Project 52 2021 week 29 – school trips

Week 29 of the year has meant it’s school holidays time. Everyone’s been on tenterhooks because of things opening up more but cases still rising. Supposedly ‘Freedom Day’ although we all know that it’s not really freedom day. Masks no longer have to legally be worn, there’s no social distancing, large events can take place, and night clubs can be open. Madness, and thankfully most places still seem to be asking for people to continue how they’ve been acting before. Increasing, high levels of cases mean lots of people I know have been pinged by the Test and Trace app to isolate. Thankfully although school have now had their first student testing positive for covid, they had already been isolating for a while with their family due to a parent being ill. So noone in school had to isolate. It would have been a shame for any of our class to miss out on all the trips.

Here’s our Project 52 for this week.

Sunday was a lovely day and we were so lucky with the weather. N and I went out early in the hope of playing tennis before it got too hot. 20 minutes was enough. Then we did picnic prep. We hard boiled the quails’ eggs that N had got off his friend, I made mini frittatas, added lots of fresh fruit with melon to keep cool. We met the rest of the tennis team down at the park and courts, set ourselves up under a tree’s shade. The children mainly just had water fights, so were soaked by the end. It was a lovely afternoon with food and friends. Hopefully all the children will want to continue playing in the team next season.

On Monday it was back to work, and the start of a really busy week. Not much went on with me, it was just very hot. I’ve done virtually no exercise all week, which is awful, but it’s not only hot, but also I’ve had no time spare with work. N’s first school day out of the week. They were dropped off to go to an allotment for talk, then walked to the museum for an 80s exhibition. They all wore masks and gloves when in there which I was quite pleased about. Their school is sticking to their mini bubbles where possible too. Then they finished off in the main town’s park to play. N enjoyed it, but not the getting too hot.

Tuesday was my big work launch. It was a bit of a rush because I had to drop N off at the local National Trust property for their school trip at 10, and be back home and logged on for the launch webinar at 10.30. Luckily it all turned out ok. The event went well, the report publication was good, and there was a good amount of positive press too. N was very hot when he was picked up, but happy enough with another day out.

On Wednesday I did a lateral flow test. I’ve had a pack ready to go but haven’t been anywhere mixing with people to feel the need to do one. But I needed to check I was negative ahead of a work meet up the next day. As expected it was negative. N went off on his school trip. They were doing a whole school trip, but with his class staying overnight for a camp out. His rucksack was so heavy (not helped by him including his work boots as a spare pair, and him taking 3 full water bottles with him), it reminded me of the old Woolworth back to school ad from the 80s with the child falling backwards due to his overfilled rucksack with back to school things. It is weird seeing him so happily go off and not having him at home for the night.

Thursday was the last day of school for the year. That’s year 5 over, and just over 6 weeks of holidays started. Even bigger was a work ‘post lockdown’ party. Well, lunch and drinks in a local pub garden. I’d ummed and ahh’ed about going. It had already been pushed later once, but I decided I needed to get out and socialise. It was quite an enclosed beer garden, and we had to get drinks from the bar which thankfully was quiet. It was strange being back in a pub for the first time since pre-Covid, and without masks. Quite a few people couldn’t make it – either isolating, or couldn’t risk getting pinged ahead of holidays, or just didn’t think it worth travelling so far from home.

So I did miss seeing a few friends, and most of my wider team. I was nervous, but I really enjoyed seeing people again. People I would usually sit near 5 days a week but haven’t really seen apart from the odd zoom meeting for 16 months. I probably mixed with about 10 people out of everyone there, so now I’m just hoping I don’t get pinged. I had a really nice meal too. I only stayed a couple of hours before I had to pick N up from school after they’d come back from their trip.

He’d enjoyed the camp out and the activities (they did denbuilding and orienteering plus other things, ate delicious s’mores, although he wasn’t pleased that he woke to a wet sleeping bag and rucksack. Evidently he and another boy had to be woken up by their teacher. Pretty much unheard of as he’s usually the early waker.

On Friday it was a relief day. A short work day, my last before holiday. Unfortunately it wasn’t short, I didn’t stop for rmuch more than a shake at lunch, and then was still working right through til 5, apart from stopping to help N chop up ingredients for dinner. I just had so much to get done before my leave, passing stuff that I’d picked up while others were off, that actually need to sit with them. Feeding back to colleagues for things they need to update. Just trying to get things progressed while I’m away so I don’t have stacks to do in my week I’m back in.

The frustrating thing is that we can only get back 7 hours or 1 day of flexitime if we work over. I’ve done nearly 44 hours this week (should be 35) and each of the previous 3 weeks I’ve done 40+ hours. I can’t get the rest of that time back.

N slept in that morning – he was obviously tired from his camp out with school. He mostly went out with the OH on the farm, tedding the fields, then spent a bit of time playing Fifa on the xbox. The evening was tennis, it didn’t look like they did much, but we adults were entertained by N’s friend’s puppy playing with one of his team mate’s labrador.

Saturday was a dry day, despite the forecast for rain and thunderstorms. We headed into town early to go to the butchers, buy N a couple of footballs, and get some birthday presents. Otherwise the day was spent doing jigsaws, N playing Fifa and me watching as much of the Olympics as possible. It turns out the BBC don’t have it all showing, so if you’re after things like the equestrian events, you can get 6 months free of Discovery Plus via Vodafone rewards. Result.

New posts this week:

• Exploring Abbey Road Gardens, Abingdon
• End of Year 5 school days