Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

After 6 very hectic months, with more twists and turns than I could ever have imagined in my new job, I finally have a week off - hooray! It feels like it as taken forever to get here and I am definitely in need of a break - its hasn't all been downhill but there have been one of two moments recently where I felt like I was crawling to the finish line. Our Group General Counsel emailed me yesterday to wish me a good break, laughing at the fact that I clearly had  a final push on Friday afternoon where where I'd been noticeably firing out the final emails to various people of things I'd like to see done when I get back, or started at the very least. I appreciate if only half get addressed it will be a result, but at least it made me feel better. The theory is that the kids are going to do half days this week, with me not having appreciated that it is actually their last week of term anyway and let's face it - they've pretty much given up already. I have consoled ...

Izzy puddle surfing in one of this weeks biblical rain storms I’m not sure what happened to last week’s post - I started it, but Sunday evening got away from me and once I’ve missed that slot I rarely recover and find the time to write in the week. I suspect the hot tub may have had something to do with it - it has certainly been a big time waster since it went in last weekend, but that was the intent so all OK. The biggest newsflash this has been that the Coronavirus threat level has finally gone down from 4 to 3. This is exciting for a number of reasons, not least the fact that the BBC got to use a new graphic.  We are all waiting for BoJo to pull his finger out and announce that social distancing can go from 2m to 1m - but for some reason, maybe to save face, he’s insisting on waiting for the scientists to come up with a set of words that explains the rationale for having held out for so long Surely the reducing threat level is sufficient reason?? Even more importantly, the gove...

If Coronavirus does nothing else for us, it has helped identify which school subjects the girls love, and which they just don't. This week Abi has been spending her spare hours after the school day has finished nature hunting and has been delighted to find a number of frogs, newts and other little critters, all of which she has temporarily befriended, named and then released. Demonstrating her interest even further, she has then gone and researched what she has found and is a fountain of knowledge on the local wildlife. Izzy on the other hand has been watching various tutorials on beauty techniques and has taught herself eyebrow threading. I was the lucky guinea pig (sorry, recipient) of these new talents and I'm currently sporting one pretty good eyebrow and one that I'm sure will grow back in no time... just not for tomorrow's round of video calls!! It's no accident that you get a picture of a frog but no eyebrows! Over the course of the last 11 weeks we have ...