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Day trip!

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 have them all with me.... in reality I'm not stupid and I knew that it would be much easier (and more relaxing) if just 2 of us went. Betty is super cute and it was lovely to meet her and her Mum who is a very chilled, lovely dog, so I'm feeling good about the whole situation, even if we do have to do the whole thing again in 5 weeks time. 

The rest of the weekend also seemed to pass in a blur. Work doesnt seem to have eased up at all in August despite it theorectically being a quiter part of the year and every day is packed. I have started going into the office once a week as well which has been good if a bit strange. The trains are still incredibly quiet and there is a country wide debate raging about what the future of the office should be, and whether all those people who have relished giving up the dreaded, crowded, dirty, expensive commute really need to pack back onto the trains just to save a few sandwich shops. The government would like everyone to go back but even their own workforces are rebelling - its no surpise - we've proved we can work well from home - why would we opt to go back? For me I've found one day a week in the office has been a really positive thing - it's grounded me back into work and I get the social intercations which are more difficult online, but I also get the benefit of no commute for the other four days. That said I will need to get my head around the journey home. Both times in the last two weeks Ive missed my train home - no longer it appears can you rock up to the stationwith only a few minutes to spare. For some reason they don't show the platform numbers at my end of the station so each time Ive got there to find no information and no time to run to the other end of Paddington to find out. Luckily each time I've not had to wait too long for the next one and with so few people travelling, it's not as though they will be too busy. Tomorrow I'm off to our Southampton office for the first time which will be good - we just need to find the right balance for everyone to work well with the new found benefits of moe time to balance in other ways. 

The most exciting news of the last 6 months is that tomorrow the kids go back to school - woo hoo!!!!! I am so excited for them, even if they are pretending not to be too excited for themselves. Izzy has had a countdown on her phone for weeks so I think she is secretely excited even if she won't admit it. I think the school has done a good job with welcome videos, emails and other comms - some things will be different but I hope not so much that they don't just enjoy being back with their mates in a normal learning environment. Being the area it is, I think the risk (fingers crossed) of some big uptick of cases locally meaning more disruption should be low and so we can hope this is the start of proper routine again - my goodness me that is going to be a shock to the system! So it's early to bed for everyone tonight and no doubt the wek will race by and we will all be shattered by Friday - nothing changes there then!

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