some more wine and stop!

Take care.
xx

Day 434

Day 434...

I think this will be a short post today as it has been a full on work day.

The day was spent in work and was split into two halves. This morning my focus was on getting registers sorted for next term, updating the banking, responding to emails and taking photographs for our sponsored bounce happening this week.

The afternoon was spent with my deputy manager as we started working our way through the updated statutory guidance for the early years foundation stage curriculum that we have to follow. We managed to work our way through about a third of it but we have until September before it comes into force so we will be well prepared and ahead of the game well before then.

At home I decided to carry on with a little more pre-school work as I had a couple of emails that I wanted to get sent off as well as update our online learning journal. I had some time chatting with Molly about getting her some driving practice as she had had a driving lesson this morning and by all accounts is getting on pretty well. We just need to get some insurance sorted so that she can drive my car, under my instruction, as I think she will benefit from just having more time behind the wheel.

Michelle and I were planning on recording a Disney Dream Girls podcast this evening but 'life' got in the way so we have re-scheduled for Friday evening instead. This will give us more time to get some more research done ahead of recording. 

And then it was time to play taxi service for Molly as she had her second kickboxing class of the week, followed by a strength and conditioning class. 

See you tomorrow, take care.
xx

Waiting Around

Day 432...

Monday started with the usual grocery shop collection from our local Asda. While there I was also able to pick up some donations for pre-school, and there was so much stuff that we drove straight to pre-school to drop it all off.

After we had got home and put all the shopping away I had my dad to take to the doctors and Simon had a helmet to cast as he had received an order over the last few days.

So I picked up my dad and took him to his doctors. I parked up outside to wait for him as I was not allowed to go in with him because of the covid restrictions still in place. Unfortunately, I had left my phone at home and so I had absolutely nothing to occupy my time and unfortunately I had rather a long wait. But to be fair it would appear that my dad was seen on time, or thereabouts, but spent the majority of the time waiting for his prescription to be made up.

My dad has developed a rather bad case of eczema and has been given pills and potions galore and an appointment for a couple of weeks time to see how he is getting on. My dad did mention to his doctor that he wondered if it could be a reaction to his second covid vaccine...apparently the doctor neither denied or confirmed whether that could be the case...makes you wonder though!

But by the time I got my dad dropped off at his house and me back home two hours had gone by, of which an hour and a half was spent just sat waiting in my car. With nothing to do all I could do was watch the world around me. It was really quite sad to watch people queuing for the pharmacy; only one person is allowed in at a time which meant a lot of people (quite elderly people) were stood outside in the cold and the rain waiting their turn. What a state of affairs we find ourselves in!

With a quick lunch eaten we were back out the door to take Molly into Derby for her driving theory test. So we dropped her off and went in search of a coffee while we waited for the call to pick her up. About an hour after dropping her off we got the message 'Done'...to which I responded 'and?' and the response came back 'Passed!'. Woohoo! She did really well with 49 out of 50 for the questions and 60 out of 75 for the hazard perception section so she was very pleased with those scores. She messaged her driving instructor who told her to get online and get a practical test date booked.

So once home we powered up the laptop and attempted to get a practical test booked. The system feels a little backward as it asks for the date you would like before letting you choose the test centre, so suffice to say there was lots of time spent going backwards and forwards trying to find a date at the right place. Her instructor had told her that the next available test dates weren't until November but when we logged on the only date we could find free was tomorrow with nothing for the rest of the year! But as we went back and forth we could see dates randomly becoming available, which we could only assume was due to dates getting cancelled. A date in August popped up but no sooner than I had clicked on it it was gone. But scrolling through we saw a date in October so we jumped on it and thankfully this time we were able to secure the date and time...four months and counting.

This then resulted in a large chunk of time web searching looking for the best, and cheapest, car insurance out there for Molly, so that we can take her out in my car while she's learning to drive. We may have a solution but there is still some more researching to do!

Molly then had her kickboxing lesson followed by a strength and conditioning class which meant relying on Mum & Dad's taxi service...roll on her passing her driving test!! 

Take care.
xx

Sunday Travels

Day 431...

