After the late sunshine of last week, it was a shock to go from flip flops to winter boots overnight. I’ve been so cold this week and have layered up. My runs this week have all been in poor weather, I was so cold and wet after Thursday’s run and at the weekend, it was too early to feel the sun’s warmth and instead I got the chills from the wind. Whilst I will run throughout the autumn and winter I am definitely best suited to summer running. Having got a little excited by the prospect of my Saturdays getting back to normal, the inevitable delay to the return of parkrun was announced this week following Boris’s speech and an increase in cases of Coronavirus. The second wave appears to be developing with the consequence of new restrictions, the rule of 6 and pubs, restaurants etc.. all closing at 10pm. I am somewhat dubious about these guidelines, again Scotland under Nicola Sturgeon is so more explicit and clearer on what can and can’t be done and I just feel a bit underwhelmed about England’s response. We have been warned these restrictions are likely to last for 6 months and this has triggered the media to publish articles panicking about Christmas, personally it will be different and quieter but we can still make the magic.

Apart from much analysis of Boris’ speech and exasperation at its content, here is what I’ve been doing this week ….

I helped with interior designing…

Well that sounds a bit posh, the reality was I selected a few stickers for the playroom wall and got the children to choose their favourite, fortunately there was an unanimous winner!

In the early weeks of this year, there were some bad storms (it felt like the storms were the worst thing that could happen this year, how wrong were we?) and the children’s playroom roof developed a leak. As it was outside we were able to have roofers come to repair it in the early days of lockdown but the water had damaged the ceiling and it needed repainting. Rather than simply doing the ceiling, we decided on a full refresh of the playroom, or games room as it is now to be known. During this week, Mr S has been painting the walls a new lovely shade of blue. Whilst my sticker has arrived, we have to wait 3 weeks before putting it up on the newly painted walls, but we were able to create a feature wall of photos. The playroom was originally Mr S’s office when we had the extension built, 10 years ago and had been decorated accordingly, with a beautiful pale grey carpet, totally impractical in what is now a childrens’ room, so a more durable, navy carpet arrives this week. I’ve seen a few more accessories to complement the room which I hope to add in the next few weeks or as Christmas presents.

I tried to create some Zen…

It has been one of the most challenging starts to the school year, there is too much out of our control and we are simply trying our best to support everyone. After a particularly bad Monday, I tried to think of practical ways in which I could help my colleague. When I had no inspiring ideas, I did the next best thing, I bought a green plant to bring a bit of Zen to our office and bought some Tisserrand ready to roll oil blends for us to use. Its always the little things which help.

I watched…

My two autumn tv favourites are Bake Off and Strictly and I was so happy for Bake Off to return on Tuesday night, even when it was delayed by Boris’ latest address to the nation, really WFH was the speech’s purpose? The opening of Bake Off was a skitch with Matt Lucas the new presenter as Boris and so perfect! I really appreciate that Bake Off is back on and has been able to be made in the pandemic, it was a great episode and I’m so looking forward to the rest of the series.

I saw…

My cruise ships are back in numbers again, on Friday afternoon there were 6 in the bay but as I was on a school trip I couldn’t get my phone out to take a photo. The photo above was taken from the sailing club on Sunday morning when there were five ships in the bay. The ships look beautiful in the evenings with twinkly lights reflecting off the sea. I’ll miss them when the ships sail off.

I’ve a few diary entries next week, hair, nails and a virtual parents evening, it seems like life is nearly normal. I have finally got a hospital appointment for a cortisone injection too. I’m 6 months over due and in pain so am so relieved that the clinic is able to offer the injection again. Apparently there is a risk to your immune system so I do have to sign forms to say that I understand the risk. Scary but the pain relief will really help.

Have a happy week.