Day 750

Day 750...

Another Thursday and today was a full day in work for me.

The work day was another day of working through various parts of my job with my deputy who will be taking over from me at the end of May. I think we are starting to get to the point where I will be needed less and less as the confidence of my staff taking on new tasks begins to grow.

On my way home I had a quick trip to our local Lidl as it was that time of the week when I needed a few top-up items. And as we are away this weekend I needed to get some bits to keep Ethan fed and watered while we are away!!

I arrived home in a hail storm and decided to run for it and actually yelled out 'Ow' as I was hit by hail! Not fun! Thankfully the coffee was ready and waiting for me to warm me up...I wonder if the weather knows it is now April and we'd much prefer some warm sunny weather rather than wet, windy and rather chilly!

But with coffee in hand it was time to get on with things. I messaged the people I been able to contact about my dad's passing to let them know how we are going to celebrate his life in a couple of weeks time.  I was also able to compose something for Facebook to get the word out and hopefully reach as many people as possible that knew dad and may want to come along and pay their respects. I also did a little more research into how best to advise various companies that still need advising about my dads death. Getting a little more done each day.

The day was finished off with a quick workout down our 'gym'.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 749

Day 749...

We have reached the middle of the week and it has been another day of two halves.

My morning was spent in work and although my deputy was off work ill we still managed to get quite a bit of work done between us. The power of a Google drive and WhatsApp!!

This afternoon was spent back at home and it was pretty non-stop. I have a lot of companies to contact regarding my dad's passing and so this afternoon I picked a few to see how far I could get. I managed to contact four companies through a mixture of online chats and actual telephone calls and all seem to have gone relatively smoothly, although I was juggling multiple screens at one point! Still more to do but I'll aim to just get a few done each day I think.

I then had some laundry to get caught up on as we are away at the weekend and so wanted to make sure everything was up straight. Next it was time to bake; not something I do very often at all these days as being a low carb family cakes are a bit of a rarity. But as part of our fundraising week at pre-school we have decided to sell cakes and as stock was running low I got out the baking tins and made three dozen cakes all suitably Easter themed!

Just hope they taste okay!!

The afternoon has been a very multi-tasking few hours and I am now looking forward to a cup of tea, feet up and this weeks episode of Moon Knight!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 748

Day 748...

Well, today turned out to be a day of two halves. The plan had been to spend a full day in work but as we went through the days tasks we realised that I would be able to finish a little earlier.

The morning was spent with my deputy manager to catch up with all the happenings at pre-school and go over a few more in depth aspects of the managerial role. But we are beginning to get to the point where all those various aspects of my job are being transitioned across and the need for me is slowly becoming less and less.

Therefore just after lunch we decided that I'd done as much as I could for the day and was able to head home and leave my deputy to get on alone with the multiple tasks that she had to complete. We are at a point where it is better to leave my staff to get on with the jobs at hand and to then ascertain just where they need input, if any, from me going forward.

Back home and I discovered that Simon had used his lunchtime to swap over a door on one of our assembled cabinets in our new study room. Because we need to swap the room design over it meant that the corner cabinet needed to be reversed and Simon had been able to do it with ease.

With a freshly brewed coffee in hand I decided to tackle some paperwork of my own. I needed to use the governments 'Tell Us Once' service about my dad's passing as by doing this government departments like the passport office along with local government departments all get informed 'at once' rather than having to contact them all individually. It's a straight forward process and didn't take me too long at all.

I was then able to contact some of our relatives to let them know about our arrangements to celebrate dad's life at his 'local' pub in a couple of weeks time, along with a few of his old neighbours. I still have more to contact but that will be a job for tomorrow. I was also able to start to collate some of the paperwork that we will need when we go to see the solicitors next week along with starting to inform other third parties but there is still more to do.

Then the day was rounded out with a trip to our gym...I think we were both quite pleasantly surprised at how well we did as I think the last two days of building cabinets was starting to catch up with the both of us!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 747

Day 747...

Today has been a busy and productive Monday.

It started out with a phone call from our local register office who I'd left a message with on Friday afternoon. Very impressed that not only were they getting in touch on the next working day but it was actually before their official opening time of 9am! 

