Coffee & a Catch-up

Day 200...

And welcome to Sunday.

Another steady start to the day being very mindful that we needed to be up and about as not only did Simon and I have plans for the day but Molly and Dan needed to get on the road at a reasonable time.

The lovely thing about today was that the weather didn't look too horrid first thing and I got to put on smart clothes and make-up!

We had plans to meet up with a friend and so I took the opportunity to dig out clothes I'd not worn in what feels like forever and actually take the time and effort to apply more than just mascara and lippy! I also got to wear my sparkly Dr Martin boots for the first time in forever,  although it felt very strange wearing boots rather than the trainers I have been living in for the past few months.

Molly has travelled 190 miles today to spend the next week or so with her boyfriend and so while she set off on a 3 hour journey we jumped in the car for a quick 20 minute journey to meet up with our friend Mimi who we have not seen since the beginning of the year (or maybe even longer?!).

We were able to meet up outside and enjoy a lovely few hours chatting over multiple mugs of coffee, having a spot of lovely food and enjoying a surprisingly dry and at times sunny afternoon. It was lovely to be able to spend the time in someone else's company, while maintaining all the current social norms; the distance, the wearing of masks when needed, the 'logging in' of where we were but sadly missing the chance to give each other a hug.

We chatted about how we have all been coping with the last 200 days, how it's affected us personally, how it's affected our work as well as our outlook on life now and beyond this current 'situation'. It was just lovely to be out and about and feel like we were doing something almost close to 'normal'. Thanks Mimi for a fabulous Sunday afternoon...we must do it again soon!

The lovely Mimi and I enjoying coffee and sunshine

Once back home it was time to get the boring stuff done; the grocery shop for collecting tomorrow morning along with posting a few more items online for sale. And while I did that Simon spent time 'tinkering' with his mouse droid project which as I type means I have a small droid doing laps of my kitchen!

The rest of the evening was spent listening to my phone going ping as I was inundated with enquiries about the stuff I'd just put up for sale! Think it's time to step away from the laptop, enjoy a glass of something sparkly and chill.

Stay safe out there, keep your distance, wash your hands and wear a mask.

xx

Day 95

Day 95...

Another Sunday and today it was Fathers Day.

A steady start to the day and then all of us took a walk to see my Dad and spend some time with him, with a little gift of some posh chocolates. The nice thing was that as Dad is part of our 'support bubble' now we could all go inside and sit down together and have a catch-up.

We joked on the walk home about how the sky kept coming over a bit grey and that 'it better not rain'...well less then a few minutes walk away from home the heavens opened. The boys were a bit ahead of me and Molly so we made a quick dash and sheltered under some trees and hoped that the boys had made it to a bus shelter a little ahead of us. As we stood there the rain started to come through the cover of the trees and so as it eased a little I suggested we make a break for it. We ran to the next bit of cover and could see that the bus stop ahead had a couple of cyclists sheltering but not the boys so we decided that as we were now pretty wet that we would just make a run for home. The positive out of this was that I discovered I can still run if need be and was quite pleased with how long I could keep going for! As we approached the small lane to our house Simon appeared in the car as he'd grabbed the keys and came out to pick us up! But suffice to say we were all absolutely soaked through to the bone!

Looking slightly bedraggled!

The afternoon saw us packaging up some more of our Ebay sales and then getting very confused as their system is refusing to let us create a postage label...we can sort the postage using another courier just annoying that the one they advise you to use just doesn't want to work and for no sensible reason why!

And then we had what is now our usual Sunday evening Disney quiz via Zoom hosted by the podcast I co-host; the Disney Dream Girls. This week I hadn't set any questions and although we had a bit of a rocky start with the first round of questions me and Molly ended up doing quite well...in fact we won! And my prize...is to set the questions for next week!

Take care and see you tomorrow,

xx

Day 94

Day 94...

And it's the weekend and at least the weather decided to get a little more Summer like as it is officially the start of Summer! 

After a slow start it was sorting out a couple of helmet sales with Simon; one in the post to the UK and the other out to the US. We also had a few Ebay items that sold successfully this afternoon so that will mean more packaging to do once the payments have been received.

Simon spent some of the afternoon fixing his 3D printer after it had stopped working a couple of days ago. Diagnosis was that the hot bed had failed so he ordered a replacement which arrived this morning and sure enough new hot bed installed and a working printer once again. He has also been messing about some more with electronics for both his R2D2 and mouse droid projects as both will need combinations of flashing lights and noises. Apparently this involves programming an arduino...I would have jumped in and helped obviously but thought best to leave it to Simon and a little help from Ethan!!

Molly received the prints that she has ordered for her Etsy store today and they look lovely...won't be long before the Shutter Studios store will be open for business! Here's just a couple of the prints...

'Squad Goals'

'Don't be a prick'

I've managed to get quite a bit of my jigsaw done today at various points and we have had our first socially distanced gathering in our back garden...well I say we but actually I mean Molly and four of her friends. The great thing was we had disposable plates and cutlery left over from Molly's 18th birthday party last year so a little impromptu get together ended up having a tiki bar/luau vibe going on...we even had hawaiian leis as well!

And as all the girls were socially distancing outside I found myself as chief cook! The great thing was that all the girls brought something and had a lovely few hours listening to music, chatting and catching up on the last few months. The weather at times came over rather dark and threatened rain but thankfully the majority of the time it was dry, sunny and warm. We opened up the garage just in case there was a downpour so the girls had somewhere to shelter and I think they only dashed there once and not for too long!

