Overall, it has been a good week and has been a bit more chilled than normal for no apparent reason. I even lost that troublesome 1lb so have now lost 4 stone which is making me very happy.
This weight loss is apparently the equivalent to 43 pairs of beautiful court shoes or 37 i-Pads or 514 darts or 90% of a Dalmatian. It’s good to get a bit of perspective but I have no idea who decides on these metrics.
I had some good news that my contract has been extended until the end of June but then that’s it. Oh, crap, that’s a bit worrying. The other contract opportunity hasn’t really gone anywhere and the job market is shot.
My panic was beginning to set in but then I reminded myself you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find that prince and my next job will be out there waiting for me somewhere – I just need to start proverbially kissing all those recruiter frogs!
I also reminded myself that our lovely sun loungers are being delivered mid-June for this assumed eventuality so I can sit in the garden and relax for a bit. Let’s hope the weather is kind or there’ll be trouble.
Isn’t it brilliant news that Colonel Tom is to be exceptionally honoured and made a Sir. Tom definitely fits into the category of being an overnight success at the tender age of 99 so, as he’s now 100, it’s also a wise decision for his knighthood to be accelerated.
Even the chores weren’t that bad on Friday and the ironing was minimal but massively helped by us not doing much washing this week. See, win-win!, said the lazy sloven!
The Sandman must have missed me out on Friday night as I just couldn’t sleep. My conclusion is I’m not sleeping very well because I’m not running round like a headless chicken right now and the thought of not working for a few months has made me think about how I am going to be filling my time, especially if we are still in lockdown.
Like most people, our house needs lots of work doing to it but we never have the money or the time to invest in it like we would want. When I say “we”, obviously I mean me as Dave thinks our house is absolutely fine and doesn’t need upgrading or changing at all. Typical bloke!
With all this potential time on my hands I decided it would be a very sensible idea to sort out the plans for all this work and then, when we have saved the money, it will be much easier to just get them implemented by one of the many trusted workmen that would be lining up for this work. Just for the avoidance of doubt, that last sentence was littered with sarcasm as I know it will be just as difficult to get workmen as ever, if not more so!
Oh dear, I have gone into house remodelling overdrive – it started with looking at the garden and kitchen and has quickly moved to staircases, fitted wardrobes, a dressing room, wooden floors, new furniture, a joint study and changing the bathroom into a rain shower. Seriously, our house isn’t that big and with this level of remodelling, we’d be better off moving.
I had no replies over 3 days to my “landscaping the garden” request on one of the tradesman sites but I do have several brochures being delivered and my Facebook feed has gone crazy with all things fitted kitchen/wardrobe wise. Although, it does make a nice change from lots of targeted adverts about shoes!
Oh, the fabulous news is Sunday Brunch is back live with social distancing. Things are definitely getting back to normal – very slowly but it’s coming.
- The cost to our economy of covid-19 including furlough payments and business loans is estimated to be £337 billion this year. We are heading for a deep recession if we don’t get back to work to kickstart the economy. I think this is more scary than the virus itself which, as we know, isn’t going anywhere for some time yet until we have a vaccine. We need to get back to work and open the shops but not sure how we do this without getting the schools back. I’m not sure we should be sending our children back yet, though. We all have a part to play in this in the way we have all had a part to stay in and keep us safe. I’m just glad it’s not my decision.
- Dominic Cummings – should he/shouldn’t he resign has dominated over the past 48 hours so the papers were full of it. Before I started reading the papers, I was of the opinion he shouldn’t resign as I think much of what has been written is fuelled by him not being popular but his arrogance doesn’t help the situation either. I do get that the safety of their 4 year old was paramount but I don’t get why he had to drive all that way just for family to leave provisions on their doorstep as surely Number 10 could have made that happen in London? After I read the papers, I’m still none the wiser as I can’t guarantee the facts. If he did go out and about, that’s awful and flouts the rules. Boris is supporting him so he will stay – for now. Unless the sightings of him prove to be true – in which case he should definitely go.
- The arrival of Percy Pig ice cream may even get me to physically go to the shops.
- We’ve decided to set the tape to record First Team on Thursday. It’s from writers of The Inbetweeners which we find hilarious, and as The Sunday Times slated it, usually means we’ll love it.
- It was interesting to read Donna Air’s article and some of the things about the focus on her change of accent chimed with me. I sound more Manc now than Scouse but do remember our English teacher in school telling us not to put “Liverpool” on our CV and to this day, I put “Merseyside”. My opinion of Donna Air has changed reading this as I always had her down as a social climber but think she better fits into my “hard-working Northern girl done good” category.
- One of the headlines was “Spain set to reopen but not for Brits”. Can you blame them when you see the photos of people out & about when they should be at home on the sofa.
My list: My Italian is coming on but I’m still not very good compared to Dave but it’s not a competition I keep reminding myself; I finished my book Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane and gave it 4 stars and started my new one, The Woman who went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend; and TV consumption was excellent this week with part 2 of Vienna Blood (it was better this week but still with a great big pinch of the Sherlock Holmes about it), the amazingly touching Carshare (it was “the dogging episode” so I’ll say no more), Brassic (it’s comedy angle is brilliant) and tonnes of the LOL Modern Family. I’ve been going on about some of these programmes during lockdown so I ought to write more to explain why they are so good – I’ll add it to my list!
My lowlight: It must be heartbreaking for families when they cannot be there when their love ones pass away but it struck me as being incredibly sad that funerals are not well attended for obvious reasons. In some cases, the “mourners” are strangers and social distancing must be obeyed so grown-up children are still not allowed to hug surviving parents.
After much giggling, we got our heads round around the definitions of Pong, Kong, Chow, Eyes & Faan together with the different types of tiles.
I took great delight in explaining to Dave some of his tiles with all the Chinese symbols were upside down. He was very impressed until I fessed up the blue squiggle needed to be on top of the red splodge. I’m hooked!
