Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Uh Oh, this weekend I have mostly been breaking the law... unintentionally of course! Given the new 'Rule of Six' announced by the government I have been realising first hand that it's actually quite difficult to adhere to, even if you are trying to be good. I went to a friend's house yesterday and when I arrived there were 6 of us in the house. Then her husband came home with a friend and suddenly we were 8 and it was illegal. Then her mum turned up and we were 9 - even worse! I have also acknowledged that if I was in anyway infectious, I will have done a good job this weekend of being a super spreader given the number of people I've seen. The irony of that of course, is that seeing lots of people is completely legal, seeing relatively few people together is not. Today was a chance to catch up with Amanda, Alex and the boys for a few hours of walk & talk in the autumnal (chilly) sunshine. The plan was to meet at Lacock Abbey but Amanda decided at the last momen...

As we stare down the barrel of a second national lockdown I'm not ashamed to report that I'm feeling pretty angry about the whole thing. So much for 'world beating test and trace' systems and the ability to get super granular with the way in which we respond to coronavirus. I get the fact that nationally we are seeing rates of infection and (apparently) hospital numbers rising, but the data says that in our neck of the woods we have 3(3!) cases per 100,000 people and so I cannot see why we should have to lockdown in the same way that Bolton needs to when their rates are at 190! The average for England is 16 so surely we aren't at a point where we need to take the same approach everywhere? Part of the reason I'm ranting so much is that after 2 weeks back at school I'm finally getting my Izzy back again. She has thrived with the social interactions school gives her and (although she complains about it) has loved being back. Instead of the morose, withdrawn gir...

It's Monday again and you can tell how things are going from the fact that I didn't get a chance to write the blog yesterday and I daren't look at my diary this week - every time I do I have minor palpitations and worry about how its all going to fit in. It will, it always does, but even so. You would think with the current trend for working from home there would be more time, I'm not sure where it all goes. Admittedly I get up a bit later in the morning, but only by half an hour, and I walk Bertie for longer, but again only by about 20 mins - so where does the time go? I used to squeeze in the best part of 3 hours commuting a day - what has happened to that time?? I do have more time to walk, and more time to spend with the kids. If only they wanted to spend some time with me! Oh well, I'm sure it will pass and things will calm down again... ha ha. Back to school has gone well and, despite some of the Covid annoyances which we hope will get ironed out as things set...

We have literally spent the whole day driving across the country, for a 20 minute cuddle with a tiny little puppy that doesn't know us from Adam - the things we do for fun! Today Abi and I set off before 9am (miracle given she didnt get home from Devon until gone 8pm last night) to meet Betty for the first time. Of course we didn't find a puppy close to home so this was a 300 mile round trip and, I kid you not, we only spent 20 minutes there. It's ridiculous but apparently expected and we are not alone - Jon and Lucy drove to the Peak District yesterday to meet their new puppy - a slightly longer trip than even ours and they have to do it again in 3 weeks!  The good news was that after plenty of discussion we agreed that just Abi and I would go. Izzy is way too much like Glenn in this respect and could see no point in spending the whole day in the car if we weren't even going to bring her home, so she and Glenn stayed put. While of course it might have been lovely to ha...