Project 52 2021 week 39

The week of fuel panic. It all started on Friday before when the fact a handful of BP petrol stations had closed (due to lack of delivery drivers). The media managed to blow this up missing out how minor it actually was, people them panicked and there have been queues everywhere, with petrol stations closing. I spent a lot of time working out how many journeys I had to make, and how long I could go, hoping it would be back to normal by mid week. It wasn’t.

Here’s our week 39 of Project 52.

Sunday it was weird not having tennis, although even if N had been fit, the orange team had taken over the junior session to practice, so we couldn’t have played anyway. We didn’t do much, just lazed around. When I popped down to put some stuff in the bins, I spotted the 2 remaining kittens (one of the dogs got the 3rd a few weeks ago), 1 even stayed peeking out to look at me rather than running off. I haven’t seen the adults for a long time.

On Monday I was meant to have an evening webinar about the new tennis ranking numbers they’re introducing. But noone appeared when I logged into zoom, so I’m not sure what was going on. There was just no host to log everyone into the webinar. A waste of an evening, and a bit disappointing. Instead I just read all the guides online instead.

Tuesday it was just more work and school. Our work have announced we’re moving fully to hybrid working. Basically working from home, unless you’re someone who personally needs to be office based to work, or for collaborative team working. It includes continuing more flexible working, so it’s removed my stress about sorting out N’s pick up from school. I quite like working from home, I think it’s often easier to get hold of people now than it was before when we had lots of remote workers anyway. Once people start travelling for work again that might make more of an issue. Our company really is a good one to work for, although I’m not sure I’d have liked to work this way as a new worker to the company like many have had to do the last couple of years.

On Wednesday, it was more work and school. I used some of our blackberries we foraged, to make some keto blackberry jam. The recipe said it would make 2 cups worth, but it ended up being 2 cups worth, so I’ve got 2 jars out of it. It’s not that sweet, but was lovely on some greek yoghurt, and toasted keto bread. N liked it a lot too, so he’s been having it on toast for his breakfast.

Thursday was all about fuel. I really needed some (or would before going anywhere on Saturday). Usually I fill up about every 2.5 to 3 weeks. Thankfully with no tennis, just the school run has meant I could hold off getting fuel for a few more days. My brother had got some with no issues on the way to work, and I headed out to Tesco in the early evening. Luckily it was just like a normal busy Sunday – I just pull up behind the 2 cars filling up, then it was my turn. And no queuing around the car park to get in like I’d expected. There were no restrictions either, so a full tank and that will keep me going for another 3 weeks hopefully. I thought that was town back to normal, but evidently there were still problems at different times at different petrol stations through the day. Our Sainsbury’s forecourt has opened early after its refit this week, so that means more options too.

I also had a call back from the catchment school key stage 3 leader to answer my questions I had following the open day. I was impressed they called me (although I had had to chase), there’s some more positives, but also things that just haven’t changed and aren’t ever likely to since I was there. They’re curriculum things rather than decisions by the school, and probably national issues. We’re still not really any the wiser about which school to put first.Evidently noone has appealed with the alternative school for about 4 years – either as others say, they just let everyone in, or people just leave it if they don’t get it. I’m still waiting to hear if they can tell me how many get in for each criteria on the admissions list. Our county publish this but the other county doesn’t.

On Friday it was busier at work than expected. Lots of calls, chasing things for someone else who’s on leave. I didn’t manage to take my flexi so I’m well over on my time this month. Hopefully I’ll get back to more normal hours next month. N stood put himself forward for Prefect today. Last year he was just picked, this year they’re back to normal and having to put themselves forward. It’s a bit strange as they don’t have head boy or girl at their school, but then have prefects for each class. It’s a shame they don’t just have them at the top of the school as role models. Only he and his good friend stood, and they both had to do a speech. N was very proud of his, and wrote it all himself 2 days before. They won’t hear until next week who gets tthe role.

N’s heel felt a lot better, he’d not had pain for a few days. So we decided he’d be fine to go back to his group tennis, and back to the rest of tennis individuals next week. They’ve moved up 2 of the orange players (although bizarrely not their number 1 team player, leaving only 2 in the earlier group) so there’s now 8 of them, but as there’s 5 of the older more experienced ones, there’s always going to be one who has to play with the others who aren’t as consistent or strong. N’s not very happy. But the 2 who moved up didn’t do badly, they’ve improved a lot. It does mean that there won’t be room for the 2 girls who wanted a half term off group training due to other commitments. Them returning would mean 10 in the group, so there’s no chance for match practice. Will be interesting to see what happens after half term. It’s becoming more of an issue only having 2 courts now there’s kids who’ll be playing juniors soon while more younger ones coming through. Ours have been the top group for a few years, so it’s good there’s more children playing for longer.

Saturday was a busy day, but a lot of fun. We had an early start heading over to another town for the sports shop there. It’s a specialist tennis, hockey and cricket shop, as well as all the rest, and it turns out if you play for a team you get a 10% discount too which is good. Reduces the number of people trying things on there, then buying online. After about 10 pairs of trainers tried on, and nearly another hour, they managed to find a pair of tennis trainers that fit and were comfortable. He’s an inbetween size, but the bigger size with insoles was still too loose. Fingers crossed his feet don’t all of a sudden grow. It was really wet so we didn’t wander around the rest of the town.

The afternoon was spent cooking. N wanted to make mince pies from scratch so he’s made the mincemeat to leave steeping overnight. Then we’ll make the pastry tomorrow. He really does enjoy cooking and baking, he even mentioned being a chef at one stage.

New posts this week:

• How to sew fabric bookmarks 2 ways
• Taking up old hobbies – tennis
• School days year 6 September