We woke up this morning to a grey, slightly damp and rather windy day in Bournemouth.

With a good breakfast inside us we got all our stuff together and headed out of the hotel. After my success yesterday buying some new jeans we headed back to Primark to pick up another couple of pairs and another Disney sweatshirt just happened to fall into my hands and so I had to buy a re-usable Disney shopping bag just to get my purchases home!

We enjoyed a coffee at our favourite coffee shop before nipping into a small shop which sells all Anime merchandise and found a couple of t-shirts that we knew Ethan would like (Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure & My Hero Academia...whatever that means!).

We then had another wander around the town centre and headed towards the pier and beach area. It was very windy which meant we didn't spend too long down at the seafront. But we did manage to find a bit of British Disney down by the beach in the way of a few fairground attractions.

These were not the best represented Disney characters, and I'm not sure whether they would garner official approval, but it's the closest I've been to a Disney attraction in a long while!! They were even playing Disney songs but think they were all 'alternate' versions to the originals. It did bring a smile to my face though and I just had to share these on social media for my Disney loving friends.

We then headed off to pick up Molly from her fella's house so that we could make our way back home. It takes around three to four hours, traffic dependent, to get home and thankfully today it was plain sailing with just a couple of stops; one for a 'loo' break and the other to top up with petrol.

Once back home it was time to unpack, put the dinner on, pour myself a drink and watch drag queens on the telly with some chocolate on the side!

Take care.
xx

Saturday Shenanigans

Day 430...

So our Saturday morning in Bournemouth started quite early as we had arranged to meet up with one of Simon's work colleagues.

But it did mean we were early having our breakfast before the restaurant got too busy, although we still had to go through the pantomime of mask wearing. Wear your mask to walk into the restaurant, wear your mask while accessing the breakfast buffet but once at your table the mask can come off...where we were sat near other diners...again where is the common sense in all that? And that assumes that masks make a difference...which they don't! And all the tables were still as close to each other as they were last time we visited this hotel...so no masks at tables and effectively no social distancing...I don't get it at all, as I said it is all pure pantomime.

Oh and the breakfast buffet is now an assisted breakfast buffet because we can no longer help ourselves and touch the same implements yet there were some items that we could help ourselves to but with signs saying only touch what you want!! Argh!!

And I think we confused the server when we only wanted bacon, eggs and sausage and not the hash browns and baked beans! Low carb all the way!

All fuelled up we headed down to Bournemouth Pier to meet Simon's work colleague. So Simon works from home, and has done, for about 7 or so years but the company he works for is based not far from the South Coast. Prior to the pandemic Simon would visit the office once every few weeks or as needed but since the pandemic hit he hasn't seen any of his colleagues in person! But it just so happened that one of his colleagues was visiting family close by and had a new piece of equipment for Simon; a fancy graphics thingy!

We then found one of our favourite coffee shops, which we were so pleased to find open as there was the fear that the effects of the past 14 months may have caused it to close along with so many other small businesses. So we enjoyed an hour or so chatting and drinking really nice coffee.

After dropping the new tech back at tbe hotel we walked along the sea front from Bournemouth to Boscombe and then a little further before we headed back. Despite the grey sky and occasional rain we really enjoyed the walk and enjoyed being around other people as by the time we arrived back at Bournemouth Pier everywhere was pretty busy. We headed into the town centre with a view to have a wander which resulted in walking by Primark. There was a queue to get in and so we started to walk by and as we did so the queue started to move so we quickly diverted back and walked straight in. 

To be fair the shop seemed as busy as it would have done on any other day. But this was our first time in a non-essential retailer since March 2020, how ridiculous is that?! I made a beeline for the Disney section, of course, and came away with 2 tshirts, a sweat shirt and a pair of jeans (non-Disney) as well as a couple of bits for Molly!!

We then headed back to the hotel to put our feet up and try on my new purchases. We timed it well as not long after it decided to rain!

Next we paid Molly a visit at her boyfriend's house and had a guided tour of his 'gym'. Like we've done he has converted his garage into a gym over lockdown and has done a really good job.

We rounded the day out spending time with Molly's fella's family and enjoying an indian take away and lots of chatter.

Take care.

xx