Project 52 2023 week 51

The penultimate week of the year, and we’re nearly at Christmas. We’ve broken up from work and school, so it’s time to get some relaxation in, if not as much as usual for me due to the late school holidays meaning it’s not worth taking the full 2 weeks off work.  Here’s our week 51 of Project 52.

On Sunday it was a bit of a lie in for me, although it didn’t feel like it. N made sausage rolls but my pastry was a bit out of date, so we had to go into town. And paid cash for the first time in ages because he needed £1 coins for school charity week this coming week. Otherwise, I did the wrapping (realised I still really needed to get my brother something extra for his present – maybe I’ll combine it with his birthday present), read, watched Christmas movies, and tidied up some old blog posts.

Monday was a day of meetings. It was the start of charity week at school. Various delivery drivers keept turning up although only 1 was actually for us – new next size up jeans for N.

On Tuesday I made chocolate chip cookies before work. Work was busy with lots of people starting to go on leave. I decided to order a new Fitbit. Mine hasn’t tracked heart rate for about 2 weeks now and before that was stuck at 121 for about 2 months. The button no longer works either. As usual Fitbit offered money off a new one, but the one I want is the Charge 6 and the discount doesn’t work on that. I’ve got £30 of Amazon vouchers so for only £2 more I can get a new Charge 6 compared to having to only get a Charge 5 through Fitbit with the discount. A bit of a shame that discount won’t get used. I was saving my Amazon giftcards to pay towards a new phone, but I’ve got John Lewis vouchers and will save more of those to get a big discount and finally get a new phone in January.

Wednesday was work and school. Then football training. Only 1 coach was there so they’d had to make sure someone else was there who was FA DBS trained. There’s so many parents who are teachers and other sports coaches, but theirs don’t count which seems ridiculous. It was pretty well attended, but then the main school the boys go to is still open til Friday.

On Thursday we heard my aunt had died in the early morning. She’d only gone into hospital the other day after going downhill, so sad time for my cousins and her husband. So close to Christmas.  My last day at work before the holidays, which was very quiet as so many people were already off. But did manage to tie up a few things which was good.  Finalised my food order – so many items had to be removed as they were out of stock. My new Fitbit arrived which is good, although the straps are either too long or too short, so I’m glad I’d ordered an alternative with a proper clasp. 

Friday was my first day off work. Whoop. I had my food shop – spreadable butter isn’t a suitable replacement, but thankfully the other 2 subs were ok. I organised a date for my car to go in and (hopefully) fix all the millions of warning lights. I also got N’s brace appointment booked in – it was meant to have been 2 weeks after the extractions, but they seem to have forgotten to call me to book it in. There’s nothing available til the middle of February so it’s yet more time to wait. It’ll be nearly 2 years since we started with the orthodontist.

Day 2 of playing board games with N before tea, then he had tennis. We had to go into town after to avoid the day time supermarket crush and get something the OH wanted. The Christmas lights in town are so pretty and we got to see some of the light projection on the town hall.

On Saturday it was time to pick up the turkey. We’d all assumed it was 8 o’clock opening like previous years, they’d not put anything online, but turned out it was 8.30. All they needed was to communicate and tell us waiting, but instead they ignored the queue, then got stroppy that one of the workers opened the door at 8.15. Next year maybe just put seasonal opening times on Facebook.  Last year I’d ordered a 5kg one, and it ended up being even bigger, so went a little smaller at over 4kg. It seems really small for 4 people, I don’t reckon we’ll get much leftovers. 

Then we headed into town to the bakery, get some cough sweets (yes more sore throats), and treated ourselves to hot chocolates. I was surprised at how quiet it was even as it was approaching 9. Then N and I vacuumed, cleaned the cloakroom, de-cobwebbed. And now for a relaxing afternoon.

New posts this week:

• Review of 2023 and looking forward to 2024