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

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

Midweek Mayhem

Day 427...

OK so maybe not 'mayham' as such but there was definitely plenty going on today.

The morning started with the fitter arriving to install our new boiler. At the same time I was on the phone to my doctors surgery trying to get an appointment for my dad. It took me almost 25 minutes to get through to the surgery but thankfully they agreed that he needed to be seen and would send someone out this morning.

I could then make my way to work; I'd told my deputy that I would be late in but I still don't like arriving late especially when our mornings are quite busy getting the room all set for the day. But my morning, once in work, was pretty standard with the usual emails, banking and admin tasks. This afternoon myself and my deputy got together as we are taking time each week to go over the expectations of Ofsted should we be inspected, as well as looking at the curriculum and the statutory guidance. This week we completed the overview of the Ofsted inspection descriptors and next week we will be able to start going through the 53 pages of the statutory guidance! The guidance has been updated and will come into effect from September so we need to go through it all and make sure that we are meeting all the legal requirements.

By the time I arrived home the new boiler was in and working although the fitter did discover a leak connected with our bathroom radiator as he brought the new boiler online. This might be the cause of a leak we have been battling with for a long while now that we thought was connected to the shower so who knows we might be able to get the issue resolved now.

My dad called to say that the doctors have been back in touch following this morning's house call and he now has an appointment for Monday morning with an actual doctor at the surgery!! Which is great news but it really shouldn't be this hard to see a GP.

I managed to do a little online Disney research ahead of podcast recording later this week before I set to cleaning around and putting everything back where it belonged after the disruption of the day. And then it was time for dinner, blog writing and next it will be feet up in front of the telly!

Take care.
xx

Manic Monday

Day 425...

Well the day started off with no hot water. Our boiler had decided to stop working and was displaying an error code. It is a code that we have had numerous times before and last time we had it we said that the next time we would look at getting a replacement.

Thankfully we have a great heating engineer that we use and a few messages and phone calls later resulted in a new boiler to be installed on Wednesday, and by mid-afternoon all the parts had been delivered - wow, just amazing service.

With that sorted we headed out the door to collect this weeks grocery shop, we had a small detour via the local pharmacy to drop in a prescription for my dad but we were quickly home to unload and organise the groceries. Not only had we got our shopping but also a few bits for pre-school as well as some for my dad. He is still waiting for his car to be fixed and is relying on us at the moment to do the essentials for him.

So back out the door we stopped by my dad's to deliver the aforementioned groceries and then we headed off to Ikea. By the time we arrived at Ikea the heavens had opened and we were in torrential rain; suffice to say we parked up and sat in the car until it had passed over. But we had a successful trip bringing home two book shelf units, a new shelf for Ethan and numerous clear plastic storage boxes of different sizes.

Thankfully by the time we got home the weather had cleared up but we did notice piles of hailstones gathered around our front door! Suffice to say our afternoon was then spent assembling the two bookcases, locating them in Simon's workspace and then filling them with books and helmets...we have a Star Wars and art themed collection of books interspersed with a Stormtrooper helmet and a Mandalorian helmet.

Next it was time for Simon to go through the cupboard that used to live in his workspace but, because of its size, it will no longer fit. One bin bag later and lots of clear plastic boxes filled, progress has been made. There is still some sorting to do and then we will need to disassemble and get rid of the cupboard but that will be for another day. 

And in among all of that we have been given a date for our new windows to be installed, Simon helped Ethan install his new shelf and I got caught up on all the ironing! It's been all go!

So today marked another stage in the easing of restrictions; we can now dine indoors, stay in a hotel, hug others and indoor entertainments can open. But as we see these things open up the carrot of the 21st June when all legal limits on social contact will be removed is becoming more and more unlikely. The reporting today suggests that this date may not now happen because of the Indian variant of the disease...despite millions of us being vaccinated, despite the vaccine working against this variant, despite cases being low, deaths being low...do the government ever want us to go back to our old normal? 

The fear has gripped hold of the nation and the powers that be seem to like holding us all in this state of fear. They seem to enjoy the control and the power that they have developed over us. But is this how we really want to live? I don't! I want to see who I want, when I want, hug who I want, when I want, to go where I want, to travel, to go to concerts, to shop without restriction, to live rather than cower away afraid of my own reflection. But when, or if, this will happen who knows?!

Take care.
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

Day 423

Day 423...

