There is a bit of a colour theme to this week’s entry, red hearts for Valentines day and a red storm warning which meant the children both got an extra day off, starting half term a day early.

It is unusual to have Valentines day in term-time, so I made sure I celebrated the school day for my two with a Valentines day themed packed lunch, heart shaped sandwiches, doodles and notes and some kisses and heart sweets as a special treat. I also treated the classes in my department to a box of hearts and kisses to give the day a little sparkle. I took the approach that Valentines day is for sharing and celebrating all types of love. Little Miss got her first real Valentines card and presents from her boyfriend (belated as he was off with Covid) The teddy is as big as she is and she also got lots of chocolate. They are very sweet together, although I am hyper vigilant! My gift to Mr S was expensive socks, he has been complaining about the holes in his socks which were bought fairly recently so he got a set of new socks, I hope the price reflects the quality. I’m still waiting for my present … TBH, after 23 Valentines day its not really a day we celebrate, we have other significant dates, Halloween (the night we first met) and our wedding anniversary.

It was another week on the Covid roulette, our daughter finished her 7 day testing following cases in her friendship group and our son then had to start his 7 days on the day she finished as there was a case in his class. All clear so far but I do feel its going to catch up with us one day soon. I was out with friends and one has recently had Covid whilst the other had her class all sent home because of the number of cases. Given its prevalence, I find it hard that it is has been suggested that from next week, there will be no self isolation period for Covid.

The Thursday dinner with friends was lovely, we’re still meeting in the garden summer house of a friend and its become our routine to have a meal and lots of treats. I had Thursday off work, so I prepared a veggie lasagne and the host made fresh garlic bread in their garden pizza oven, along with the lightly dressed salad, it was perfect. I love these evenings, although having gone to bed around 12.30, the 5.30 alarm call was a tough one on storm day!

The storm day was a strange one. Everybody seemed really well organised and prepared for the potential disruption and damage but we seemed to have got away quite lightly with it. The wind was incredible at times, with speeds of 90+ mph but amazingly the worse damage at work was a broken roof tile and nothing at home. The high tide was before the strongest winds so the flooding was avoided. I have travelled through the county this weekend and I did see lots of broken trees so there was damage but we were incredibly lucky.

I’ve done a lot of driving this week, nothing in our rural location is near! On Tuesday for work I had a couple of appointments in big town. One of my visits was brilliant and I ended up on the driving range playing golf with some of our students. My job is quite demanding and tough at present, so a half hour of fun was so needed. On Thursday I drove my daughter over to a medical appointment we’ve been waiting for. It was an initial session but it went well and hopefully we will have a follow up in the next month or so. We were early so stopped off at a Costa for a cheeky second breakfast, it helped calm the nerves and relax us both.

This week is finally half term, it was a long time coming. Our daughter is off to stay with her aunt for a couple of days ( and her cousin who is in her early 20s and just the height of coolness and sophistication to her) In her absence, I’ve organised a few treats for my son, with tomorrow being the cinema and bowling. Its a stay at home week as I am exhausted at work and need to be at home and simply catching up on life. We’ve big plans for the next 3 holidays so I’m appreciating the quiet nature of the week.