I realised today that I haven’t written a proper blog post in weeks. However, I do have a pretty decent excuse, in the form of our two-week October half term holiday.
Yes, you heard me correctly. A two-week half term holiday, after my kids (albeit thanks to me having Coronavirus) have managed to be in school for just three full weeks since March.
In previous years, I quite enjoyed the extra week.
As most of the local schools have the more traditional one week off, it has been an opportunity to visit attractions while they weren’t overrun with other families, or even book a slightly cheaper holiday; not that we’ve actually got around to doing that yet. But the thought was there.
This time I have to admit that a whole fortnight has seemed largely unnecessary to the point of excessive, what with us all having spent the vast majority of the year bored out of our minds at home already.
At least we haven’t been in tier 2 or 3 lockdown (yet). That would have been totally shit.
The half term holiday officially started on the Monday, which happened to be my 37th birthday, and my husband’s 39th.
We had booked a nice get away (in a Travelodge, so ‘nice’ might actually be pushing it. ‘Childfree’ is probably more accurate but the two are quite similar) but after forcing my parents to self-isolate for two weeks after I potentially infected them with COVID we thought that it was bad timing to then ask them to babysit for the weekend, and that idea went out of the window.
Instead, thanks to the rule of six and general pandemic life, our shared birthday was predictably a low-key affair.
We went out for a curry, my smallest scarfed his so quickly he gave himself his very first case of indigestion and we had to flee the restaurant during dessert to get him into the bath.
The rest of the week largely involved me trying unsuccessfully to work and the kids being left to fend for themselves/create enormous amounts of noise and mess.
We took the odd trip out on our own because no one else was on half term yet, and everything fun was either shut or was booked up ages in advance.
Then, the weekend hit. I suppose one benefit of a two week half term is that at that point we were half way through, rather than just at the beginning of a particularly rainy, dark, cold, miserable week.
And, as if we hadn’t had enough of 2020 already, it was time to change the clocks back.
This also happened to coincide with an evening where the kids couldn’t sleep in their own rooms because of the noise the lashing rain was making against the window. My husband, on duty while I was out seeing friends, said they could sleep in our room. When I returned (at quite a reasonable hour; we had met at 3pm…) they were still crashing about and we directed them back to their own bedrooms to sleep.
The next day, my husband had taken the kids downstairs so I could have a much needed lie in after a weekend of excess (it was still my birthday, kind of). Upon sitting at my dressing table after a shower, I found a load of hair, and a pair of scissors.
Yes, my sensible almost-seven-year-old daughter had decided to stay up and cut herself a fringe.
And, perhaps more worryingly, my husband hadn’t even noticed until I came downstairs clutching the evidence.
She could have done a lot worse of a job though in fairness. My attempts at cutting myself a fringe have without exception looked terrible, although it generally only seems like a good idea after a few wines.
Anyway, she Doesn’t Want To Talk About It so I guess that’s me told. At least I have a few pictures for posterity.
This week can mainly be categorised as rainy and miserable but with pumpkins.
Tomorrow we are having a very small Halloween Party, and then all being well (please, no f*cking coughing) it is back to school and NOT into lockdown on Monday. I don’t think my nerves could take it. At times, these two weeks have felt longer than the first twelve weeks of lockdown. Sunshine makes everything better. I miss the sunshine.