This week has been full of ups and downs.
In fact, I have felt real rage this week. Last week it was announced that lockdown restrictions have been relaxed, but we should still be social distancing and as a family we have respected that.
It seems others are not. They have flocked in their thousands to our beautiful county of Dorset. They have left litter, excrement and even used sanitary products all over our beaches, ignoring road closures and dumping cars wherever they could leave them. There have had to be dozens of rescues because people don’t understand the dangers of the sea. They have slept in their cars, in tents on the beach despite overnight travel restrictions and caused devastating fires with disposable barbecues which have been left unattended in dry heathland.
In the South West we now have an R rating of over 1, despite having the lowest rating for weeks previously, which means we are likely to be put back into a localised lockdown, which has basically undone the last 12 weeks of unbelievable effort from everyone else.
I was so frustrated by that and the non-social distanced protests that I took myself off social media for a week.
Sunday 31st May
It was a busy day at work, with lots of tourists down to enjoy the gorgeous weather. Our supermarket is one of the closest to the beach and we were inundated with people buying snacks and goodies. After work, we headed out on a much needed family walk along the Castleman trail.
We avoided the beach as we knew it was packed, but even we were shocked by how many groups of teenagers that had congregated on our normally quiet walk, enjoying barbecues and messing around in the river. Thankfully the further we walked, the quieter it got.
Eliza managed to lose a football in the river too, and we watched as it got carried away by the current. We were all speculating where it might end up. When we got home we fired up the barbecue and enjoyed our first corn on the cob of the year.
Monday 1st June
Back to school work today – well I forgot it was inset day, so most of the kids friends didn’t do any work and I got into trouble! Now that the teachers are back in school for the Reception, Yr 1 and Yr 6 kids there was much less work set, so I added the daily BBC Bitesize to our learning. Sebby’s always finishes with silly dancing, which he loves doing.
We enjoyed an early walk to the Sang whilst my husband had an online interview and discovered that they now have an ice cream stall and drinks van. I was in trouble with the kids for not taking my purse, until they announced they took apple pay – good job I set it up!
We still haven’t seen the cygnets though. My husband arrived to join us on his bike to inform us his interview had gone well, but they could not recruit at the moment as there were still many staff on furlough. Frustrating, but hopefully it will be positive news soon.
I worked in the evening and after feedback from the staff about the busyness of the weekend, they are re-enforcing the social distancing rules and restricting entry to the supermarket again.
Tuesday 2nd June
It was back to work at the pre-school today for me. The routines were different, with an awful lot of hand washing and only 12 children in, but it was lovely to see the little ones. My husband kept the kids amused at home with water fights.
In the evening it was time for our weekly quiz night, with the winners being Daddy and Eliza.
Wednesday 3rd June
The weather has really changed today and we have had some rain. Isaac did an online maths lesson with toota and it was lovely seeing him excited and happy about learning.
I think in all the madness, we have forgotten how much the kids miss the interaction they get with teachers and as much as Isaac gets on with his work without fuss, he got so much more out of this session, as he could ask questions and test theories.
Thursday 4th June
Another day at home because the weather is a bit hit and miss. We did get out in the garden to test our new Angry Birds Spacehopper and made our old one into King Leonard.
I had overtime on the checkouts today and its definitely a lot calmer in store.
Friday 5th June
Eliza’s fractions homework was horrific today. Boxes everywhere, which was so confusing. Thankfully BBC Bitesize came to my rescue with what they were all for. After managing to complete it eventually, we headed out for a much needed walk.
The kids have been watching the dragonflies on our walks and were very excited to spot one in the grass.
On closer inspection, its wing was sadly damaged and it hadn’t made it, but they loved seeing its beauty up close.
Another evening at work for me, lots of temps have left again this week and I have a week left on my 12 week contract. I am hoping to stay on, but its a game of wait and see.
Saturday 6th June
It is Nanny and Abbey’s birthday today, so we have been busy making cards for them. We were hoping for a social distance meeting in the garden, but the weather isn’t playing ball so it is going to be a present drop off and run.
How has your week been?
People have took the mick with the relaxed lockdown rules. I saw some that photo on the TV and was shouting idiots at them. The R rating is pretty scary but it is to be expected when people haven’t been playing by the rules. It’s very frustrating.
hehehe! A few weeks ago I forgot it was an inset day and my youngest did school work she was not happy when she realised. The silly dancing looks like fun!
