graveyard and trees with church in the background

Project 52 2022 week 36

Week 36 of Project 52 this year has brought the high of the first day of secondary school and the lows, with Her Majestry, Queen Elizabeth II dying. It’s been an intense week.

Sunday was a quiet one. N went out on the farm for most of the day. I went to the farm shop, but otherwise read, and got obsessed with a word game on my phone. I’m going to have to delete it after only 2 days because I can’t stop playing it.  It’s not productive use of my time!

On Monday it was back to work for me while N mooched around all day. I was pleased that N’s orthodontist appointment was having to be cancelled by them, so the new date the receptionist found ended up being a late Friday afternoon. Result – no having to take time out of school, and it’s after I’ve finished work too.

N’s been struggling to go to sleep for the last 3-4 weeks, having to come downstairs, and it’s down to imagining things coming in. I think it’s subconsciously linked to starting secondary school, so hopefully once he’s started and settled in, he’ll get back to sleeping normally.

Tuesday was busy at work. I did Taco Tuesday, it’s nice to have something different to add to our regular meal plans. N loves them, and the OH eats them without complaints, so all is good.

N packed his school bag ready to start on Wednesday, even doing his packed lunch all ready in the fridge. It’s a lot of stuff to take – I think on football days he’s going to have to take a bigger PE bag as the current one doesn’t have room for trainers and football boots. It’s a lot of kit to take on the bus – he’s not got a good track history of remembering to pick things up off buses. Hopefully he’s learnt from past mistakes!

Wednesday was the big day. The first day of secondary school. N looked very smart, as did his friends. It was a very early start for me – up at 6.30, and out to drop him for the bus at 7.30. Their old head teacher drove past as they were waiting and stopped to see how they were looking forward to it which was sweet. The bus journey went ok both ways and he seemed to have a good day.

In the evening N had football training as their opponents pulled out of their friendly match. Then I had my rusty rackets course which started again. I need to get back to my fitness, because it’s gone downhill again, and I’ve put weight on. I need to get back on my steps and activity, and back to better eating again.

On Thursday I was in the office. It was pretty quiet. I had a call asking if we could have Domino’s as I wasn’t back to cook food, and the OH had gone back at to work. An expensive tea but saved me cooking.

Then the news we were probably all expecting that Her Majesty Queen Eliabeth II had died earlier that day. I like the royal family, but I’m not usually very sentimental. I was surprised at how choked up I got when watching the news coverage and seeing all the memes on social media. She was the only Queen most of the country had known, ruled unwaveringly right up until a couple of days before. We now have King Charles III. And how he can do all the things he has to in the next few days while grieving, I have no idea.

Friday was busy at work again. N ended the week having enjoyed all of his lessons (even R.E), and saying he felt like he belonged there. We still don’t have his biometrics done for the cashless canteen, so hopefully that’ll be done next week. We got the information about after school clubs, and football is on Tuesdays, so that works well with his out of school activities.

It was back to tennis in the evening and a frustrating session. Our kids have finally moved up to juniors yellow ball (they should have started in January), but there’s a whole load of new kids who have started who’re also the right age (year 6). That means there’s 12 children booked on it, but we can’t have more than 8, as there’s only 2 courts. 

The intention was that the juniors were going to be on Fridays as normal, and the new green group would move to a Wednesday. But presumably there aren’t any kids of green age, as Wednesdays is all private coaching and rusty rackets.  Friday was used as an ability check session before they split the junior group in two. 

N isn’t happy and neither am I. We paid for a session where our children didn’t get to play much, and certainly not getting the hitting in they’d usually get. The older kids were way above the standard of the new children, so I’m guessing they’ll split the group into new and old, with maybe one girl who’s been coached by these coaches elsewhere to make their old group 8. 

The issue is that we need to keep our Friday slot because several of the group can’t make the Mondays they’re proposing.  We’ve had Fridays for tennis since N was 5, and since the sessions were announced back in July. Our kids have had to wait so long to get to yellow ball because they supposedly weren’t ready back then, but these new kids are potentially going to walk straight into their junior group when they’re nowhere near as steady and technically as good as ours were last year. 

We’re hoping that as they’re new, they’re the ones that will get put on the alternative date, and will be the green group til they’re ready for juniors. If they do Mondays, then maybe we’ll still have an option for privates on the same day.

Saturday was an expensive one. N needed new tennis shoes, and because their school football club is on astro and their club training may end up on similar surface, it made sense to get some astro boots. So a nice trip to our good sports shop nearby. Otherwise a fairly lazy Saturday given N’s football match was cancelled due to all football being off. Instead he did his art homework, and stuck up his RE terms that he has to learn.

I made a really autumnal dinner. Sausage and mash, followed by apple and blackberry crumble with fruit off our tree and from our hedges.

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7 Comments

  1. Sorry to hear about the tennis, sounds very frustrating. Glad the first week at Secondary school went well. We had our first bangers and mash dinner this week too

  2. I thought of King Charles too, with his mother passing, he has to do so much that he doesn’t have time to grieve, all the family is in this position. At least we can grieve in private, so this makes it even more sad.

    The situation with the tennis lessons sounds really unpleasant. Hopefully something can be sorted. It doesn’t seem very fair indeed.

  3. Glad N’s first day at secondary school went well and the bus journey was ok both ways too. The news about the Queen was sad – it must be so hard for the King having to do everything he is doing and not being able to have space to grieve. The juniors tennis session sounded very frustrating. I hope you do manage to keep the Friday slot. #project365

  4. This week has been a bit intense.
    I hope N is sleeping better now that he has started secondary school. I am glad the bus journey went OK. It sounds like he has settled in well, I wouldn’t worry about the biometrics done, it took ages for my girls schools to sort them out.
    It was really sad news about the Queen but it was the memes which had me crying. I want to just give King Charles a hug, I don’t know how he’s keeping it together. x

  5. Sounds like N is settling in well to secondary school. I’m impressed with his organisation, something my boys never mastered during their school life. Sorry to hear about the tennis, hope it gets sorted.

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