Saturday is here and this post is being written rather late in the day.

This morning we had a small DIY job to sort at the house we lease out and although we couldn't sort the problem straight away we have the necessary parts on order. 

Back home we started on trying to figure out some new storage for the living room and Simon's work space. Lots of measuring ensued with the Ikea website at hand! A shopping list has now been made and we will be heading to Ikea next week...there is no way I'm braving Ikea on a weekend!

Molly had a few of her girlfriends over this afternoon to celebrate her birthday and I helped with the cooking element of the festivities.

Later we made keto pizza and settled down to watch a movie...Rocketman! Wow what a fabulous film and performances, can't recommend it enough. Then it was time for birthday cake and to revisit a film that we hadn't seen in a very long time..To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

Take care.

xx

Simply Sunday

Day 263...

Our Sunday started as it pretty much always does...slightly slowly. But once moving and filled with breakfast I had the usual job of making sure my online grocery shop was completed ready for collecting tomorrow morning.

We then had my final couple of Ebay sales to package up for posting so tomorrow we can take everything to the local post office and courier drop-off.

Then we ventured outside. Simon has had an enquiry for a Mandalorian helmet, which is the first he's had in a while, and thankfully he already had one in 'stock'. The only aspect he needs to make is a range finder stalk and to find out whether the purchaser needs a visor including. But this did mean venturing into the loft area of the garage to locate said helmet.

But while outside we decided to add more baubles to our trees and bushes; we cut down the dead flowers from one of the plants which meant we could reach more of the bushes as well as be able to see them better once decorated.

While we were all wrapped up we decided to take a bit of a stroll and managed 5.2 miles in around one hour and 36 minutes. We thought we might see some Christmas lights as the evening light came in and although we saw a few as we neared the end of our walk I think we will need to take a walk out a little later in the day to get the best effect. We commented last week that there seems to be more houses with lights up this year; whether that's right or not I don't know, maybe people have simply put lights up earlier this year. But whatever the case it is lovely to see people enjoying the season despite everything that we have gone through, and are still going through, this year.

We arrived home to a freshly brewed pot of coffee (thanks Ethan!) and then I did a little impromptu Christmas present shopping having spotted something online by chance that would make a lovely stocking filler. 

And while I shopped Simon was able to find, via Mixcloud, one of our burlesque friends, Stage Door Johnny, and his new radio show. I am now looking forward to listening to the next few weeks as he plays some classic, vintage Christmas tunes. Although I was rather surprised to find out today that he was watching White Christmas for the first time ever...OMG how? One of my all time favourite movies...ever...and if you don't cry while watching then you have no heart! 

To round out our Sunday it was time for the Disney Dream Girls Disney quiz and this week some of the questions were set by yours truly...well I say yours truly when I actually mean it was split between an internet search for Disney trivia questions and ones that Simon had created. We had watched a show on Disney + called 'Decorating Disney Holiday Magic' all about decorating the parks for Christmas and Simon had noted down some questions as we watched. A lovely program to watch and it generated enough questions for our quiz too!

I just love being able to combine my love of Disney with my love for Christmas, hence our main tree is completely Disney themed...

Disney tree decorations

And the end result

Take care,
xx

Thursday Thoughts

Day 260...

It has been a very grey, chilly and rainy day today and thankfully most of it was spent indoors.

Although first thing me and Molly jumped in the car and went in search of twinkly lights for pre-school and some new towels for home. One shop and both objectives achieved.

Once home I had a mixture of getting some odd jobs around home completed as well as a few pre-school related jobs. I've placed another butchers order, wrote some Christmas cards, done a little online Christmas shopping as well as getting on top of the laundry.

This afternoon I was able to attend 'virtually' the course that I thought was yesterday...a couple of hours all about safeguarding within the early years sector. Once that was completed I did a little more pre-school work to promote our upcoming Christmas raffle.

Today Ethan received a surprise package in the mail; I presumed it was something he'd ordered but it turned out to be a box of treats from the company he works for - how cool is that?! He got a Christmas card, some stickers, a company t-shirt and 2 face masks, a selection box, some sweets, a box of biscuits and entry into a special Christmas raffle! Wow! And he has even shared some of it with his sister!!

I did have my dairy delivery arrive this afternoon and I am very excited to try a couple of their ice-creams...panettone and Christmas pudding flavours, apparently the pudding has plenty of brandy in it so I will look forward to enjoying that a little closer to Christmas.