Aww! That’s a shame about your husbands job interview. I hope you get some good news soon.
It sounds like the home learning is going well apart from the fractions.
The cards look fab! I hope you got to have a social distance meet up x
I feel your pain with your local area. We seem to have lots of people not abiding by the rules in our area, people just don’t care since the Cummings issue, and just thinking they can do what they want. Our lodgers next door have had one set of parents over and boyfriend. They’ve been in the house and certainly not social distancing. They’re both key workers so it’s not great that they’re increasing the potential virus chances as well as potentially having others onto the farm. If we get it here, we’re screwed because isolating with animal to feed isn’t going to work.
Love that water fight photo.It’s brilliant
It was awful seeing the pictures from the beaches and rivers. I was surprised to see the R rating so high in the South West, but I guess it’s more in your bit of the South West than ours. I really hope people can start behaving a bit better!
Lovely photos of the kids this week. I really hope you can stay on at the supermarket for a bit longer and your husband is able to find a job soon. You do wonder why a company would bother doing interviews when they already have staff on furlough?!
A lot of places along the coast in Scotland have had the same issue, it is disgusting and personally do not understand the mentality of why you would do it. The small local hospitals in the highlands will struggle if the locals pick it up from these idiots. Imagine leaving all that in public for some other poor person to have to pick up. Police need to be stationed on major routes to turn traffic back.
Seems a bit daft to be holding interviews and then tell people sorry we are on furlough.
Looks like they have all enjoyed the hot weather.
Seems daft to me to head off for the sea unless you’re very local. I’d love to go to the beach, but I can’t see the appeal when there aren’t facilities open. I’ll wait till I can have a proper day out. Hope you have some success on the job front for both of you.
Such a shame people are rushing to the beaches, hopefully this wet, cooler weather will keep a lot more people indoors. I’ve noticed the Malvern Hills are getting busier, so I tend to go early in the morning and avoid doing anything on a weekend other than a local dog walk. Good job you’d set up apple pay, I don’t use anything like that. Fingers crossed for your husband work wise
So annoying to see people do that when others abide by the rules. Made me angry too. We have a local country park and people have been leaving litter all over. They even had to shut the car park one day as people just weren’t listening.
Such a shame about the dragonfly but so beautiful.
Hope your husband gets some good news soon re the job.
Such a shame to hear people rushing to the beaches. I don’t know what people think has changed. Good job you’d set up apple pay. Fingers crossed for your husband work wise. Hugs xx
OoOOoO That’s Dorset; it was shown in the movie Dunkirk. Looks beautiful. Woah, that much trouble? I thought people here would be doing worse. Lovely place to walk. Cute waterfight. Aww cute Angry Birds hoppers. Poor lovely dragonfly. Happy birthday to Nanny & Abbey.
Yes, we were very excited to see Harry Styles when they were filming it
Ohhhh corn on the cob!!! I have not had one in ages, but am hankering after one now!
That beach picture, I saw that in the news and was absolutely dumbfounded… it is absolutely disgusting and each one of those beach-goers should be ashamed of themselves! I totally get why you are raging, especially upon hearing what they left… the dirty runts!
The North West has an R rating over 1 too… we don’t have gorgeous beaches to visit so I’ve no idea why. Utter muppets… there seems to be a lot of them around at the moment! Sim x
I’ve seen the photos and footage of the beach invasions in Dorset, utterly crazy people. The R rating is rather worrying, but our local one is not much better, and we don’t have any beaches around.
Love the photo with the Soacehoppers and the flying hair.
Oh I can completely understand your rage over people being so irresponsible and descending on your part of the country en masse. It made me angry too seeing all the rubbish left on the beaches and reading about fires caused by disposable barbecues. People can be truly awful at times. Hope that coming off social media helped. Love the photo of Eliza enjoying the water fight and the space hoppers look like fun. Glad that BBC Bitesize helped with the fractions homework. What a shame that the dragonfly hadn’t made it, but how wonderful to be able to see it up close – they are such beautiful creatures. #project366
The easing of the rules is really scary especially in tandem with the protests. Apart from visiting my parents’ garden twice we have done nothing else to change our lockdown routine. We love our new hopper: the kids had so much fun (and so did I…) #project366
Sounds like a busy week as ever and lots of time spent outside. I hope your temp contract has been extended. I think its quite scary how quickly people have forgotten and the amount of non social distancing.