Skip to main content

Happy valentines

Ahhhh, what to write when every day is pretty much the same? What is new this week? Well, not much!

The good news (in a world where good news is in short supply) is that we have successfully made it to half term with no major mishaps.  This included Abi's parents evening (via video conference of course - 5 minute sessions interspersed with a one minute break - it all felt a bit relentless and I'm none the wiser really as to how she's doing) and another manically busy week - what week isn't these days though.

While we have stayed at home, Glenn has been out all week, painting at the barn. It's a slightly strange situation currently - the barn is not finished but we have a key and therefore access to come and go as we please. Steve (the builder) reassures us that there is no more than 2 weeks work left to do, and we have at least 6 weeks before exchange / completion, but we would prefer they just get on with things. Glenn has come home every day feeling more and more frustrated as nothing really got done other than the progress he made and (for him even worse), the simple things like just tidying up outside never seems to get sorted. I keep saying its not for us to comment on - we are buying the finished barn not the building site but it's easier said than done to say 'don't get stressed about it'.

After all the rain of January, February has been freezing with record temperatures of -23 in Scotland. It hasn't been quite that cold here but at least it has meant the ground has hardened and we have had cold but dry dog walks with no massive wash down afterwards required - happy days. I've taken to walking the dogs separately in the afternoons as Betty needs to meet other dogs and Bertie quite frankly doesn't want to. It also means I don't have to cope with 55kg of dog on the end of a lead heading either in different directions or (worse) both diving into a hedge after a bird the other day and nearly taking me with them!  

Poor Bertie this week has been to the vets after we (well Abi) found that he had a number of growths in his mouth. Apparently this is common for Boxers (what ailment isn't?) and when the vet had a look they also pointed out a couple of teeth which looked dodgy as well. After a walk on Friday morning, both dogs thought I had completely lost it and forgotten to feed them, then it was off to the vets at 8am. We left him looking a bit dismayed that clearly the trip in the car hadn't resulted in another walk, and then went home to find Betty pleased that we had fed her, but confused we hadn't brought Bertie back with him. She managed to get through the day by sleeping as much as possible (was a very peaceful day!) before we went to get a very wobbly Bertie who was pleased to be home, and even more pleased to find food waiting for him. Betty seemed to know that he wasn't feeling great and left him in peace for a whole 24 hours before she's back to her old ways of ambushing him when he's least expecting it to see if he wants a game!

So this week is mainly a work week for me (I'm saving holiday for when we move - fingers crossed!), more painting for Glenn and goodness knows what for the kids. Abi has plans to make a natural snake enclosure, Izzy might put her phone down long enough to go for a run or two and normal weather service will be resumed and I'll be dodging the rain again. We have a week to go before BoJo announces how lockdown might be eased - 15m people have now been vaccinated so we have everything crossed that there will be some positive news. Schools are due to be back on the 8th March - let's hope its not just primary and exam years, not that there will be exams again this year. There's lots of noise about needing to get everything opened back up again - let's hope the government sees sense and agree.

Betty choosing to people watch 
(her fav pastime) - this time
in the middle of the road!



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cough, cough

Izzy - can't do a photo without rude finger gestures It's fair to say that the last couple of weeks have been rough. I managed to get the cough Mum had a while back and it has been horrible! Both Dad and Glenn seemed to get a very mild version of it but Mum and I got the full dose and I can safely say that it has been a stark reminder of just how bad a viral infection can be. It also illustrates the whole Covid experience - some get it worse than others. For me it has meant that for over 2 weeks I have had the worst cough which has left me unable to sleep properly. I still can't sleep lying down fully, and have to be propped up on pillows on my back which is not my favoured sleeping position! It has also meant that Glenn has spent the last 10 days in the spare room because I have been coughing so badly he is unable to sleep in the same room. Thank goodness we didn't all have it - we'd have shaken the house to its foundations! It has also meant that I have been exhau...
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more