Squelchy Sunday

Day 319...

Today has been one of those days severely lacking in motivation for me. Simon always seems to have little projects on the go and has things to do whereas I seem to struggle.

We took a walk out this morning and decided to brave the fields. We headed off down what we refer to as 'The Brook' and initially the ground underfoot wasn't too bad; yes it was wet and a bit muddy in places and there was still some ice laying around in puddles but otherwise it was okay. 

We did one of our circular routes and it was the last field on the way home where things began to get a tad squelchy! In fact there was no evidence of what was once the footpath, it was just a sea of mud and a channel of water had formed down one side of where the path should have been. We met a dog walker at the top of the path and noticed he was wearing white trainers...we had the good grace to tell him not to bother! Thankfully we have an outdoor tap so when we got home we could clean our boots off before heading indoors.

One thing I did notice today was the amount of cars parked along the main road through our village...we only have the one road going through our village! I counted 38 cars parked along a half mile stretch of road, in 'normal' times you might see half a dozen or so at its busiest. I don't have a problem with people wanting to get out and about and if they want to visit our village and walk in the countryside around where we are then that's fine. But if we are being told to stay local...I just wonder how many are 'local'...and whether if we drove somewhere to go for a walk we would be allowed to or not?

It was a quiet afternoon at home with a little online grocery shopping, prepping some questions for the Disney quiz later in the day, catching up with the ironing and helping Ethan a little with cleaning his room. Simon has been out in the garage molding a Mandalorian helmet as he has just had a new order come through and then he has been working on his latest art commission for a retro gaming magazine.

The now usual Disney quiz (hosted by the Disney Dream Girls podcast I help co-host) happened this evening and was a much needed distraction. I will admit to not really feeling in the mood for it today but after a few minutes it was lovely to chat, giggle and answer a few questions. Next week we will have questions on the film Moana which means I have something to watch this week...although I could do with Molly being at home as she knows this film way better than I do!

And with a glass of red wine in my hand that is where I will end todays post.

Take care out there.
xx

Slow Saturday

Day 318...

Here we are at the weekend once more, another weekend with nothing to do and no where to go.

We decided to take a walk out late morning and walked into the next village. We stopped by a small cafe; a restaurant that is now doing take-away coffee and cakes, to pick up a coffee to accompany us on our walk back home. This is now turning into the highlight of our weekend.

Chatting to the cafe owners they are managing to stay afloat and are extremely grateful for all the support from those who live local. But even they have had a brush with the police...apparently there had been a complaint about the queue of people waiting to be served. So just to give you an idea, the area from which they serve coffee and cake is only big enough for one or two adults at best. So it is a case of one person goes in at a time and anyone else has to wait outside on the pavement. But apparently the complaint was that people were not staying far enough apart...really?! So the owners had the police pay them a visit asking them to control their customers. Well first they would have no idea from inside their cafe how many people were waiting never mind how far apart they were. Upshot is that they have had to place notices outside to remind people to keep apart...this feels so petty as I'm pretty sure most people have been doing their level best to queue responsibly!! 

So we managed a walk of just over 3 and a half miles and it was rather chilly and windy and I was glad to get back home and into the warmth and another coffee!

The afternoon was a mix of online grocery shopping, placing an online butchers order and completing my latest jigsaw...that had one piece missing! Simon has been working on an art commission while attempting to 3D print the last component for his R2D2 build. The printer is proving to be a bit temperamental at the moment so fingers crossed it's now working to get this last print completed. Although I do think he is probably due a new printer as this one was bought for the lowest cost possible, was one that he had to assemble himself and he then had to print extra parts for. It was bought as a test to see whether or not it would prove useful...as this was now a fair few years ago I think we can confidently say it's been useful!!

And I am ending the day making keto meat pie...I know it's so 'rock 'n' roll' but I guess this is how life is now...rinse and repeat...same day after same day.

Take care out there.
xx

Finally Friday

Day 317...

Thank goodness it's Friday!

It has been a strange old week what with two snow days for pre-school at the beginning of the week and then having to work yesterday when I don't ordinarily so getting to today I had to double check what day it actually was!

Thankfully I was up and about at my usual time and in to work as normal. A pretty standard sort of day; emails, banking, admin and the same.

Once home and with a coffee in hand I did a couple of more work emails before taking an hour to make a little more progress on my jigsaw.

When Simon finished work we decided to watch this week's episode of WandaVision on Disney +; this started off as a bit of a slow burn with not very much being given away but I am very pleased to report that episode four out today certainly makes watching the previous episodes worthwhile and is beginning to answer a lot of the questions that the initial episodes left us with.

And there we have Friday...just like any other Friday at the moment. It really is hard not being able to see an end to what we are going through and not having the confidence that those with the power seem to know what they are doing. Will this become the new normal that every time we have a new disease, or every time the flu season looks to be tougher than normal, that we will be expected to endure more lockdowns.