And talking about Christmas here are a few more of my Christmas tree themed decorations...

This is pretty with a tealight inside

Light-up decoration on a window

Another candle holder

Quirky metalwork tree

This tree spins around when tealights are lit in the base area

Wooden tree with tiny LED lights

Suffice to say Christmas kind of takes over our house!

Almost forgot the stake lights out in the garden!

Photo courtesy of Molly

And that is where I will leave it for today.

Take care out there,
xx

Mid-week Muddle

Day 259...

Well today has been another very busy work day. There is lots to plan for at the moment at work as we have the last few weeks of term to see out and then start planning for the new term in January.

We have invoices to calculate, registers to organise, fees to chase, Santa letters to print and post, a Christmas raffle to manage, the usual banking and lots more.

My team have been working very hard to take part in a community event where schools have been asked to display artwork in their windows or, in our case, on our gate as part of a Christmas Light Trail through the village over the course of the next couple of weeks. They have got the artwork almost sorted and tomorrow I am off in search of some battery operated lights so that we can make it look all pretty and festive but much more importantly visible at night!

After a busy morning I dashed home to quickly get set-up to jump online for a safeguarding course via Microsoft Teams. I switched my laptop on, got my headphones sorted, paper and pen ready to go and followed the link I'd been sent. It was only after I'd done all that that I happened to notice the date of the course in the email confirmation...3rd December...oh dear! That's tomorrow - oops! In my defence when I'd booked the course I'd had to pick two dates in case the first date I chose was fully booked and the other date I had picked was today...but still not really an excuse for mis-reading the email with the course link in it.  Oh well, that just means that on my day off from work tomorrow I will have a course to attend! I suppose it was a good job it was a virtual course rather than me having driven to a location to then discover I'd got it wrong.

But that did mean I could get on with some of the other jobs that needed completing for pre-school, which probably meant I got more work done today than I would have done otherwise. As I said there is lots happening at the moment and I want to be able to get as much done as quickly as possible so that when we break for Christmas I don't have anything outstanding.

Molly was back at her karate lesson tonight, although rather than attending a 'class' she was simply able to make use of the resources there to do her own training. This means she can actually have a workout and practice on kickboxing dummies rather than just thin air as it has been via Zoom.

So as we are now in 'Tier 3'; we are able to go shopping, get our hair and nails done, go to a gym but we can't go to a pub or a restaurant. Our local pub has today said that it will not be opening over Christmas at all. The next review of the 'Tiers' will not happen for a couple of weeks and if we do move down a tier it will not give the pub enough notice to re-open for Christmas. I received a very heartfelt email from the owner of this small chain of pubs expressing what a hard decision it has been and how awful it has been having to contact thousands of people to cancel already booked tables, but thanking everyone for being so understanding. This has been devastating for the hospitality and entertainment sector and it is heartbreaking for all those involved.

Let's finish today's post with a little more Christmas vibe...here are some of my other Christmas trees...

A Mickey tree of course, just a small desktop one.

Another small desktop tree, this time a rainbow of colours for Ethan's room

Gorgeous white with purple decorations, this is Molly's.

This small classic tree sits on the hearth and must be at least 25 years old!
Not looking bad!!

After I'd took these photos I then realised that I have still more trees to share in the form of ornaments...but I'll save those for another day.

Take care out there.

xx

Treerific Tuesday!

Day 258...

Back in work today and another busy day...although the morning was hampered by my laptop deciding to work at the slowest speed possible. It would appear it does not like having a big update and wants to rebel when I need to use it!

But over the course of the day I did manage to get caught up on all the banking, dealt with a few emails that needed responding to, arranged a delivery date for our storage containers, chased parents for responses to various emails and made a start on our Christmas fundraising.

As we cannot host our usual Christmas Fair we are having to do things a little differently this year. We will be having a stall set-up next week selling reindeer food, Santa keys, reindeer bells, jelly lollies and special festive treat cups. But we are also having a raffle which will be managed remotely. All the staff have contributed towards a Christmas hamper which looks amazing, we have a couple of local businesses donating prizes and our local Asda store has donated a trolley full of goodies. Jon, our contact at Asda, is amazing and always looks after us so well, this time we have a large Simba soft toy and a mountain of chocolate and biscuits to raffle.

