Project 52 2023 week 47
This week’s felt like a long one. Busy work week, ill child, then I ended up with a headache near the end of the week too. A nice relaxing weekend needed, although that wasn’t on the cards either. Here’s our week 47 of Project 52.
Sunday was the start of Christmas – a bit of an anomaly as I don’t start really getting into the Christmas spirit until later one – with my annual trip to see the Blenheim Palace displays. N won’t come with me, even to the light trails anymore, so I just do the displays in the palace on my own – they’re free for annual pass holders, apart from the parking. The displays were as beautiful as ever – and having the first slot means I largely avoided getting people wandering in front of my pictures. It was Sleeping Beauty themed – I think they’ll have run out of themes after this, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes next year. It only takes about 15 minutes in all, so I’m glad I don’t have to pay. It’s expensive if you’re taking a family as non members, and doing the lights as well!
I also wandered round the Christmas market which didn’t really have anything new over last year. I bought small gifts for 3 people, so that’s ticked some off my list.
On Monday it was back to the work grindstone. N was off school with an awful headache. He basically spent the day in his room trying to sleep, and just came down for a bit of lunch. It was a bit better by the end of the day, but still not totally gone. Hopefully it’s gone by tomorrow. And there I’d been, celebrating that he’d not been off so far this year.
Tuesday was a long working day. I didn’t get out to post my parcels, but then N was still of school. He spent all day in his room, mostly asleep, but at least has been eating fairly normally. He went out to see the dogs too, so hopefully getting a bit of fresh air helped. More than I’ve had over the last 2 days. I must start taking vitamin D again because I’m so rubbish at getting outside.
On Wednesday it was back to school for N. After 2 days in bed with quiet, he was a bit hyper. Definitely back to normal form. Thankfully he didn’t seem to miss much at school, no homework was set. So that was good. I nipped out to post parcels at lunchtime. It was my first proper time outside in 2 days as well. Nice to get out and about even though it was brief.
Thursday I went to Oxford to see Diversity’s Supernova show. With all the building work near the park and ride, it was a nightmare bus journey. Well a nightmare waiting for the bus. They should come every 8-10 minutes, On arrival at the stop it said 10 mins wait, 25 minutes later it turned up. Then the driver stopped halfway to take a call. It was nearly an hour from arriving at the park and ride to getting off the bus in the city. Painful. But now they’ve made it so expensive and restrictive to drive in, it’s still easier to bus it. Where I’d planned to eat had closed down, so I ended up in McDonalds which was poor food in that one, it being cold didn’t help.
The show was really good although not quite what I’d expected. I think I’d expected more dancing rather than a story. I was sitting between 2 families, both had boys younger than N, and some parts of it were fairly dark. I’m not sure it was really suitable for kids their ages. But they sat still and watched, much better behaved than many older people in other theatre shows I’ve been in. I ducked out as the applause was finishing so I could catch the earlier bus. Got to the bus stop to find more roadworks and no bus stop there. So then had to leg it back past the theatre and cut through to get to the other bus stop. Just in time, I got there just before the doors shut. I didn’t fancy waiting half an hour.
All the building work and roadworks, plus the anti car feeling even when it’s emptier of vehicles in the evenings really puts me off going to Oxford theatre. Hopefully most of my upcoming theatre visits are all at Milton Keynes.
On Friday work was busy trying to get everything complete before my 4 days of training next week. N’s tennis was cancelled due to courts being fixed then cancelled, then no coach available after the late cancellation of the courts. It’s very frustrating having so many lessons cancelled. That’s 4 cancelled just since September.
Saturday was a frosty cold morning and a very early 9.30 kick off near Worcester, so a bit of a trek. Our boys played a lot better, and we were looking like winning, but it ended a draw. Better than a loss, but there was a lot of sniping. The boys weren’t happy with the ref – he was a junior ref – but we obviously missed a lot on the side as there weren’t too much we noticed wrong. There was a lot of sniping and words had between the teams after their team scored a penalty to even the match. With the return match next week, we’re hoping we get our strict ref allocated to the match, and hopefully he’ll notice everything that goes on like usual.
The afternoon was busy getting lunch, picking up some Christmas gifts, and then getting back to prep tea. I still have lots to sort out on Sunday too, so the weekend isn’t going to be as relaxing as I’d hoped.
New posts this week:
The Blenheim Palace Christmas displays sound beautiful. Sorry to hear that N was unwell, glad he was better by mid-week. Glad you enjoyed the show. The park and ride sounds like a nightmare though. How frustrating to have the tennis lessons cancelled so many times. Well done to the boys on playing well in their match and hopefully they’ll have a better ref for the return match. #project365
Glad N recovered after a couple of days R&R. Worcester always used junior refs, sometimes the parents forgot they were kids too with their attitude towards them. Don’t envy you the travel and the cold sidelines. Shame about the waiting with the buses, but glad the show was good.
It sounds like you had a nice time at the Blenheim Palace displays.
Poor N, you know when they’re poorly when they just want to sleep. It does feel so much harder to get outside at this time of year.
Getting to the show sounded like a nightmare. It is horrible waiting for buses when they’re running late. x