Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

I would sing along but I am so fed up of the mud - please can we just have some dry weather so at least some of it disappears and I can go for one walk without then having to go through the rigmarole of cleaning the dogs yet again. This wouldn't be such a chore except for the fact that Betty hates being washed off and unless you keep her on the lead and get to her quickly, she roars around like a mad thing doing loops of the garden and getting increasingly wound up, barking at Bertie and generally being a pain.  This week the constant rain and dark has been getting to everyone, particular as we are still living with so many restrictions. The vaccine programme is progressing as well as could be hoped but even so it feels the light at the end of the tunnel is still pretty dim. I am trying hard to remain positive and I appreciate that we are at the best end of the Covid experience, but really I'd just like it all to go away now. I'd like to see friends and family and be able t...

After a beautiful day of sunshine yesterday, today it snowed... but more of that in a minute. Yesterday actually felt like a day of much progress. Despite Covid we managed to arrange a visit to Taunton School to have a look around with the girls and to meet the Headmaster. This was a massive relief as I had got to the point of thinking we would have to accept a place without ever stepping foot inside the school. In the end we had a very comprehensive, if a little deserted, tour of the school and the kids loved it, as did we. There may even be a small chance they might squeeze us in if we are there by the summer term - that is of course if the kids are back into school by then. The other news was that I managed to speak to Mr &Mrs Tucker - the people buying our house - and we tentatively agreed that we will try and complete during the Easter holidays which could have us moving in the third week of April. This does require everyone to have got all of what they need done, and that of ...

Everyone needs a friend to lean on... It's fair to say one week blends into another these days, but despite this we are all desperate for Friday to roll around so at least we get some respite from the monotony of constant video calls be it work or lessons. We may not be able to go anywhere, or do anything, but at least we aren't glued to a screen from 8-5 at the weekend...  This week we have mainly been hoping that we would see some real progress on the house - not so much on ours, but on the people who are buying from us. Their chain feel though almost immediately after we had accepted their offer, but because they had a lot of interest in their other property we have kept the faith and not panicked. They had 11 viewings last weekend and (we understand) multiple offers, but after a week of procrastination they decided on Friday to go to best and final offers, and gave a deadline of Tuesday evening!  what's wrong with Monday?!?! So we are now waiting patiently to hope that ...

Izzy's attempt to sort her room - she gave up at this point! Well we've survived the first week back at work (and school) and live to see another day / week / month - quite frankly they are all the same these days. It was always going to be a busy start to the working year - we run straight into year end and a run of Board committees amongst other things, but then add in the chore of doing it all online, plus balancing against the kids being back into home schooling and by Friday I'd definitely had enough. Thank goodness for a house move to take our minds off things, even if it just gives us something else to have sleepless night over.  Yesterday was Saturday and despite the restrictions we are allowed to do things associated with a house move so we went to Taunton again to measure up for wardrobes, sort out flooring and check some details / hand over more oodles of cash for a house we haven't yet bought...I still have daily nightmares that it is a lot smaller than our ...

Well, that's the end of 2020 and aren't we all glad to see the back of it! The last 2 weeks have been a great chance to have some downtime, although I will freely admit that with everything going on (life more so than the move), I'm heading back into work feeling less rested than I might have hoped for. If I'm honest I think I, like a number of others I've spoken to, just feel a bit emotional about what's going on right now. The pandemic continues to have a grip on everything we do and all spontaneity has escaped us. At the same time the vaccines started to give us hope for an end to all the madness, the new variant of Covid increased transmission rates by 70% and so we are all heading back into lockdown again (or something which looks and feels like a lockdown even if its called 'tier 4'). The kids start back at school tomorrow and have 2 weeks of remote learning to look forward to before they have any hope of being back in the classroom, and even that ...