So a Saturday that had hints of normality to it and I suppose the further we get into the easing of restrictions the easier we will find it all and the more accustomed to it we will become. Although I think at the back of my mind will always be the wonder of whether or not we are truly getting on top of this virus or whether we are going to see further outbreaks...and only time will tell.

Take care, stay safe 

xx

Day 92

Day 92...

And what a wet and miserable day it has been today...and my first full day back at pre-school as well.

The day went fine, and actually at some points dragged a little...it's always a strange day when you can't get outside with little ones because of the weather. But I managed a skype meeting, a transition phone call with a local primary school, set up a plan to sort a leavers memento, updated the banking and got on top of my filing.

It was then home to get changed and have a coffee before hooking up with my good friend Michelle to record our podcast; Disney Dream Girls. We chatted about the Disney parks re-opening and what going to a theme park in the near future might look like and whether it's something we would be doing. I have to say with all the restrictions likely to be in place; no shows, masks to be worn, no character meets, social distancing on rides and restricted numbers in the parks I am really not sure it's something I want to experience just yet. It's not a cheap affair going to Disney whether that be just over into France or to further afield like the US so if I am spending a good chunk of money then I think I want to be able to get the full on experience and not one where I might not be even able to get into the parks!

I was able to spend a little time moving jigsaw pieces around while Simon worked a little late this evening and then it was a low carb chicken parmesan for dinner.

And that was today...we are still in some form of 'lockdown' but I have completed my first full day physically in work...91 days of working from home! I remember making the decision to close and it wrecked me having to do that but I also knew it was the right decision at the time. We have opened and tomorrow will mark the end of week one but we only have about a third of the children attending and we are having to adapt what we do and how we do it. We have no idea how long this way of working will last nor what the implications are for the next academic year starting in September. 

And my question still remains in all of this we have work, we have football, we have small support bubbles for single person households but when will we get to see, and hug, those friends and family we care about and have not seen for such a long time now?

Stay safe, take care,

xx

Day 89

Day 89...

Or is it? I have returned to work today so I did think twice as to whether I should carry on with the same numbering of days or what? But figured I'd carry on as we are still in some weird state of normal.

So yes, today was back to work day. Ordinarily I don't work Mondays but as today was the first day pre-school re-opened after 3 months having been closed I wanted to be there to support my staff. And everything was fine. 

Parents arrived on time, followed social distancing and adhered to our new 'rules'. Children were happy to come into pre-school without parents and seemed not to be phased by a different set-up to normal. The children impressed us all with their knowledge of 'the virus' and they knew that they couldn't get too close to each other and that they have to 'wash our hands lots'.

I spent a couple of hours getting my desk up and running; typically the laptop seemed to want to run on slo-mo and it took two changes of batteries to get the mouse to work; paperwork from home was returned to its rightful place and documents copied and filed away. By lunchtime I was home and adopted what will now be my new routine on arriving home after a day at work...work clothes in the wash and me in the shower!

After lunch we took a walk out over the fields and discovered a new route that took us 3 miles in just over an hour and 10 minutes; and after a grey and misty start to the day we were blessed with glorious sunshine and a very warm afternoon.

When we got home it was time for a much needed coffee and some more time out on the patio enjoying the sun, in between checking work emails. I even managed to find time to complete the border of my latest jigsaw - boy was that one a challenge and a half?!

And today was the day that we saw non-essential retail shops open up in England and if the media is to be believed some people had queued from early this morning just to get into certain shops. I must admit that I have no desire to get back out there to retail shopping just yet; I'm sure I will eventually when I actually need to get something and I can't get it online but for me shopping is much more of a social event. It is something to experience with friends or family; to be enjoyed; to take your time over; to stop for a coffee or lunch and perhaps if you're lucky enough to pick something up that you hadn't even realised you needed. I'm not sure I'm ready for queuing and a strict regimen of what and where and with whom I can go!

There has also been talk about the potential opening up of hospitality and hairdressing on the 4th July, coupled with a review of the two metre social distancing rule. Now don't get me wrong I am looking forward to getting my hair cut, and perhaps even a colour, but I am much more interested in when we can get to spend quality time with friends, family and loved ones. To me the most important thing at the moment is to be able to reconnect with friends and family and to see relationships flourish, I would much rather Molly be able to meet up with her boyfriend than get my hair cut...but hey that's just me...priorities and all that!!

Take care out there, stay safe.

xx

Day 84

Day 84...

So today was a step further back into work as I met up with some of my team to get ourselves organised for the re-opening of pre-school on Monday.

It was lovely to see the team and we tried our very best to keep to the two metre social distancing rules; although moving around a building to put things into place for our 'new style' pre-school did mean it was rather tricky at times.

We think we have everything in place and have thought of all sorts of different scenarios to keep everywhere as clean and as safe as possible. But we all recognise that until we are up and running next week we won't know for sure and there will be a lot of adjusting things as we go I am sure. But it definitely won't be pre-school as we knew it, the list of items we are not allowed to use is extensive and also comprises the majority of what we would normally do. But we will rise to the challenge and continue to provide the best care and education that we have always done because that is what we are good at and love to do...plus I have the best team ever!