I will admit that due to the slowness of my laptop this morning my work carried on at home. I really wanted to get on top of things as I have an online course to attend tomorrow afternoon so I will lose a few hours of my day to that.

Simon and Molly headed down the 'gym' this evening but as I was still typing things up I decided not to bother. Although I really need to find the motivation to get back into doing some sort of gym workout. Thankfully we are getting out for our walks as often as we can so at least I am doing something, but it would be good to get back to lifting a few weights again.

Thought I would take this first day of Advent to share some of my Christmas decorations, specifically some of our trees;

This is our main tree, and ALL the decorations are Disney themed.

Our black & silver tree, welcomes you into the house

And a slimmer tree for the dining room with quirky Santa & Snowmen decorations

And we do have a further four much smaller trees throughout the house as well as these two outside...

...suffice to say when we do Christmas, we really do Christmas! I'll share some more photos in another post.

This is our last day in our national lockdown number two and from one minute past midnight we revert back to the tier system with where we live being in the highest tier possible. So shops can re-open along with hairdressers and other personal care but the pubs, cafes and restaurants have to remain closed unless they can offer a take-away service. I still struggle with the logic behind these tiers...never mind not being convinced it's what we should, or need, to be doing. But there is nothing I can do about it all except just carry on as best I can.

Take care
xx

More Christmas Decorations

Day 256...

Well it has been another busy day and so I think this will be another short post today.

Sunday started as most Sundays do now with me adding to my online grocery shop order ready for collection tomorrow morning. I then had a blog piece to write up for the Disney Dream Girls ready for the release of our newest show released later today.

Once those jobs were out of the way then my attention could be focused on the last of the Christmas decorating. So over the course of the day, with the help of Molly, we decorated two more trees, adjusted the timing on some of our outside lights, unpacked numerous ornaments and placed them around the house as well as laying snow blanket in various locations. We even turned some left over baubles into outdoor ones by threading them with some garden wire to hang them off some bushes and plants.

But the 'piece de resistance' has to be my latest Disney ornament created by Simon and Molly that now hangs over my patio door...

Three baubles, some super glue and a bit of garden wire!

Welcome to the Disney house!

...how fabulous is this?!

As the day progressed and all the boxes became empty the only job left to do was to put all the empty boxes up in the loft and out of the way until the new year.

The day was then rounded out with our usual Sunday evening Disney Dream Girls Disney quiz. Thanks to Molly's superior knowledge about the film Tangled we were the winners of this weeks quiz which means we have the job of setting questions for next weeks quiz.

And that's where I will leave it for today...hopefully I can find the time to write a post specifically to share some of my Christmas decorations...as there is rather a lot!

Take care out there.
xx

Back Together

Day 254...

Well today has been another busy day and the day in which Molly returned home after the longest she has ever been away from home.

The work day revolved around catching up with my deputy manager, paying wages, ordering storage container units, catching up on banking and liaising with parents over various matters.

This time of year is usually very busy at pre-school with fundraising, Christmas activities, Christmas concerts and parties but this year we are having to take a different approach to all of these. We have scaled back our fundraising so it is much more low key but will still hopefully raise a few pennies for us. We have the next few weeks planned out with various Christmas themed activities, crafts and even some baking. And then we have our Christmas concert which this year will be all virtual; a series of short videos that we will be able to share with our parents. Which leaves us, the staff, with still plenty to do!

Once home and fueled with coffee I had a few more work emails to deal with while at the same time completing a little more online Christmas shopping (taking advantage of a few Black Friday deals). 

Just prior to Molly arriving home I moved all the boxes of Christmas decorations out of her bedroom and downstairs into the hall...I figured that she might want to sleep in her bed tonight and as the boxes were all on her bed I'd better move them. This does mean that we are all set up and ready for our Christmas decorating weekend - whoop!

And this evening Molly arrived home. It is lovely to have her back after what has been the longest time she has been away and more importantly it means we can now decorate the house ready for Christmas. It is on the calendar that this weekend is Christmas decoration weekend and I know that had I have attempted to decorate on my own Molly would not have been happy. One of those traditions that has evolved over the years is that me and Molly take charge and while we are happy to have help they are under our direction!!

Best stop writing and relax ready for a busy weekend ahead.

Take care out there.
xx

Back to Work

Day 251...

Back to work today, as pre-school could finally re-open after our period of closure following a positive case. Thankfully we had just the one case and no more.

