Project 52 2021 week 38
This week, week 38 of the year, was a bit of a milestone eek time. First visits to secondary schools for N. Plus the disaster of the media causing panic buying of all the fuel in our area. A few fuel stations had to close out of all the thousands, in localised areas, but now everyone’s gone mad. Our town there’s basically Sainsbury’s who have had fuel all the time, but the queues are insane while everywhere else seems to be shut. Even the 2 village petrol stations near us had to close even after rationing. I’m hoping that by Tuesday when I’ll desperately need to fill up, everyone panic buying will still have full tanks, and I’ll be able to fine a petrol station with no queues.
Here’s our week for Project 52.
Sunday was wet in the morning, so we went out to play some tennis in the afternoon once it was sunny again. We played for nearly 1 ½ hours, had some good serving practice. My shots are definitely getting better and my serving turned out quite well after a change of grip as advised by N. It doesn’t really feel like exercise because it’s good fun, but it’s still a good workout (even though I don’t really run!). After dinner N and I headed out to a different field to pick more blackberries. N had been doing a recce because the cows are now in the best fields we went to a week before. But we still got a good couple of containers. The dogs were living their best life. We usually take the young labrador with us, but the older one doesn’t usually come. This time she tagged along and loved it.
On Monday it was back to work and school. Finally a slightly quieter week, as things that we were panicking needing to get done, were sorted out. N had multi-sports club – they were late out again while I’d left the tea in the oven. Luckily it wasn’t burnt when we got home.
Tuesday we had N’s first secondary school open morning. This was at the catchment school, and was a bit of a disappointment. The school’s fine (it’s the biggest in the area, but didn’t feel too big walking around). It was deja vu for me as that’s where I went – I don’t think it had been painted or maintained since I was there nearly 30 years ago! All it was was a 5 minute head teacher talking, then a 30 minute tour by students. Our guides weren’t the best, and after there were only 2 teachers available to speak to. But with so many people wanting to talk to them, we just left. I still had lots of questions so I’ve sent an email, but I’ve no idea if they’ll come back. They obviously just know they’ll be really oversubscribed, so don’t actually need to sell the school. But it’s disappointing that they’re not showing the school in its best light. It was good to see the school in action, but would have been more helpful to have an evening time to be able to talk to students and teachers.
On Wednesday, N had his private tennis lesson, then once we got home he moaned about his heel hurting. So much that he couldn’t walk with his full weight going onto it. I did some googling, and it looks like it might be Sever’s disease which is 90% of heel pain in children of his age through to puberty, especially those doing a lot of sport. Looks like he’ll have no sports for a few weeks at least. I spent ages withdrawing him from tournaments he was booked to play in, trying to find replacements for at least his first team match, and cancelling his individual lessons. Typical that it’s happened just when we’ve got all his things booked in up til Chrsistmas. Fingers crossed the pain will go in weeks rather than months.
Thursday was the next secondary school visit. This one was in the evening and was so much better than the one earlier in the week, it put the other school to shame. They had activities in all subject areas, head of departments to talk to as well as other teachers, and the tour guide student we had could answer more of our questions. We pretty much saw the whole of N’s year from school there. Nearly 3 hours later we were home! Now it’s time to make a decision on whether to risk trying to get into the non catchment school, or just opt for catchment which will be fine if he ends up there.
On Friday it was an odd work day. So quiet on email (all week was quite quiet), I ended up covering 3 teams in case there were issues, due to managers being ill, or off. Luckily it was a Friday and many were on leave so there were no issues. I was trying to chase up people so I could finish some other work I was covering for ill people too. There’s obviously a lot around. I had a doctor’s call about N’s heel. She gave a bit of advice for treatment in the meantime, but he’ll have a face to face appointment next week.
Saturday was a quick trip into town to go to the bakery. We popped into a few other places – it was nice to see some Christmas displays, although I couldn’t remember whatever item it was I needed. So it was a faster trip than expected. Insoles I ordered for N arrived – we need them for when we look to get him some more padded tennis shoes. He was bored most of the day as he didn’t fancy going out on the farm, but couldn’t really organise to go out an kick a football due to his heel. At least it’s feeling a bit better. I made the first crumble of the year – apples from the tree and blackberries from our hedgerows that we picked the other week.
This week’s project 52 photo was taken while I was dropping off a parcel in a nearby town.
New posts this week:
Oh no poor N. Do you find the private tennis lessons useful? We just do group lesson once a week for Lily.
Petrol gate has been the same here too. Thankfully I managed to grab some but had to queue for 20 minutes.
Definitely. If only for it being time to focus on his areas of improvement and matchplay, compared with a group or 8 or 9, some of whom just muck about and aren’t serious about it, and there’s v little individual focus in the size of group they now have. Especially as they’ve just moved up another 2 from orange. One private is a level 2 coach so more about drills, practice basics, serves and matchplay. The other private is level 4 coach and that’s where he’s getting the technical hard work. It’s hard to get time with a level 4 so we’ve had a year with the other and it’s noticeable how much technical coaching others have had compared with him and the progress made.
The panic buying with petrol has been crazy hasn’t it? We’ve been avoiding the petrol stations unless we’re really running low. I’m hoping it won’t last too much longer. What a shame that the open day at the catchment secondary school was so disappointing. Glad the other school was better. Good luck with the applications. Sorry to hear that N has had to withdraw from sports for a while too – hope that the pain in his heel improves quickly. #project365
I find the whole school moving thing so stressful. Eliza likes the one her brother goes to, but its not our catchment anymore, so fingers crossed she gets. I would always put your fave down as a first choice and you could always appeal if not successful
Fuel is still an issue here too and not getting better at all. Sorry to hear about Ns heel pain, I hope it is getting better? Sounds like the second, secondary school was much more organised. It is such a big decision, I am glad we don’t need to make it until next year.
This fuel saga is ridiculous! Hope it calms down soon.
Deciding on secondary schools can be tough..such a big decision!
Tough decisions to choose a secondary school. It’s still early for us to say whether we made the right choice, but so far Eddie enjoys it. The second school sounds more promising, even from the way they organised the event.
The fuel situation makes me glad that I don’t have a car, so can avoid all the palaver.
The apple blackberry crumble sounds lovely, just right for this weather.
The second school visit sounds more promising, fingers crossed with the applications. Friday sounds hectic at work, bet you were glad for the day to finish. Hope you can squeeze more tennis in before the weather turns and good luck getting petrol this week
The panic buying of the fuel makes me glad that I don’t drive.
It sounds like the school open days have been informative.
I hope N’s heel is feeling better soon. x