Project 52 2020 week 43 – marigolds

Week 43, and things haven’t changed here with regards to Covid. Cases are rising fast in our area, with Oxford very high, but still below average. There was a proposal put by local councillors to put Oxfordshire into tier 2, but local MPs lobbied parliament who declined the proposal. Oxford itself probably should be there already, and I think it would potentially kick people up the backside. It wouldn’t make too much difference to us here as we’re not doing much, other than going into people’s houses. We’ve only been in 2 others (apart from the farm) since March.

So we’re onto week 43 of Project 52 and the last week before half term.

On Sunday we met up with friends in the park nearby, N’s friend from school and tennis. I took along hot chocolate with us which was nice to have sitting outside on a bench. The park equipment has improved since the last time we went – gym equipment, a table tennis table and obstacle course type equipment. Great for older children as well as younger ones. We’ll be going back more regularly. We headed back to theirs for a couple of hours to chat while the boys played outside.

Monday was work and school as usual. N wasn’t feeling too well saying his throat felt sore again. Back on tonsil watch. At pick up his teacher had said he’d tried hard but he wasn’t quite himself, and if he wasn’t able to do PE on Tuesday if he was worse, I could pick him up early given it was the last week of term.

On Tuesday, N’s tonsils were up more and his left one was white all over. He felt ok enough to go to school but we said I’d speak to the doctor in case he got worse and needed antibiotics sooner rather than later. The plan was he’d not do sport at school. We were back to normal penicillin as the other medicine isn’t good for stomachs ongoing. The doctor also said that even with Covid, if N ends up missing another lot of school, then the benefits vs risks of having a tonsillectomy go up so he’d go back to ENT again and see if anything could be brought forward rather than waiting another 3-4 months. I’m not sure with Covid increasing again we’d want him in hospital, compared with back in July/August when Covid was much lower. Frustrating times.

There were tears when I picked N up early though, because he wanted to stay and do hockey. I should have rung in at lunchtime really to see how he was doing, rather than just turning up, but he was ok by the time we’d got home. He then slept for 1.5 hours before tea so he did need the break.

On Wednesday N wasn’t feeling great. His temperature was a little higher than usually but still only 37, and he had a bit of a headache in the morning. By the afternoon he was feeling a lot better although still not eating much and requesting soft food. The weather was a bit rubbish but cleared up in time for his usual tennis lesson time, but we had to cancel as he wasn’t well enough to run around for an hour.

Thursday N was back at school and before work I headed into town to fill up with diesel, the 3rd time since March. It doesn’t seem like many times, but given most of the travel I’m doing is less than a 5 mile round trip, it seems like a lot! One bonus of Covid is that pretty much everyone is now doing pay at pump which means I no longer sit behind people for ages waiting for them to queue and pay in the kiosks. I started a new jigsaw after about a week off. Usually on the last day of term, they have open morning where parents go in and look at children’s books and speak to the teachers. Obviously that couldn’t happen which was a bit strange. But there’ve been no cases in school and no sending home of bubbles unlike in some other schools in town and nearby.

On Friday N had an inset day while I had a short work day. This week should have been quieter as my day to day manager was on leave. But it’s been quite mad with lots of emails, meetings and raised issues I’ve been pulled into. I’m a bit concerned that I’ve still not completed something I wanted to get done 3 weeks ago , but now have personal development stuff I need to look into for 2 weeks time, as well as being put forward for a 3 hour workshop which also involves quite a lot of work prep beforehand. All to do in 3 days only next week.

N and I took the puppy out for a walk together. He reckoned there was a scent she was noticing and he was finding she was pulling too much on the lead for him, and going off too far for him to call her back. With the 2 of us it was much better.

Tennis was a fun session – no teaching, just a lot of games which the kids always enjoy. But that was 1.5 hours long – could have been split in two really, especially as we’ve already lost one week to rain.

Saturday was miserable weatherwise. Apart from dropping the youngest nephew’s birthday card down to him, another dog walk and taking the bins down to the gate, I’ve stayed in the warm and done chores and relaxed.

Next week is half term. I’m working most of it, N still has a little homework to do, but at the moment we don’t have any plans. Usually we’d go away in this half term, but not this year.

This week’s photo is another calendula (or marigolds) – they’re still doing well in the garden.

Posts this week:

• Confident? game review
• Autumn park visit