Project 365 2022 Week 9-12 Day 58 – 85

A bumper post as life has just got in the way of the blog recently. Back to school for my son, the end of Covid testing twice a week for school too. A second Covid vaccination for my son and a couple of child-free weekend dates for me.

Sunday 27th February – Day 58

In the morning my OH and I attached some reed screening to one of our side fences for a bit of extra privacy.  It’s a job I’ve wanted to get done for ages and as the sun was out and the wind was behaving itself it was the perfect opportunity to tick a job off the to-do list.

In the afternoon we picked up my SIL and headed down to Kingston Bagpuize House to look at their snowdrops.  We’d probably missed the best of them, but there were still a number of varieties to see in bloom.  Amazing value in the tearoom too, so definitely worth a visit.  We hope to return in the next couple of months when the house is also open to visitors.

Monday 28th February – Day 59

Busy day at work today and then I headed off to the supermarket to get the shopping done as the cupboards were well and truly bare after half term.

I received my eBay purchase so I’ve finally resolved our missing football stud issue.  Someone was selling a random mixed size of the boots on eBay, so luckily I could make an offer and bingo, I’ve removed the studs from said random sized boots and the seller also included a stud tightener which we didn’t get with our boots either.  So stud now replaced and all studs tightened.  And I will never buy Sondico boots again.

Tried to call my auntie at her care home as I’d not been able to ring on her birthday, the mobile they use there is flat so the staff could only pass on a message.

Tuesday 1st March – Day 60

Another busy workday before meeting up with a couple of friends for lunch at Matilda’s Coffee Shop in one of the villages near to home.  I’ve not been before, lunch was lovely and the cakes on display looked amazing – I’ll be back!

Email from school saying the kids can dress up for World Book Day on Thursday – seriously!  I thought we were done with this nonsense at Secondary school.  My son came home and said he didn’t want to join in and will go in uniform.

I rang the care home again, someone (staff) has walked off with the mobile and they’re not sure where it is.  Try again tomorrow.  If only my Auntie was up to having her own phone.

Wednesday 2nd March – Day 61

I’ve got a work event at the end of the month and I haven’t owned anything suitable since I stopped working for my pre-baby employer.  So I headed off to Milton Keynes in search of ideas.  It was quite shocking to see just how many shops have shut down over the last couple of years.  Managed to pick a couple of options and in the sales too.

We decided it was time to give my son his own front door key but he’s struggling to get it to open the door.  The key is chunkier than the old fashioned Yale lock keys and it’s going to need some practice, but hopefully, he’ll figure it out soon.

Thursday 3rd March – Day 62

Pippi collared dove watching – doesn’t look like she’s going to be much of a bird killer, thankfully!

Friday 4th March – Day 63

A mixed bag of emotions today.  It’s Mum’s birthday and it became clear that the flowers I’d organised a couple of weeks ago weren’t going to arrive on time – annoying.

It was also the funeral of an old friend of mine this afternoon.  I popped in to see my ex-MIL beforehand to spend a bit of treasured time with her.

Saturday 5th March – Day 64

My Christmas Cactus is having a second round of flowers.

Sunday 6th March – Day 65

We’ve been watching Secrets of the Transport Museum which is set at Brooklands and it inspired my son’s latest Lego builds.

Monday 7th March – Day 66

Keeping watch from the cat kennel.

Mum’s flowers finally turned up along with a refund for me, but not really the point.

Tuesday 8th March – Day 67

The sun has finally come out and the crocuses have enjoyed some Spring sunshine.

Wednesday 9th March – Day 68

Time to get my hair sorted out, I wish I could get it looking like this every day.

My son had some great feedback from his English teacher which was amazing.  I’m so proud of how well he’s settled into his school.

Thursday 10th March – Day 69

A bit of after school reading – I’ll take whatever I can get on that front these days.

Friday 11th March – Day 70

Lovely clouds over the houses this afternoon.

Saturday 12th March – Day 71

I got up early and headed off to Derbyshire to spend some time with my best friend.  We went for a walk, grabbed a takeaway and watched films in the evening.

Sunday 13th March – Day 72

My friend lives in a hamlet and she gets so many birds visiting her garden, and with large barn windows, I could spend all day bird watching!

When I got back home we drove my son to Oxford for his second Covid vaccination, exactly 12 weeks to the day since his first one.

Monday 14th March – Day 73

My son had no side effects from his jab and so he headed into school.  Unfortunately, his best friend wasn’t quite so lucky so wasn’t in school today.

I had a smashing time when I was dusting.  I’ve had this Buddha for years, thankfully Superglue came to the rescue.

Tuesday 15th March – Day 74

Homework time and the vast majority of it is done on the computer these days.  For us that’s a bonus, my son’s handwriting isn’t brilliant, so typing makes his work much clearer for teachers to see just how capable he is.

Wednesday 16th March – Day 75

My day off and the weather forecast was dire – it wasn’t wrong.  I had a number of jobs to do in town, ended up queueing in the rain outside my bank and then my son’s building society.  I was left wondering how the elderly cope with a certain bank that blatantly doesn’t want to actually deal with members of the public.  I can’t imagine that everyone has a smartphone or wants to deal with the ‘hole in the wall’.  Whatever happened to customer service?

Thursday 17th March – Day 76

Five minutes peace before my son comes home from school.  Much needed.

Friday 18th March – Day 77

These three.  Love them but just like kids, it’s almost impossible to get them to look the same way when I want to get a photo of them together.

Saturday 19th March – Day 78

More Lego building for a Saturday afternoon.

Sunday 20th March – Day 79

The menfolk headed off to Alexandra Palace for a model railway exhibition and I caught the bus into Oxford to meet up with my oldest friend.  She’d booked us onto a walking tour which was really very good and gave us some ideas for future adventures in a city I’ve only really scratched the surface of.

Monday 21st March – Day 80

My sweet peas are enjoying the warmer weather.

Tuesday 22nd March – Day 81

Some ridiculous packaging from Amazon for two small items.

Wednesday 23rd March – Day 82

The weather was like summer today, so I headed off to Stowe and walked to Wolfe’s Obelisk and beyond to discover another folly.  I also worked out another route that will take me to the boundary of the Silverstone circuit – something for another day.

Thursday 24th March – Day 83

Garden furniture delivery day and it all arrived as planned.  I managed to assemble the table myself and enjoyed a cuppa in the sunshine before my son got home from school.

Friday 25th March – Day 84

The plumber finally turned up to fix the new taps in the downstairs cloakroom and to fix the toilet in the bathroom.  Both jobs turned into dramas (as does everything that needs fixing in this house).  He finally got the new taps fitted and working, we now have a hole to fill under the pipework and there was water all over the walls – but that’s all dried out now. Then he went onto the bathroom and that clearly wasn’t going to go well either.  At one point I heard him on the phone saying he might need to remove the whole toilet.  Eventually, he got it sorted and working, or so we thought.  I tested the flush while he was still there, fine.  Showed my son when he got home from school, and it didn’t stop flushing.  Great.  Plumber back on Monday, hopefully.

Saturday 26th March – Day 85

Quite toasty against the garden wall today!