So we hit the ground running this morning...well okay more of a steady jog! But it was nice to be back in the building and chatting with the team. We have lots to do over the next week or so with our initial focus being our Christmas fundraising efforts; we have a hamper to raffle, numerous bits and pieces to sell and a crafty competition for the children to partake in.

We also have the ongoing project of getting a storage unit sorted and this morning I was able to chat with our landscaper friend who is going to help us get the site ready. I then had the job of trying to figure out which company to use for the said storage unit and determine how quickly all of this can happen. Suffice to say after a busy morning I was sent home to carry on my work in a little more peace and quiet.

We were unsure what Christmas at pre-school was going to look like this year but by early morning it was decided that the low key approach was boring and we wanted 'everything up'...operation Christmas is now in full affect. One of our old colleagues has been very kindly storing all our Christmas resources at their house but within a few hours of contacting them they had brought everything to us. We have a Christmas tree arriving tomorrow so I think I know what we will be doing tomorrow.

In between lots of pre-school work I managed to help a next door neighbour with a delivery and just give her 10 minutes of my time to chat. Her husband has dementia and is now in hospital, it's all very sad and having been through it all with Simon's dad a few years ago it is heartbreaking for her.

In my attempts to support small independent businesses I took delivery of my Shutter Studios Christmas cards today...have to give them a mention as it's Molly's little business...but they are pretty fabulous!

And we end the day with the announcement that up to three households can meet over a five day period at Christmas...but that's an exclusive three households...but you can still meet people outside of these three if it's outside...and we can travel anywhere...and go to church...

So apparently, despite how bad we keep getting told the situation is, we can relax the rules for five days and everything will be alright. Even the tone in which it has been announced feels very much like we're being told 'well you can meet up but still be careful and think carefully about what you're doing' which translates as 'if we have a problem after Christmas then it's the publics fault for not being careful enough'.

I will carry on as I have been doing, risk assess what I am doing and whether I consider it to be safe, and mix only with those that are close to me. We are lucky in that we don't have big family gatherings at Christmas any more so it doesn't affect us too much. It will be a shame not to see friends and go out for a few drinks and maybe a meal but there will be other times and other years to make up for this one. As long as I can stay warm inside, have some yummy food, an odd glass of wine, some festive movies and music and some chilled out, relaxing days I will be fine.

Take care out there.

xx

Saturday Sort Out

Day 248...

Well we weren't really sure what we were going to be doing today - funny we had no plans...can't think why?!

The only thing I really wanted to do was to get the Christmas decorations down out of the loft and put away the Halloween ones that were still sitting on Molly's bed. Brief explanation...access to the loft is via Molly's bedroom but as she is away at her boyfriends at the moment her room has become a bit of a storage stop-gap!

But in order to make way for Christmas decorating next weekend we also needed to make room in our hall as this will be where one of our three trees will be going. So our first job was to throw out some of the items that I'd tried selling via Ebay but had not had any interest whatsoever, along with all the cardboard boxes that I'd been stockpiling for said Ebay sales!

We then ventured upstairs to the loft and what was going to be a case of get one lot of items out the loft and replace with another turned into 'let's get this loft tidied'. Well when I say 'we' what I actually mean is that Simon goes up in the loft and I remain at the bottom of the ladder and pass things back and forth. I don't really do ladders and I definitely don't do lofts...cold and full of spiders...at least that's what I think!

So we started by emptying out about half of the loft space so that Simon could then take the vacuum cleaner up there and give everywhere a clean! Now this may sound a bit strange but having had a wasps nest somewhere in the roof over Summer we had a floor full of dead wasps. After much moving of things around and cleaning as he went the aforementioned wasps nest was discovered, nestling in the rafters!

How amazing does this look?!

At least we now know where the wasps nest is and have been able to clear away all the dead wasps. My next job will be to get in touch with our 'pest control' guy and see what we need to do next, if anything!

By the end of the afternoon we had re-organised our loft, moved Halloween decorations back into the loft, moved the Christmas ones out of the loft and streamlined some of what we were storing up there...just random stuff that we could no longer remember why we were holding onto it!

My job for tomorrow is to continue with a general tidy around and clean through so that next weekend, when Molly is home, we can have a full-on Christmas decorating weekend. With outdoor lights to both the front and back of the house and three Christmas trees (four if you count a small one in Molly's room) we need a full weekend to get it all sorted. Oh and I've still not decided whether to order another set of outdoor lights...