It was nice to get home this afternoon to a warm house as the weather has not been the best today and having spent a good portion of the morning sat without any heating on I was feeling rather chilly. Once home I caught up on work emails, responding to questions and chasing for responses to emails sent earlier in the week. And then I took some time for me and got a little more of my current jigsaw completed.

We have been watching the current series of Queer Eye these last few nights (absolutely adore this show, I so want a make-over by them all!) and something that came out of last nights episode is something that I know I can be guilty of. That desire to be in control and look after everything and everyone and the one person I can forget about is me; so I am trying really hard to take some time even if that means just stopping to complete a jigsaw or read a book or anything as long as it doesn't involve sorting something for work, the house or the family. I miss my trips to the hairdressers as it was the only time every few weeks that I genuinely stopped and could not do anything else for an hour or so. So taking time to have a walk with Simon on a lunchtime, or to write this blog of an evening or putting a few pieces into a jigsaw have all been so important over these past few weeks.

And like we are all finding during this lockdown, or whatever we are now calling it, it is important to deal with this in whatever way you can and that means you do whatever it is that makes you happy. There is no right or wrong way to get through this, there is just your way. As long as you stay safe, stay healthy and just get through it you will be okay...and remember on those days when you don't know what to do, or where to turn or feel like crap that that is okay too. I hope that we can all come out the other side knowing, and appreciating, ourselves and those important to us better and perhaps have a different perspective on life and be prepared to appreciate all the small things so much more than we ever have before.

Take care, stay safe.

xx 

Day 83

Day 83...

And it was back to work today. Lots of admin to get through ready for pre-school to re-open its doors on Monday.

I had registers to compile, fees to calculate, contracts to amend, funding to sort as well as deal with requests from parents that are either changing their minds about their child returning or are wanting to 'bend' our new rules before we've even opened - argh!!

In amongst all the paperwork we took a little time out at lunch to take a parcel to the post office followed by a 1.8 mile walk over the fields in just 40 minutes.

I decided at 4.45pm that I'd done enough work for the day and took some time out to get more of my current Disney jigsaw completed. And then once Simon had finished his work for the day we headed to 'the gym'; aka our garage!

And that was my day...a busy work day! I have another day actually in work tomorrow to meet my team for the first time since we closed back in March which will be lovely but a little strange as we will be observing social distancing! Molly got notified today that her guitar lessons are due to resume in person at the end of the month and so slowly we are seeing things move towards the new normal.

The government have admitted today that there is no way all primary school pupils will be back at school before the Summer holidays. No real surprise there, I could never see how it was going to work if each class could only be a maximum of 15 children when normally there would be around the 30 mark. Where were all these children actually going to go?!

I hope that the easing of restrictions that we are seeing is being handled safely and cautiously and that the death and infection rates continue to come down. I still hold that modicum of doubt in the system and the logic behind it; trying to comprehend that after weeks and weeks of staying home we can now venture out a bit further and further. But in all of this re-opening of businesses it still seems bizarre that we cannot yet reconnect with our loved ones properly. My dad lives on his own; his family is me and my brother, our partners and children. He would normally go to the gym a few times a week but that isn't happening at the moment so he will venture out to the shops and then be at home and that's it. It does seem really strange that we are not allowed to get within 2 metres of him and only if we are outside, especially when we are all working from home and none of us has been anywhere where we shouldn't!

I really feel for Molly and her fella as they have not seen each other since early March and for all those other young couples who find themselves having a relationship via Facetime - when are these guys going to be able to get together, spend time together and make up for all the time missed. It's great to know businesses are getting the opportunity to re-open but shouldn't our personal lives also get a consideration?

Take care out there,

xx

Day 79

Day 79...

Well that was a day and a half! Work, work, work!

Such a lot to get through to get organised for re-opening our pre-school on the 15th June. I have been emailing parents letting everyone know what the situation is, letting those that want to send their children back know if they have a place or not.

Then all parents of returning children have had to read and agree to our new parental agreement; this has been set up so that parents know what is expected of everyone in order for us to operate as efficiently and as safely as possible. 

I have now also started all of the usual preparation work for the new school year starting in September. Ordinarily by June this would have been completed but because of all the uncertainty it had taken a back seat but not anymore; I had emails flying back and forth, checking term dates, realising I haven't ordered an academic diary yet, reformatting documents and updating spreadsheets.

And somewhere in amongst all that I managed to find time for a walk out with Simon just after lunch. We decided to brave the weather as it has been a very windy day and one with lots of sunshine and showers and even a very heavy hail shower at one point. Thankfully it only tried to rain once while we were out and only for a few minutes, so we managed 2 miles in 41 minutes.

Later this afternoon I squeezed in an hour for some podcast recording with fellow Disney Dream Girl, Michelle. She had already chatted with someone from the US who had been at Universal Studios yesterday as they started opening up to the public. We have a few weeks to go before Walt Disney World re-opens and it will be interesting to see how they manage this reduced capacity opening and what sort of experience it will be for visitors.

And that's been my day...work...work..a walk...work...podcast recording...and more work! Good job it's the weekend tomorrow!

Take care, stay safe

xx

Day 78

Day 78...

Well the day started with no hot water and a broken boiler! Thankfully a quick text to our plumber and a chap was on his way and problem sorted by lunchtime.

I then actually went into work! I spent just over 4 hours in work with my deputy manager so that we could sound out some ideas and forge a plan for the way forward working towards our intended opening day in just over a weeks time.