But they were lovely and were able to help me obtain a special reference number for my dads death that will enable me to register with the 'Tell Us Once' service. Because my dads death is under the coroner and is likely to go to an inquest we are unable to register his death in the normal way and instead have an 'interim death certificate', issued by the coroner. This meant trying to track down someone who was able to generate the correct reference number for us. We are now able to advise a number of government departments about my dad in just one go by using an online service.

Our next job of the day was to visit our funeral directors of choice to sort out the necessary arrangements. My brother and his wife were also there and we have decided that we will be having what is called a 'direct cremation'. This means that there will be no formal service and that simply my dad will be cremated and we will then collect the ashes and arrange for a scattering. Once we have dad's ashes we will then need to make arrangements for the ashes to be scattered within the same area that my mum's remains were laid at our local crematorium.

We then stopped by my dad's house to check for any mail as well as to carry out a little DIY. We had found that the door to the bathroom was not on its hinges so armed with screwdrivers and screws we took a few minutes to re-hang the door. 

Next we headed towards Derby in search of a home improvement store and on the way we had an Amazon return to drop off. At the said home improvement store Simon was able to pick up a new, extra fine saw ahead of the next stage of assembling our workspace in our new study/craft room (aka Molly's old bedroom!). And then it was time to stop for a coffee and a car wash; taking advantage of the jet wash next door to a Starbucks. 

While at Starbucks I received a text from a couple that my dad used to see at his pub of choice who were asking if they could attend his funeral. I explained that there would be no funeral as such but that we were hoping to arrange a get together at the aforementioned pub to celebrate my dads life and I would be in touch.

On the way home we stopped by my dad's favourite pub to see about making some arrangements. The landlady immediately knew who we were and expressed her condolences and was only too happy to be able to sort something out for us. We were also able to meet the couple dad had always spoke about as they were actually in the pub having a meal; perfect timing. It was lovely to chat with people who knew my dad and had memories to share with us. So on the 25th April we will all come together and be able to celebrate and remember my dad.

After a quick spot of late lunch Simon and I then started the next phase of assembling our craft space. We had end panels to cut to size, hence the new saw, along with tackling the two 2.4 metre lengths of worktop and figuring out how they would sit together. 

According to the instructions from Ikea the two worktops are designed to sit next to each other at a ninety degree angle. But Simon had already done a little online research into how to join the two pieces together which involved some clever cutting; as it was there was a little damage to one corner of one of the worktops which forced us to go with the fancy cutting option. We very diligently measured and remeasured and worked out how to cut 45 degree angles. Simon was able to make all the necessary cuts and the two worktops married up perfectly. He was then able to turn them over and make the necessary cuts to allow fixing bolts to be set in place; all very professional looking.

We then had the awkward job of getting both, very long and very heavy, worktops upstairs into our soon to be study/craft room. I was pleasantly surprised that I had the strength to help Simon move them and get them into place. We laid them in place and then realised that we had a slight problem! 

I think we had been so fixated on the damage to one of the corners of the worktops that we had inadvertently made the cuts to join the tops together opposite to what we'd intended. Initially we couldn't believe the error that we'd made and were resigned to 'make do' which would have meant cutting about sixty centimetres off the end of one of the worktops. Thankfully Simon had the common sense to realise that as the room is pretty much square and the layout we have planned involves an 'L-shaped' worktop we simply need to reverse our original plan and everything will still fit and we won't have to loose any of the worktop after all - phew!

And with that our day was done; a busy day with more achieved than I think either of us thought was going to be possible today.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 746

Day 746...

We had the usual start to our Sunday with the collection of our grocery shopping; not very exciting but a necessity.

But the next task of the day was a little more exciting as I joined my podcasting co-host Michelle to record this weeks Disney Dream Girls as well as a show just for our Patreon supporters. With everything that has happened this week this was the first chance we'd been able to get together and had the head space to be able to chat all things Disney. Michelle then did an amazing job to go away and edit our audio so that it could be released later today as we always try and release a show each Sunday.