So what sounded like a quick job this morning took us way longer than we expected but by the end of the day we had a great sense of accomplishment at getting a job done, and done well. Glasses of red wine tonight were well earned.

Take care out there.

xx

A Disney Box Day

Day 246...

Well today has been a very work focused day today as I really wanted to get on top of all my work so that heading into next week and December I would have a clear plan of what I need to do and when.

This is always a busy time of year as we move towards Christmas and this year is the same but different. We can't do our usual Christmas fundraising or concerts but we are coming up with other ways to make it special instead. We still need to do some fundraising so I have been gathering my thoughts together and set a few things in motion.

As our pre-school shares a building we need to sort a separate storage area and I nipped out quickly this morning to pay pre-school a visit and take some photos of where we need the storage unit to be located. We want to use a shipping container for our storage space but there are a number of different options we could choose plus we need to make sure where we want to site it is both safe, suitable and accessible. I am in the middle of a number of emails chatting with various companies to see what is...or is not...possible.

As a nice interruption to the day I received a delivery from the Disney Store...some more Christmas decorations! Well, it would have been rude not to when I had a 20% discount code plus I qualified for a free gift...

How could I resist getting this...especially when it was free!

And that was today...a productive day all round, work done, a few household chores done and we even managed our usual 40 minute walk out at lunchtime. Although I do need to get some new boots for walking over the fields as by the time I got home today both feet were rather chilly and just a little bit wet!

Until tomorrow, 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

Flu Jab Day

Day 244...

So another day at home, rather than in work because pre-school is closed until next week.

I took the time this morning to package up a few Ebay sales and you'll be pleased to know that my pile of items for sale is gradually getting smaller. My incentive is that I will need space in my hall in just over a weeks time as that is when my Christmas decorations will be going up and I will need the space currently being occupied!

The last weekend in November is always marked on the calendar as 'Christmas Decorations' weekend; historically we would use this weekend to put up the outdoor lights and then the following weekend would have been our indoor ones but last year we just tackled everything in one weekend and so we have a new way forward. Having three trees indoors and plenty of outdoor lights we really do need a full weekend to get everything just right.

The rest of the morning was spent catching up with pre-school admin work which was interrupted at lunchtime with a trip to the post office with the parcels I'd packaged up this morning.

Before I knew it it was time to nip to my doctors surgery to get my flu jab. A straight forward process and very well managed by the surgery; arriving just before my appointment I was back in my car five minutes later. So all sorted and just left with a slightly sore arm. Although I had to raise a smile when I was asked if I was allergic to egg (I was already aware that this could be an issue for anyone with an allergy) as I must eat at a minimum 2 eggs every day.

I decided to pop by my dad's on the way home to make sure he was doing okay and to invite him to our house for dinner tomorrow evening as it's his birthday. My dad lives on his own and is part of our 'bubble' thankfully.

Once home I was able to carry on with more pre-school administration work as I'd missed a few hours of work today so wanted to make up for them.

And that had been my day today. A fairly busy sort of day, one where I could just get things done and not dwell too much on what is going on in the world around us. The further we get into this 'situation', or whatever it is that we are calling it, the more disillusioned I find myself becoming with everything that is happening around us...but there is very little that I can do about any of it so I will carry on and do what I can and hope that those that know more can get it sorted one way or another.

Take care out there.
xx

Chilly Sunday

Day 242...

And we had another slow and steady start to the day.

Once up and fed the day started with the mundane tasks of completing my online grocery shop ready for collection tomorrow, a little online research for this afternoon's Disney quiz and updating the latest blog post for the Disney Dream Girls.

Simon was busy tidying around after yesterday's DIY efforts as well as jumping online to complete some art commission work.

Once our respective jobs were complete it was time to venture outside and go on a walk. Despite the rain first thing today it had turned sunny but windy and we thought we would make the most of it. So we set off and tried a different route for a change, and were really happy with the new change of scenery and it will definitely be a route we go back to. All in all we managed 5.5 miles in just over an hour and 40 minutes; it was a bit chilly at times and I am glad I had my Mickey hat on to keep my ears warm from the wind!

Armed with a coffee it was time to jump onto the Disney Store website to buy a few more bits and pieces that I'd been after that had come back into stock...and armed with a discount code I managed to secure free shipping and qualify for a free gift too!