It was really nice to see her and to catch up as well as get some work completed. We had hoped to be sat outside in the sunshine but the British weather has gone from amazingly hot two days ago to grey, wet and cold and so we had to move indoors but with all doors open and sat at opposing ends of a table as we adhered to social distancing the best we could.

We now have a plan in place so once home I was able to spend the rest of the afternoon emailing around the rest of the staff to fill them in a little more about what will be happening and when. I am now set up for tomorrow and another day of emailing as I contact parents and confirm what will be happening when their children return. The pre-school will not be like it was before; we will have less children attending; less staff working; routines will change; more hand washing; more repeated cleaning; less activities laid out as well as some activities simply no longer allowed. We will be pre-school but it won't be the same pre-school that we were. It will take a little getting used to for both staff and children but hopefully we can all adjust to this new normal.

The benefit of being 'at work' has meant that I really haven't seen or heard as much news as I would normally and that is quite strange; part of me feels like I must be missing something while part of me feels calm and has space to think about something other than covid. But it sounds like the use of masks is now being introduced specifically for public transport which I think is a good thing. Yesterday was really the first time I had had to wear a face mask and although there was no direct instruction that I had to wear one I felt that it was the right thing to do. I was visiting a hospital where staff are now having to wear masks and visors all day long, every day and the very least I could do was to wear mine for 20 minutes and show them some respect. And this is what this is about, it's about us all just doing whatever we can, in whatever way that maybe to help towards controlling this horrid virus.

Stay safe out there,

xx

Day 77

Day 77...

Today Simon and I celebrate 31 years of marriage; not that we can do much to celebrate! Instead we have spent the day in our respective work modes which for me mainly involved responding to emails and collating some paperwork together ready for a meeting I have scheduled for tomorrow with my deputy manager.

Just after lunchtime we headed out and drove the furthest we have been in the past 10 weeks as I had an appointment at hospital. This time last year I was just starting my radiotherapy treatment after having had a lumpectomy for breast cancer and now I was back to have my first mammogram following the end of my treatment. See this post about my journey last year.

I should have had this mammogram back in early April but it understandably got postponed and then just last week I received my letter with my appointment date of today. I have to admit that although I knew exactly what was going to happen today, and the actual act of having a mammogram doesn't bother me at all, I was filled with anxiety. I think all the memories and feelings from last year resurfaced and I fear that having to wait for 2 weeks for the results is not going to be easy.

I will admit to also being a little apprehensive about attending a hospital during the current circumstances so I went with mask on and hand sanitiser in my bag. The appointment was actually at one of the main hospital satellite centres which was very quiet. I was told to only arrive within 5 minutes of my appointment time so when I got to the right department there were no other patients in sight so no sooner than I had checked in with reception I was being taken through for my mammogram. All the administration staff I saw were either wearing masks or were behind screens and the medical staff all wore masks and visors.

The nurse that carried out my mammogram actually remembered me from last year as she recognised  all my Disney tattoos (and clothes) and commented that she was one of the nurses that carried out my biopsy...she remembered that even my shoes were Disney! We had a lovely chat and spoke about the effect of COVID-19 on her job and how she had been deployed to different departments within radiology as the hospital stopped more routine work and concentrated its resources for treating COVID patients. 

Interestingly in response to my general chat about how I knew lots of people who had suffered with bad coughs and colds prior to Christmas and that 'makes you wonder' she responded by commenting that there was a thinking that something had been going around since October...so who knows?!

After a lot of my previous treatments we had indulged in a coffee and cake on the way home but today it was straight home to a home-made coffee instead...and back to some more work! A few more emails, some more printing out and chatting with the landlord of the building that we use for our pre-school while Molly had another karate class via Zoom!

And that was today!

Take care,

xx

Day 76

Day 76...

So back to work today and another day of more emails, more documents to send out to staff and updates to government documents to read.

I'm also trying to figure out how many children we can allow to return safely and how we can, or cannot, group them. The guidelines for early years basically state that we should stick to small groups of children that ideally are no more than 8 but if that doesn't work for our set-up then we can have 16 in a group! Not much difference there then!

As a small, charity run, pre-school we have a lot to consider for when we re-open; we don't have our own dedicated premises and simply rent the building we use during the day and we only have access to one large room and a small outdoor space so fitting the right number of children in the allocated space safely is definitely going to be a challenge.

We took a lovely walk out at lunchtime and my left ankle only twinged once as we completed a 1.8 mile walk in 40 minutes. This afternoon was a mixture of more work, time relaxing outside, soaking up some vitamin D while I did a little reading, and then me and Molly popped over to the farm opposite us to buy some eggs.

Then this evening we had some time down 'the gym' which involved Molly trying to teach me how to punch! She had a free standing punch bag delivered yesterday which she is loving; being a black belt in kickboxing she has really missed these past few weeks not being able to kick and punch something.

I have tried holding pads for her but she is so strong there was just no way that I could hold them and endure the speed and ferocity of her power. Now she has her very own punch bag and she is in her element and I think had great pleasure in seeing how uncoordinated I am!

And that was my day today, the news would appear to be as bleak as ever and I fear that we are getting too accustomed to it. We are still recording deaths in the hundreds and so I am still somewhat confused as to why we are easing a lockdown when we have death rates comparable to when we went into the lockdown. And when you hear reports that the government will be stopping their weekend updates because the 'viewing figures are low'...what?!! This is not some sort of popularity contest! This is about keeping in touch with the public and sharing honest and important updates!! I give up!

