Project 366 2020 Week 44 Day 299-305 Half term has arrived and it’s a strange one for us. We should have been on holiday at the start of it, but had a couple of days out instead. The weather was kind to us when we needed it to be. As Oxford city moves up to Tier 2 this weekend I wonder how long it will be before the whole county follows suit. Although, having looked at the relevant restrictions, we are already following those so it won’t make any difference to us really.
Sunday 25th October – Day 299
I’d bought tickets for a trip on the Great Central Railway as a surprise for the OH’s birthday. We’ve been on the line a couple of times before but life isn’t normal right now and the experience was different too. The journey was nice but there was no time to stand on the platform admiring the loco in steam which is something both he and my son enjoy. My son did manage to capture a shot of a station loco instead.
Monday 26th October – Day 300
The start of half term and a day’s holiday for me. We met up with Suzanne and Bob the dog for some fun at Batsford Arboretum. It’s somewhere we’ve not been since my son was a toddler and was a perfect place to meet up and spend time together outdoors. Amazingly it didn’t rain either!
Tuesday 27th October – Day 301
I received an email from my blog host yesterday saying that my blog size was too big for my current package and I’d been automatically upgraded to the next level. Great but it’s put the monthly hosting charge up by a third. So some extremely overdue housekeeping required to try to reduce the size. That’s every spare moment I have for the next week or two taken!
Wednesday 28th October – Day 302
My day off, so we made good use of our Bucks Railway Centre annual pass and headed there to take a look at their Halloween event. Apparently, he’s too grown up for pumpkin trails now, but we still had a nice time looking around. We managed to avoid the rain until we were driving home and decided to spend the afternoon making Halloween themed pictures to stick up around the house.
Thursday 29th October – Day 303
How wonderful to come back from work to this. Look, Mummy, Daddy’s got me a pumpkin. Guess who gets to carve it? My least favourite activity.
Friday 30th October – Day 304
One of the ladies I work with has been using these nail wraps for ages and they always look fab on her, so I’ve treated myself to a set. I love nail varnish but it doesn’t even last a day on me unless I go to a salon for gel nails so I’ll be interested to see how long I can make these last.
My son was at our neighbours all day today, as she’s also a childminder. It’s the longest anyone has looked after him other than us, so was a bit of a day. He wasn’t happy to be going at all, and I certainly knew that this morning, but he survived the experience and I’m sure it’s not going to be a off one, but I’ll worry about telling him that later.
Pumpkin carving after dinner, which actually was so much easier than every other year. This year the pumpkin came from Lidl rather than via the OH’s warehouse, so maybe it’s just not a quality pumpkin! Anyway, job done and pumpkin seeds roasted for the birds to eat.
Saturday 31st October – Day 305
Halloween and indoor treat hunting for us.
We braved the pouring rain this morning to collect the last three Lego cards my son needed to complete this year’s Sainsburys book. Then came home and got the pottery set out that we reviewed a few years ago. My son wanted to make a clay pumpkin, nit sure it will be dry in time for tonight but he doesn’t care.
He looks very smart with his new haircut. I had to reduce all my image sizes too, its all so time consuming
Did it make much difference to yours? I’m just over halfway through and I can’t see a great deal of difference here.
We moved up to tier 2 today too and then the press conference happened. lol
It sounds like a good day out on Sunday even though it all sounded a bit rushed.
So lovely you got to meet up with Suzanne and Bob. Hooray for it not raining!
Eek! That isn’t good about your blog being too big for the cheaper hosting package. It makes me quite glad I’m on blogger and oblivious to site size. I hope it doesn’t take too long to fix.
What a big change for your boy to be looked after by a childminder. I’m glad he survived. hehehe x
Yrs it was lovely to have a bit of normal with Suzanne and Bob
Glad the childminder stay went ok. Sounds like it was a nice visit to Batsford. We’ve not been for a few years either. Was it busy?
Not really at all, although I believe they were fully booked for the rest of that week.
yes they do decide they are too big for things you have enjoyed doing with them, mourning the loss of your activities is hard.
Shame that the birthday experience was not what you had hoped for,
Spud is 4 1/2 and nursery in August is the first time she has been away from her mum apart from left with relatives in her own house. He will have to get use to the child minder and he will adapt.
Yes very true
Oh I had to reduce my image sizes once too some time ago.
Must have been nice to meet up with Suzanne and Bob!
It takes ages to do doesn’t it
lovely to meet up with you both, who knew it would be our last meeting of the year, much better weather than when we met back in February, who knew we had all this to come. Hopefully when I’m back next year, we’ll be able to do sleep overs again. Shame about the blog, bet that’s annoying although I have no real idea of what you’re talking about lol
Mad isn’t it. I don’t know what I’m talking about either, but if it doesn’t make the blog smaller I’ve got to find £5 a month more for hosting
Sorry to hear the train trip was not what you had hoped for its a funny old world at the moment. It is also my job to carve pumpkins and I really dont like doing it either. We still have some home grown ones which I am planning on turning into soup instead! I had the same issue with my blog size as well and the increase a month was ridiculous. I ended up paying a VA to do all the photos for me as it worked out cheaper than actually paying the increase in the hosting. I couldn’t fit it in with work as well. Its so difficult when you have a deadline isn’t it?
It’s taken me two weeks to go through all the images, I’m not sure it’s enough but I’m hoping so.
I’m glad you were able to enjoy a trip on the Great Central Railway even if it was different due to the restrictions. Love the photo of your son by the stream at Batsford Arboretum. Good luck with going through images to reduce the size – that’s not a fun task to have to do. I’m not a big fan of carving pumpkins either although thankfully Sophie keeps it simple. Glad yours was easier than expected! #project366
Yes I’m glad my son likes a traditional pumpkin scary face
Aaagghh I hate all the bloggy housekeeping, it’s such a nightmare. It’s the big advantage to sticking to blogger – at least I don’t have to worry about it ! Good to see you managed to get a few days out. The Great Central Railway looks great – it’s a shame coronavirus has made it less enjoyable though. The Arboretum sounds lovely – great to meet up with Suzanne and Bob. Ahh we avoided the whole pumpkin issue this year and just ignored Halloween ! lol
Yes it’s a bit of a pita really
Gosh that’s a lot going up a third hope you managed to bring down the size, I did add the smush plugin for a bit as its meant to make images smaller and you can use lazy load images. But I have taken it off now, so don’t know what the best solution is sorry. The steam engine ride sounds lovely. haha I used to feel a bit like that about pumpkins too but the boys just get on with it themselves now 🙂
Why did you take it off? I’ve done all mine and they’ve downgraded the hosting charge thankfully.
Lots of railway fun for you again! Glad you were able to go even with the tier 2 restrictions. I use smush on my blog as I needed to change the size before changing host. #project366
What’s a week without visiting a train, right? Nice to meet Suzanne and go to a place you haven’t been for years and remember how it was and how it is now. Cool pumpkin, I hope carving it wasn’t too annoying. Cool nail wraps. Treat hinting, exciting! I had a pottery set like that once but it was so faulty, just touching the wet clay made the wheel stop