It was then time for our usual Sunday afternoon Disney Dream Girls Disney quiz and this week we also recorded a segment for an upcoming show. We'd all been given the task of coming up with some foodie choices for a day in the Magic Kingdom; 2 snack options and 2 meal options. It was interesting to see the similarities in what was chosen while at the same time introducing people to options they'd not thought of, or tried, before.

And I'll think I'll end it there for today, take care and look after yourselves.

xx

More DIY

Day 241...

Well we had the good intention of getting up bright and early and getting on with the day but it didn't quite happen.

So after a slow and steady start to the day we finally made the effort to get moving and set to with painting the bathroom...I say 'we' but I actually mean Simon.

Simon was already to get painting when he discovered that what he thought were full cans of paint in the garage were not quite as full as he needed them to be, so off he went in search of paint. 

So here we are in week two of lockdown two and Simon arrives at our local retail park to purchase the aforementioned paint. Apparently the car park was 70-80% full (so pretty much like a normal Saturday), he said the supermarket was 'heaving', there were queues of cars to both the MacDonald's drive thru' and the Costa drive thru' (Simon counted 33 cars queuing for Costa) and when he went to pay for the paint he joined a queue of 12. We have been in the same store when lockdown restrictions were eased and never had to queue with that many before.

Is this due to non-essential retail not being open that the public are simply getting their shopping fix elsewhere? Or does this just demonstrate that this lockdown is nothing like the first one and that people are pretty much getting on with whatever they can. It certainly appears to be different this time around and whether this is having any affect who only knows.

The afternoon was taken up with Simon painting the bathroom and I had embarked on a quick tidy up of the kitchen dining area...well you know how you start something and it turns out to be a much bigger job than you'd anticipated! Furniture was moved, things were re-organised, some things thrown away and everywhere thoroughly cleaned; the trick will be to keep it that way!

We rounded the day out with a well deserved Indian meal from a local restaurant, at least we can do a little bit to help the smaller, local businesses who are really feeling it at the moment.

Hope you're having a productive weekend, take care and stay safe.
xx

Whirlwind Wednesday

Day 238...

Well today has been another whirlwind of a day!

At work we had what we call here in the UK, an Inset Day, or otherwise known as a teacher training day. And today we, as a team, undertook some training, some first aid training.

As early years practitioners we must hold an accredited paediatric first aid qualification, which has to be renewed every 3 years. This normally involves a face-to-face course held over 2 days but due to COVID it had been split into two halves. The first was an online segment done at a time convenient to each person and then today we had the second half held via Zoom.

So our team were all in work together and I had the job of being tech support and setting up each of the laptops to join in via Zoom. It worked pretty well, we had one laptop lose it's audio ability and we suffered with a bit of feedback whenever we tried to communicate but otherwise we got through the day relatively okay.

We still have one part of the course yet to complete as we were missing one piece of important kit. As part of the course teaches us how and when to use CPR we all need to be able to demonstrate what we would do and that involves using a resuscitation doll. Unfortunately our dolls hadn't arrived so once they do we will all need to video each other giving CPR to the dolls to then send off and complete the course.

But today we had a few giggles putting each other into the recovery position, giving CPR to a cushion, using my plush Mickey Mouse as a substitute baby for CPR and choking purposes as well as putting a dressing on myself!

Once home I had a couple of letters to organise and then it was off to the post office to post them along with a few of my Ebay sales. I still have more to get to the post office but simply didn't have enough hands to manage them all by myself so I will hopefully get the rest taken tomorrow.

Home again it was time to catch-up on work emails, my own personal emails, a few more Ebay sales and helping Molly with some artwork she has produced and needed printing out (as she's not at home at the moment she doesn't have access to a printer so I have taken on the role of her PA!). Before I knew it, it was time to cook dinner and attempt to stop for the day!

We seem to be a very busy house this week! I suppose the good thing about that is it distracts from the whole lockdown thing happening. Although when I do stop and pause I am reminded that I have a friend who is self-isolating because of a positive case in her bubble at work, another friend unable to work because of looking after a child who is self-isolating because of a positive case in their school bubble, a friend who has a relative in hospital because they tested positive and so on. It can really feel never ending at times and I do wonder what the full and long term implications of all this will be.

Whatever you are up to please stay safe,
xx