Oh well onto tomorrow we go.

Take care,

xx

Day 75

Day 75...

Well today has been another relatively quiet day at home...obviously!

The morning was spent catching up with some house chores and then helping Molly do some research for her business venture, Shutter Studios. She is hoping to get some of her designs created as prints along with a few other ideas.

Simon has spent most of the day sanding as he had a stack of 3D printed parts for the R2D2 and mouse droid he is currently building to work through.

We did manage a walk out early afternoon and managed just under 3 miles in about an hour. I had hoped to do one of our longer walks today but unfortunately I have managed to hurt my left ankle. Yesterday on our walk I climbed over a stile and as I stepped down with my left foot first I either came down a little heavy or landed on some uneven ground and although it hurt when I did it I was able to still walk okay but by yesterday evening it was feeling sore. So as it was still a little sore this morning I decided to use a support bandage and to keep to a shorted walk and one where we had less uneven ground to walk over.

While Simon carried on with more sanding this afternoon I took some time to get a little more reading done and made some more progress through Ted Naiman's The P:E Diet while sat outside soaking up some more vitamin D.

So all in all a very chilled out day before we go 'back to work' tomorrow. I have been watching the news and keeping up with all the talk about more children going back to school and how this lockdown is gradually easing and I have to admit I am still at a loss as to why any of that is happening. We still have thousands of new cases per day and hundreds of deaths so why should we now all go to our local outdoor market, or queue for miles to get into an Ikea, or meet up with friends who we have to stay 2 metres apart from? I just don't get it!

We have seen the photos of packed beaches, heard the reports of groups of people gathering who very evidently are not from the same household and are all sat too close together along with stories of full car parks at beauty spots being left with trash everywhere and I just don't understand the mentality. The virus is still here, we have no real treatment and we have no vaccine but all of a sudden we just go to the beach?!! Well I am staying put, I will do my bit and just hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but I fear we are in a rather long and dark tunnel.

Take care,

xx

Day 74

Day 74...

Well after days of battling the new style blogger I have managed to start today's blog with out any problems - get me!

Another very relaxed and slow start to the day was followed by me and Molly heading off to our supermarket of choice to collect our grocery order. Yet again we arrived and saw the same store colleague we see each week and before we had even got out of the car Marky Mark had brought our shopping to us. Quick load up of the car and then home to do the standard unpack, wipe down, wash veggies and fruit and get rid of as much packaging as we possibly could.

Simon's hayfever was playing up quite a lot today so we took a short time out to stay inside in the cool to let his sneezing settle down and watch the last episode of Star Wars:The Clone Wars which was amazing. This has been such a fabulous series and these last few episodes have been fantastic to watch and have linked in with the live action movies so well, filling in some missing gaps along the way. For an animated series it has captured the essence of Star Wars completely and had us both on the edge of our seats and it even brought a tear to my eyes! The creative power of Dave Filoni is astounding, he has so much respect for, and knowledge of, the Star Wars franchise and has done a great job in creating something that feels so right and sits so perfectly within the story line. He should be given the creative reins of this franchise because everything he has created so far has been brilliant...Oh and I've met him and he was a thoroughly nice chap who took the time to chat with a crazy lady who had mouse ears on her Mandalorian cosplay. (I may have mentioned this once or twice before, check out Wow What a Weekend and My Disney Sleeve)

We then took a walk out over the fields walking just over 3 miles in a little over an hour. Another beautiful day and we encountered very few people, and everyone we did kept to the appropriate social distance and was polite and friendly.

Once we were back home we enjoyed a coffee (with Kahlua) sat on the patio before I joined my fellow Disney Dream Girl, Michelle and some of our listeners for a Disney quiz via Zoom. I had the pleasure of setting some of the questions and I think I may have made them a little hard...never realised choosing questions for a quiz could be so tricky! Although me and Molly had great fun setting them and then later tonight we carried on playing our own 'guess the song from the lyrics' game with me as quiz master trying to pick the most obscure songs going!

It has been lovely today to have things to do that have distracted from the news. To see photos of hundreds of people gathering on beaches and at parks and beauty spots is, to me, quite horrifying. There appears to be little regard for social distancing and goodness knows what the impact of that may be in a couple of weeks time. Our country is supposed to be easing things as from tomorrow but from the photos it would appear that it's already started! But when we have scientists struggling to agree on the best strategy and a lot arguing for a much slower and gradual approach we can only wait and see and hope that we somehow avoid a second spike...but I'm not convinced.

Enjoy the sunshine but take care, stay safe.

xx

Day 73

Day 73...

Well yet again I battled with blogger for about 5 minutes trying to get my little cartoon image to appear on the page where I wanted it. Think I may have figured it out though as when adding the picture it seems to add a hyperlink at the same time...removed the hyperlink and all seems fine...get me with figuring out this technology thing!

I must give a shout out to Simon for designing all the graphics that I use on this site, from the header to various icon images that have been designed to tie into whatever the theme of the post.

After a slow start to the day we kind of pottered about the house. Simon had more work to do on his droid projects and a massive 24 hour 3D print just finished this morning. I was sorting out some paperwork that had arrived yesterday and then updating my grocery shop for collection tomorrow.