Will lockdowns and masks become just a thing we do? But why? Plenty of evidence and papers out there that counter the current mantra and anyone with an inquisitive mind surely has to question the one sided narrative that we are being fed. There are always two sides to any argument, and probably more besides, so surely it is common sense to presume that as we have moved through this past year we need to ask questions. We need to have other opinions be heard. We need to educate ourselves and determine whether we are being told everything or just what governments want us to be told. As we learn more about this virus and we have more data to examine we must surely learn, adapt and move forward even if that means admitting mistakes and changing our approach.

Well whatever is happening wherever you may be, just take care.
xx

Thursday in Work

Day 316...

Normally Thursday is my second non-working day of the week but this morning I received a message from my deputy manager to say she wasn't well enough to come into work. That meant a quick change of clothes and a wizz around to get out the house and into work on time...especially important as I have the keys!

But I made it with time to spare and had a pretty standard day in work. There was the usual emails to catch up with, a little banking and more importantly the wages to sort!

I arrived home this afternoon just in time to take delivery of my weekly order from a local dairy as well as an Amazon package and I walked in to be greeted by a fresh pot of coffee! It was then a quick change and time to get organised to hook up online with my podcast co-host Michelle as we had an episode to record.

I spent a lovely hour or so chatting with Michelle; we put the world to rights and then recorded an episode for the Disney Dream Girls which will be released this Sunday.

We rounded out the day with a little home workout; Simon down the 'gym', aka our garage, and me in the living room with an exercise mat, a few light weights and music playing.

Another day done, another day trying to avoid the media and the depression...just keep on keeping on!

Take care out there.
xx

Back to Work

Day 315...

So today was my first day in work this week. The warmer temperature and rain overnight had resulted in the majority of the snow disappearing and we were back to normal. 

So I spent the morning in work and it was a chance to catch up with my deputy manager and team to plan the remainder of the week having missed two days. Then it was the usual bits of admin before making a start on the review of all our policies and procedures!!

I had the afternoon off and after nipping to a local supermarket on the way home I arrived to find Simon using his lunch hour to cast some helmet parts. He's had a few requests of late for either helmets or parts of helmets and so was making best use of his time.

My afternoon then consisted of a little home admin, some coffee and some jigsaw time. 

And that has been my day. I am trying to avoid too much news at the moment as it is simply too depressing. I need to be able to see a way out of this current lockdown but our government seem completely inept at coming up with a way to make that happen. It appears that they are revelling in the fact that we are in such a sorry state rather than coming up with a clear and decisive way forward. So for now I will limit my exposure to help keep my sanity.

Take care out there.
xx
 

Snow...Ice Day

Day 314...

Well the first job of the day was to decide whether to re-open pre-school after our 'snow day' yesterday. 

It's always difficult to assess what is best to do especially as where I live is away from main roads. So myself and my deputy exchanged a few messages in order to weigh up the situation.

Although we have had no more snowfall since Sunday evening everywhere was still thick with snow and now it was very icy. We decided that the footpaths were too treacherous to be out and about and a lot of the roads had still not cleared so we made the decision to remain shut for today.

I was still able to get on with most of my work at home. There were some emails to respond to, a little banking to update, some online learning journal entries to add and then my main job of the day was to continue updating our safeguarding policy. We had a new policy given to us by our local safeguarding board so I have had to use that as the basis for our own version. A 56 page policy...badly presented...into a 44 page document that is now much easier to read and modified to reflect our pre-school.

I ended up finishing my work about an hour later than I had intended but still had a little daylight left to spend some time on my latest jigsaw, although it was just sorting pieces today.

We had a little home workout this evening; Simon doing the heavy lifting down the 'gym' aka our garage and I stayed in the warmth inside and kept to my bodyweight exercises.

And that has been today.

Take care out there.
xx

Snow Day Monday!

Day 313...

And we had our first 'Snow Day' of this academic year! Although I technically don't work Mondays I did have to make the call as to whether we should open or not and then let all our parents know what was happening.

But our first task of the day was to collect the grocery shopping...in the snow. Thankfully we only have to travel about 3 miles to the store but none of the roads to get there appeared to have been either cleared or treated in anyway so it was a very steady journey there and back.

Making our way steadily to the store!

But it did look very pretty...

Once we were safely home and the shopping took into the house we set to clearing some of the paths around where we live. We have a couple of elderly neighbours so along with another of our neighbours we made sure there was a clear path for them to use.

After we had unpacked and put away all the shopping we decided to take a walk out across the fields where we live. We are extremely fortunate to live right next to farmland and have numerous footpaths and bridleways to walk, which have been a lifeline during these past 303 days!.

We managed a couple of miles which took us just under an hour which is slightly longer than it would have taken normally due to walking through snow and across uneven ground...and stopping to take photos of course!

We even came across a family of snowmen!

After a spot of lunch Simon re-organised all of his various tools and supplies that he had accumulated while completing the elecronics for his R2D2 build. He then left R2 plugged in to see how well it worked and suffice to say he was very pleased with the results. Head over to his Simon Phipps Art Facebook page to see a video of R2 in working order. He is now left with just the legs to finish off and attach.

I made a start on my next jigsaw which is another Disney and Christmas combination and I have managed to complete the outer edge...I think this will be the third time I have done this particular jigsaw!

And there we have 'Snow Day' let's just hope that it's not too icy tomorrow!

Take care out there.

xx