Mr S accident and subsequent shoulder injury have led to a less relaxed summer holiday than expected. I finished work midweek but up ’til then its been a juggle of work, driving and trying to tidy up figuratively and literally, from my current job. I’ve been there for 18 years , so there was a lot of finishing up to be done in the past few weeks. I was determined to leave for good on Wednesday, when I broke up for the holidays, even though my contract ends officially at the end of the month. It was satisfying after a hectic few weeks to hand over my laptop, iPad and keys as I left. It was an amazing place to work and I met some of my closest friends at the school, but its a very different place now and it is the time to move on. As a special treat, I arranged for Krispy Kreme doughnuts to be delivered to all our pupils and my Education team. They were amazing and very well received.

Last week the stress of life did get to me and I was very poorly with some type of stomach migraine. Unfortunately it was also on a very full on day and I had to continue as normal. So it was a drive to drop my son off at his holiday camp, drive on to my new school to collect a laptop, then on to meet my dad who we met half way as my daughter was going to stay with my parents for a few days and back to pick up my son at the end of the camp. I was so poorly, lots of sick stops, that I had to cancel lunch with my dad and daughter and went to a Tesco car park and slept for 90 minutes until I felt well enough to drive. After a good night’s sleep and some tablets, I actually did feel well enough to go into work the next day, albeit a little later than normal.

After meeting up with my dad on Tuesday, I drove to my parents to collect my daughter on Friday. They had a lovely time and had visited the Van Gogh exhibition which we had been booked in for the weekend we were due to visit but had to cancel due to Covid. That couple of hours driving on my own listening to my playlist on a sunny journey was blissful. I had a lovely home made tea and then we headed to Weston Super Mare town centre to have a drink and listen to some of the live music featuring in the weekend’s music festival. We went to a games bar and enjoyed a game of Yahtzee. It was very early start on Saturday morning, sadly no chance of parkrun tourism, to meet up with our boys and get them over to the stadium for the first game of the football season. We dropped them off and then my daughter and I headed off to the local town for a delicious al fresco lunch, avocado smash for me, halloumi and chill jam baguette for Little Miss before walking down to the beach. I was planning a lazy afternoon on the beach but my daughter was keen to walk between the two piers. I wished she had shared this before I chose to wear flip flops! The beach was full and there was such a lovely, happy atmosphere. It was hot, and we stopped for a few drinks and an ice cream. The boys’ team won so happy people all around and then to finish the day, we watched the fireworks from our garden. As it was carnival week, we have enjoyed 3 stunning displays in the past week.

This week was very work focused although I took Monday afternoon off to take Mr S to the hospital for a CT scan. I had asked for a very quiet send off and genuinely meant it, so I was pleased to say goodbye to my department before the start of the final day and just focus on my work. We had a beautiful leavers assembly for our students, there was such love filling the room that I felt very proud and humbled.

As soon as I finished work, it was time to get ready for the holidays. We leave tomorrow with a day at a theme park and night in a hotel before travelling to week one in Hastings. We are all ready now and I’m just looking forward to the rest and special family times. I did manage a parkrun today, but it was so hot on such a challenging course that I felt a bit queasy at the end. After a cool shower, nice lunch and lots to drink I’m ready for an early night and holidays tomorrow!