It was one of Molly's best friends birthdays today so we popped out to drop off presents and a card; we spent a little while chatting out on the street while maintaining social distancing at all times. And while it was lovely to chat with people we haven't seen in ages we all expressed our concern at the way the UK is handling this pandemic and we were all convinced that lockdown seems to be easing rather quick and there is going to be a 'second wave'.

It all feels very doom and gloom at the moment. The government announcement today was all about getting professional sports up and running again but behind closed doors. Now I am not a big sports fan so this meant nothing to me but as Molly quite rightly pointed out they are happy to let players, managers and support staff all mingle in close proximity to each other but us, the general public, can only meet up to 6 other people...outside...keeping 2 metres apart...not sharing any utensils and if you have to use someone else's bathroom facilities then you literally 'enter at your own risk'.

I have a daughter who has not seen her boyfriend in about 12 weeks now, and I know she is not alone, so announcing footballers can see and touch each other really is a kick in the teeth. Her fella's phone has started playing up today and I can see how stressed she is because that's their only mode of communicating, they 'text' all the time and 'face time' every day. He lives 200 miles away so they can't even meet up to be distanced from each other - this sucks big time.

It has been another glorious day today and that will have encouraged people to go off to the parks and the beaches and social distancing will not have been obeyed and where will that leave us all? Do we end up with a second wave hitting us in a couple of weeks and be forced back into lock down? Will people follow a second lockdown if that does happen? Would it still not be better to knuckle down now, keep the lockdown going for a little while longer to get topside of this thing? Give chance for the R rate to drop lower before we start opening up again?

Maybe my brain is too simplistic - stick it out a little longer, get the R rate lower and then ease out of it. Perhaps I am not aware of some vital piece of information that makes coming out of lockdown okay. Maybe the government need to be open and honest and transparent about what is happening and perhaps admit that one of their own messed up big time, that he should be fired and then we can all focus on what's important...saving lives...rather than trying to distract everyone from a story they want to go away and won't. We have as many people dying today as when we went into lockdown on 23rd March - so what's changed? What is different now that says a lockdown is not needed as much?

I maybe being a little flippant with all of this but the messages coming out of the government are not clear and concise they are a bit grey and woolly and widely open to interpretation and abuse. Fingers crossed I am wrong in all of this but I fear I am not.

Please take care, stay safe

xx

Day 72

Day 72...

Well would you believe it yesterday I started the day battling with blogger to get my little icon image where I wanted it on the page and couldn't do what I wanted. So this morning I decided placing my image to the left would be the new look but no blogger wouldn't let me do that...but it would let me place the image to the right where I wanted it yesterday - ARGH!!

Today has been yet another heavy work day; I have refined our new 'epidemic and pandemic' policy; I have cross referenced the policy and risk assessment to make sure I've not missed anything; I have wrote a 'parental agreement' as well as an addendum to staffs contracts as well as dealing with emails and ordering some more essential supplies for when we do re-open.

We took our usual walk out at lunchtime and enjoyed yet another lovely warm and sunny day. Then later on this afternoon I spent an hour or so chatting and recording with my lovely friend and fellow Disney Dream Girl, Michelle. We spoke about the cancelling of various Disney trips that Michelle has had to very sadly make as well as the proposed opening of Walt Disney World and asking when we thought we would be likely to return. I had hoped to be there sometime this year but this will not now be happening, I can't see us returning until the world is back to something like the old normal. There are lots of restrictions being put in place at the minute, experiences being cancelled, systems being changed and lots more and I'm just not convinced that it will be the same sort of experience. Especially not for us Brits who have an awful long way to travel that can be rather expensive!

I must admit to feeling quite despondent today and a little overwhelmed. I feel like I am in a no win situation with work as whether or not I personally think we should be opening I still have to make a decision that will affect my staff and the families that we support. The message from the government is schools should be reopening so parents will be expecting us to do just that, but what if it's not the right time? What if by opening we have an outbreak? Do I want to risk my staff, and their families, getting ill? Do I want to risk the children and the families that come to our pre-school getting ill? Do I want to bring the virus home and infect my family? Obviously the answer is no but we have a government saying 'hey let's get everywhere open' while the scientists are quietly saying 'well...err...maybe not...we might be causing more problems...there might be another spike' - so with all that I am left to make a decision that could affect 10's if not 100's of people. I don't get paid a vast amount of money, our pre-school is  a small charity organisation and so it feels really unfair the amount of pressure we are getting put under and I hate that feeling.

We had just started to get our lives back this year after years of scrapping by, years of looking after sick and elderly relatives, experiencing the death of parents and then having gone through breast cancer last year this was supposed to be the year we got to do the things we'd been putting off. I'm not feeling sorry for myself, and I know other people have had to cancel weddings and parties and more, it's just so annoying that we have all been stopped in our tracks. And more annoying that our government seems to be making such a hash of things when other countries have seemingly got things sorted. The little faith I had in the powers that be is feeling severely stretched at the moment and I don't really trust them to do anything that is in the interests of the population. And if that's the case I am really struggling to see how and when we are going to come out of all this and that is really not a pleasant thought.

Take care out there,

xx

Day 71

Day 71..

And today I battled with a new format blogger! Trying to place my little cartoon image of me at a keyboard to the usual right hand corner would not play so I've had to try a different approach - argh!

Well most of my day has been spent working. I've been writing a new 'pandemic' policy to set out what we as a pre-school must do when faced with a pandemic which means cross referencing this to our risk assessment. I managed to complete it today but think I will look at it again tomorrow with a fresh pair of eyes, and a clearer brain, to make sure that I have everything covered. 

