Day 719

Day 719...

Sunday has rolled around once more.

We started the day off with the collection of our weekly grocery shopping from Asda. Really beginning to notice not only the price rises but also the lack of availability of some things. But we were home and everything packed away by about 11am and so we had the rest of the day in front of us.

We decided to head into Derby for a little mooch about; chance to have an explore around to see what was on offer. We are very fortunate to live within equal distance of both Nottingham and Derby but of late we have found ourselves visiting Nottingham more so we decided to give Derby a go today.

Derby has a lovely shopping mall but we decided to park away from the mall so that we could have a wander through the city rather than just experiencing the mall. Derby is not a big city and is quite easy to explore. We were very aware as we wandered about just how many shops were empty, or simply had chosen not to open on a Sunday. We noticed how quiet the city felt and it was really quite sad.

We made our way over to the mall which is a lovely space to walk around and has all the major retailers that you would expect to see in a city and while the mall itself had plenty of people walking about it was not what I would call busy. Perhaps it was because it was a Sunday but it felt awfully quiet for what was once a busy city centre. Just so sad to see so many shop units empty.

I did manage to come away with some new make-up though; a lipstick and eye-liner...

...and I was tempted by...but resisted the Disney make-up by Morphe!

Before heading home we stopped for a coffee and took the time to talk and start evaluating our current position in our world and where we see ourselves heading.

With my decision to leave pre-school and head for 'early retirement' there are lots of things to be thinking about and lots of decisions to be made. And part of this whole process is a chance for me to stop and think about what I want to do for me...not what I need to do, not what I ought to do, not what is right for everyone else but what is actually right for me at this point in my life. I have no idea what that is as yet but I do know it's going to take a little time to adjust to that thought and a little time to figure it all out.

And today, by simply talking with Simon, I have started the process...I have no idea where it's going to take me or how long it will take me to get there and I suspect there is lots more to talk about between now and then!

And with that I will say, see you tomorrow.
xx 

Day 718

Day 718...

It was a slow and lazy start to this Saturday, for some reason it felt like the last week had seen each day have an early start although it hadn't really been any different to usual. But suffice to say I allowed myself a much more sedate approach to the day.

With breakfast out the way our focus was our upstairs bedroom that used to be Molly's room but will be turning into a study come craft room. Whilst we have cleared the room of all the unwanted furniture and had painted the walls it is now time to start the transformation.

On Monday we are having new wood floor laid and so today we needed to clear the room of the items that we have been storing up there, the mattress (soon to be replaced with a sofa bed) and of course the carpet. It didn't take us too long to move everything...well I say we it was mostly Simon as I was finishing off our online grocery shop order ready for collecting tomorrow. We lifted the carpet and the underlay and then Simon prised up all of the gripper rods. This then necessitated a hoover round as there was dust and bits of underlay and splinters of wood all over.

Next it was time to load all the carpet and underlay into the back of the car and take a trip over to our local recycling centre. By about 2.30pm we had done what we had set out to do and the room is now already for wood floor to be laid on Monday.

The afternoon was a relaxed affair. After a spot of lunch I moved a few more jigsaw pieces into place while Simon made progress with his latest piece of digital art. Towards the end of the afternoon I decided that the bananas I'd bought over a week ago were ripe enough to make a low carb banana bread. As this contains no sugar it is best to use very ripe bananas so that the natural sugars from them provide the sweetness.

Low carb banana bread

And with that all that is left to do today is see if we can find a stream of RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 to watch!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 717

Day 717...

We have reached Friday and the start of the weekend but it was a full day in work first.

My work day saw me catching up with the banking, dealing with emails and then I had a project to print out a big chunk of our policies and procedures and file them appropriately. We have tried to keep everything online rather than print pages and pages but as some of these policies can be quite lengthy we decided that paper copies would be easiest for reading through and referring back to. I made pretty good progress and whilst I still have some more that need printing I have completed the vast majority.

Arriving home it was time to set-up my laptop ready for podcast recording and to make a coffee! I then spent about an hour online chatting with my Disney Dream Girls podcast co-host Michelle, as we looked at some Disney history and the 30th anniversary celebrations starting at Disneyland Paris this weekend.

And the day has rounded out with playing taxi service for Ethan as he enjoyed a meal out with his work team, at work's expense!

Roll on the weekend, and I'll see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 716

Day 716...

Today was a pretty standard Thursday split between a morning of work and an afternoon at home.

The morning was pretty busy as I continue to go through managerial stuff with my deputy as well as prepping for a meeting this evening with our landlord. We've only been in our current building a couple of years and of course the majority of that time has been through the pandemic and so we haven't been able to meet up. So tonight we get chance to see each other in person and discuss a few bits and pieces including how we can help improve the building through a grant that we have received.

I came home via Lidl as we needed a few bits and bobs, and things that are significantly cheaper than at the bigger named supermarkets. Just can't justify some of the prices from Asda at the moment so I tend to do a top-up shop at Lidl to get the essentials I need at much better prices.

Simon was just coming to the end of his lunch break as I arrived home and after a quick coffee with him I grabbed some lunch before catching up with the job that I'd started yesterday. I'd scanned in some of our photos and uploaded them to the laptop so today it was figuring out when they were taken, where and who was in them. I then put all that information into the details for each photo; this way we will have a permanent record that we can pass on with as much information as possible.

