Monday was cold... the whole week was cold. Cold, cold, cold. The Beast from the East was with us again weather wise. I had decided on which of the coats I would keep having spoken to Hannah at the weekend and so at lunchtime, we wrapped up warm and the girls and I went for a quick stomp about.
I had a late call with a colleague in New Zealand. As we spoke it was still only 6am for her and then as her window lightened mine was darkening. It was odd.
For UkuleleLand practice it was just me, Ben and Kevan. But we had a good session and tried some old favourites.
Tuesday...still cold, I decided not to run this week as the temperatures outside were -3 each day at about running time. But when I do my walking workout in the front room, the heating is on for the morning and it is pretty hot!
I needed a bit of pepping up. I know I have a face like a slapped arse, but I was pleased with my outfit choice. It did make me feel better. Made me feel fiercer and more able to get on with the day.
I had a call during the day from Nancy, the new next door neighbour. She had just called up for a chat. I was in the middle of a work call (when am I not!?!) so I said I would call her back later. Mark made tea. Then I gave Nancy a call and we had a good chat. They seem like an interesting couple, not sure what age, but I would guess north of 80. Life long Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth supporters. I am looking forward to being able to invite them over and have a cup of tea and find out more.
Then had to ring off from that to make my regular call with John. We had a good catch up. He is getting expert on the historical buildings of Chester. You have got to do something with your brain and why not that, it is something tangible for him, he can have a walk out and have a look at these places. Anyway, we had a good long talk as usual.
Mark had been out to get our shopping. In the evening, he cracked on with more darning.
There was a little snow in the air. All week we have had little flurries, but nothing that settles.
It was of course games night in the evening. We played sevens and happy families and cracked out the chocolates.
Thursday I just woke up with no desire to do anything. So I went for some yoga. Usually my yoga sessions I choose are quite challenging. I like a bit of challenge and to feel there are some strengthening and toning things going on. But today I just needed something gentle and rather more restorative. Then I got dressed for the day.
Wednesday...I logged on and wrote this at one point as I hoped it might just help me calm down a bit if I could just get what was bothering me down:
"I am having a bad day. The world is too much in my head. I think I understand what it is at the moment. I am trying to deal with a sensitive work situation where I know what the right thing to do is, but I am also having to be mindful of the sensitivities of how some colleagues will be impacted in a mildly negative way (having already been rather overworked and stressed). I am trying to tread so carefully, be mindful of all politics and get the right solution. But there are multiple opinions, time challenges and it's just all cramming into my head in a massively uncomfortable way. I don't want to experience all the nuances of how the different parties might be feeling, but that crowds in anyway. And even if I do manage that thing, I will carry away the sense that they are then holding resentment and judgement of me for the impacts they experience. Breathe it out....."
It was a busy day, but I knew it was important that I got out at lunch, even with the biting wind. It also felt like a hatch day. I have been going out with my face mask/snood for my daily walk. Mark decided to try the one I got him at Christmas (he hasn't been keen so far and tbh wasn't keen on how it steamed up his glasses).
I had an interview to do and lots of other craziness, but in the middle of the afternoon I had to break off to attend Woo's online parents "eve". It had been crackers trying to get the appointments last week. We were told that the booking system would open at 6pm Friday before. So we were ready with the list of subjects we wanted to focus on (it is GCSE choice year) and then it was a mad click to get the appointments while you could see they were disappearing.
So anyway, I had 9 appointments within just over an hour long block. Each appointment was only 5 minutes and you sat waiting for the next to begin with a countdown. When it ended you were just cut off and presented with a button to take you into the next (or had to wait for a gap to pass if that was in your schedule).
Most of the appointments were really useful. I am so proud of Woo and how hard she tries. An interesting pair of discussions were History and Geography. Woo has always loved History, she has such an aptitude and curiosity for it too. But she is considering Geography because she feels it will be easier because there is less writing to do. She doesn't want to become an archeologist or historian any more, sure. But still when it comes to choosing between two subjects, I think it is really important to follow your passion rather than the path of least resistance. It showed also in the attitude of the teachers. The history teacher clearly thought Woo was brill. She talked about how Woo was quiet but when she said something - it was important, it was at a much higher level than the class was thinking generally, and it was always worth stopping and listening to. The teacher was adamant that dyslexia shouldn't be a barrier and that she wanted to help Woo get on in the subject. The Geography teach on the other hand was all very "meh", yeah - Woo did OK, here's a few things she can do better, but generally she gets on OK.
