TeamChallis: Week 101 - half term 101 weeks of covid

On Sunday after I'd finished blogging, we joined the family zoom call... mainly to show off our front room! 😄 But it was nice to catch up.

Bunnykins was busy sketching

And Woo had decided to dress up as a Hobbit

As earlier she had been trying out a world book day outfit... her and her friends are going to dress as rainbow fairies and she is the green fairy.

On Monday it was half term. I worked in the morning, then took the afternoon off. I had booked the girls in for a bra fitting, but first we started with a bit of jeans shopping as both girls were after new pairs.

After the fitting, we popped into a café.

Then finished off with a bit more shopping which Bunnykins did tire of well before Woo...

On Tuesday, Mark and I had lunch with the girls at the café and then we all walked to Staple Hill High Street. We dropped off some stuff at the charity shop and then left the girls to go to the library and gave them some money to go to the charity shops.

On Wednesday, Mark had taken the day off. They went across to meet the Lillingtons at Rest Bay. They got some lunch at the café.

And then spent some time exploring the rocks, before everyone apart from Andy and J went in for some body boarding. The waves were a bit confused, but they did have fun.

About to head home....

In the evening they played some games on the play station together.

Soul Calibre, which was a knock off version of Street fighter I guess.

Thursday Bunnykins was picked up by Ursula and dropped off with A at Hannah's house. Woo took the bus into town to see her friends.

The external renderers were back to do the pebble dashing. It was a busy day work wise occasionally punctuated by the sounds of the workmen.

It was a good job apart from where they had covered over 2 of our vents.... so they'll be back to fix that.

Ben was over in the evening. Mark had made us a lovely chilli. We played Moondance and Your Song and talked about Moulin Rouge which has a great soundtrack.

On Friday I joined a work meeting at 8am in the morning which left a bad taste in my mouth for much of that day and the next. I tried to forget it, and waited for the girls to be up. Finally at just after 10am we were heading out the door and into Bath.

We did some charity shopping and had a few things to return and try on at M&S.

By this time, Mark had finished his working day and cycled across to Bath to meet us. He finds cycling much easier on his knee, so it was a welcome bit of exercise for him.

We went for lunch.

Then walked up to the Holburn museum (passing into a few charity shops in the way).

There was an exhibition on the Tudors that I found fascinating. It had the classic paintings of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn. All these images that are so familiar and here they were in one small room.

I was surprised that the rest of them weren't so interested. They did look around, but I wanted to linger on each picture.

The detail in the paintings was amazing

I particularly love getting close and seeing how the stitches, or lace, or pearls, or the play of the velvet head been rendered.

This one - Anne of Cleves? I loved. The velvet of her bodice was so lifelike as to almost be photographic, but then the painting was unfinished so you get this amazing contrast between hand and sleeve.

Then this absolutely classic image of Anne Boleyn. It made me think about when Woo dressed up as her complete with neck scar. And Bunnykins was dressed up as Elizabeth I.

Hard to spot the difference I know.

Look at the detail of the thread here...

On Saturday we spent the morning cleaning the house! I am trying to sort out getting a cleaner back, but I tried another management company and pulled out at the last moment as frankly they really don't do much for their money and I was getting quite concerned at the Ts&Cs.

In the afternoon, the Dicksons came over to see our parlour.

We had some snacks and chilli, then played cards against humanity which was a lot of fun.

Sunday was a fairly lazy start. We went over to the hatch for lunch.

I called this post "101 weeks of covid". On 24th all restrictions were dropped. I'm probably not representing that correctly... all legal obligations to isolate, wear masks and such. Recommendations still remain, it's just not a legal obligation. So in some ways, this is now the end of the pandemic. 101 weeks ago, a lockdown started followed by regulations and rules and more lockdowns. And now it has, officially at least, ended.

Though of course it hasn't. I got a text from Ben earlier today... he's tested positive. We talked about what he's supposed to do. The guidelines have changed since team challis got covid-19, but there is still guidance: isolate for 5 days, test on the 6th, if negative, test on the 7th, if negative - you're free to go that day. So he's got at least 6 days to stay indoors because he's a good person. He's not legally obliged, but does a legal obligation need to be in place to do the right thing? Of course not.

But this 101 weeks, it's just a symbolic end. This thing won't end with any definitive event, it's not like the ending of world war 2 and we all run out into the streets and start celebrating. So I'm picking this end and saying from here, whatever it is, I'm recording it fresh - not in relation to the start of something 101 weeks ago.

It's just short of 2 years. I was sitting here in my chair thinking (and then asked the others at dinner) about what has happened in these 101 weeks. I will list what comes to mind.... in no particular order:

We've got older, we've each had 2 birthdays.
We got through home schooling
Bunnykins started secondary school
Woo became 2nd tallest in the house
We finished the workroom
We decorated Woo's room
I should have graduated and didn't
I got made redundant
We went to Skye, and rode electric bikes in the Dales
All CCLL visits were cancelled
I found a new job
That job set off quite a few mental health issues for me, but has also been an amazing opportunity to make a difference
We got a pergola put up in the back and made the back garden really lovely
We started a process of assessing Bunnykins for ASC
I was assessed as being on the autistic spectrum
Mark did some epic runs with Jason
Mark and Woo played at the Glastonbury Frisbee tournament (she got MVP)
We finished the front room project - created the parlour
We bought paddle boards and have really enjoyed using them including best day ever at Old Harry Rocks.
Woo got a new haircut and found a new confidence in her sense of style
Mark hurt his knee badly and had to stop running
We insulated the front of the house
We've all been vaccinated (at least once)
Me, Woo, and Bunnykins have had covid-19
We made the porch much nicer
We got new neighbours and said a sad goodbye to our old ones
We celebrated VE day in style
We missed one Bournemouth marathon festival, but participated in another
UkuleleLand fizzled out
Woo passed her Bronze DofE
I went back to oil painting
We all made a lot of stuff: DIY, art, and crafting
We enjoyed art club, poetry suppers, and games nights together
We enjoyed each other's company and made a lot of great memories
Bunnykins joined her first protest
We wassail-ed
We spent alot of time on teams, zoom, and Skype
I didn't see my mum at all
I've come to to love gardening again
We enjoyed the Marvel series and some of us became firm fans
Bunnykins got her crocheted Totoro (she insists that this was an important life event and I will not disagree)
The girls and I read a lot of books
Bunnykins made new friends at school but still remains close to M&A.
Our friends by and large stayed the same and we spent good times with them.

I've probably missed stuff, these were just the distinctive things that could be said to have happened (or not happened) in these 2 years. Maybe any other 2 years would have the same number of life events.

I have been glad to capture it, but I think from now I will relax a bit and maybe only record particular events. Who knows, who knows what is around the corner. I am glad to have my TeamChallis with me as we go forward.

💗