Project 52 2024 week 47
It’s been a week of interesting weather. Typical Britain really. Snow and then storms. Not fun for being out and about at the weekend. Here’s my week 47 for Project 52.
Sunday – busy morning getting lots of things done as shops opened. Was pleased to see noone waiting for the staffed check out in Waitrose so nipped straight to it as 11am hit, and was out of the shop by 11.02. Result. Spent the rest of the day relaxing, as I was still feeling tired after my theatre visit.
Monday – car went in for its MOT so I was in the office. Dropped it off at 8, by 9 they’d called to say it was done. Turned out it failed first due to a broken driver side wiper blade. So they’d changed both, but annoyingly I’d only just replaced the passenger one 2 months ago and at home somewhere I’ve got the driver one that I didn’t need to change. Thankfully my tyres were ok, but I should get them changed soon for some better ones.
Tuesday – snow. Wasn’t expecting it. Rained all night til 5, and the forecasts had said sleet for 3 hours. Instead we had quite a bit of snow and it continued til mid afternoon. My brother had gone off the road in his 4×4 so the OH had gone to pull him out. Luckily I made it safely to the village to drop N for the bus. Nearly an hour later the nephew’s bus was stuck in the bottom of a hill in the village, and our bus wasn’t on the map. So a snow day for the secondary kids. School was still open but lots hadn’t made it in. N had some maths sent home. The bus ended up coming but didn’t reach the village, it detoured to the main road. Turns out 4 cars crashed on one of the steep main road hills so that was closed. Because it had rained all night they didn’t grit til about 7am. I cancelled my flu jab (as did the in laws) as it was at the partner surgery and there’d been a crash there too. I ended up not getting to the theatre because the thaw would be freezing by the time I got out. Didn’t fancy getting stranded. I’m sad I no longer have my AWD Volvo!
Farmers all over the UK (including one of my colleagues and her toddler) had gone to London to protest at the removal of agricultural relief/against inheritance tax going on farms. We didn’t go, but hope it makes some kind of different in politicians actually taking in what being a family/generational farmer with land actually means in relation to the country’s food resilience.
Wednesday – they’d gritted overnight thankfully, so our roads were all good, and buses were running normally so back to school. Lovely bright blue sky day which made the snow look much nicer as it was melting.
Thursday – a flexi day so off early to Blenheim Palace to see the Palace displays. People are stupid though. They won’t let people through til 10, even though first time slots for the palace are 10. Last year everyone queued nicely. This year I was first. But everyone just milled randomly (after they’d basically all tried to go through past the staff members stopping them) with later people going to ask, then just standing in the front totally ignoring everyone else stood waiting. I still managed to get in first, so decent photos without people getting in the way. The displays were nice, but not as good as previous years – I think they’re running out of good stories to use. The Christmas craft market was the same as last year and most weren’t open when I was looking.
I then had just about time to catch the park and ride into Oxford. A bit of Christmas shopping, a 1st trip to Sostrene and Green, and a check out of a few other shops.
On the way home had a call from school that N had disagreed with a teacher and walked out of his lesson and they couldn’t find him. On picking him up he knew nothing about it. Virtual parents evening was interesting – the teacher was so apologetic, because straight away looking up his log, he realised he’d hit the wrong name. That’s the second time N’s got into ‘trouble’ that wasn’t him. Otherwise, a good parents evening though.
Friday – we’ve got shower issues with our lovely upstairs shower. I’ve been having lukewarm showers for months, just thinking that in the mornings it’s not had time to warm up. But evidently there’s an issue with the mixer and it’s actually ‘cold. So after the OH’s taken it to bits with no success, we’re having to resort to the old electric shower downstairs.
Saturday – Storm Bert made football cold and miserable. Hard going for the players. The opposing team benefitted from the wind going 2-0 up while ours managed to work out how to play against and with it…lots of passing rather than air shots. We clawed a goal back. Then knew we’d have the wind with us in the second half. We had a lot more goal chances, and showed a lot more skill while the other team struggled with fitness, lack of speed and not clueing into the weather at all. So we ended up (despite a lot of offsides calls going against us) eventually winning thankfully. We deserved to wipe the floor with them in terms of ability, so hopefully the return match won’t be struggling to contend with the weather again and our kids can show how well they really can play. Unbelievable that each team missed penalties – both by wind. We’ve never seen our main penalty taker miss! The rest of the day I tried to get warm, although N went back on the farm. Brrr.
New posts this week:
Things I’ve enjoyed this week:
- Christmas kicking off – displays and shopping
- Hearing lots of nice things at parents evening.
- Getting some more Vinted sales.
Things I’m grateful for this week:
- Surviving (and my umbrella) the storm watching football. No fallen branches etc
- The roads being gritted after the snow, so the roads all good from day 2.
- Fry up Saturday dinner. Nice to share the cooking with someone else (we have our jobs, N on bacon, me on eggs).
Always nice to have a quick trip in and out with shopping. Sounds like the snow was a nightmare in your village with the lack of gritting. Glad the roads were gritted the next day. Sounds like you had a lovely day out at Blenheim Palace aside from the annoyance with the queue. That must have been a bit worrying with the phone call from school. Well done to N’s team on winning their football match. #project365
The Christmas decorations in the shopping centre look lovely. Glad N and his team found the advantage with the wind in the football match. I just wouldn’t cope with your public transport system and roads, it stresses me out reading your posts each week. Glad the confusion in school got sorted, not nice for N to get the blame though.
The weather has been interesting! It’s 15C here at the moment and feels so warm out! The snow was forecast here, it settled overnight and was gone by the morning. My youngest was hoping for a snow day but all the buses were running and on time which was really surprising. It sounds like it was really bad with you on the roads.
What a worry with N and the school making a mistake! It was handy to have parents evening that evening to get it all cleared up. x
Even though he’s fairly quiet and stays under the radar, he’s obviously sitting next to the wrong people or has a name next to theirs in the register. It’s funny when his head of year keeps mentioning how he was surprised to see his name come up on the detentions!
I haven’t been to Blenheim recently but a shame people tried to get in front of you. I think Christmas displays aren’t always as good the second / third time round – maybe it’s because we know what to expect. I hope the protest works, My family up north are all farmers and I know it Is really going to affect them
Yes, I think there’s so many people who just don’t seem to link up the facts that food can’t be grown/produced without farms and fields, and that farmers aren’t using them as businesses (usually), they’re a way of life, that kids want to take over, and that they have no say in what they get paid for their produce, vs what they’re paying out to grow it. Fingers crossed they do something to differentiate between those who are buying for non farming reasons, vs proper generational farms.