Whilst I recorded Simon made a few final adjustments to the art commission that he'd been working on yesterday. The piece is now complete and he is now waiting to hear from the commissioner to ensure that the art is everything that they wanted it to be. He does a brilliant job of working with his clients to ensure they get exactly what they want and will keep them updated throughout the creation process so that tweaks and amendments can be made if needed.

After a spot of lunch we decided to start the construction of the Ikea flat pack that we'd bought at the beginning of the week. We have bought a number of kitchen cabinets that will form the base of our workspace area and will store all of our crafting bits and pieces. We than have two wooden worktops that will form the desk area. Our task today was to see if we could get at least one of the cabinets built.

Well, by the end of the day we had all four cabinets built. We've substituted the usual plinths with small feet so that the cabinets are almost to the floor with just enough room to open the doors. We have attached all the doors and even worked out how to join two cabinets together by way of a corner unit to create an 'L' shape. We are very pleased with our afternoon efforts and hats off to Ikea for creating units that were super easy to assemble.

I think the next task of moving the two 2.4 metre lengths of very heavy wooden worktops into the upstairs room will be quite interesting!! And then Simon has the challenge of working out how to install them at a ninety degree angle to each other. There is going to be a lot of measuring, and measuring again, before any cutting takes place I think!

So we have had a productive day and I think it is now time to put our feet up.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 746

Day 746...

Well there isn't going to be much to report from today as it has been mainly taken up with one thing; paperwork.

After a steady start to the day Simon wanted to spend as much time as he could completing his latest art commission. So he set himself up with his digital art pad in front to the TV and by the end of the day was able to get it all finished off.

I decided that I would attack the mound of paperwork that I had brought home from my dad's house and try and figure out just what was relevant, what could be thrown away and anything that we may want to hold onto for sentimental reasons.

Going through it all has been a mixture of asking why on earth has something been kept, along with little finds that capture a moment in time. Suffice to say there has been an awful lot that has been thrown out...bills and statements from twenty years ago are of no use whatsoever!

But I am now making progress by collating all the needed and relevant stuff into one place in a much more organised fashion along with saving some random finds. I came across a couple of my dad's old school reports from the 1950's, blank wedding invitations from my wedding, a newspaper article about my dad retiring, some old one pound notes and more.

I am hoping that next week we will be able to make the arrangements for his funeral as well as figure out who needs notifying and the implications of that.

By the end of the day I had gone through everything and organised it all so it should be much easier to find whatever we may need going forward.

Time for a cuppa, see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 745

Day 745...

It's a little late in the day as I write this so this may be a quick post!

My day was spent in work and it was another day of taking my staff through various aspects of my job as I get ready to completely stand down from my role as manager. We are still on track for my last day at pre-school to be at the end of May and we are gradually making our way through all the different tasks that my job entails.

I arrived home to a freshly brewed pot of coffee thanks to Simon and a small pile of post which included some lovely flowers sent by Simon's boss (and good friend) and his wife. Although I did have to search for something suitable to put the flowers in as the only proper vase that I'd owned had been thrown out when we'd had a clear out a few months back. It's not very often I have flowers in the house as they will normally set Simon's hayfever off! But thankfully I found a suitably large glass that was a souvenir from a vacation many, many years ago but works wonderfully as a vase!

I attempted to phone the local register office to discuss how to get a reference number for my dad's death so that we can make use of a government service called 'Tell Us Once'. This is a great service as by simply registering online a number of various government departments are advised of a person's death in one go rather than each department having to be contacted separately. Because my dad's passing has been referred to the coroner we have been issued with an 'interim death certificate' as opposed to a full death certificate and therefore getting this reference number is a little different to 'normal'. But unfortunately I discovered that the register office only opens between 9am and 4pm as I was phoning at a few minutes after 4pm and couldn't get through! Finally I was able to leave my details and hope that someone will get back to me on Monday so we can start getting things sorted.

Then this evening we popped out for an hour or so to support my sister-in-law as she has expanded her business into more of an art venture and has a small exhibit happening within the complex where she has her studio. Her business, China Petals, makes mosaics from broken china and pieces of glass and she has now taken this skill into a more bespoke form making unique pieces of art.

And that was Friday and I am looking forward to the weekend and stopping for a few hours, see you tomorrow.
xx