I was also very kind as a boss and sent all my staff links to lots of government documents that they need to read before we re-open...said with very heavy sarcasm...bet they loved getting that email!

I had a break at lunchtime as we took our usual couple of miles walk out over the fields in glorious sunshine. Although sadly we were able to see a fire at a school only a few miles away...a local primary school was completely burnt out although thankfully there were no children in today and all the staff on site were unhurt.

Absolutely devastating to see.

The day was finished off with a little workout down our home gym! 

So today the government have apparently said that their five steps for easing the lockdown have been met and that we will begin to see things opening up. This means that schools will be on schedule to start opening to more children from June 1st. Although there are quite a few schools, and councils, saying this won't happen straight away and that quite a few will not be open to as many children as first thought as most schools do not simply have the space to keep children two metres apart.

Car showrooms will be open from Monday which meant that both Simon and I received phone calls today from the dealership where we got our cars from...just checking in with us to make sure they had the right contact details...and to let us know they will be open from Monday...are they looking for business by any chance?!

Oh and we can now meet up to 6 people from outside our household provided it is in a public space or someone's garden and that we keep to social distancing. So whilst it is great that there is this small piece of relaxing the lockdown it is still some way off from what most people want; that ability to hug people we haven't seen in a long time and to relax and be in each others 'space'. And all the while the cynic in me thinks this has all come about to distract us, and appease us, from the debacle created by one of their own getting caught blatantly flouting the rules that we, the public, were doing our damndest to stick to.

I, for one, will approach this relaxing of the lockdown as cautiously as I possibly can!

Take care,

xx

Day 70

Day 70...

OK so 10 weeks of lockdown now!

I have been in a very fortunate position during lockdown to be able to work from home, to have Simon and Ethan work from home as well. We have relied heavily on online shopping and avoided going anywhere we didn't need to be going.

We live extremely close to the countryside so getting out for exercise has never been a problem and we have enjoyed getting out most days. We have in fact lived a very closeted life, keeping safe and trying to make the best of the situation.

It has made me realise that I am quite happy being a 'home bird' and while I have missed seeing friends and going places I have been able to keep in touch and feel connected. But it also means that the thought of coming out of lockdown is, for me, a daunting one. We still have hundreds of people dying every day and we have the highest death rate per capita than anywhere else but it's suddenly alright to start and venture out...

After 10 weeks of being told 'stay home', don't go anywhere you don't have to and weeks prior to that hearing all the horror stories coming from countries like Italy and wondering why we weren't reacting over here, it is difficult to comprehend the logic at times. I know there are differing opinions as to the best way to react to this pandemic but I can only deal with the information that is being fed to us via mainstream media which all the time has been downright scary. So being told we can start doing things again while 'staying alert' (again what does that mean?!), but keeping to social distancing and remembering to wash our hands often and not touch our faces and that perhaps wearing a face mask might be a good idea...Oh but we can't go visit relatives and give them a hug...is all a little concerning! Do I feel comfortable getting back into the outside world? I don't think I do!

So as far as I understand it next week I can go visit a car showroom and test drive a car but I can't go see my dad in his own home and give him a hug...feels like the priorities are all out of whack. The cynic in me says this is all about money and not about protecting peoples lives...but what do I know?!

Well today has been mostly work, and very important work as it was pay day! There were more emails to read and I've begun to write some policies as well as look at the number of children I can take into my pre-school and when. The guidance for early years recommends keeping to small groups of no more than 8 children but if you can't do that then 16 is fine - what?! It would appear that more of my local primary schools are being cautious and at the very least delaying their opening to more children. Guidance from our council to primary schools is to ensure that social distancing is maintained at all times for those children being invited to return which is mainly the 5 & 6 year olds, which means that a lot of schools will not have the physical space to accommodate the children. Goodness knows what schools are going to do as other year groups are supposed to return! Oh and there has been no specific local guidance for those of us who look after 2, 3 and 4 year olds!

We had our usual couple of miles walk out at lunchtime in glorious weather before returning to more work and then helping Molly with her resignation letter for work. I really can't see the point in her doing something she is so unhappy with, she is the right age to be just 'going for stuff' and trying things now while she has no financial commitments to hold her back. So please find Shutter Studios on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and give her a like and a follow.

Take care out there,
xx

Day 69

Day 69...

Back to work today as I'd got lots to wade through in order to get to a point where we can be confident that we can re-open pre-school safely and in accordance with all the government guidelines.

So lots more reading and dissecting of guidelines and recommendations; feeding all that back into our risk assessment and my own notes. More emailing with parents to confirm exactly what their requirements are and sorting that into spreadsheets so that I can start to figure out exactly what we can offer everyone. Then chatting with my deputy manager over email exchanging information and ideas as we get ready to meet up sometime soon to thrash it all out.

I still have new policies and agreements to write as well as ensuring all staff are informed and know what the expectations of us all are; so lots more to carry on with tomorrow!

I received a letter from my local hospital today with a new date for my mammogram that was cancelled back in April, at the beginning of this lockdown. I now have an appointment next week and rather than it being at the breast unit of the hospital I was treated at it will now be at one of their satellite locations. It comes with guidance on when to arrive and what to expect because of covid; I am only to be there 5 minutes before the allotted time and to only attend on my own. Apparently I will have to wait 2 weeks for the results which I'd hoped by having it done at hospital wouldn't have been the case, but I guess with it being in another location that's the reason why. Just brings back all the memories from last year...having the first mammogram and presuming everything was fine and then discovering it wasn't, followed by the re-testing and biopsy and waiting for results.