With more coffee brewed it was time to take a few minutes out to get some more jigsaw pieces joined together and I was pleasantly surprised with what I managed to get done.

At the end of Simon's work day we went down our gym for our regular Thursday workout. Chance to move some weights around!

It was then time to get changed and head out for the meeting with preschools landlord.  It was a longer than intended meeting but it was a productive one.

Time for a cuppa and some dark chocolate and I'll see you tomorrow.

xx

 

Day 715

Day 715...

Today has been spent at home as my working hours have now changed to allow me bigger chunks of time in work so that I can begin the process of handing over the reins of pre-school to my deputy and team.

It has been a very grey, wet and dreary day and so I have not ventured outside of the house. The morning was taken up with sorting out some emails and chasing a couple of things that I've just not had the time to do recently. Not very exciting jobs but jobs that needed doing nonetheless. 

Unfortunately as the weather stayed pretty miserable all day we decided not to venture out for a lunchtime walk which was a shame.

This afternoon I decided to resume my project of scanning in all of our old photographs using an app called Photomyne. I'd made great progress before Christmas but have gotten out of the habit of scanning photos, so today I had a moment of inspiration and thought I would scan a few in. I worked through the remainder of the last album I'd picked up and scanned in photos from 1993 and 1994! I've now uploaded them to my laptop and just need to go through and update the description for each photo.

I had a little time, while the daylight allowed, to move some pieces around on my latest jigsaw and whilst I did get some joined together I get the feeling this one may take a little time!

While Simon did his zone two training on the exercise bike I decided to make low carb moussaka for dinner. I really need to jump on the bike a bit more but the trouble is I find it really boring, and I've never really been a fan of aerobic exercise, or sport in general, which I know is really bad. Discovering gym workouts and lifting weights was a great revelation to me years (many years) ago as I finally found something 'sporty' that I could actually do, do it pretty well and enjoy at the same time.

But with that all done I shall see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 714

Day 714...

Tuesday once more and for me it was a full day in work as opposed to my normal half a day.

As I am stepping down from my job at pre-school, and am now in the process of passing on the mantle of manager, I am now working a full day on a Tuesday to help with that transition.

These next few weeks will see me introduce all that I do to my deputy who will be taking over a good proportion of what I do. I will also be showing other members of my team specific tasks so that ultimately the elements that make up my job role can be shared out where best.

So all day myself and my deputy went through the day's work; emails, funding, spreadsheets, wages, data input and more. We are finding that we will start with one task in mind and this often leads to lots of tangents, but we are working our way through and making progress.

Because Simon had a barbers appointment today, and we only have the one car now, it meant that I was chauffeured to and from work today so that he could have the car. I have to admit it was quite nice having a bit of company on my work journeys!

And Simon had the good foresight to put a pot of coffee on before he left the house to pick me up so we walked in the house to freshly brewed coffee. I then had a task ahead of me. White Lies (my favourite band!!) were launching their first ever, official, fan club today at 5pm and the first 50 to sign up would receive a special signed photo. So between Simon and I we had alarms set on our phones, the website was open on my laptop and I was already for 5pm to roll around. 

To kill the time while I waited I attempted a little more of my current jigsaw...

...lots of colour and lots of details on this one! 

Just before 5pm I was sat at my laptop and kept refreshing the bands webpage waiting for the link to the fan club to appear. By 5.06pm I was in and able to purchase my membership for the next 12 months, by 5.09pm I had the email to confirm I was now a member...

I will now receive a t-shirt and a pin along with access to discounted merchandise and some exclusive content including a video of their stripped back concert that we saw in Bournemouth at the end of last year! Whether I have been lucky enough to be in the first 50 to sign up I don't know and I guess I will just have to wait and see.

With that excitement out of the way and with Simon finishing work for the day we put on our gym gear and headed out for a workout. Loving the fact that we have adapted our garage into a gym space as there is no longer any effort involved in getting to the gym and back. Simply open the garage and move some weights about!

I think I will sign off now as I know we have a couple of TV shows to watch; Making Magic Mike and RuPauls Drag Race UK versus the World...and as it's Pancake Day we may be indulging in our low carb version of a pancake. A simple mix of eggs, cream, a touch of baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and some dark chocolate thrown in at the end of cooking - yummy!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 713

Day 713...

The start of the working week and after a week off 'ill' and a week off for our half term break I found myself in work on a Monday which is actually my non-working day of the week!

We have a member of staff off ill so I was needed to provide cover for them. As it was myself and my deputy were able to spend the morning together to start the process of handing over my duties.

Our plan is that the sooner we can transfer my duties over to my deputy and other team members the sooner I can step away. So we have started the process of my deputy shadowing me to discover what it is I actually do each day and how that can be transferred over to her and the team. The plan for the remainder of the academic year is for me to be able to step away from pre-school but to remain in kind of a 'consultant' role so that I can support my deputy and the team from a distance. I will be their training wheels as they learn to ride the managers bike!!

I was home for early afternoon and after a bite of lunch with Simon we headed into Derby to have a little look around some shops, grab a coffee and I had a beauty appointment to get to.  Back home we had another coffee before Simon jumped onto the exercise bike for his 45 minutes of zone two training. I on the other hand moved some jigsaw pieces around!

Right, that was Monday and I will see you tomorrow.
xx