Sunday 17 February 2013

17th Feb 2013

Weather has turned a bit milder at last. Today is a lovely sunny day and we have brought some bedding plants which Helen planted in the front garden.

The trees are budding now and Spring cannot be far away.

It has been warm enough to sit in the conservatory for the first time since about October.

Yesterday Kirsty and I planted a cherry tree in the back garden. There was two reasons for this.

Firstly we need some shade at the front fence. It is very open there and nothing to block the sun in the summer.

The second reason is that Kirsty and I planted a cherry tree at our old house in 2009. We had to leave it behind and only saw it grow for 3 years. The blossom on them is lovely and we all liked the other one.

Yesterday will also be remembered for a lovely afternoon with old friends. Kelly, Sam, Max and Pearl got the train up and we had lunch at Prezzo followed by tea and cake back at the house.

The weather was nice enough for me to give them a tour of Kings Lynn, through the park and town and use some of recently gained knowledge of the history of the town.

Looking forward this week to mire visitors. Caroline and Matthew are up Monday and Tuesday, and then on Thursday and Friday we entertain Julie and Ellen, before a weekend in London so Kirsty can see Kara and Helen can go to book club.

A busy week ahead but should be good.

Monday 11 February 2013

11th Feb 2013

I normally don't mind the cold but today I just could not get warm. I don't know if the wind chill is more severe here in Norfolk but just doing the school run I could feel it through my jeans. Surely milder weather is on its way, the cold seems to have been with us for ages.

Helped out at Kirsty's school today. The reception children had a trip to town to see the Chinese dragon dancing to celebrate the New Year. They needed helpers and I had nothing else planned for the day.

The children and staff went on the coach and the helpers went in 2 taxis. We got there quite quick but had to wait for the coach. When it arrived the helpers with children on the trip were given their kids to look after. I had Alfie and Jessica. Lovely children they chatted away to me and seemed quite excited by the trip, Alfie particularly liked the Bus Station.

The dragon dancing scared some of the children, others loved it. It must be tough teaching that age group. They are so young and seeing some of them crying made me realise how difficult it is for teachers.

Some of those who did not like it, did have their picture taken so they could not have been that scared.

Once we got the children back in the coach the helpers then had to wait for the taxis to pick us up.

At this point I made a wording issue with a tweet. I had mentioned the trip and also stated we had been left waiting for a taxi.

The school head saw this and asked why we had been left in town. By the time we'd got back to school the office mentioned he was on the phone to them. It seems that he did not know we were getting taxis and thought we had been left in town.

It has taught me to word my tweets better in future and I sent a message to him and an email to the office to apologise for any confusion I may have caused.

Other than that it was a good trip and I enjoyed helping.

Looking forward to the next week. Half Term will bring many visitors including on Saturday my old work colleagues - Kelly, Max, Sam and Pearl. We also have Caroline and Matthew up for a couple of days and then Julie and El at the end of the week.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

5th Feb 2013

It's 12 months since we put our house up for sale in London. This time a year ago the blog really took off and reading it back I can see what stress I put myself through, for at least 3 months.

In the end everything has worked out well. Helen had regular work, whilst still having some time off a week and not having all that awful planning and marking to do which took up so much of her free time.

The kids are settled into their schools, both have a group of friends, have joined clubs of various descriptions and both love their new bedrooms.

Me, well I could not be happier. I think I am more relaxed, less short tempered with the kids, have much more time for them and I really love the new area, the beautiful places and the quiet way of life up here.

Having lived in the house for a while it has become apparent that it had not been decorated as well as we thought.

It looks like a quick job was done to spruce it up. So I am finding little things to do.

Upstairs I have replaced all architraves and removed the gloss from door frames. The wood is now a wax finish and this will make future decorating easier.

The walls in the landing and stair well are now yellow, I hated the brown which was there.

I have put a patio in the garden to take trampoline and swimming pool, put coping stones on top of brick wall to stop any further damage.

I lost my job end of Nov 2012 so looking for something but not going back into Corporate world. Will keep looking for something appropriate.

The community allotment should take off again soon as the weather improves. I have done some work on the Compost bins though in the cold.

Otherwise I keep myself busy cleaning the house, washing, ironing and shopping. I get to do little jobs round the house when needed and when weather is good I get to explore this lovely place on my bike.

How different it was this time 12 months ago.