For her creative technology choice, Woo wants to take STEAM, which I am all in favour of. Woo's STEAM teacher was keen to send us over some practical tasks that she could practice (like soldering) when he found out what facilities we had in the workshop. But she has to choose a reserve. She wants to pick Food & Nutrition...again because it will be easier. But her Art teacher is adamant that Woo has talent and that she would love to have her in her class. I am 100% in favour of Woo taking STEAM as a first choice, but I do want her to consider Art as a second choice rather than Food & Nut'... the creativity learned in Art will be useful if she doesn't get STEAM. Her current career paths she is considering are all science based: engineer, paramedic, marine biologist. I did engineering with just Art, Maths and English as my A-levels. The creative thinking from Art was certainly a help.
In the end, it has to be down to her. But the conversations were useful. Woo didn't want to be included, but I had the volume up loud so she could hear and then we talked about it after.
What I didn't notice was that while I was on all these calls, the door had opened a crack and Bunnykins had slipped in a home made biscuit. So that was a delightful surprise when I had finally finished. 😍
Friday was just another cold, busy day to get through. I managed to get everything done though.
I had to get a bit more work done, so only finished by 6pm. Grabbed some food and then came back up to see Ben. We worked on his performance songs for his Music Therapy interview next week, so the following video is for us experimenting with Money for Nothing.
As I went to bed I was very confused as it looked like it had been snowing out on the road, but only on the road. I think because it's been so dry and cold it is where the grit has just built up and up from the grit spreader.
Saturday I woke up late, had breakfast and then was working on a photobook. Some of the photos hadn't loaded properly. As I had been working with nearly 2000 photos, I hadn't noticed a couple of them become corrupt until the photo book was auto-populated with them like this one:
It took a while, but I was glad I got it done. That means the next lot of photos to sort will be 2017 which was quite a year for photos. There was a wedding (Eamon and Sheena), trip to Bruges, our 40th party, holiday to Scotland, a weekend away with Stella, a weekend at Monty's Retreat with Claire, Hannah and Layla, plus a center parcs trip with the Mummies.
I think I will gather my strength before I start on that!
At about 3:30 Hannah popped over with a delivery for us.
We were laughing about how I do have a moral high ground about how terrible KFC is, but tbh, if I just got given a bucket of hot wings...I'd probably devour them. I am missing meat now. We are pretty much full time veggie. There is an occasional bit of bacon or chorizo. But the last proper lump of meat that was cooked in the house was the chicken at Christmas. I used to be OK because Hannah and I would go out fairly regularly for our weekend shopping and Happy Place visits (proper burger and prosecco), but now there is none of that.
Anyway it was lovely and we carried on chatting until about 6:30 when we really needed to break off to get some tea eaten (lasagna with quorn mince).
Also what I didn't mention last weekend was that I had managed to give myself some chemical burns while cleaning the shower. I had sprayed some Vikal around to get rid of some of the limescale and had put some on the shower head. Now I know I am not alone in cleaning the shower naked. It's just generally practical because you have to get right in there, you are going to get splashed when you rinse things down and so on. So there I was crouched down cleaning around the base when an unexpected splutter of water came through the top shower head. I didn't think of it much at first, so it took me a while to rinse off and thus...chemical burns...
They were really irritating me, I was trying so hard to leave them alone, but the ones around my neck and chest really flared up and then developed into hives which was then maddening.
There was a bright point though. Stella called up and we had a good hour or so chatting on the phone which did help me take my mind off it. It was so lovely to catch up.
Mark came back just after we had finished lunch. Bunnykins had made us some cookies with red icing, so we were all tucking into those by the time he returned. He and Jason had run into town to do a graffiti running tour.
I took an antihistamine but finding something to wear so that I wouldn't scratch, but that wouldn't irritate was sending me crazy too. In the end I went for an inside out cotton polo neck. And I had to have my hair up as that was tickling and sending me off the edge also.
He had gone via the co-op and come back with some nice treats for tea...some burgers! Proper meat! Now that is love 💗
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