Lunchtime saw us complete another couple of miles in around 43 minutes in absolutely glorious weather yet again and today we saw almost nobody on our travels. After more work this afternoon I managed to step away from the keyboard late this afternoon to steal about 20 minutes outside for a bit of chill time.

Molly has been approached by her employer about going to back to work...she works in non-essential retail and she really doesn't want to go back yet nor can she see the justification in re-opening at the moment. If we are honest this isn't the job she wants to be doing and was just a way of earning a little money; and at a contract of just 4 hours a week I really don't think it is worth her getting stressed over. She is desperate to pursue a career in photography or media but is struggling to find anything out there...I think she needs refocus and push her energy and time into her own venture, Shutter Studios. She is young and talented and should be using this time to do what she wants to do and to 'give it a go'; life should be lived for the moment and for trying and aiming high, you never want to be left saying 'I wonder what would have happened if....' or 'I wish I'd done...' Grab the moment and just go for it, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

And there you have another day in lockdown...I think we're still in lockdown...well whatever it is I'm going to stay put as much as possible as I don't trust anyone in power at the moment. It would appear it's one rule for us and a completely different rule for them. I just hope that the majority of us are being sensible and abiding by the social distancing and staying home as much as possible as I would hate to see a spike in a few weeks time. Unfortunately only time will tell...

Take care, stay safe
xx

Day 65

Day 65...

Well another day of mostly work...what is the world coming to!

So yet more emails to respond to as parents start to reply to my email from yesterday. Parents are mixed about wanting their child to return to pre-school; some need them to because of work but others simply because they feel it's right for their children. And likewise we have parents who are happy for their child to remain at home and wait until September. I think with the lack of clarity and scientific solidarity coming from government it makes this a very tricky decision for parents especially when our neighbouring countries of Scotland and Northern Ireland have committed to no more school for this academic year.

All my staff have now been able to contribute to the risk assessment which interestingly everyone responded with almost the same questions or suggestions and all of which just meant a few minor tweaks to clarify a few points. I now have a 10 page risk assessment which means I will have new policies to write, existing policies to amend, new parental agreements to write and numerous posters to download. Think I may be busy the next few weeks!

So now we are in a waiting game to see how things progress over the next couple of weeks. Local councils are now saying that starting back on the 1st June is too soon and I have seen reports from differing science bodies that contradict each other! At the moment my pre-school is looking tentatively towards the 15th June but it will not be preschool as we know it. We will have much reduced numbers and the impact on which resources we can use is quite severe; it will definitely not be 'normal'.

It will be interesting to see as we move forward what the impact is going to be on the next academic year starting in September; how many children will be registered with us? Will parents want to be sending their very youngest to pre-school when there is no legal requirement to do so? Will we, as a sector, have new guidelines introduced meaning that the way we operate will have changed for good? Lots of unanswered questions at the moment that will more than likely have a big impact on the sector and I would imagine there will be a lot of closures for small community pre-schools and even some of the bigger nurseries if income is affected drastically. But only time will tell.

We had a walk out at lunchtime and I think our energy was expended on fighting the wind. Yesterday we had sunshine and high temperatures and today whilst the sun has remained but with more cloud and a little drop in temperature we have had a really quite ferocious wind. Our walk takes us along a constant climb initially and the higher up we got the windier it seemed and it was proper howling around us. In fact for a good portion of our walk it was difficult to talk. We still managed just over 2 miles but it did take a little longer today, around 48 minutes so I can only put that down to battling against the wind!

I have tried to move away from the laptop this afternoon, but my conscientiousness keeps letting me down as I have found myself randomly checking emails and sorting out some book-keeping bits for work - doh! I have tried though to distract myself with coffee, daft games on my phone and a bit of reading.

We have had a new set of outside lights arrive today as the set we had moved from one end of the garden to our patio area are not working. They were solar powered ones and we have tried changing batteries and leaving them off to recharge but nothing has worked and looking at the solar panel we came to the conclusion that there is a little damage to one corner that may have caused them to stop working. So jumped online a couple of days ago, ordered a new set but this time a plug-in set and despite the due delivery date being the middle of next week they arrived today! So providing the wind dies down I think it will be a job for me and Molly tomorrow to decide how we are going to hang them and where - watch this space!

Until tomorrow, take care
xx

Day 64

Day 64...

So today has been another heavy workload day. There has been more reading of government documents, responding to local council emails, tracking down useful documents, emailing staff, emailing committee, emailing our parents and finally completing our risk assessment...a long, very involved risk assessment!

We did manage our usual walk out at lunchtime completing a couple of miles in about 40 minutes. We took the reverse route of our walk from yesterday which did mean we had to tackle a rather steep hill upwards which we always forget about until it's there in front of us!

But it has been another gorgeous, sunny day and I did make a point of taking a coffee outside this afternoon to chill away from the keyboard and take just a few moments to unwind. I even managed a little workout later on and actually joined Molly and Simon down 'the gym' for a change.

But otherwise that's been today...work..a walk...sunshine...coffee and gym!

And after a couple of glasses of red wine I think I will leave it there!

See you tomorrow,

Take care,
xx